nowORnever Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 In this debrief, I would like to share my preparation strategy and my analysis on the same. The saying that "one is often wiser after the event" does have some weight age. So fellow TEST MAGIC(ians), fasten your seat-belts and be ready to spare a few minutes to read this long write-up. One disclaimer before I start the actual write-up: The observations and suggestions mentioned below are purely personal. I leave it to YOU to consider what's relevant to your preparation and what you can pick up as a learning. Prep Material This is the starting point for most people preparing for the exam. We normally pick up the OG's, the Pricenton Review's, the Kaplan's and the Manhattan Review's to brush up on our basics. Pick up the OG for sure. I don't think I have to provide any explanation for the choice. As for the rest, pick up the book(s) that focuses on your weak areas. I personally picked up OG 11, Princeton Review and Kaplan's GMAT Premier Program. I did not attempt all tests in either of the books. Instead I focussed my attention on the individual sections and test strategies. I feel that it is important to master the concepts during the initial prep phase. As I was going through the books, I joined various GMAT prep forums. I read the debriefs of other successful candidates and this motivated me to work even harder. However I inadvertently feel into a trap. Confused? Let me explain my point. Most of the debriefs mention the notes/sets/material that the author found useful. Many authors do provide links for such materials in their write-ups. I started collecting all such notes that were mentioned in the write-ups. Before I could realize what was happening, I had tons of this so-called "extra GMAT material"; material that was high in quantity content but low in quality content. I junked most of the extra stuff and retained only a small subset of the original matter. Lesson Learnt 1: There are abundant pearls of wisdom available in many GMAT prep sites (notably Test Magic) and in the debrief sections. No matter how many pearls are available in the market, at the end of the day, your necklace should start from the neck and end somewhere near the chest rather than end somewhere near the toes. So zero-in on what you feel is important in your prep and concentrate on it. OG: Try to include both OG10 and OG11 in your prep. Although OG11 is the more recent version, OG10 has a bigger question bank. GMAT SETS: If you have time on your side, do include GMAT sets in your prep. I personally found the GMAT sets to be quite helpful in my SC preparation. More on GMAT sets later in the SC section below. Lesson Learnt 2 on Time Management Effective time management is the key to succeed in the real GMAT. However at the start of my prep, I threw the watch away from my sight. Try to get the concepts first. You are bound to pick up speed as your knowledge levels increase with the passage of time. Sentence Correction I realized that SC was my weak point and knew that I had to put in extra effort in the section. I started with OG 10 (as it has a bigger question bank) first and then moved on to OG 11. I made notes of each concept that was alien to me. In between I used to search and read posts by 800 BOB in the test magic forum. I take this opportunity to thank Test Magic and Bob for the fabulous work that they are doing. After the OG I moved on the GMAT sets. I did only the SC questions in the verbal sets. If I'm not mistaken then one of the threads in www.scoretop.com website has answers and explanations for all GMAT sets. Critical Reasoning For CR, I went through Princeton and Kaplan books first. I made a note of each category (assumption/inference/paradox/evaluate/strengthen/weaken) and the associated questions. For each category, I identified an approach to solve the question. For e.g. when a question asks you to a method to evaluate something, more often than not the answer choice would be the one that weakens the conclusion. For explain-the-paradox questions, the answer choice is invariably the one that allows both contradictory premises to be true. I then moved on to OG questions. Lesson Learnt 3: To improve the success rate in CR questions, first identify the question category correctly. Reading Comprehension This is the one verbal section that is not given its due importance by test-takers. I did not pay much attention to RC until 2/3rd prep time had elapsed. To succeed overall in verbal, one should give equal attention to RC section. As with the CR strategy, identifying the question type is the key to succeed in RC. And PRACTICE AND PRACTICE AND PRACTICE. One point on RC: Many books advocate skimming through RC passage first and then rereading the passage to answer the questions asked. I somehow found it difficult to just skim and answer questions. Most GMAT passages require a clear understanding of the content. Lesson Learnt 4: Don't concentrate only on SC and CR at the expense of RC Problem Solving I adopted the CR strategy for PS also. PR+Kaplan followed by OG10 and OG11. Lesson Learnt 5: A lot of questions test concepts on number properties. Solve as many questions as possible on number properties. Data Sufficiency DS questions based on number properties are highly potent. As with RC, practice is the key to succeed in DS. Lesson Learnt 6: For DS, check whether the question asks you to find a specific value (x=3 or x=5) or to answer a question (is x Prep Exams I gave one GMATPrep exam at the beginning of my prep and scored 640. I gave the second GMATPrep exam a couple of days prior to my actual GMAT exam and scored 700. These were the only 2 full length exams that I attempted. I did complete the verbal sections in PR Prep exams but not the complete exam. Actual GMAT Experience I'm not a morning person and therefore the idea of a morning slot never crossed my mind. Moreover I had read various debriefs where the test-takers somehow found it difficult to get a decent sleep in the night prior to the exam. This further strengthened my decision to avoid the morning slot. Having been through that previous-night stage I realize that there is bound to be a little anxiety. I did manage a decent sleep (BTW sleeping is one of my hobbies .. lol) but one question did cross my mind frequently in the evening before the test: WHAT WILL BE MY MENTAL STATE 24 HOURS LATER WHEN I'M FINALLY THROUGH WITH THE EXAM ??? GOOD/BAD/UGLY ???? ANSWER: ONLY TIME WILL TELL ;-) Lesson Learnt 7: Do whatever you want but ENSURE THAT YOU GET A DECENT SLEEP IN THE NIGHT PRIOR TO THE ACTUAL EXAM !!! The 4-hour exam is indeed taxing on the mind and you would want to remain alert to maximize your throughput. AWA section was OK. Ensured that I wrote enough the get the scroll-bar moving in the response section. Quant started with a problem-solving question. I don't know what happened but it took my roughly 4/5 mins to answer correctly. Moved on the next question and so on. Again got a tough one on the 8th/9th question. Must have spent 3-4 mins in trying to find a way out. Once I got the method, I was able to solve it and move on. The point is - no matter how much you practice, you are bound to get a question or two that will require you to think out-of-the-box. Be ready for that.Finished the section with one minute remaining. Verbal started with a couple of SC questions followed by CR and so on. As I put maximum effort in SC in the prep stage, the actual SC questions seemed OK. CR was also OK in the initial part however I got a couple of tough CR's during the course of the exam. By tough I mean that 3 out of the 5 answer choices could be eliminated straight away. However there was nothing in between the two remaining options. Either of the answer choices would be correct based on which side of the coin (heads/tails) you are looking at. Selected the ones that I thought were correct and moved on. The 3rd RC passage was a real sucker. Must have read the passage thrice to comprehend it. Lesson Learnt 8: Don't bother too much if you are stuck on a question for 3/4 mins. SC questions are time-savers relative to CR and RC questions. So track cumulative time against 14-15 questions. It was time to view the scores. The heart started pounding faster at that moment than at any other time during the test. Said a prayer in my heart and was confident that 7 would be the first digit in the score. Saw 710 and thanked GOD. I received the offical copy of my score report last week. I'm pleased with the AWA score. One final advice: BE POSITIVE, STAY FOCUSSED THROUGHOUT THE PREP AND GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT !!! All the best !!! 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lete Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 thank you so much! congratulation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgmat Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Great dude!!! n thanx for that valuable advise for all the GMAT takers...Best of luck for ur next step...cheers!!! amit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piju Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Great score and great debrief ...Thank you and all the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velman Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Well done! Thanks for sharing your experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teralab Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Congrats dude......well done ! Could you please post us the URL that has all the sets discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siri2gmat Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Nice De-brief - Congratulations.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowORnever Posted October 13, 2007 Author Share Posted October 13, 2007 Teralab, Unfortunately I'm unable to find the link to the answers in the scoretop website. So I cannot provide you with the URL. However I do have the downloaded answer file (in a web-page format) with me. I'm not sure whether it is ethical on my part to post a scoretop webpage on testmagic. I have gained a lot from the TEST MAGIC SITE and hence I will refrain from doing so. Do give me your maildrop. I will mail the answer file to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowORnever Posted October 14, 2007 Author Share Posted October 14, 2007 lete, sgmat, piju, velman, teralab and siri2gmat - thanks for your wishes ... teralab, I found a link to the the GMAT sets and to its answers. Here are the links: Set1-20 - eSnips, share anything GMAT_SETS_1-30 - eSnips, share anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teralab Posted October 14, 2007 Share Posted October 14, 2007 Thanks a lot for your prompt reply, kindly please send me the file to ajai.teralab@gmail.com Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meoo Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 Nice debrief. Congrat! Good luck on the school app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kornhorn Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 Good adivce. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kannn Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 Congrats for the good score. Good for the apps. Thanks for the debrief and tips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirlogic Posted October 19, 2007 Share Posted October 19, 2007 Congratulations! Excellent debrief. Awesome score! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p001 Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Great score, congrats. Thanks for sharing your experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonu007 Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 great dude, congs thanks alot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narinder82 Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Congrats. Kindly send the Verbal sets to narinder_sethi@relbio.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitzi Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 I read with interest your brief. Thank you very much. I have prepared the GMAT for 8 weeks so far and am planning to take it on Dec. Your accomplishment and encouragement keep me going when I feel down. Thank you and good luck with your admission process. Mitzi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitzi Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Dear nowORnever, Would you be so kind to send me the files? my email is anagy@mail.usf.edu Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowORnever Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 Mitzi/GMATer/GMAT007 You can check 5GB of free space to upload and share your files, photos, videos and music - eSnips.com and enter "gmat sets" in the search option. You should get multiple links to the gmat sets. I'm not sure whether I retain the gmat sets. I will check and get back to you guys. However I suggest that you do a search on esnips website as well. All the best Dear nowORnever, Would you be so kind to send me the files? my email is anagy@mail.usf.edu Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowORnever Posted November 19, 2007 Author Share Posted November 19, 2007 You can also search for website for some good gmat flashcards and stuff on AWA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ready2_start Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 Hiiii.. IM m new but its a gr8 site. Thanks 4 Inspirin n Motivational DEBRIEF :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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