My dear NRC colony…..

“NRC colony is, NRC colony was and NRC colony will always be the best colony I have ever lived and I will ever live in my life….”

I am sure that there would be hundreds of NRCites who would echo my feelings… and I am not exaggerating what I have said in the first line.
My life in NRC colony began when I was 3 months old. It all started with a stint in R.S. 11, followed by stint in E.N. and finally RS 5/18/1.
Having spent 18 years in NRC colony, I feel very nostalgic when I happen to visit NRC.
I don’t remember the days at R.S. 11, E.N.; for the simple reason that I was too young to remember all those moments. Few days ago I happened to take a look the birthday pics of mine when I was 1 year old... it was amazing experience seeing myself dressed in some striped brown t-shirt and brown shorts! In those pictures were : Nilesh bhai, Deveshbhai, Dharaiyaa Bapuji and Bhabhu, Pinki Ben, Parimal uncle and many others who were kind enough to grace that occasion.
To the uninitiated, NRC stands for National Rayon Corporation. The company had its own colony which was self sufficient in every sense. The colony had
1) Kindergarten school in the dormitory… I am sure every chotu NRCite must have played, cried, filled liquid in bottles, drawn dogs and cats with crayon or chalks, fought over pencil, showed off fancy water bottle, etc. in those KG years..
2) School called as the NRC colony school.
3) A bigggggggggggggg school ground…I don’t think any school in Mumbai has as big a playground as does NRC!!
4) Hotel – kanchanganga
5) Hospital (I still remember the days when we had a health checkup campaign and we were told to cough with our pants down!!!... that was one day we giggled a lot…!)
6) A sports club – with TT, carrom, billiards, cards, gym in the basement.
7) A stage where shows were held.
8) 2 badminton courts in the school hall.
9) A movie theater in the form of school hall… I still remember the name of the movie that was first played – RISING SUN. (I am talking of year around 1992)
10) A river – Ulhas nadi. … Patwardhan uncle taught me swimming in that river… there used to be many who used to go to swim in that river; a few that I can recollect – Sameer Lahande, Sandip Borkar, Saptarishi Duttta, Chirag Dave..
11) The unforgettable KATTA… generations of boys, girls, aunties and uncles will remember the KATTA… when our NRC colony is redeveloped by some builder, the only request to that builder would be not to destroy the KATTA… KATTA wasn’t just a structure made up of concrete and stones... there are so many emotions, memories, feelings attached to that KATTA… only KATTA lovers would understand that!!!
12) Raswanti – the ganna juice center!
13) The TAPRIs beside Raswanti… I am sure that many generations of smokers must have graduated from those TAPRIs J…
14) There used to be a Petrol pump….i don’t know why it was taken off.
15) The Cycle Stand in front of the company main gate… I am sure that every family of NRC colony must have, once in lifetime, placed a cycle in that cycle stand!!... I used to park my “street cat” in the cycle stand if ever I had some work in GATE!
16) The unforgettable GATE!!!!!... the bazaar for all NRCites!!... I am sure a non-NRCite would surely get baffled if I were to say “ mein GATE jaa raha hun bhaaji lene!!”… who on earth sells bhaaji on a gate? J…
17) The GARBA grounds- one near CN and the other one in EN… every NRCite must have tried shaking a leg during garba..
18) Phulenagar – many of my good frnds used to and still stay there…
19) The greenery that blessed our dear NRC colony…after moving out of NRC colony I have never ever came across a colony with so many trees…
20) The Ayappa festival that is held in the 1^st week of jan… everyone still yearns to see the Ayappa festival. Watching an elephant parade around the whole colony was a spectacle to sore eyes. And needless to say that the 10-15 minutes of fireworks at the end of the Ayappa festival festival that every NRCite will remember till his/her last breath!
21) Ramashankar ka ice-cream and kulfi…. I still remember the days when he used to sell a cone at rs.2.00 and I used to go crazzzzzzzzzzy after his ice-cream and kulfi… there was one ice-cream wala who tried to capture Ramashankar’s market; but to no avail!!.. Ramashankar is Ramashankar!!!.... no competition boss!!... Baskin Robbins, Kwailty, etc should take lessons from him!…
22) The beloved teachers of the NRC school…
23) The peon from primary school – Bhosale..!! I still remember the days when he used to be called every other day because this classmate of mine used to puke a lot .!!!
24) The doctors: There were a few famous ones like Dr. Sanghani in RS, Dr. Dixit in Phulenagar, Dr.Jaya Parekh at Gate, etc. All NRCites must have had got their asses pricked by their needles!!!
This is the link to pics of NRC colony….
http://picasaweb.google.com/dipenambalia/NRCColony#

These are the 3 videos on our dear NRC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYNhthYtOWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99lWgl46MoM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e44NvvLts4

The original video that I made was a single video of 25 mins, but You Tube doesn’t allow videos more than 1o mins..so had to split in 3 parts.. I hope u like it…

I can never forget the days when I was in RS 5/18/1… its there that I spent most my childhood years. It’s there that I learnt playing cricket, dabba-icepice, raja-rani and macchi (these are games played with marbles), corner-corner, gulli-danda, chappi..etc.
I have played a lot of under-arm cricket in Arun Rajamani’s garden… Prashant joseph, Arun, Appa, Vijay, I and a few others have grown up playing in Arun’s garden.
The unforgettable katta was where we gained a lot of KNOWLEDGE!!!.
We have shared a lot of FIRSTS on the endearing katta. I have played a lot of cricket on the CN ground. I distinctly remember the days when, after almost every 1^st innings of cricket match, we used to rush to Maami’s house to drink water. Maami was such a kind lady…really… and another sources of water during the matches was the Sunil Chandelkar, Indranil Deshmukh, Sandip Borkar, bhooth banglaa…etc.
Then there were days when we used to play Holi… wearing the t-shirt you hated the most, so that even if you t-shirt experienced a ghastly death, which it used to be destined to, you wouldn’t have any problem!

I am also trying to compile all the memories of NRCites... please find the link for the sample PDF of the compilation called "Memoirs of NRCites"...

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1jyiNagGvmDYzQ1NjQwYTQtOWM5YS00NWQ5LWIxYTItYTk0ZTZkMDcwYTk4&hl=en

If this idea of compilation appeals to you then kindly mail your memories to dipenambalia@gmail.com

while mailing pls keep the subject line : memoirs of NRCites- <YOUR FULL NAME>

I hope u like the concept... mail me if you have any queries... thanks..

Behind Bipin Bhai’s house was this small place where Kaali had given birth to 7 puppies – Bruno, blacky, …. Other names I don’t recollect. We used to pamper them a lot. We used to make sure that they a decent amount of food everyday.
In those days even a Cycle used to be a luxury… We used to play pakda-pakdi on cycle. I distinctly remember the day when some 15 of us had ventured to go to Titwala on cycle. Elanchazian urf Babu, as usual, used to be the frontrunner…(I guess he must be wearing Rupa FrontLine…sabse aage …hahaha…bad joke!!). Elanchazian was known as the best cyclist of our colony. And yes, during that trip to Titwala, I had exchanged my street cat with Nikhil thombre’s cycle (I don’t recall the brand)… aur mere wajan se uska tyre puncture hua tha!!!
Also, worth remembering was the day when we had gone to the water cleaning station near the FAATAK. While climbing the slope from the river side, we were caught by policemen and were asked some stupid questions…
Not to forget the pipeline near the NPL/ FAATAK. We used to take Bhel, Mazaa, Pepsi, Chana, Shengdana, and Daal and used to relax on those pipelines… Sagar, Shantanu, Dollar, yogesh dhake, me, Deepak mane, etc used to like sitting there…
I sometimes wonder how silly one can get in those impressionable years!...For example, Rajamani Arun, as everyone knows, was a great scholar of our times. He was my idol in school. If at all anyone asked me, “Dipen, what do u want to become in life?” the first image that used to conjure in my mind was Arun’s. He had a fascination for writing with Ink pens. So even I started writing with Ink pens, thinking that even I would get very good marks as Arun used to get!!!...i started using Ink pens from 7^th std till I completed Engineering… how silly that was! But in those callow years, you tend to do things that needed no logic. You did things just because you believed them!... One more silly thing that I can think of was of exchanging pen with Dhanesh Nair. The reason here was that his writing speed used to be the best… Man!! He could write with crazy speed!... later on I realized – it’s not the pen, it is the guy who holds the pen who has the ability to make it write faster or slower!
Not to forget the Navratri Days!.. those 9 days used to be awaited like anything!... 2 names that pop up right of my head now are Ritesh Upadhyay and Tappaj. It was a pleasure to sore eyes watch them jump like grasshoppers while playing Garbaa, Dandiyaa, Heench…etc…! Even I tried to be a grasshopper, but the sheer gravitational force exerted by earth on me never made me turn into a grasshopper!!! And those were the times when you used to be dressed up in the your best attire, because you know SHE/HE would come to see Garbaa and you would not like to miss impressing her/him !!!! …
It’s so strange to see that in childhood days you don’t feel or have a gender bias. I mean, even a boy used to play which normally girls play… I remember making claypots, playing ghar-ghar with Sangeeta Thulsidas, Sarita Thulsidas, Snehal Halbe, my cousin-Parulben, Chirag Dave, Avinash Mishra, … it’s only when you start growing up you start feeling – “Che, ye to lakdiyon ka khel hai”… needless to say you must have enjoyed those small things…
The Diwali Days! Playing Chor-Police with those small, fake black color wala guns, making time bombs using a long sheet of paper and placing the bomb at one end of the paper which used to lit from the other end, alighting and bending the fulzhaadis and throwing them on a tree to create a spectacular view, alighting only Sutli Bombs or Rockets to show that you were no more a kid !!..etc….
One more important thing that I can recollect is the exchanging of sweets and namkeens with the families in the building and a few ones in other buildings too. I used to love Maide ka poori and Ghughraa/Karanji…!
In those raw years, you come across a few incidents that you remember for the rest of your life. And yes there is one incident that till today freaks me out. It was an incident which happened when I was 3 years old. One of my friends named Chirag had some work with an uncle who stayed in a building nearby. I accompanied Chirag. But instead of climbing the stairs till the top floor I thought of waiting downstairs. There was an open manhole. I started hopping over it… on the opposite ends of the diameter of the manhole… but suddenly I miscalculated my jump and I fell into the gutter and splash!!! The gutter was flowing like a wild river. Even a strong bison would have lost his control and would have flown with the flow of the rushing waters… but, maybe God wanted me to live till this day to narrate this incident to you all. I suddenly found a brace on which I placed my left leg and I started screaming my lungs out. And then APPA and Joseph Sir came and rescued me. But they couldn’t rescue my left slipper. L. I lost my left slipper to the ravaging gutter. I went home and needless to say my neighbors could hear sentences like ‘Sorry mumma… Really sorry” Or “nahiiiiiiiii…. Pleeeeej nay maar….” Or “I won’t ever go near a gutter…” And yes, I never dared to go near a gutter. I didn’t want to lose my life. And my left slipper!
I hope you liked my blog. It’s just that in every recounting of tales, we relate to those tales and feel “are ye to mere saath bhi hua hai”..!!!... I would urge every NRCite to mail me his/her such sweet memories so that I can compile them in the “Memoirs of NRCites”. As per my calculation, out of the 800 people that I have reached through orkut and facebook, at least 80 should care to mail me their tales and assuming that their tales are at least 8 pages each, we should have a PDF of 600 pages by the end of next 3 months. I wish to keep the PDF of “Memoirs of NRCite” ready by 31st December!!!..
Believe me, reading others’ tales is as much satisfying as recounting yours.
If you are convinced about the idea of having a compilation like “Memoirs of NRCites”, then please help me in spreading the word (to NRCites) about this compilation. If you have any doubt or queries, you can mail me at dipenambalia@gmail.com
Please take out time to recall those good old NRC days and mail me your sweet moments. Every moment shared is like a moment lived again. I could actually FEEL all the moments that I have described above. And I am sure that even you must have felt “Are ye to maine bhi kiya tha… mai bhi aisaa hi karti thi…. Even I have played dabba-icepice… even I have tried to impress her during Navraatri days….” Etc…!!
Recall a moment, recount a moment….relive those moments spent in the wonderful place called NRC colony!!!

UC – DIP – what we do in office

To the uninitiated, a Use case is a document used for gathering requirement from clients…i have captured our day-to-day work life in a UC… i hope u understand this and like it too :-)…..

 

Use Case: UC – DIP – what we do in office

Revision History

Document Version Number	Revision Date	Reason for Revisions	Section(s) Revised	Use Case Status	Revisions Completed By
Version 1.0	01/18/09	New document.	NA	Started	Dipen Ambalia
Version 1.1	08/31/08	release 1.5 changes.	ALL	Started	Dipen Ambalia

Use Case Overview

Use Case Goal

The Actor’s goal is complete 9 hours as required by the organization.

Brief Business Description

After coming to office actor does a lot of things like having lunch, having evening snacks, eating sweets and Namkeen, chit-chatting, wasting time in meetings, trying to remember the passwords of 100 intra-organizational portals and apart from all these tasks If he gets time, then he writes use cases/code/test cases.

Actors

The following Actors participate in this use case:

1) Anybody coming to office.

Use Case Diagram (optional)

1 The flow is too big to be accommodated in the use case diagram. Even Enterprise
Architect doesn’t allow such big and complex diagrams to be drawn.

2    Pre – Conditions

1. The Actor has reached office and is ready to face the fact that one more day of his life is going to get wasted in a lot of useless activities other than calls with onsite.

3    Flow of Events

Basic Flow

The following process describes the basic flow about what he does in office.

1. The use case begins when the Actor reaches office.

2. The Actor logs on to the LAAS system. The security personnel start chit-chatting about the actor because they feel that the actor is getting handsomely paid for coming so late and enjoying his life to the fullest.

3. The Actor greets the team-mates and then starts the PC which he had shut down a night before.(the actor highly believes in the “save a dollar , earn a dollar” policy. But he is still wondering where is the saved or earned dollar going. His bank account doesn’t reflect that saved or earned dollar!)

4. The actor then fills his water bottle and then looks around to see if there are any sweets or snacks on other’s desks.

5. 20 mins pass by and then the PC is done booting properly! (there are some 100s of scripts that run while startup which make the already slow PC slower than MOS 865!).

{A1: Actor chooses to hurl abuses} (Refer to ‘Implementation Requirements’ - Abuses)

{A2: Actor chooses to go back home.}

6. Finally, the actor opens various accounts of social networking sites, ‘life partner search sites’ and then finally, the OutLook!

7. The actor then reads all the mails to check if he has anything to address urgently.

8. The actor’s friend comes to his desk to indicate that its lunch time and then the whole group goes for lunch.

9. While choosing what to eat for lunch, the actor falls in a bigger dilemma than our prime minister faces while presenting the budget.

10. The actor goes to the first Canteenwala. The actor looks at the food and flinches because after being in this office for 6 months, he can easily make out whether the Sabzi or Daal or rice or Roti are fresh or not. If nothing else, this is the area where actor has developed a lot of expertise.

{A3: Actor chooses to look to his left} (refer Business rule – BR-HIGTO- 10)

{A4: Actor chooses to look to his right} (refer Business rule – BR-HIGTO- 20)

11. The actor moves to the other 2 counters and then finally, as usual, he orders Brown-Bread sandwich.

12. The actor waits at the counter for his sandwich. Till that time, his radar is highly active.

13. A beautiful girl approaches the counter where the actor is standing. The actor thinks of bewitching the girl with his charm. He starts cracking jokes with the uncle at the counter.

14. The girl twitches her face and thinks fasting is a better option than standing at the counter with a weird guy. But the actor is used to this kind of denial. So he doesn’t feel bad.

15. The actor takes the sandwich and joins his group. Chit-chatting begins. Leg-pulling begins.

16. After half an hour of eating, teasing, enjoying the news on CNBC (the host of the show at 1.00 PM on CNBC is really beautiful!) the group returns to its work places.

17. The clock reads 1.40 now.

18. Actor then checks his mail account to see if there is any mail from the boss and if there is any meeting where time can be wasted! (Refer business rule – BR-30)

19. The clock reads 3.00 now. The actor chooses to take a tea-break.

20. The actor chitchats with his group-mates in the dry pantry.

21. The clock now reads 3.30. By default, there is some meeting or the other at 3.30!

22. the actor chooses to go the meeting even though he is not a huge fan of meetings because he feels that meeting is a form of gathering where everyone puts a point and finally everything is noted in an MoM; but nothing conclusive ever takes place! It’s just another way to say that yes, we were present in the office to do something constructive for the organization.

23. the meeting ends at 5.00 and the actor chooses to take yet another break. This time, the break is valid; because he has a call at 6.00. so its necessary to be fit and healthy before a call.

24. the actor again convinces the group-mates to go for evening snacks.

25. the call then begins at 6.00 ..goes on till 7.30 PM.

26. the day is about to end. But the actor doesn’t miss checking any updates on social networking sites!!! The actor believes in being up-to-date!!

27. The clock reads 8.20 PM. The actor locks the machine and leaves for the day. He is pleased that he used at least 1.30 hrs out of the whole day on something worthwhile as a call!!

The use case ends.

Alternate Flow A1 – Actor chooses to hurl abuses

1. The Actor chooses to hurl abuses at this fate

2. The use case starts from the calling flow.

Alternate Flow A2 – Actor chooses to bunk the office and go for a movie

The Actor chooses to write a nice emotionally blackmailable message on Communicator and sends to his PM. {Refer error messages for the SMS}.

1. The use case starts ends.

Alternate Flow A3 – Actor chooses to look to his left

1. The actor scans the area to his left ; till his neck starts spraining or till he finds a pretty face.

2. The use case continues from the calling step.

 

Alternate Flow A4 – Actor chooses to look to his right

1. The actor scans the area to his right; till his neck starts spraining or till he finds a pretty face.

2. The use case continues from the calling step.

4     Post Conditions

The Actor has successfully reached office.

5     Exception Flows

Listed below are details about any exceptions that might occur during the basic flow of events.

6    Other Artifacts

Other Requirements (optional)

Business Entities and Data

Business Entities referenced in the use case:

Additional Information Concepts Referenced in Use Case

Notes

The following section contains other details relating to the Use Case (Document Locations, Change Orders etc.)

Source	Organization
<Person Name>	<Organization>

Source Document	Document Location
Everyday life

7     Temporary Area

Use Case Assumptions

Item	Description

Business Rules

Business Rule Name	Description
BR-HIGTO- 10	If there are more beautiful females on the left then actor tends to keep looking to his left.
BR-HIGTO- 20	If there are more beautiful females on the right then actor tends to keep looking to his right.
BR-WWDIO	The MoMs are the best source to know what happened in a meeting. So, even if he doesn’t pay attention to what is said in the meeting, it is OK. otherwise what are MoMs for !!

Implementation Requirements

Field Configuration Option

Abuses

Data Element	Description	Type	Maximum Length	Default Display Length	Implementation length	Required/Optional	Updateable	Configurable	Actor Security
@#$%^&		String	*	*	*	Optional	No	No	Every Actor
!@#@%^&*#		String	*	*	*	NA	No	No	Every Actor
!@#$%@&*		String	*	*	*	NA	No	No	Every Actor

Error Messages

The following new error messages are included in this use case.

Flow/Step	Error Number	Brief Description	Long Description
Step 1	E1	Hi XYZ. I am not feeling well. Won’t be able to stay till EOD. I wish to go home. L

 

Sample Plan to prepare for GRE

Dear all, I am Dipen Ambalia from Mumbai…am working as a business analyst in Mphasis-HP…since 2003 I have been taking CAT, CET, GMAT and GREs..! I knew I deserved something good. So I waited till now.. took GRE on 6th aug 2009… got 1440- verbal 640 + maths-800…even in 2005 I had attempted GRE..that time my breakup was 640+780…. Anyways, this article is just an attempt from my side to help GRE takers…

After getting a lot of positive response from many GRE-takers, I felt that I should try even more to help out the GRE takers…

So, I have come up with a plan, that I followed for GRE in my first attempt (1420 – V640 + 780Q).

Everyday before you start with your preparation, repeat the words said by Will Smith in the Movie ‘Pursuit Of Happyness’ –

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you that you can’t do something.
If you have a dream, protect it.
People can’t themselves do something, so they want to tell you that you can’t do it.
If you want something, GO GET IT. PERIOD!!!!!”


First things first. I feel that quant in GRE is very simple. The biggest hurdle in GRE preparation is remembering words, having right plan, having right strategies, having right guidance.

Normally you should take your GRE in the month of July or August…see, the sooner you send you application packets to the univs, the better are your chances to get good RA, TA, scholarship…etc…. so to be in a position to take GRE in july or august, you should start preparing 4 to 5 months in advance. Normally people say “3 months are enough”. But I don’t feel so. 4 to 5 months of preparation should suffice. So start your preparation by March 1st .

Second of all, ignore what the world hypes about the difficulty level of GRE… people unnecessarily keep saying that ‘GRE is getting tougher day by day’..i don’t agree with that. It’s your level of preparation that is going to make the exam sound easy or difficult.

Third of all, before you start mugging the wordlist, go to the end of the word list of Barrons. There you will find the roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc.

Once you are familiar with that, you can easily remember the words from the wordlist.
Half of the words can be split or can be FELT by their prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc…

Understood??? So, DON’T EVER jump directly to the wordlist. Firstly create a good foundation upon which you can build your vocab.

Fourth of all, after you are done with the “prefixes, suffixes and roots” from Barrons, its time for you to start with the wordlist. Normally GRE takers get frightened by the number of wordlists - “50”!!!!... So the first thing that you need to do is do a psychological check! At least I used to use this kind of thinking --- Do five wordlists at a time.
5 wordlist = 1 WORDLIST.

So at one go you should read 5 wordlists!
so if you see, as per normal maths, you would have to do just 50/5 = 10 WORDLISTS!... Getting my point??? When I started with the first WORDLIST, I had a consolation at the back of my mind that ‘there are only 9 more to go’!!.... I know this is kind of fooling yourself, but believe me this technique helps!... it helped a normal person like me.. it might help you too… once you conquer the fear of the number of wordlists, you will have a lot of confidence…. REVISION is the key to remembering the words.

Take a look at the link below for techniques on remembering wordlists.

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-remember-wordlist-for-gre.html


Here is the timetable:

(4 hrs of preparation per day should suffice.)

March 1st – 15th March ---- fully understand the “prefixes, suffixes and roots” from barrons.

March 16th – May 30th ---- fully understand all the wordlists… you should know the meaning of any damn word given in Barron’s wordlist!

Along with the wordlist, also start preparing for Reading comprehensions. The basics need to be strong. So for that you should be able to understand any article on any damn subject under the sun… And as I said you can get anything under the sun, its important that you go to net and surf the web for any damn subject topic you can think of .. eg : importance of algae in the animal kingdom, why Florence nightingale is so famous, the colonization of a few colonies in America, the internal structure of proton, feminism in the 16th century, the strategy used by Google to be the number one search engine, how to electricity is produced….!!!!!!!!! Any damn article will help you familiarize with the content THAT YOU NORMALLY DON’T LIKE TO READ!

From March 1st up to April 15th you have time to READ DIVERSE material. After that .ie. till may 31st its time for you to start solving the 1000 RC document. You will find it on the net… for tips on RC please go thru this link..

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-tackle-rc-in-gre.html

Also, from March1st upto May 31st, solve with maths. Do maths half an hour a day. (the assumption is that you are already OK in maths.)

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-tackle-maths-in-gre.html


So, by May 30th you will have built a good foundation for verbal.
Now its time for you to know whether you are ready for the big battle in july/august.

Start practising vocab exercises with guru.exe, voca.exe, antonym.exe….
Practice these till june 10th. 10 days shld be sufficient for you to practice these.
LEARN from the mistakes you make here.

Its time to take a practice test from ETS POWER PREP (the CD which you get when you register). Take the test. Don’t get depressed if you get lower than you expected; because you are yet to polish your mind. Make sure ANALYSE your performance very thoroughly. Spend 2.5 hours on what went wrong, why it went wrong, what you will do to make sure it doesn’t go wrong.

Now, spend time from june 11th till june 20th just to go thru the barrons wordlist again.
And make sure you prepare for maths steadily.... STEADY PREPARATION OF MATHS IS VERY IMPORTANT!...

From June 21st up to july 5th solve the GRE Bigbook. There are 27 tests. Solve the first 10 tests just for practice. I mean don’t time them.

The later 17 tests should be solved in a timed manner..it’s ok if you don’t get time to solve all 17…

From 6th July up to 10th July focus on AWA. From the ETS site, you will get a pool of topics (issues and arguments) that might be asked in the exam.


http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-tackle-awa-in-gre.html

Now its time to take the 2nd test from ETS POWER PREP.

In the actual exam you will get + or – 60 of what whatever score u get in the second test of ETS POWER PREP….

Now, uninstall and install again… again take 2 tests…
Now, uninstall and install again.. and again take 1 test.. by now you should have exhausted the database of the ETS POWER PREP….

Work for a week on your weaknesses… and then you should be good to crack the actual exam..!! ie. july 3rd week should be when you would come out with flying colours!!

Just to reword what Will Smith has said in the Movie ‘Pursuit Of Happyness’ –

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you that you can’t score 1600 in GRE.
If you have a dream of scoring 1600 in GRE, protect that dream.
People themselves can’t score well, so they want to tell you that you can’t score well.
If you want 1600, GO GET IT. PERIOD!!!!!”

Give your best shot so that if ever someone googles “ the person who scored 1600/1600 in GRE”, the results should show up YOUR name!!!...

Mail me your comments or any doubts at dipenambalia@gmail.com. I will try my best to help u…
If you want to talk to me then mail me and then I will give you my phone number…

Keep visiting my blog- http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com for more updates…

Happy GREing!!...

DISCLAIMER : pls dont sue me if this plan doesnt work for u :).. this is just a logical plan to help u score what you deserve..!

how to tackle maths in GRE

Maths is the easiest section in GRE… you can easily score 800/800….. heres what u can do for maths : first of all, develop the mental attidute that “maths is easy and i m surely going to score 800/800”.

second of all,when u install the PowerPrep by ETS, when u start the session, u will find a link for “maths review”. that will open a link for MATHSREV.pdf (i think this is the name of the PDF. its of some 69 pages).this PDF is a very good document to start with. follow each page very religiously.

whenever u see a formula, try to put values for varibles in the formula.Try to create your own questions. try to look at the formula from different angles. like, for example : suppose i see the formula—> area of square is aa and perimeter of a square is 4a. then what i do is, i draw square and then try to think of various questions like 1) what if i m given just the perimter and i m asked to find the area or 2) what if i m told that the perimter of square A is 4 times the perimter of square B then i am asked to find out the area of square A. are you getting my point?...whatever formula you see, keep that in mind, think of examples… this is how u will increase marks in maths.one more thing, it is quite possible that u know everything abt maths, but u must be making silly mistakes.

For the first 18-20 questions, be doubly sure to mark the right answer. if the computer knows that u gave right answers for the first 18-20 questions, then the computer will understand that you are very good at math and the last 8 questions wont matter much!...and yes, barrons maths is ok....for more practice solve the maths book by R.S. Agarwal… u will get it at any book store in mumbai!!...

how to tackle RC in GRE

Reading comprehension has been haunting me since 2003!... I still haven’t been able to figure out what the passage said and what I understood! … kidding! There are many ways to tackle RC. I would tell you what I did to handle RC.

In GRE, you would normally get 3 passages --à 1 or 2 passages of around 35 lines and 1 or 2 passages of around 75 lines. The passages come from various types of materials like magazines, text books, journals, biographies etc. The passages can be related to humanitarianism, feminism, cultural revolution, biology, astronomy, geology and ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN!!!

So what is important is that you get familiar with the type or the content of the passages.
And that will happen by diverse reading.


Before you start solving GRE passages, it important that you get a good idea of what kind of passage you might get. And as I said you can get anything under the sun, its important that you go to net and surf the web for any damn subject topic you can think of .. eg : importance of algae in the animal kingdom, why Florence nightingale is so famous, the colonization of a few colonies in America, the internal structure of proton, feminism in the 16th century, the strategy used by google to be the number one search engine, how to electricity is produced….!!!!!!!!! Any damn article will help you familiarize with the content THAT YOU NORMALLY DON’T LIKE TO READ!...

See, normal human beings that we are, we normally tend to read what we LIKE. But ETS is smart enough to not as you what you like and will ask something that you want to avoid or is uninteresting to you!... after doing the “READ ANYTHING” excercise, you are now ready to go through the 1000 RC document… Google for “1000 RC” document and download it. It contains many passages asked in earlier GMAT and GRE. I really feel that going through these RCs is very important because that will help you understand what you will get in the exam. After solving some 70-80 passages you would have covered almost all types of passages that can be asked.

After solving each passage, it is very important that you understand why you made some mistake. I am sure that many of us will make get only 2 out of 6 correct. But don’t worry!... the passages are really damn difficult! So, after SOLVING a passage, re-read it and try to understand what the passage meant. Your understanding of the passage will be far better when you read the passage 2nd time. Then try to analyze why you didn’t understand some XYZ thing in your first reading. Try to find out what your frame of mind was when you read the passage for the first time and what your frame of mind was in the second reading. It’s very important that you spend a lot of time in introspecting what went wrong and why it went wrong and what you will do to avoid the mistakes. Just make sure that you don’t get frustrated by your mistakes.

Now, how to read a passage: A passage is normally written in a particular structure. By “particular”, I mean that you after solving some 70-80 passages, you will be able to identify the STRUCTUREs of passages. i.e. whether a passage was written to reject a theory, or whether a passage was written just to explain a new process, or whether a passage was written to explain a hypothesis regarding a process or whether a passage was written to support a new view about something…..etc!....

Normally the author puts forth some idea or theory and then he says that the idea or theory is not good enough to explain something. So he propounds a new theory and then gives a few examples to support the new theory. But he makes the end a bit confusing for an ordinary reader!.... don’t worry, after you follow what I have explained you in the earlier paragraphs , you will surely know what kind of structure the passage is following.

Whenever you start reading a passage, tell yourself “ok , don’t worry, this is just a small passage. No issues. I am surely going to understand what the author is trying to say. After all he is just a human being like me who is telling me something!...so I will read coolly and try to understand the passage easily”.

When you read the first paragraph of the passage, make sure that you understand what the main topic is around which the whole passage is going to revolve. Then try to understand how the author ended the first paragraph. Was he disgruntled or was he satisfied or was he angry or was he indifferent ???? Understanding that will help you imagine what he is going to say next.

See, it’s a very normal human being thing. Imagine that you are writing a blog about your experience about some X mobile. If you are disgruntled with the X mobile, you will start with describing about your bad experience with X mobile. Now that you are rejecting X mobile, its imperative that you are going to use some Y mobile. So you start describing the good qualities of Y mobile. You keep contrasting with X mobile to prove that your choice of Y mobile was good. And then finally in the last paragraph you will tell the readers of your blog to use Y mobile!!!

The passages in GRE are written by human beings like me and you!... so while reading the passage, you will FEEL the vibe of the author. Imagine that the author is standing in front of you. And you are sitting on a bench listening to him. Imagination is the easiest way to understand the TONE of the passage. The IMAGINATION method takes a lot of practice, I agree. But it pays well. Try it out. Imagination also helps you to remember the data given in the passage. It’s not for nothing that it is said” a picture is better than a thousand words”. Whatever data you read in the passage, you try to create a mental picture of it. Once you are done with reading each paragraph, make sure that you sum up what each paragraph was trying to say. If you want, you can write down in one line what each paragraph meant and then finally after reading the whole passage take some 15-20 seconds to summarize what you read. So now, you should know what the author was trying to say, his tone, his suggestions, his rejections, the examples that he used to propose a theory and the examples he used to reject another theory….etc!

Whatever I have written above , will require a lot of practice ….but , believe me , every effort is worth is if you want a good GRE score… every 10 mark increase in ur score will help you get into a better college, will get u better RA, TA, Scholarship….and ultimately a higher-salaried job!!!

I really don’t understand why we give only 3 months for GRE and a whole year for CAT!... … the mentality that GRE DOESN’T require more than 3 months is wrong…
Whatever….

I hope I was able to help u in tackling RCs….

Practice, practice, read any damn thing, analyze, imagine, read any damn thing…!!!
Happy RCing!!

Mail me your comments at your at dipenambalia@gmail.com. I will try my best to help u…

how to tackle AWA in GRE

This article is especially for my friend Anuradha. So Anu, he you go….

The Analytical Writing Assessment requires candidates to respond to two essay questions within 45 + 30 minutes:

1) Analysis of an Issue, which asks candidates to discuss the complexities of an issue and take a position on the subject (45 minutes)

2) Analysis of an Argument, which asks candidates to evaluate an argument or critique a line of reasoning (30 minutes)

Do your best to show that you have:

a) excellent reasoning skills
b) good writing skills
c) the ability to quickly organzie your thoughts
d) the ability to produce a coherent essay in the required timeframe


Grading Scale

Each of your essays will be graded by a reader and assigned a score between 0 and 6. The score is assigned based on the general impact of the writing on the reader. The following criteria define each score:

Outstanding (6): a cohesive, well-articulated discussion of the issue/argument with demonstrated mastery of the elements of effective writing. Contains insightful reasoning and/or persuasive examples. Varies sentence structure and vocabulary appropriate to the subject. Superior use of grammar and mechanics.

Adequate (4): presents a competent discussion of the issue/argument. Expresses ideas clearly with adequate organization. May lack sentence variety and show some flaws in grammar and/or mechanics.

Poor (1 -2): Weak or deficient in basic writing skills. Provides little evidence of the ability to understand or analyze the argument/issue. Unfocused and disorganized. Severe and persistent errors in language and sentence structure.



Writing Tips for Issues


1) Take 2 minutes to understand the topic. Do a brainstorming about the pros and cons and make a decision.

2) See, whenever you take a decision to support a point or oppose a point, you would necessarily have some example to support your standpoint. Otherwise your mind wouldn’t conclude that you are supporting or opposing a point.

3) There is nothing like "right" or "wrong" choice. You will be evaluated strictly by how well you support your choice with reasoning and evidence.

4) Get to the point immediately. Your first sentence should offer a solid endorsement of one choice over the other.

5) Use a simple format. I recommend a 5-paragraph approach:

a) The first paragraph begins by stating your choice and then discusses why that option is he superior.
b) The second, third paragraphs would be your 3 points about your viewpoint. Use the PREP formula – Point, Reason, Example, Point (again, but in different way or different words) (here, use starters like – FIRSTLY, SECONDLY, THIRDLY)
c) The fourth paragraph would be about the side that you hadn’t taken. By that I mean, recognize the OTHER SIDE too; discussing both sides of the issue shows that you see the full picture. Recognizing and dealing with possible objections makes your viewpoint stronger.
c) The fifth paragraph with a concluding sentence reaffirming your decision. (here, use starters like – In Sum, To sum up, …etc.)

The more organized your essay, the more persuasive it will be.

6) Don't restate the situation, alternatives, and criteria in your introduction. State your choice and the reasons behind it. Offer an interpretation in light of the stated criteria. It's up to you to indicate why certain facts are positive or negative factors.

7) Write in a calm, rational, objective tone. Don't take an extreme position.

8) Make your writing flawless, with correct spelling, grammar and writing mechanics. Choose simple, everyday vocabulary and syntax with which you're comfortable. Don’t use the words from the wordlist!..that will surely discombobulate the evaluator!... you surely don’t want to discomfit him ..right???

9) I recommend spending 10 minutes reading the issue, making a decision and planning the essay. Use scrap paper to jot down a quick outline of the points you intend to make. Then spend about 25 minutes writing the essay. This leaves about five minutes at the end to proofread for spelling and grammar.

10) make sure you finish your essay, as it demonstrates your organization and time- management skills.



Writing Tips for Arguments


1) Take the argument apart, identifying the conclusion and evidence. Restate it in your own words.

2) Evaluate the argument's persuasiveness. Does it use evidence effectively to reach a conclusion? Are their gaps or flaws in the logic? Unwarranted assumptions?

3) Determine what additional evidence or information would increase the validity of the argument.

4) Use a simple format. I recommend a 5-paragraph approach:

a) Get to the point immediately. Your first paragraph should offer your assessment of the argument and its reasoning.

b) The second, third and fourth paragraphs would be your 3 points about your viewpoint. Attack the gaps, flaws, unwarranted assumptions.

c) Finally, give additional evidence required for the argument to be more persuasive. Show that you see the full picture

7) Write in a calm, rational, objective tone.


8) Make your writing flawless, with correct spelling, grammar and writing mechanics. Write legibly. Choose simple, everyday vocabulary and syntax with which you're comfortable.


9) use your time wisely. I recommend spending five minutes reading the argument, developing your strategy and planning the essay. Then spend about 20 minutes writing the essay. This leaves about five minutes at the end to proofread for spelling and grammar.

10) Make sure you finish your essay, as it demonstrates your organization and time-management skills.


Mail me your comments at your at dipenambalia@gmail.com. I will try my best to help u…

how to remember the wordlist for GRE

Wordlists are a nightmare to many GREtakers…
Here’s a simple way to remember the words. It’s not a shortcut though.

See, almost every word in English can be broken into 2 or 3 parts or can be traced to some Greek or latin or some root.

Eg: DISINTER -----à disinter means to dig out.
DISINTER = dis + inter.
‘Dis’ gives a negative connotation to the word “inter”.

To ‘inter’ means ‘to bury something or someone’.

So when u combine dis + inter , you get the opposite of burying ie. exhuming something or someone ….ie. you take someone or something from the ground. And so now you know ‘disinter’ is to ‘dig out’!

Another example: MISOGYNY = mis + gynos
‘mis’ has a negative connotation…. ‘Mis’ means ‘hatred’ and ‘gynos’ has a Greek meaning – ‘females’. So Misogyny means hatred of women.

Try to break the word. Try to trace the roots. Try to feel the connotation ie. whether it is negative or positive.

So, before you start the wordlist, go to the end of the word list of Barrons. There you will find the roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc.

Once you are familiar with that, you can easily remember the words from the wordlist.
Half of the words can be split or can be FELT by their prefixes, suffixes, etc…

Understood??? So, don’t ever directly jump to the wordlist. First create a good foundation upon which you can build your vocab.


Other techniques to remember the words:

1) Create flash cards or use the flash cards available in the market.
Flash cards are basically small chits of paper with one side having the difficult word and the other side having its meaning. So while traveling, it is very convenient to take flash cards with you.
2) Write down. Just like you used to mug up the answers in school, just mug up the words. But after mugging up, make sure that you know what context that word was used in. I would surely advise you to keep note of the sentence too i.e every word in the wordlist would be followed by a sentence. So even if you remember the sentence in which the word was used, you will be able to remember the meaning of the word.
3) Read aloud. Didn’t you mug up the answers in school by reading aloud the answers?? J…
4) Use the words in your day to day life. As I said, DISCOMBOBULATE your friends by using very ABSTRUSE words. And then CONDESENDINGLY APPRISE them of the meaning of the word that you used!
5) Create associations or patterns to remember the words.

Eg: while I was in VJTI, I had a frnd who was very particular about cleanliness, and was very organized. While I was reading the wordlist, I came across a word “STICKLER” which means “someone who is very particular about things”. So I quickly associated the word STICKLER to YOGESH!.... so next time I read the word STICKLER, I know what it means!

Another eg: use human qualities or attributes to remember the words.
Like I have a frnd XYZ who is very arrogant. So while I was reading the words “haughty”, “conceited”, “stuffed shirt”, “presumptuous”, I could easily visualize my frnd XYZ!!!!...get my point?... so in one-go, I now know that “haughty”, “conceited”, “stuffed shirt”, “presumptuous” mean ARROGANT!!!

As simple as that!

Give sufficient time to remember and understand the wordlist. if you don’t know the wordlist, I would advise you to not take the exam…because, seriously, 20 questions out of 30 are going to be based the difficult words… If you are some millionaire, then its ok, go and get low scores as many times as possible!!... Remember that the GRE costs $180!!...

I hope I was able to help u in tackling the wordlists….

Happy WORDLISTing!!

Your comments – negative or positive – will help me improve my advising skill J…so mail me your comments or suggestions at your at dipenambalia@gmail.com. I will try my best to help u...