AWA Issue#59

“Juvenile crime is a serious social problem, and businesses must become more involved in helping to prevent it”

There’s no doubt about the fact that juvenile crime is a very serious social problem and it needs to be addressed in every possible way. However, whether businesses should take this responsibility is a debatable issue.

The responsibility of creating a responsible, law-abiding citizen lies mainly with the parents. Schools and colleges come next in the queue. On an average, taken together, the time spent with the family and in school constitutes more than half of the life of a juvenile. Surely, it is the parents and the teachers, who must take onus then to instill a sense of right and wrong in him.

On the other hand, a person before entering the real life as an adult has limited interaction with the businesses. This limits the role of business in affecting the juvenile crime rate. Still, corporate world does have an indirect role to play. Since the reason for most of the juvenile crime is aimlessness of the youth, businesses can give them a direction by starting vocational courses. Also setting up rehabilitation centers for the delinquent can be a step towards the solution. The rehabilitation combined with industrial training can help the wandering youth to be a part of the mainstream society.

In addition to the above steps, some businesses have a more direct role to play. The movie industry for example can do without the heroic portrayal of gangsters as we see in movies like “The Godfather”. Similarly, there are video-games and television shows that showcase violence as acts of heroism. All these have a lasting effect on a child’s psyche and can cause him to take up the wrong path. Responsible industries must enforce some curbs on these so that they don’t set a wrong precedent for the children.

To sum, though no one will disagree with the seriousness of the juvenile crime problem, it’d be a bit hard to expect the businesses alone to shoulder the burden. The primary responsibility lies with the parents and the schools; but businesses too can lend a helping hand.

 

AWA Issue#31

 

 

 

“Financial gain should be the most important factor in choosing a career”

 The author argues that one must choose his career on the basis of prospective financial gains in that career. Although nobody can deny money’s importance in the modern capitalistic world, but I strongly disagree with the author’s suggestion of deciding one’s career path on the sole basis of monetary gains.

 Firstly, one’s career is a function of his ability and his interests. But unfortunately we see numerous cases of children being thrust into a profession against their wish just because the that career seemed to be a better option financially. What good will it do to a person exceptionally good in arts, but admitted in an engineering college. Perhaps he’ll neither be a good engineer, nor will he get a chance to showcase his art to the world.

 Furthermore, the career path one chooses depends on personal priorities. If one’s priority is money, he’d surely go the author’s way. But there are things that matter more to many people than just money. As an example: can any amount of money replace the joy of innovation when a scientist discovers something never ever seen before or the applause and adulation that an amateur pianist gets at the end of his first live performance.

 Some may argue that if you have the money, rest of the things like fame, power etc follow. Quoting the examples of business tycoons like Bill Gates and Richard Branson, they suggest getting rich will ensure that you’ll get everything else that you want. What they completely miss is the fact that in most cases, the successful person followed his interest, which combined with his planning and diligence became a rewarding career for him. In fact it’s mostly the other way round: if you make a mark in the career of your interest, you surely are not far from monetary gains as well. Even the sports-stars and artists, who always chose to follow the career of their interest are one of the richest people in today’s world.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly there are professions like social service which almost offer nothing in terms of monetary gains, but still there are people who devote their whole life to these and it is because of these people, the world becomes a better place to leave in. For example: Mother Teresa surely wasn’t the richest lady of her times, but two hundred years down the line, we’ll perhaps remember her unconditional service more than ventures of today’s business barons.

 To sum, I’d say that no doubt, money is an important entity in today’s world, but when it comes to choosing one’s career, it is one’s talent and interest that matters. One must not let it come between him and the career of his choice.

Kaptest #3:: Another Heartbreak…

Well, after having tastes of two Kaplan tests and also after reading the experience of some stalwarts, I didn’t keep my target too high… Assuming a 700+ is almost impossible to touch in a Kaptest, I targeted 680-690 in my Kaptest 3..

Well that was not to be.. If GMAT gurus advise not to take Kaptests too close to ur G-day, it surely carries some meaning.. They can easily bring you down.. Remember the Times job Ad, where the employee’s inflated ego takes a beating after seeing his paycheck.. Similar thing happened to me after I saw my score in this test..

So.. the scores were:: M50 ,V36 ; overall 650.. :’(

Maths is going fine, it was a third 50 in as many Kaptests.. and that too for a silly silly mistake.. Out of 37, I got 1 incorrect. No idea how Kaplan scores.. Should getting just 30^th Q wrong bring the score down to 50.. Even with 7 Qs wrong in my Kaptest #1, I got the same score… Good thing was that I finished with 11 minutes to spare.

Anyways it’s the Verbal that matters more to me…. Remembering my past scores, I started cautiously… Spending more time on each Q… And particularly RC that has been my nemesis for some time now… I made elaborte roadmaps for each passage and that did help in increasing my accuracy level to 60%. And I was more confident as I neared the last 10 Qs that I had done at least okayish this time.. But then I was left with hardly any time for the end Qs.. So had to rush towards the end…And that badly lowered my score..

I got 8 out of last 15 wrong and that included four wrongs in the last four Qs… Heard that GMAT punished you harshly for a series of wrong Qs.. Saw the evidence this time.

Take-aways from the test:

• Maths isn’t a problem… Just need to avoid the silly mistakes… And given that time too does not appear to be a problem.. I guess I can afford to double-check even the simple-appearing ones..
• Roadmap technique is working for RCs. But need to do that fast.. Else the accuracy gained in earlier Qs will be at the cost of Qs in the end.
• Avoid a series of wrong Qs… If I take a guess for one of the Qs, I need to be doubl cautious on the next
• No matter how much u know about the Kaptests being low scoring, they have this ability to take you down.. So will surely give my next Kaptest next weekend.. a safe 3-weeks distance from my G-day.

   

My G-Day:: May 15

Took my GMAT date today…It’ll be May 15,Tuesday.. 9 AM.. Was pretty much confident about my preps. But taking the date is making me weak somewhat.. Confidence depleting Boo-hooo :’(

But I guess this can happen even if I take the date after preparing for another 6 months.. And I believe the confidence must be back after a day or two of practice or after taking a mock-test..

BTW,I guess I’m into my final lap of preparation.. Started with Kap800 2 days back.. Planning to finish it off by 20th.. After that It’ll be mostly OG. Will suely do OG 11 in full. Will be good if I can get an OG10 somehow..

AWA is another weak point.. Have to cover up somehow..

So many things to do!! and just a little over a month to go… Dear visitor, I surely need your wishes…

AWA Analysis of an Argument#8

Time taken:: Analysis + Typing out = 35 minutes

The following appeared in the opinion column of a financial magazine:

“On average, middle-aged consumers devote 39 percent of their retail expenditure to department store products and services, while for younger consumers the average is only 25 percent. Since the number of middle-aged people will increase dramatically within the next decade, department stores can expect retail sales to increase significantly during that period. Furthermore, to take advantage of the trend, these stores should begin to replace some of those products intended to attract the younger consumer with products intended to attract the middle-aged consumer.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

The author concludes that the departmental stores’ sales will increase with increasing middle-aged population since the middle-aged customers spend a substantial part of their expenditure on purchases from these stores. The argument presented is pretty weak as it is based on questionable assumptions.

Firstly the author assumes that the age of a customer is the only parameter involved in deciding where he would like to make his purchases from. It wrongly assumes that as soon as the customers enter their middle-age, they’ll develop an inclination for purchasing from departmental stores. The conclusion is ridiculous and wrongly maps the behavior of current generation with the future generations.

Actually, the spending pattern may be a matter of habit. Perhaps not many options were available to the common man ten years ago and the customers had to rely on these departmental stores. In the present world, there are numerous options available for the customer: shopping malls, online shops are just a few of these. Just as the current middle-aged customers chose to continue their habit of purchasing from departmental stores, it’s more likely that the presently young customer will continue shopping from his currently preferred sources when he enters his middle-age.

Furthermore, the author’s suggestion of replacing the goods targeted at younger people with those attracting middle-aged people may actually backfire. Not only will this result in a drop in current sales by dissociating the current younger customers of the store, but also result in adverse future effects as the younger customer may never choose to return back even in his middle age when he finds that his choice of goods is not available in the store.

To conclude, the author’s argument is not persuasive at all and in fact, if implemented, his suggestions may prove disastrous to the departmental stores.

Powerprep1: AWA Analysis of an issue

“The presence of a competitor is always beneficial to a company. Competition forces a company to change itself in ways that improve its practices.”

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

The author observes that having a competition in the market is always beneficial to the company. The observation, though true in most cases, misses some important exceptions to itself.

Firstly having a competitor of nearly equal strength pressurises the company to strive to produce the goods of the best possible quality. The famous “foot-war” between two footwear giants Adidas and Nike is a classic example. Both the companies invested their resources to ensure that their shoes are better than the others’. This made the footwear market a science laboratory to provide the most comfortable shoe to the customer.In suchscenario, it’s the customer who benefits the most; though none of the companies lose the game either.

Moreover, competition also ensures that the company is under pressure to retain its employees. This precisely is the reason why the employees of a software company are taken care off well. The market is too competitive here.If a company fails to retain its best staff, the doors of the rival company are always open for it. So it’s not only the company and the customer that gains from the competition,the employee too does.

But then it’s good for the company only if the rival is almost equally competent as the company. If it’s too weak, the company may fail to acknowledge it as a serious competitor and as such fail to get the benefits discussed above.More importantly, if the rival is a bit too strong, it may wipe off the original company in the next 10 years. How good the competition could be called in that case!

Also at times instead of investing in the quality of products, company choose to overcome their rival by heavy advertisement. As an example, if we consider the cola-war, the quality of Coca-cola and Pepsi has hardly changed over all these years, but the companies try to win the higher market share by investing heavily in marketing their product.

To sum, in most of the cases, a competitior can improve a company practices, but this holds only as long as the rival is of equal strength and the company is really serious about improving its practices.

Powerprep1 : AWA: Analysis of an argument

The following appeared as part of an article in a magazine on lifestyles.

“Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

The author claims that the survey ranking the cities according to their lifestyle will help people in locating a place in the state,where everything will be good. The argument has many serious flaws.

First of all, the quality of life is too broad a term. Though it’s reasonable to assume that the survey must have covered the mentioned parameters, we do not yet know whether the survey tells you the relative rankings of all the cities in each parameter separately. For example: city X may be overall ranked number one due to its good schools,affordable housing and friendly nature of people, but may be the environment isn’t that safe overthere. So the broad ranking may not be able to convey the exact information that the author claims.

Moreover, the survey is two years old; it may already be obsolete. In this dynamically changing world, it’s possible that the prices in an affordable city may have shot up and the environment is not that safe now.

Furthermore, the scope of the survey is not known. We don’t know whether all the cities were covered or only the ones, which chose to participate.Also the author claims to find the best “place” in the state using this survey,but it fails to acknowledge that it’s not the major cities that offer a quality life,it can be small towns too. whether the survey covered the major cities only or the smaller towns too, where life may be good and affordable too.

In sum, I’d agree that the rankings may give a rough idea of the lifestyle and with a more recent and elaborate data, this can really be useful. But the argument as it stands is weak and fails to provide any useful information to the reader.

Powerprep 1::770 ( Q51,V44)

Wrote a powerprep yesterday night….

This was the first full length test in which I also wrote timed essays.

Am pretty excited about the score… But still it’s not that perfect an indicator. In fact that’s quite inflated as some questions were already covered in the OG and the correct answers started shouting in mind even before i saw the options.

Some takeways from the test::

1) Kaptests are for learning what u may get wrong at the toughest level; not for getting any indication of where u stand. It was a such a relief to see a 700+ score again after scoring 670 and 630 in the last 2 kaptests I had written.

( BTW, just to ensure that I don’t carried away with this inflated score, I’ll be writing another kaptest next weekend.)

2) Quants have improved:: This section was never a problem and I had scored 50 even in the 2 kaptests; but every time I made some silly mistakes. This time I double-checked each answer especially the first 15-20.

3) RC still needs practice. Out of the 4 Qs that I got wrong, 2 were RC, 1 CR and 1 SC. That’s not that bad, but then for som of the RC Qs that I got correct, it was a toss-up between 2 choices till the last moment..

4) Am pathetic at AWA as of now. Needs a lot of timed practice. Worse is that u can’t get an evaluation for whatever junk u’ve written. Will be posting my essays unedited after this post. Dear visitor, please do rate it and point out the flaws.

The Story so far….

Summing up quicly, what I’ve done over the last two and a half month.. ( Had started the preps in mid Jan)

Started with a crack-the-gmat free test.. My score there was 600. Quants 46; Verbal somewhere in early 30s. Though wasn’t any excited about the score, but this test was more to give me an idea, what the GMAT is, what all sections are there and most importantly what are my strong and weak areas. I got to know though I was good at PS, DS and RC were kinda ok, but CR was average and SC pathetic. I had just managed to get 6 out of 15 SC Qs correct.

Bought an OG 11, After doing OG diagnostic, when I was confident that I was well-aware of types, I decided to take my first GMATprep test. Score this time was much better: 690. Don’t remember the breakup. Still SC was my weakest point..

So started all sectons from OG; but SC from manhattan SC guide. Mid-way thru OG and with Manhattan finished, I took GMSTPrep test2.Scored 760 this time… Manhattan was showing its effects.. Once OG was done, I took 2 tests from Score800.com , I got 680 and 760 (using their conversion table)

I thot I was cruising along wth my preps.. (except for the AWA.. almost untouched yet)
Then I picked up Kaplan 2007…and followed that up with the two nightmarish Kpalan tests, which showed me where I actually am..

In the first (taken last week) I got 670.. ( Q50; V37) Scared!! But then remembered Kaplan’s reputation of being a low-scoring test.. ( but still in any case a 40 % accuracy in RC is too too low)

A week later m I took Kaptest 2.Huh!! This time it was a lowly 630!!! (Q50, V32)
And RC again just 40%.. CR too dipping 45% ( And I always thot it’s just the SC that’s my weakness)

This time even the Kaplan’s reputation cud not help me maintain my confidence.. I felt devastated!!! And I was seriously considering putting off my G-day test to June start..

At this time, Pagalguy came to my rescue.. If you’ve landed on this page, with some Google search of Kaplan + GMAT + devastated, I’d suggest u to have a look at Keya’s success story BTW,did i mention that my fav pastime over these 3 months has been reading GMAT success stories

One more thing, I’ve also joined a yahoo group prachi_pareekh_gmat@yahoogroups.com. I guess it’s one of the most active mailing lists for this purpose.

I’ve just picked up AWA part. Finding it hard to gain back my lost writing skills

 

The journey starts…

Actually the journey has started some time back. The docmentation of the journey is what starts now.

Why I’m writing this blog?? Well, I too am not very sure why.. Was just reading Inblue’s MBA story when the thot struck. I guess it’d be gud to jot down my progress as I go on for my GMAT journey.. As a matter of fact, I do keep a track on a notrbook. But I guess a blog may be a better idea. Moreover u’ll have n number of people ( Am i being too hopeful abt the traffic??) consoling you when the next Kaptest devastates u.. (Two of those have accomplished that successfully) On a serious note, I believe that this will keep me organised.. Putting in my mistakes at one place; tracking my progress between two similar tests; How better am I performing in OG round 2 etc etc

Also would be posting my AWA essay overhere, Visiting janta, please be generous enuf to evaluate those.

The more important part will come on the other side of the G-day when I begin apping. Have not decided which schools to apply to yet, but I hope this blog to help me organise myself better.