BLOG: Nick's MBA Journey

[nplaneta]

Hello all!

My name is Nick and, like most of you, I am looking to "beat the GMAT" and get accepted to a great business school. I just started this ambitious journey last week, and in my preliminary GMAT research I stumbled upon this website. So far I LOVE IT! I truly believe that this forum is an outstanding resource for anyone who is looking to get accepted to business school. I would like to make a contribution to this community on a regular basis, so I have created this blog (provided that it is ok with the mods) to chronicle my experiences from start to finish. It is my sincere hope that this blog will provide members with a list of the best resources, materials and strategies that will help them in their journey independent of how far along they are. I firmly believe that writing this blog will also help me personally. I hope the periodic updates will keep me motivated and help me get into a top business school in Massachusetts.

For this first blog post I would simply like to lay out my profile.

I am a 22 years old. I just graduated from a top 25 Liberal Arts college. I was a Mathematical Sciences (Math/Computer Science combo) major and an Administrative Sciences (Business/Finance combo) minor. I graduated with a 2.98 cumulative GPA. When I began school I was a Chemistry major and had a 1.92 cum through my first 3 semesters. After switching concentrations I maintained a 3.62 cum for the remaining 5 semesters. During my junior year a friend and I started our own business, which has produced solid returns and growth. We plan to expand our business to other colleges throughout the country. I played on the varsity basketball team all four years, but I also participated in my school's Investors Association and tutored students in Math. I am currently working my first "real world" job as a Research Analyst for a small (6 person) economic consulting firm.

I am looking to apply to MBA programs in the Boston area (including HBS, Sloan, Babson, BC, and BU) in a few years. Obviously, I am in no rush to get any applications in, so I really want to do things right.

OK, this introductory post is already way longer than I wanted it to be, so I will wrap it up here and report my first GMAT practice test results in a new post.

Best,
Nick

[nplaneta]

In order to get a baseline score and better asses my strengths and weaknesses I took the first free practice GMAT exam from MBA.com. I scored a 640 (Q: 47, V: 32). I was OK with my score considering I did not do any preparation before hand, but I realize I have a lot of work to do to get that 800 . Here is how each section broke down:


QUANTITATIVE:
# Correct # Incorrect # Total % Correct
Problem Solving 14 5 19 73.68%
Data Sufficiency 11 7 18 61.11%
Total 25 12 37 67.57%

VERBAL:
# Correct # Incorrect # Total % Correct
Reading Comprehension 11 2 13 84.62%
Critical Reasoning 6 4 10 60.00%
Sentence Correction 9 9 18 50.00%
Total 26 15 41 63.41%

Here are my notes on each section.

QUANTITATIVE:
• DS - Read problems carefully. If it asks if you can figure out a number from the data. Do out the entire problem and GET THE FINAL ANSWER (x6).
• PS and DS - Read all problems carefully!.
• PS - Write out all formulas and do the calculations quickly, then double check/
• Constant Rate Problems: Pumps A, B, and C operate at their respective constant rates. Pumps A and B, operating simultaneously, can fill a certain tank in 6/5 hours; pumps A and C, operating simultaneously, can fill the tank in 3/2 hours; and pumps B and C, operating simultaneously, can fill the tank in 2 hours. How many hours will it take A, B and C operating simultaneously to fill the tank?
o Solution: 6/5*A + 6/5*B = 1, 3/2*A + 3/2*C = 1, 2*B + 2*C = 1
From equation 3: C = ½ - B
Plug that into 2: 3/2*A + ¾ - 3/2*B = 1
3/2*A = 3/2*B + ¼
A = B + 1/6
Plug that into 1: 6/5*B + 1/5 + 6/5*B = 1
12/5 * B = 4/5
B = 1/3
Plug that into: A = B + 1/6 AND C = ½ - B
A = ½ AND C = 1/6
Finally, T * (1/2+1/6+1/3) = 1
T = 1 hour

VERBAL:
• SC - “…intensifying expectations that personal spending in July-Sept. quarter WOULD more than double. “ expect that ___ would ____
• SC - “A scrub jay can…, and TENDS not to bother…” Match the noun and the verb after “and”
• critical reasoning – notice the level of the intensity of the Q vs A i.e. “what caused dramatic increases?” … “steady growth of population” is not the BEST answer.
• SC – watch for extra or redundant words i.e. “as varied as” vs “as varied as those of”
• critical reasoning – BOLDFACE? I was caught off guard with what the question was going to ask. Try and identify what purpose the two boldface portions serve.
• reading comprehension – Be careful when reviewing the passage organization.
• reading comprehension – Be aware of the “intensity” of the passage vs the answer i.e. “evidence clearly supports” vs “there is evidence supporting”
• critical reasoning – Read the actual question carefully!
• SC – “Thelonious Monk, who was a jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work…” WRONG vs “Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work…” CORRECT because “Jazz pianist and composer” is needed to define the type of work
• SC – Two phrases linked by and should match tense i.e. “…broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigning repeated strikes…” NOT “feigns”.
• SC – “distinctions between our intelligence AND that of…” not “with that of”


ASSESSMENT:

I was really surprised at how well I did with the Reading Comprehension section, because, as you can see, verbal is not my strong suit... My problem solving was solid, but I feel that reading and writing out the problem more carefully will improve my score. I did not feel particularly comfortable with the Data Sufficiency problems, as is the case with many beginners, because they are unfamiliar. I hope that lots of practice will help alleviate this discomfort. What concerned me was the Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning sections. I will definitely have to work hard to improve these areas.

Any and all feedback on this would be appreciated.

Best,
Nick

[nplaneta]

OK, so now that I have my baseline score and an understanding of where my strengths and weaknesses lie it is time to make a tentative study plan. For those of you looking to make your own study plan I highly recommend you check out (790 GMAT (q50, v51))this post by TwinnSplitter. He scored a 790 (Q: 50, V: 51) on his GMAT and I believe that his aproach was very logical and well organized.

Here is my tentative 11 week plan:
Weeks 0-1: Research and purchase the apropriate resources.
Weeks 1-3: Study Quant with a focus on DS problems.
Weeks 3-5 (possibly 3-6): Sentence Correction and do 10 Quant problems/day.
Weeks 5-7: Study Critical Reasoning and do 10 SC and 10 Quant problems/day.
Weeks 7-9: Study Reading Comprehension and do 10 critical reasoning, 10 SC and 10 Quant problems/day.
Weeks 9-11: General prep- Study all the different types of questions.

Ideally, I will be able to study 2-3 hours/day Monday through Saturday, and take and review a practice exam each Sunday. I plan on purchasing and completing the 6 Manhattan GMAT exams, 2 PowerPrep exams and the 2 GMATPrep exams (although I have already done the first).

I plan on purchasing the OG and Manhattan GMAT SC guide, but past that I am not sure which guides to buy.

Any suggestions- which guides have you found to be helpful? Which ones should I stay away from? How about the practice exams? Also, what do you guys (and girls) think of this tentative study plan?

Best,
Nick

[shyamprasadrao]

You might want to consider PowerScore critical reasoning bible and Module V for reading comprehension.
I think both are available online.

As your Quant is good, please start working with SETS and then consider Manhattan GMAT questions.

After a month or so, purchase Manhattan GMAT CATs (40$ i guess). They are worth it.

[nplaneta]

First and foremost, thank you, shyamprasadrao, for your input. I understand that SETS is available on some file sharing networks, but I am having trouble finding it. Any suggestions?

Here is a list of the hard copy resources that I plan on purchasing:
OG 11th Edition
OG 12th Edition
OG Verbal 1st Edition
OG Verbal 2nd Edition (comes out Aug. 2009)
OG Quant 1st Edition
OG Quant 2nd Edition (comes out Sept. 2009)
Powerscore critical reasoning Bible
Manhattan GMAT SC Guide
Kaplan 800

I am also going to need another Quant resource. I was thinking the Kaplan GMAT Math Review. Has anyone used this? Is it worth purchasing?

Finally, 6 OG books seems like a lot. I have heard that they are the best resource (because they are actual GMAT problems from previous tests), but is this excessive?

Best,
Nick

[sanoasis]

OG 12 includes many questions of OG 11...Please review the books before purchasing them..Also you can go through the 1000 Series of critical reasoning,SC and reading comprehension which can be downloaded from the net..

[nplaneta]

Thank you, sanoasis! Your post just saved me about $30 Do you think that the OG Verbal and OG Quant specific guides will have a lot of correlation between their first and second additions as well?

Also, I will be sure to download the 1000 Series ASAP.

Thanks again!
Nick

[sanoasis]

I am not sure about the new OG Verbal and Quant Review books. They are supposed to come out this month right. You can also visit the forum www.gmatclub.com and search any posts regardig the new OG books.

[totoro]

good luck with your journey-

one thing i would advise is i have both OG-12 and OG-10 and alot of questions overlap. also alot of questions from powerprep/gmatprep comes from OG, so if you want to measure your true score from those, you probably want to take them before you start studying OG books...

critical reasoning bible seems to be a good source too though i haven't had time to go over all the material in the book.

[joogle]

Where is the link to your blog?