spkapileshwar

Gagan, I had obtained this book from the library, and have already returned it. In any case, I do not stay in India right now :-) Good luck with your exams!

Hi All, Thanks for the best wishes. Good luck to whoever is giving the GMAT. I am based in Chicago, and since I am working full-time, I am going to try my luck at part-time MBA programs in one of the Chicago-area schools. Smtripathi, I got the GMAT paper tests from the mba.com website. You can download them there. Yehaa, the probability / perm / combination questions that I got were roughly the following numbers in the test. Probability: Question Number 3. Probability: Question Number 8 or 9, and Perm / Comb: Question Number 20 or so. The probability questions were fairly easy. You did not need complicated formulas, or, for that matter, any formulas to solve them. Just common logical thinking will suffice. It took me about 1-1.5 minutes for each, even after rechecking my answers. However, the perm / comb question was such that I had to think for a while, and it took me 3-4 mins to do. I am not even sure that I did it correctly. It was more like a riddle, or a puzzle of the kind you would expect on an advanced level IQ test. Sidharth

Real GMAT : 740 Kaplan and PR Diagnostic (before any prep) – 680/700 Kaplan CAT 1 (during books prep) – 640 Kaplan CAT 2 (during books prep) – 630 Kaplan CAT 3 (during books prep) – 630 PR CAT 1 (during books prep) – 690 PR CAT 2 (during books prep) – 700 PR CAT 3 (during books prep) – 670 Power Prep1 (before any prep) – 700 Power Prep 2 (2 days before the test) – 780. This may be skewed, because I did this after [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. Kaplan CAT 4 (day before the test) – 700 GMAT Paper tests (8 in all, after all books) – 740-800 (range) Here is my prep plan and other information: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19555

Hello All, I finished my GMAT yesterday, and got 740, with 50 in Q and 40 in V. I want to share my preparation experiences, practice test scores, and some tips for the preparation. As a background, I am an engineer from India, and I have done my masters in the US. I have about 4 years of work experience in the IT field. Firstly, a huge thanks to all the good people who post their experiences and questions / answers on this forum. It is a tremendous help during the prep. Study Plan: My study plan consisted of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], Kaplan GMAT 2005, Princeton Review GMAT 2004, and, to some extent the Kaplan 800 book. I devoted about 4-5 weeks to the prep, while working full-time. So, I probably put in 8-10 hours per day on 10-12 days (weekends) and 2-3 hours per day on the remaining days. Before starting with the books, I gave Kaplan and PR diagnostic and managed about 680-700 on both of them. Then, I gave PowerPrep1, and managed 700 exact. First, to get a feel of the test, I read straight through the Kaplan GMAT 2005 and the PR GMAT 2004 books. I got a feel for the types of questions asked, and some rough ideas on how to solve them. I understood that the techniques in these books are helpful, but, ultimately it is upon you to formulate your own optimal techniques for each question type, and this can be done only through practice. I also solved all the questions from both these books as I went along. After that, I started with the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. I had read that [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] is the Bilbe, and treated it as such. I solved each and every question in all sections of the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], roughly timing myself for each chunk of questions. I wrote down all the questions I got wrong, and did them 2-3 times, while reading and understanding the correct “ETS” way of answering these questions. My success rate in [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], for the first time I went through the questions, was about 90% in V and 97-98% in Q. I guess this reflects in my final score. Interspaced with the books, I gave 3 Kaplan CAT’s and 3 PR CAT’s. After finishing off with the books, I gave 8 out of 9 GMAT official paper tests. I gave PowerPrep2 two days before the test, and Kaplan 4th CAT on the final day before the test. After all the other books, I read through the Kaplan 800 book, and solved all the Quant questions on that book. In addition to the above, I studied Spidey’s notes on SC, which are posted on this forum. They were an immense help for SC questions. Also, I did the Permutations / Combinations / Probability problems from this forum. Practice Tests: Kaplan and PR Diagnostic (before any prep) – 680/700 Kaplan CAT 1 (during books prep) – 640 Kaplan CAT 2 (during books prep) – 630 Kaplan CAT 3 (during books prep) – 630 PR CAT 1 (during books prep) – 690 PR CAT 2 (during books prep) – 700 PR CAT 3 (during books prep) – 670 Power Prep1 (before any prep) – 700 Power Prep 2 (2 days before the test) – 780. This may be skewed, because I did this after [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. Kaplan CAT 4 (day before the test) – 700 GMAT Paper tests (8 in all, after all books) – 740-800 (range) What I feel I did correct: I feel that the one thing I did correct was that I studied [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] thoroughly. I analyzed questions, and did all the questions, not just the sections in which I found myself weak. I wrote down questions that I had got wrong during the first attempt, and then read the correct answers and explanations. I revised all these questions on the day before the test. I read and re-read Spidey’s SC notes, and the various Permutation / Combination / Probability problems from the TestMagic forums. Also, I did all problems from Kaplan 800 and Kaplan 2005, in the Quant sections. What I feel I could have done better: The questions in SC and CR on the test were much like [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. Hence, a thorough study of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] should be enough to answer these questions. Also, the official paper GMAT tests contain fresh questions for SC and CR. Hence, I got enough and adequate practice of good SC and CR questions from [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], combined with GMAT paper tests. This is not the case for RC, though. I noticed that the GMAT paper tests contained the same RC passages as the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] did. Hence, basically, the only RC passages I practiced on were the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] passages. Also, the RC passages on the actual test were brutal. They were much longer and harder, I felt, than the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] passages. Hence, I feel I should have practiced more of RC, and with more tough passages. Also, reading long passages on the computer screen needs some getting used to. I wish I had done more reading of long and winding passages on the computer screen. Secondly, I feel that the Quant section was much harder than any [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] question. The questions towards the end of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] came close to the actual Quant questions I faced, but even then, were not that level of difficulty. The actual Quant on the test was much like the Quant on the Kaplan CAT’s, if not slightly harder. I got 2 probability questions and 1 permutations question. Also, the DS questions were significantly tough. I feel I should have practiced more difficult Quant questions. What happened during the final test was that, in my endeavor to get all the Quant questions correct, I drained myself out. Hence, in spite of giving about 15-16 full-length tests, and many times 2-3 full-length tests in a day, I found my mental stamina waning towards the end of verbal. This, coupled with the hard RC passages was probably what resulted in my relatively low Verbal score. Some tips for those aspiring to get 760 or more: Do one PowerPrep test at the beginning of your prep, and one towards the end, preferably, two days before the actual test. I do believe that PowerPrep is a true indicator of your score, if done before [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. However, PowerPrep is also the best software that can simulate the real test. In my opinion, doing one PowerPrep before any prep kind of sets the lower bounds on your score. And doing one just before the test sets the upper bound. The reason I recommend that PowerPrep2 should be given just before the test is that it helps you to get used to the screen of the real GMAT. The screens of the Kaplan CAT’s and PR CAT’s are not a good simulation of those of the real GMAT. Also, and more importantly, if you are aspiring for a really high score, it is important to understand how to beat the GMAT scoring algorithm. PowerPrep gives you the best feel for this. And, it is important to get this feel right before the test. Let me explain what I mean. One of my aims on the test was to get a full score on Quant. Now, I am prone to making silly errors on Quant, like forgetting to convert dollars into cents, etc. And I noticed, that especially while giving a CAT, I tend to make most errors like this one. Now, because I make more such errors on a CAT as opposed to a paper-test, I usually ended up with a low Quant score on most of my CAT’s, and consequently, never really reached the ‘difficult’ Quant questions on any of them. Because of this, it is quite possible that my Verbal scores on my CAT’s were not accurate, since I never really reached the tougher Quant questions. I also wanted to get an exact feel of how I will perform in my Verbal, after the tough Quant questions. Hence, I gave PopwerPrep2 after all my preparation, because it is the most accurate simulation of how the Quant questions increase in difficulty, and what exactly you need to do in order to beat the Quant scoring algorithm. If you give both PowerPrep tests before beginning the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], you are probably still 2-3 weeks away from your GMAT, and hence will not get that exact feel of how the level of difficulty increases on the real test. Even if you do get the feel, you may not remember it until the actual test day. Also, other CAT’s do not simulate the GMAT questions or scoring algorithm exactly. Give one Kaplan CAT right before the test day. Many have said that this undermines your confidence, but I actually felt that it boosted my confidence when I got a 700 on that test. If you want to be in the 760+ range, be assured that the questions on the real test, especially Quant, will be Kaplan CAT standard. Hence, it is important to get through that really tough grind of a Kaplan CAT just before the exam. Do ALL questions in [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. Especially, do the last 50 or so in the two Quant sections. Analyze your mistakes, especially in CR and SC. CR and SC are mostly [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] standard, and GMAT paper test standard. Do more RC’s, since [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] + GMAT paper tests offer you only a limited number of passages. Get used to reading long and tough passages on the computer, and analyzing exactly what the author is trying to say. For Quant, do Kaplan 2005 and Kaplan 800 questions. Give all Kaplan CAT’s. If you can breeze through the Kaplan CAT’s in Quant, you need not worry about the actual test. Also, revise Permutations, Combinations and Probability. The notes and questions on this forum should be enough. Do Spidey’s SC notes. They are very good and extremely useful. Finally, practice retaining your mental stamina for a tough Verbal, after a tough Quant. None of the CAT’s (unless you score really high, and consequently get really tough questions Quant on Kaplan or PR CAT’s) really give you a feel for the stamina requirements for the actual test. The GMAT paper tests or the PowerPrep tests definitely are much easier that the actual test, if you are aiming for more than 760. All the best! Sidharth