prg200678

i am not a member so can not see attachments ...can you please write the questions in the message body?

I have updated and added more links and tips

I appeared for GMAT yesterday, I scored 610 (QUANT: 48, VERBAL 27). I am applying for a part time MBA in a mediocre school where this score is sufficient. Here is my debrief. I studied for 2 months (2 Hours on weekdays, 4-5 hours on the weekend) .I always had difficulty with the verbal so I cannot give much advice on the verbal, however I can offer few tips about the Quant. You might be stressed at the start of the preparation but keep on marching, stick to your schedule and you will feel better as you make progress. Avoid studying hard in the last two weeks; use those to go through your notes. GMAT is all about being disciplined and organized. Quality (not quantity) of the study is very important. I used to lose my efficiency if I study more than 2 hours on the weekdays. At the same time, don’t be too casual; try studying in 75 minutes session as this will help you in the actual test. Identify your weak areas and keep on working on them. Study Materials 1. Official Guide (11th edition) 2. OG grid (this is a excel sheet that has type and difficulty level for OG questions) 2. Princeton Review (Good for verbal and AWA) 3. KAPLAN (good for QUANT) 4. 160 GMAT PREP problems (I found it on one of the forum, Please email if anyone needs a copy) 5. Very tough quant (Found it on one of the forum) 6. 1000 sentence correction 7. Manhattan sentence CORRECTION 8. 800 score AWA guide 9. Critical Reasoning Bible for LSAT 10. Manhattan CR AND SC 11. BEAT THE GMAT flash cards plus my own formula sheet 12. Spidey and sahil’s SC notes (these are really good) Useful links http://www.litesee.com/free.htm http://www.800score.com/guidec4view1d.html http://www.scoretop.com/forum/default.asp http://www.www.urch.com/forums/ http://www.geocities.com/ashish_iitm/gmatprep.html ( Important) http://www.prepfortests.com/gmat/info/tips/successfultakers http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-reading-comprehension/65870-rc-tips-closed-thread-jamesbond007.html http://outbeat-the-gmat.blogspot.com/2007/04/guide-to-buy-gmat-books-and-preparation.html( Important) http://www.vyomworld.com/gmat/sc/sc.asp?qno=1&B1=Take+Test http://www.scoretop.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7794&PN=1&FID=24&PR=3 http://www.scoretop.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=589&PN=1 http://www.findscore.com/twe/write/selecttype.php http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com/search/label/Test%20Experience http://betterexplained.com/articles/easy-permutations-and-combinations/( Important) http://www.scoretop.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=24566&PN=1 http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gmat-awa/11608-magic-template.html Practice tests 1. Try to give at least one test per week, it is very important to simulate the test conditions .Focus hard for 4 hours and try to maintain the stamina for full test. 2. GMAT PREP (from GMAC) are the best tests, your actual score will be very close to GMATPREP score ( Try taking second GMATPREP test one week before the actual GMAT) 3. MANHATTEN GMAT has second best practice tests (as per my opinion), There quant section is little bit difficult than the actual GMAT, but the question types are pretty good. They seem to have very good scoring formula ( It was comparable to powerprep) 4. KAPLAN makes a very good job in depressing you, so avoid taking them one week before the actual exam. You will usually get higher score than KAPLAN. 5. PRINCETON REVIEW has a major flaw in the scoring mechanism, not very reliable. Quant and Verbal are both easy than the Real GMAT. TEST DAY: 1. Be ready for a long day. 2. My sweet wife cooked a nice lunch and packed snacks for me, so be pleasant to your wife/girlfriend during the test week! 3. Use breaks to refresh, eat something to maintain the energy level. 4. Tell yourself after each section “I have done well, I am going to do well” 5. Don’t get bothered by irritating sounds made by other test takers , some of the test takers make too much noise when typing essays, Just FOCUS On your task, Use your earplug if necessary. 6. Lockers are 2 ft deep X 1 ft wide X 2 ft high, so carry the stuff accordingly. 7. Finger printing can take upto a minute, so in reality you will get only 8 minutes brake instead of 10. 8. Most of the test centers will not give you more than one scratch notebook at a time, you will need to raise your hand to get another, this can cause a lapse in concentration so try using one scratch notebook only. 9. You will be allowed to carry only your ID and a key to the locker 10. Read the test instructions in the powerprep carefully, you are given 5 mins to read the instructions; you can use these 5 mins to make the grid (for POE) or to adjust yourself to the test room environment. PACING TECHNIQUE FOR QUANT SECTION: 1. I am going to offer an unconventional advice here but it worked for me. First 10 questions are extremely important, make sure you start strong. I finished first 10 questions in 27 mins, next 10 in 25 mins, next 10 in 15 mins and last 7 in 8 mins. TRUST ME it works if you make sure that most of the first 10 questions are correct. 2. Don’t hesitate spending up to 3-4 mins for a question (If the question# is 1 to 10). 3. In GMAT POWERPREP practice tests, I used to get 12-15 questions wrong (raw score from 45-48) in quant section. Most of these were in the last 20 so first 10 questions will decide your fate. More tips for quant: You will need to memorize some of the formuleas (there is no alternative), make a list of those and read it every 48/72 hours for 2 months. For DS, memorize the 5 options ( this will save you some time in the test) Get very intimate with the Number line and Cartesian geometry. Use back solving technique for PS. Use back solving to check if the answer you have chosen is correct ( very imp for first 10 questions )

Most important thing is to stay positive , tell yourself you are going to do well. During Breaks retune your mind , tell yourself " you have done great in the last section, next section is going to better".

Here is the link ScoreTop

guys, you need to write 4-5 paragraphs with 4-5 lines, last paragraph should summarize everything you write Good essays from both of you, few more lines will help ..have you guys seen abhi's essay on this topic? , he has published on scoretop.

ESSAY QUESTION: “As technological development continues to intensify business competition, the quality of customer service is likely to become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage.” Explain what you think this quotation means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. Develop your position with reasons and/or specific examples drawn from history, current events, or your own experience, observations, or reading. MY RESPONSE: The issue of importance of customer service and whether it will be seperate winners from loosers is a topic of frequent discussion in this era of fierce competion and mass customization. Product variety is growing at an rapid rate. Today, customer has more choices than his previous generations. Per my opinion, customer service is not the most important criteria for success of a product. Ability of the product to meet customer's need, quality, reliability , repeatability , product life and its customer frindliness are more important than the customer service. Firstly, if we take a look at the history of the automobile industrty we will quickly realize that american car manufactureres are falling behind their foreign competitors due inherent product quality and nothing else. In early part of the 20th century Ford, GM used to make only certain varieties of the cars , customers did not have many options. Toyota , Honda and Nissan flooded the market with a wide range of cars satisfying the needs of all types of customers. Ford, GM used to have better customer service still they can not stop the ever increasing influence of foreign cars. At the same time, foreign car manufactureres placed heavy emphasis on the quality . They stopped their assembly line as soon as they found a fault. They refused to ship a faulty product to the customer. Secondly, when we plan our success based on strong customer service, we almost assume that product is going to fail and customer is going to need our assistance . However, the mindset should be to supply the product of highest quality that eliminates the need of the frequent customer service. It is very essential to not treat customer like a lab rat . Manufactureres should invest heavily in reserach and development and realibility testing rather than spending more on customer service. In the longer run , it will be a prudent investment. However, one can not undermine the importance of the customer service , as everything does not always execute as per than plan . Occasionly, customer is going to require assistance . Customer service is also becoming important during the sales process. Today, customer can go online and make purchase or they can call to place the order. A responsive and prompt customer service at that point of time can be a significant advantage. Finally, Product quality, reliability are far more important than the customer service. Manufacturer should make sure that the product is of highest quality and should make an informed decision about the investment on the customer service. ESSAY QUESTION: The following appeared in a science magazine: “The “Space Race” of the 1960’s between the USA and Russia was very expensive but it yielded a tremendous number of technological advances. These advances have provided many economic and humanitarian benefits. The benefits have more than paid for the effort and money spent during the Space Race and therefore the government should make allowances within the budget to pay for a manned Mars landing by 2020.” Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound. MY RESPONSE: The argument whether government should make allowances within the budget to pay for a mars landing is based on the analogy between Space war in 1960 and mars landing planned in 2020. This analogy is faulty as it is based on wrong assumption that the purpose and outcome of these missions will be similar. The arguments stands unsubstantiated due to lack of detailed comparison between the two missions . In order to evaluate this argument we will need to compare the very cause of these missions . In following paragraphs i will elobrate the shortcomings of these assumptions. Space Race in 1960 started with the curiosity of exploring more about moon. The objective was not to land on the moon and explores the possibility of human life on moon. However, the mars landing is primiarility looked as a way of establishing the life beyond earth. Without much information about the mars, It does not seem to be logical to make allowances in the budget for such a mission. One of the biggets advantage of the space war and landing on moon was we were able to gather more information about the plannet earth. This information has helped to acheive many technoligical adavances in telecommunication, Weather forecast and gave us more information about the natural resources . However, the technoligical advances mentioned in above paragraphs were not predicted before the mission. The planned mars landing is undertaken to explore the possibility of human life on mars, as we are depleting the natural resources on the earth. Space Research community makes case of mars landing by citing examples like depleting resources like water, oil . There is no substantial evidence that these resources are available in plenty on the mars. It is very necessary to collect some conclusive evidence regarding this resources and apperant living conditions on the mars. In summary, above argument is based on a faulty analogy and argument can be strengthened by collecting more information about mars. Without conclusive evidence about the few primary facts, substantial investment for the mars landing is not justificable.

Friends please frankly tell me how many points it deserves? AWA--Issue Prompt: “Since most people would rather talk than listen, there will always be miscommunication.” Assignment: Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your position with reasons and examples from your own experience, observations, or reading. My essay was as below Communication is such a vital part of our personal as well as professional life.Communication is art of sending intended message to your audiance to get the "desired result”. Key objective of the communication is to express your thoughts and to listen feedback & concerns about it . Most people think commuication is just talking and they ignore the important part of communication listening. However, good communicators are always trying to improve their listening skills. Right combination of talking and listening can result in effective commuincation but miscommunication happens when someone is not listening. Firstly, if we analyze why miscommunication takes place , we will quickly realize that both the speaker as well as the audiance is responsible. There should be some kind of feedback loop between communicator and listner.Speaker should be able to judge the pulse of the audiance to make sure they are listening and understanding the message. This is where non-verbal communication also becomes important. Non-verbal communication involves understanding of the body language and written communication. Research indicate that people are more likely to remember the message if they "see" as well as "listen" .Maps,flowcharts,diagram do a terific job in avoiding the possibility of the miscommunication.Making error is the basic nature of the human so it is very important to have communicate the message in such a way that it can be reproduced again if required, Emails, videos, recorded message can serve this purpose. Finally, is spite of following these general guidelines , there can be miscommunication. Speaker can avoid such possibility by asking questions so that he can judge whether audiance is getting the message. If more than one person is speaking in a meeting, it is generally a good idea to politely ask them to raise their hand when they want to speak. All humans have limited amount of memory,audiance might forget the message or reconfigure the message the next day. A follow-up announcement, email, video message can take care of this kind of miscommunication. AWA-Argument Prompt: “The autonomy of any country is based on the strength of its borders; if the number of illegal immigrants entering a country cannot be checked, both its economy and national identity are endangered. Because illegal immigrants pose such threats, every effort must be made to return them to their country of origin.” Assignment: Discuss how well-reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion. Human Race has always been teretorial.We feel thretened if someone enters our house or breaks into our car or comes to near to us. We always carry a virtual fense around us. We do this to protect ourselves so that we can accomplish our day-to-day goals.Our nation is also formed on the same principle. I firmly believe that we should protect our border and stop entry of the illegal immigrants We have seen biggest terrorist attacks in this century . These events are happending at an alarming rate from Newyork to Bali. Innocent citizens loose life in these terrorist events. These events can stop the plulse of the nation . It can cause a catastrophic damage to the economy and moral of the country. Thousands of people lost their job in the aftermath of the 9/11 as recession started. Howver, immigrants of good credentails do help to make our nation stronger. They help us to make progress and innovate solutions to make human life comfortable . Today, we have many NASA Scientists,governors,engineers,doctors who came to this contry as a immigrant. So,a good immigration procedure which allows "lawful" entry into the nation is a must. On the other hand, many people argues that illegal immigrants helps us to keep the cost lower and thus makes us competetive. In reality , this is a short term effect only,we loose much more when we have to face the consequences of terrorist activities and other unlawful activities. It is essential to carefully monitor the behaviour of illegal immigrants and if we have convincing evidence that a perticulat immigrant has helped the nation, contributed to the economy and protected fellow citizens,these illegal immigrants can be made "legal citizens". Finally,america has always been a land of opportunity and we have always shared our wealth and knowlege for the welfare of the world.We want to play a role of a good global citizen by nuturing human values.We must protect our nation againest evil forces.