Sunday, August 30, 2009
Day 1
Just completed about 100 questions from my CAT material. Most of the questions are out of preview of GMAT, also did Manhattan GMAT's fractions, decimals and Percents and found it to be pretty basic. I was hoping I would stumble upon a few hard questions but could not find any. This guide might be good for someone who hasnt touched Maths for a couple of years and wants to start with the very basics of it. Not for me.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
DAY 0
Just gave MGMAT Prep exam and here is the detailed analysis:
Total Score:
Quant:
1. Number System - 8/9
2. Inequalities - 0/1
3. Geometry - 0/4
4. Sets - 0/2
5. Algebra - 1/1
6. Equations - 2/3
7. Rate and Work - 1/1
8. Percent - 1/2
9. Probability - 1/2
10. Exponents and roots - 1/2
The biggest problem areas - Geometry, Sets, Probability
Verbal:
Critical Reasoning - 9/15
Sentence Correction - 6/17
Reading Comprehension - 712
Again Verbal in general has proven to be a hard task.
Lets see how I ll be able to reach from 600 to 700.
Total Score:
| Quantitative | Score 43 | Percentile 70 % |
| Verbal | 30 | 59 % |
| Total | 600 | 70 % |
Quant:
1. Number System - 8/9
2. Inequalities - 0/1
3. Geometry - 0/4
4. Sets - 0/2
5. Algebra - 1/1
6. Equations - 2/3
7. Rate and Work - 1/1
8. Percent - 1/2
9. Probability - 1/2
10. Exponents and roots - 1/2
The biggest problem areas - Geometry, Sets, Probability
Verbal:
Critical Reasoning - 9/15
Sentence Correction - 6/17
Reading Comprehension - 712
Again Verbal in general has proven to be a hard task.
Lets see how I ll be able to reach from 600 to 700.
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Man and the Plan
There are 42 days to my GMAT. Below is the Plan for these 43 days.
Day 0 - Will take Manhattan GMAT to analyze again where I lack, which all areas I need to focus on, what areas I can skip for the time being. I would do this because I want to begin with a clean slate this time around. Also MGMAT prep exam gives you a very detailed analysis of where you are and what you lack - something that is missing from the GMAT Prep Software.
Day 1 to Day 8 -
Will focus on Nova's GMAT which contain almost every topic asked in GMAT. This will also help me revise concepts learned earlier. Along with this I plan to complete more questions on topics I encounter from books like Tata Mc Graw Hill, Quantitative Manhattan Word Translations and Cliff's GMAT.
Day 9 - Day 16 -
Will focus on Verbal only with Manhattan Sentence Correction, CR and RC.
Day 17 - Day 24 -
Will focus on revising the concepts learned plus finishing the loads of material I have with me. Priority being - Kaplan 800, Plus material on CR, RC, SC. Also I have Princeton Review Verbal Workbook, I ll try and solve the problems given in that as well but as of now that is not a priority.
Day 25 - Day 32
This will be a few mock exams and loads of analysis.
Begaining with GMAT Prep 1 and 2 then Master GMAT 3,4,5 (I have already paid for these:( ) and maybe one or two from either MGMAT or Kaplan, or maybe not - One Exam in two days along with thoroughly analyzing my mistakes and working on those. This was something I didnt do in my previous attempt in my rush to complete as many questions as I can. Something, I can now strongly advise against.
Day 33 - Day 34
Those are for AWA's exclusively
Day 35 - Day 40
OG - yes Again, Giving GMAT Prep 2. Then Giving GMAT Prep 1 and 2 again. And maybe once more.
Day 41-
Umm. Nothing. Will revise concepts, read my notes for the nth time. Solve a few DS and SC problems. Watch a movie. Sleep Early.
Day 44 -
G Day
The exam is at 5pm. So will solve a few problems just to get in shape and will be craming essay structures till the end.
Now I am hard pressed for time. So I ll be logging in between 6-8 hours everyday. No more no less. Plus of course the blog entry
After every two hours there will be a 30 mins to 1 hour break.
Also unlike last time, I will not study late night, quite to the contrary, I ll be studying in the mornings and throughout the day. Nights are for sleeping and that is what they would be used for.
Wish me luck.
Daljeet Singh
29/08/2009
Day 0 - Will take Manhattan GMAT to analyze again where I lack, which all areas I need to focus on, what areas I can skip for the time being. I would do this because I want to begin with a clean slate this time around. Also MGMAT prep exam gives you a very detailed analysis of where you are and what you lack - something that is missing from the GMAT Prep Software.
Day 1 to Day 8 -
Will focus on Nova's GMAT which contain almost every topic asked in GMAT. This will also help me revise concepts learned earlier. Along with this I plan to complete more questions on topics I encounter from books like Tata Mc Graw Hill, Quantitative Manhattan Word Translations and Cliff's GMAT.
Day 9 - Day 16 -
Will focus on Verbal only with Manhattan Sentence Correction, CR and RC.
Day 17 - Day 24 -
Will focus on revising the concepts learned plus finishing the loads of material I have with me. Priority being - Kaplan 800, Plus material on CR, RC, SC. Also I have Princeton Review Verbal Workbook, I ll try and solve the problems given in that as well but as of now that is not a priority.
Day 25 - Day 32
This will be a few mock exams and loads of analysis.
Begaining with GMAT Prep 1 and 2 then Master GMAT 3,4,5 (I have already paid for these:( ) and maybe one or two from either MGMAT or Kaplan, or maybe not - One Exam in two days along with thoroughly analyzing my mistakes and working on those. This was something I didnt do in my previous attempt in my rush to complete as many questions as I can. Something, I can now strongly advise against.
Day 33 - Day 34
Those are for AWA's exclusively
Day 35 - Day 40
OG - yes Again, Giving GMAT Prep 2. Then Giving GMAT Prep 1 and 2 again. And maybe once more.
Day 41-
Umm. Nothing. Will revise concepts, read my notes for the nth time. Solve a few DS and SC problems. Watch a movie. Sleep Early.
Day 44 -
G Day
The exam is at 5pm. So will solve a few problems just to get in shape and will be craming essay structures till the end.
Now I am hard pressed for time. So I ll be logging in between 6-8 hours everyday. No more no less. Plus of course the blog entry
After every two hours there will be a 30 mins to 1 hour break.
Also unlike last time, I will not study late night, quite to the contrary, I ll be studying in the mornings and throughout the day. Nights are for sleeping and that is what they would be used for.
Wish me luck.
Daljeet Singh
29/08/2009
The Day That for Wasn't
So I gave GMAT this day the August 27, 2009 and guess what it flopped - got a mere 600. I mean after putting in 2 months in preperation just 600. Shit that sucks. I was almost crying when the pretty lady handed me the printout of my scores.
Let me ponder over what went wrong.
The GMAT perp 1 and 2 that I gave game me 680 and 700 respectively and I was pretty sure of hitting atleast 680 on the actual GMAT but mere 600. How could it be.
It just wasnt my day.
I fell sick the day before the exam and was down with stomach ache. Couldnt sleep whole night and got up without sleeping at all. I should have know then itself that the day was doomed.
The actual GMAT.
I started of with AWA and both the essays were the ones I had seen earlier so I sailed through them. This made me hope for the best. Took my 5 minute break and was back in time for Quant.
Arrggg Quant - I have always been bad at it, but while taking GMAT preps and other stimulated exams, I was getting a decent score in quant and verbal was what was proving to be a problem. In fact in all the stimulated tests, including GMAT prep, I was able to finish quant with 5-7 minutes to spare. This did it.
I had read and heard that the first 10 questions are what make or break your score. So I decided to be very sure of my answers in the first 10 questions. I double checked my answers and plugged in the other options just to be sure. First 10 questions went well. The next 10 were OK.
When I reached question 20, I looked at the clock and it said 14 minutes left. Oh man what have I done. 17 questions and 14 minutes barely enough time to read the question leave alone solve it. I d most of the questions and in the end quant ended with 3 questions unanswered. That was the death nail in my GMAT coffin.
Was too dissapointed now, didn't take the 5 minute break, although I had planned for it, as I wanted to get over with this exam as soon as possible. Again I was too down when it came to verbal, I didnt read most of the RC's fully and guessed the questions, same was with SC's, hardly applied any logic and clicked the first one that seemed right.
When the score came - I was both dissapointed and surprised. Dissapointed for obvious reasons but surprised because my Quant score was 44 (69%ile) much higher than what I had expected with 3 questions unanswered. But my Verbal score was a dismal 27 (44%ile), maybe if had concentrated more on the verbal during the exam, the total score wouldnt have been that bad.
Anyways, that was it. I came back home and took dates for my second GMAT - October 13th it is going to be. I am going to miss Round 1 deadlines for most of my desired colleges but that was to be.
I have now realized a few things that were wrong with my preperation, the most important being that during my two months of preperation there was no concistency. Secondly, I was hardly learning, though I was solving problems.
Now I have decided to follow a more rigourous approach, I ll be more consistent with my study and this blog will be witness to it.
Let me ponder over what went wrong.
The GMAT perp 1 and 2 that I gave game me 680 and 700 respectively and I was pretty sure of hitting atleast 680 on the actual GMAT but mere 600. How could it be.
It just wasnt my day.
I fell sick the day before the exam and was down with stomach ache. Couldnt sleep whole night and got up without sleeping at all. I should have know then itself that the day was doomed.
The actual GMAT.
I started of with AWA and both the essays were the ones I had seen earlier so I sailed through them. This made me hope for the best. Took my 5 minute break and was back in time for Quant.
Arrggg Quant - I have always been bad at it, but while taking GMAT preps and other stimulated exams, I was getting a decent score in quant and verbal was what was proving to be a problem. In fact in all the stimulated tests, including GMAT prep, I was able to finish quant with 5-7 minutes to spare. This did it.
I had read and heard that the first 10 questions are what make or break your score. So I decided to be very sure of my answers in the first 10 questions. I double checked my answers and plugged in the other options just to be sure. First 10 questions went well. The next 10 were OK.
When I reached question 20, I looked at the clock and it said 14 minutes left. Oh man what have I done. 17 questions and 14 minutes barely enough time to read the question leave alone solve it. I d most of the questions and in the end quant ended with 3 questions unanswered. That was the death nail in my GMAT coffin.
Was too dissapointed now, didn't take the 5 minute break, although I had planned for it, as I wanted to get over with this exam as soon as possible. Again I was too down when it came to verbal, I didnt read most of the RC's fully and guessed the questions, same was with SC's, hardly applied any logic and clicked the first one that seemed right.
When the score came - I was both dissapointed and surprised. Dissapointed for obvious reasons but surprised because my Quant score was 44 (69%ile) much higher than what I had expected with 3 questions unanswered. But my Verbal score was a dismal 27 (44%ile), maybe if had concentrated more on the verbal during the exam, the total score wouldnt have been that bad.
Anyways, that was it. I came back home and took dates for my second GMAT - October 13th it is going to be. I am going to miss Round 1 deadlines for most of my desired colleges but that was to be.
I have now realized a few things that were wrong with my preperation, the most important being that during my two months of preperation there was no concistency. Secondly, I was hardly learning, though I was solving problems.
Now I have decided to follow a more rigourous approach, I ll be more consistent with my study and this blog will be witness to it.
Quest for GMAT
Dear Reader,
I am a 24 year old male from India, and just that makes it tougher for me to get into a bschool unless I get a very good GMAT score.
I am working with a very successful internet startup and also been on board of two other startups as an advisor got decent amount of co-curricular activities as well. But what I lack is a good GMAT score, and getting one becomes all the more important for me as I have average acads.
A lot of admssion consultants have told me that I would need atleast a 700 on my GMAT in order to have a decent chance of getting into a good b-school.
I am a 24 year old male from India, and just that makes it tougher for me to get into a bschool unless I get a very good GMAT score.
I am working with a very successful internet startup and also been on board of two other startups as an advisor got decent amount of co-curricular activities as well. But what I lack is a good GMAT score, and getting one becomes all the more important for me as I have average acads.
A lot of admssion consultants have told me that I would need atleast a 700 on my GMAT in order to have a decent chance of getting into a good b-school.
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