jagdisc

Hi, For tips on SC/CR prep/material, please refer my last post. I cant suggest material because it depends on your level in math and verbal. The usual stuff should be fine I guess. Give it a good read and you can gauge for yourself. For all readers, I CANT upload material or MAIL them to personal ids. There is enough material on the internet that can be googled in seconds. Think of the GMAT as a board game and have fun playing. All the best everyone.

Hello there, Congrats on a good Quant score. About the verbal: I think i ve given really enough tips on preparing for the Verbal section. Let me just emphasize certain important ones here. * In SC practice, knowing why the other choices are wrong is more important than knowing which is the right choice. So focus on that. * Ditto for CR as well. * Learn and remember stuff from your practice sessions. There are only as many rules in grammar that the GMAT tests. So, there isnt much point in trying thousands of SC/CR practice questions. Even if you get to do only a few hundred, learn the underlying grammar and you re fit to go. *Actually, I had more trouble with RC than SC/CR. Better focus on that equally well. * For your next attempt, dont give your all to verbal and ignore quant. Keep the math engine oiled well. Lastly, for the GMAT sets and other material, refer the yahoo groups that I mentioned somewhere back in this thread. That has enough stuff. All the best and have fun practicing :grad:

Hi allgood, I m glad to have been of use to you. To all others asking for material, I guess its been a long time since clintonn (the great) posted his stuff here and thats probably why its difficult to locate it. As someone suggested, take a look at esnips. I am sorry I cannot help you further All the best everyone and remember that the GMAT is only the beginning Give it your best and dont hav any regrets :)

Amit, If you put together the verbal questions in OG 10, OG 11 and the verbal sets 21-30, then thats all the verbal practice anyone s ever going to need for a decent score (if you are sufficiently OK with verbal that is) If you ask me, dont waste time and money on the verbal supplement. This is a customized suggestion for you alone. If somebody is scoring only in the high 20s or low 30s then maybe the supplement could help.

Someone had posted a score conversion table on a scoretop forum. I dont have the link with me now or else I could have pasted that here. But I would say dont bother much about the actual score on those sets. Concentrate more on the question types, the solving method, how many questions you are getting wrong and why, etc... If you feel the urge to score yourself, take a GMATprep test.

Hi Amit, I surely recommend practicing sets 21-31. The verbal questions in those sets are really good and the best preparation for the original exam. If you are doing well with average difficulty average questions, it is always better to raise the bar and start practicing tougher ones. Particularly if your target is 40+ in the verbal section. Warm Regards Jagdish

I found the real GMAT verbal questions to be atleast twice as difficult as the GMAT prep questions. Try the verbal sets 25-30. Particularly set 27. Thats a very good indicator of what questions you ll be seeing at the 40+ level. Try your best to stick to the time limit when you re doing those sets.

Hi tks, Not all of the answers are right in those sets. Too bad that the person/group who compiled those sets did not take enough care to put in the correct answers. One thing you can do is: If you re really in doubt about the correctness of a answer, post it on Testmagic. This is a superb community of experts who ll post back in hours with the right answer and the best way to solve the question.

Hello sgmat, I had similar, innumerable questions during my GMAT prep so your questions are in no way "silly". For quant - SD and venn diagram questions are very rare on the GMAT. At max you may get 1 question on these. So dont lose much sleep over these. For practice, you can check Clintonn's thread for docs on SD and venn diagrams. I know they are there because I ve used them. For verbal -If you put together OG 10 and OG11, then you have around 400 practice questions for each section. This is certainly enough for prep. You do not need the supplementary materials as you already getting around 35 in verbal. Those would only be required for ppl getting around 25-30. Plz note that all of this is my personal opinion alone and not a fact ! Good to know you are doing well in SC. For CR, the only way out is to practise like hell. As I ve said before in other replies, check why the other choices are wrong even if you ve got the answer right. There is a difference between just practicing questions and actively learning. You should improve with each batch of 25 CR questions. Else there maybe a problem with the way you are practicing. Surely you will achieve your target verbal score. Believe in yourself.

Hello sgmat, I cannot comment on the Manhattan materials as I havent used them. But one thing that I can say is, think twice if you need to shell out money for GMAT material (other than the OG of course) because there is so much free materials out there that you just dont need the paid materials. Let me know your level in quant and verbal and I ll try to suggest a study plan for you.

Hi bmwhype, That is a doc posted by Clintonn. It contains some of the hardest problems you can ever see on the GMAT. You can mine Clintonn's thread for a lot of resources. But this one time, I ll spare you the search and post the doc here. Happy problem solving ! Jagdish

Hi Nirmal, Good to hear that you are improving in SC and RC. Need help with CR? Have you gone through the CR section in Princeton Review? If you have, consciously apply those techniques in every CR question you practise. If you have OG 10, then that has a lot of CR questions. For each question (even those you got right) check why the other choices are wrong. Soon you ll get the hang of it and improve your thought process. Be very careful when you re screening the answer choices for the first time. The one you rule out first might turn out to be the best answer. So dont apply the PoE technique for CR. Plz feel free to ask if you need anything more.

Hi Nirmal, you used to get 21 Qs wrong in wat? GMATprep? or some other test? That is important. Also you cant calculate score based on how many questions right. Some questions might not be scored at all. Also score can go up and down by a wider range depending upon the question complexity. I will advise you to concentrate more on ironing out the problem areas in SC, CR and RC as a whole. Dont think much about the number of questions wrong. Please let me know if you need to know anything more. guys, one more piece of info. I got a 6 in AWA. results came only yesterday.

Congrats to you too ilano ! funny to see quite a few ppl with exactly same score.

Hello GMATbong, This is wat I get from the reply: * I can aim for higher ranked schools * better chance for becoming a MC if I get into UNC/yale (from my list of schools) * getting a job does not depend primarily on how well I score in class. As for your question, I am an IBM employee directly hired and not a contract-employee here (does this count for something?). I am quite realistic and expect to be hired into a entry level position (analyst/associate consultant/research assistant depending upon the job titles in the company). I will analyse some higher ranked schools for my fit and get back to you...

Hello, I am male/indian/IT/engineer - never thought this background wud put me at a disadvantage Work exp: 3 yrs as of now. 2 yrs in Wipro. currently with IBM. got a few awaards for good performance GMAT - 740 Q 49, V 41 AWA 5.5 (only attempt) UG - BE computer science from a respectable, but tier 2 college in india. 82% overall. if last 3 years alone considered, 87% (had loads of fun in the 1st yr) decent EC-comm service, medical camps, livelihood arrangement for rural folk, etc for past 3 yrs. throw in some college activities as well. I wish to become a strategy consultant. reasons - good business acumen, interested in macroeconomics, like to plan out things a lot, uninterested in IT Schools I am planning to apply (within next 2/3 months for fall 08): In decreasing order of preference: Yale UNC -kenan flagler Fisher, Ohio Purdue, Krannert Erasmus, Notterdam Boston University. parameters i considered when selecting these schools: focus on consulting as a career and placements, aid, location, reputation (atleast regional) What I want to know: 1. Is my school selection ok for MC? Some friends are telling me to apply to higher ranked schools. Will I have a reasonable chance (atleast 50%) 2. Can I get into the likes of Mckinsey and BCG after the MBA at the above mentioned schools (assuming I perform at the top 5% in class and participate actively in the consulting clubs at school) Some more to ask, but they arent clear questions yet in my mind. Also, sorry for the long post, but i wanted to give you as much info as wud be needed for a meaningful reply. Thanks a ton for your time !

Very kind of you. My name is Jagdish Chander. Planning to switch from IT to strategy consulting.

Hi, I did not use the LSAT sets. Nor do I think its necessary. Use the GMATprep and GMAT sets for benchmarking. These are far better at representing the real GMAT than any other material. Analyse in which sections you are making the most mistakes and work harder on those. All the best !

Some of the commonly found words in RC answer choices. Understanding the correct meaning of these is imp to get the RC right. As and when you come across an answer choice with a unfamiliar word, look it up in the dictionary and add to your list. One question from my side- I was actually aiming for a 760-780 score. How many here think I shud retake? I am applying for Yale, fisher,purdue, erasmus and north carolina.

Hello Mani, IIT grads shud have no problem with the Quant section. As you say that you are quite ok with verbal too, I think 1 month is sufficient for your prep with atleast 2 hrs per day. In order to be sure before booking a date, get the PR, go through it completely in 10 days and take a GMATprep. If you get close to 700 or more, then you can take the exam in another month. I am suggesting the PR because it gives a very good approach to the GMAT and does not stress you out. But neither the PR nor the OG has any real quality math problems. For that you can go through Clintonn's thread and get the materials. For verbal prep see one of my post above for ShakeVT. All the best for your prep and keep us posted with your progress. If you have any specific query, plz feel free to ask.

Hi mani, How long it takes to prepare for the gmat depends upon how long you ve been out of college, how good you are in math/verbal and how much time you can spend each day. Most importantly, what score you are aiming at. post some details and I can give you a better outlay. For starters, you can get the Princeton Review (best for introduction to the GMAT, very easy to reas thru) and the Official Guide 11th edition (this is a must have). Skim thru the PR for a week and get a feel of the GMAT. Then you can decide for yourself. We are here to help all the time !

Hello vj, I meant the GMAT sets. These are available from the yahoo group gmatnetwork. I highly recommend you to become a member of this yahoo group. Lots of good materials and a very responsive group. Any query posted to the group, you ll have atleast 5 replies in half an hour. I cannot comment on the ScoreTop sets as I havent used them. If you have to pay for those, then I dont think they are a must have. There are so many free materials out there that can take you even beyond the 750 mark.

Hello Smriti, As your math scores are very decent and you have almost a month remaining for the exam, I am sure you can improve on the verbal part. Lets start with SC - this is the easiest section (really) to improve. First thing to do - read up the diff SC question types in Princeton Review. Second, go through Clintonn's comprehensive SC document and spidey's SC notes (if you cant find these, let me know. i ll post it here). finally go through OG 10 and OG 11 SC questions meticulously. Analyse all the answer choices (not just the right one) and see why they are wrong. Ppl sometime make the mistake of just solving every Q they see but not learning from their mistakes. make sure you dont make the same mistake. CR - only thing to do is practise. Solve about 20 CRs everyday. after 2 weeks see your scoring pattern. If you are still making 4 mistakes for every 20 Qs, then you arent learning from ur mistakes. RC-same story as above:practise. But one twist here is that you need to know the right meanings of certain words and phrases that commonly show up in GMAT RC Qs. I have compiled a short list of these words which I ll post tomo. Hope this helps. you can surely pull through ..dont consider postponing the exam at this stage. you ve plenty of time left. All the best.

With 4-6 weeks of time, you can achieve anything you want. Aim as high as you can and then go all out for it. You can do it.

Hello ShakeVT, Thanks for the wishes. To go from Quant 46 ->48/49 : Work out all questions in OG11 and make sure you really understand the underlying concept. Then work out the math sets. They are realy good. Next, search this forum for math materials. There are docs like Manhattan Archive,Math must GMAT problems, etc besides those posted by Clintonn. If you can finish these, even a 50 is within reach. To go from Verbal 35->40s: Analyse your GMATprep verbal scores. What are you getting wrong mostly? SC/RC/CR and concentrate on that. If SC - OG 10 a complete workout (even twice will help a lot). also make sure that you read up Spidey's notes (google for this u ll get it) and the comprehensive SC doc by Clintonn. If CR - there really is no way to prepare for CR. But you can at the least be familiar with the question types and the strategy for each. For this, I recommend the PR. It gives you the 8 types of CR questions, how to recognize them and how to approach the question. Also, do all the CRs in OG10 and 11. For each one you get wrong, introspect and find out what made you think that answer was right in the first place. Do the same for right answers as well for best results. For RC - again there is no real way to prepare for this except to practise. RC passages in the GMAT can get quite long. So work out the RCs in OG10 and analyse the results the same way as told above for CR. you shud surely be able to get through. Let me know how many days more you ve got for the exam and i ll finetune the tips further. All the best !