RC-READ FOR SPEED

Be an active reader

Most of us read any book as if we are watching news. We just wait for things to happen. If you compare that with the way in which you watch a movie, you will see the difference. While watching a movie quite a few of us try to predict the next dialogue. That does not happen when we are reading. Typically well written passages give us a chance to understand the argument and reach the conclusion along with the author. So the next time you are reading remember that this is not a TV soap but a book.

Understanding vs Speed

Separate the wheat from the chaff.

This is basically the ability to distinguish sentences which are important from sentences, which are too general. If a passage is talking about angiography and then there is an example provided on it then you don’t need to spend a lot of time with that sentence to understand the example. Hence while reading, keep an eye open for redundant sentences. Recognizing them and zipping through them will definitely save time.

Lend Structure, Don’t understand

There are a lot of schools of thoughts on how you should read a passage and answer questions. Some think you should read the questions first and then look for the answers; others feel you should read the passage thoroughly and then answer all the questions without looking back. We all know that there are two types of questions, direct and indirect. If you have read through the passage completely with in-depth understanding, then you may be able to answer all questions correctly. If you read through the passage once with cursory understanding then you should be able to answer all main idea questions. You will mostly need to refer to the passage again for detail / direct questions. I personally prefer the latter; there is no point in spending huge amounts of time in understanding passages completely.

You should read with the aim of structuring passages neatly in your head.

An appendix of topics tested with websites:

Science

http://www.firstscience.com/site/archive.asp
http://www.sciam.com/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Religion/Mythology

http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/archives-238.asp
http://www.religion-online.org/

Philosophy

http://www.essortment.com/in/Philosophy.General/index.htm
http://www.prs-ltsn.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/articles/index.html

Psychology

http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/psychology.html
http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/psychology.html

Sociology

http://soc.sagepub.com/reports/mfr1.dtl
http://www.aboutsociology.com/sociology/List_of_sociology_topics

Literature

http://www.essortment.com/in/Literature.General/index.htm
http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/archives-251.asp

History

http://www.historynet.com/
http://www.essortment.com/in/History.Events/index.htm

Politics

http://www.magportal.com/c/soc/intl/

http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/archives-234.asp

Geography

http://geography.about.com/cs/a.htm
http://www.ezgeography.com/

Economics

http://economics.about.com/cs/a.htm
http://www.europe-economics.com/pubs/articles.htm

Management

http://www.magportal.com/c/bus/strat/
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/

DTH Vs Cable-an Analysis

The successful launch of the India's first fourth-generation satellite , Insat-4A will stir up competeion to provide Direct-to-Home(DTH)television.In 1990 , thousands of local operators aal over country set up satellites TV channels to their neighbourhood through cable strung along on electric poles etc.For the first time Indian viewers were able to watch forign TV channels.Cable Tv created revolution thus ended Goverment's monopoly on what people watched on TV(thus it also gave liberty to Electronic media).
Today there are 70,000 cable operatorsin India.They serve half or more of the 100 million.But now there's a growing friction between private channels that charges cable operators for content.TV channels are unhappy because cable operators often under report the number of subscribers they serve & therefore pay less than they ought to pay.
"With DTH, the TV channels can cut out the cable operators and gain control of entire value chain from providing content to reaching roadcaststo individual homes." points S. Chandrashekhar formely with ISRO and now on faculty of IIM,Banglore.For DTH a small dish mounted on the roof picks up TV signals broadcast from a satellite.A set -top box(costing few thousand bucks) then deciphers these signals and feeds them to a conventional television.
DTH has one major loophole that it can serve only certain minimum number of channels provided by a particular service provider and they cannot use the same device to recieve channels from different service provider.
So this battle will stir up & perhaps consumer will be at benefiting end

ROADMAP FOR MBA ASPIRANTS

Many of you must be at crossroads, absolutely flummoxed lameting over your plight attributed to time you wasted in commuting by train for your MBA coahing classes.I also went through same phase when my 6th sem exams were over.It must have been roughly five months since you would have joined classes.
Considering my your case study approximately as same I am sharing my views by which most of you can eradicate the flaws & prepare further with vigour.The reason behind my plight was unplanned,unscheduled approach.Well, Our Honorary President Mr. Avir Pakul Jainullabdin Abdul kalam very succintly quotes that when you don't have a mission then you won;t succeed.So Its high time you guys get into "MISSION MODE" & this "MISSION IS NOT IMMPOSSIBLE" if you envisage yourself in IIM's & other top B-schools(read my forthcoming blog"LIFE BEYOND IIM'S). Whatever happened is past , learn from your mistakes & try to weed out the flaws by doing SWOT analysis of yourself.Find out what areas you are strong in & what areas are you weak in & work on the weak areas.Taking mock test is like lithmus test for knowing your strong & weak areas.
Those were some qualitative analysis now some DO's n DONT's.
DO's
1)Inculcate habbit of doing an RC excercise 5 times a week & analysis too
2)DI exercise daily(a must as there are hell of different DI questions) so no escaping
-DI
-DS
-sometimes analytical reasoning comes in forms of graphs also you must know basic formulas of SI,CI etc
As name suggests this is DI i.e interpretation of data.So key point is to interpret,going by my experience once you interpret data correctly than it makes life easier n u get answers in a jiffy
3)Practise quants n sectionalize it.Choose wat sections are you going to attempt.Let me just mention some of major sections
-Number System(Imp)
-Ratio & proportion
-Mixtures & Allegation
-S.T, C.I, PLD(Profit Loss Disount)
-Geometry etc
4)VA
-english usage
-Summary type Passage
-Parajumbles(imp if u practise u'll score more)
-Fill in blanks
5)RC
You have to choose 3 RC atmost concentrate on accuracy rather than quantity.Post you comments if u wish to know more.I'll post blogs regarding good B schools besides IIM's.Best of luck for your preprations.
6)most imp ATTEMPT FIX NO OF MOCKS(say 20 from now till 1st nov) n ANLAYSING THEM IS MUST
7) take a break after 1st as ur prep wuld be over.

DONT's
1)Donot overattempt mocks,generally ppl tend to attempt far too many mocks leaving analysis for future which is a strict no no
2)Don't be pressurised by ur peers.Remember u have a specified time in which u have to maximise ur score basically u have to find a planned jugad n that wats management is all about.


Those who joined MBA classes recently shouldn't loose heart as in my opinion they have an edge as guys who joined in Jan or Feb must be loosing steam which is a danger sign.
One piece of advise never say die till last few days