I’m back here again after yesterday’s celebration. :tup: It is still hard for me to digest that I scored a 750:grad: . It may not be a big deal for some. But it sure is for me.
I have rambled on and on. I haven’t organized this very well. But please go straight to the topics that have interested you.
I found TestMagic pretty late in my preparation. Actually, I did find testmagic earlier. But didn’t realize it’s utility until about 2 weeks ago. However, I have used wikigrammar.com extensively, solving every question there and participating as much as possible.
GMAT?
I have been thinking of taking the GMAT for the last 2 years. I wasn’t sure if it was the right career move for me. I gave myself a year or two just to think about whether MBA is right for me. I didn’t want to get into the herd mentality and do an MBA just ‘coz lot of my friends or colleagues are doing so. I have been part of such a herd mentality once in the past and I almost started my MS until I couldn’t join the program for reasons beyond my control. Thank god for those reasons. Having worked for three years in the industry, I know now that an MS was definitely not what I wanted to do.
The beginning…
So after nearly two years of thinking, I finally decided that I actually did want to do an MBA. So, in November 2004, I decided that I am going to start preparing for the GMAT. I first went to the library and picked up the 2005 editions of Princeton Review and Kaplan. I read at Amazon reviews that Princeton Review is a good book to start with. So I completed that book in a week. I decided now that I have read a book completely, let me see where I stand. So I took the Princeton Review test from the CD. I scored a 570 and absolutely was shocked at the miserable score. I always use to pride on my verbal and analytical skills. But GMAT is a different ballgame and I had to realize it by facing it.
My preparation…
A little demoralized, I went on a 5 week long vacation back home to India. I restarted my preparation again in the beginning of February. Thanks to Google, I found some really good online forums like this one. Read the strategies posted by scores of people and formulated mine. I wanted to know where I stood before starting my real preparation. I decided to take a Powerprep test for that. That was another miserable score. I got a 610. I was totally demoralized. I had serious doubts whether I would be able to reach a 700+ score starting from 610. But then I set myself a target of 720. I knew that if I get 720 I’d be happy. 680-710 would be disappointing but not bad enough for a retake. Anything above 720 is terrific and below 680 would mean a retake.
In the next week or so I finished the Kaplan book and started with Kaplan exercises on the CD. I had already bought the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and decided that saving [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] for the last month wouldn’t work for me as I have a long way to go. So I decided that I am going to complete the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] once and I’ll redo it if necessary in the last few weeks. When I started with [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], I think my hit rate was RC (60%), SC (60%) and CR (85%). I was still not used to GMAT English and GMAT passages. I knew that practice is the key and reviewing my mistakes to ensure I don’t repeat it again was another important thing that I needed to do. I maintained an error log for [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip].
I decided that my primary weaknesses were SC, RC and DS, probably in that order. So I decided that I am going to tame one at a time. I used to spend a whole week concentrating on SC and the next week RC and the following week DS. But during this time, I realized that I needed to be in touch with the other section. If I leave some section completely out, then I struggled to get back in the groove. So I tried to be in touch with other sections as well. Nearly after a month, I could see visible improvements in all three sections that I concentrated.
I had a date of 16th May in mind and finally decided that its time to book. I registered about a month and a half before the test. I finished the verbal section of the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] by beginning of April. Second week of May, I decided that its time to start with the practice CATs that I was saving for the last month. I started with Princeton, then Kaplan and finally Powerprep. I did use Peterson. But I was not convinced about the quality of questions. So I didn’t take Peterson that seriously.
Books used
Princeton Review 2005
Kaplan 2005
Kaplan GRE/GMAT Math workbook
Kaplan Verbal workbook
Official Guide (9th Edition)
Official Guide (10th Edition verbal soft copy)
Test scores
PR 1 (19-Nov-2004) - 570
PP 1 (12-Feb-2005) - 610
PR 2 (09-Apr-2005) - 700
PR 3 (16-Apr-2005) - 730
Kap 1(17-Apr-2005) - 560
Kap 2(23-Apr-2005) - 690
Kap 3 (24-Apr-2005) - 560
PR 4 (30-Apr-2005) - 690
Kap4 (05-May-2005) - 590
PR 1 (07-May-2005) – 710
PP 1 (12-May-2005) - 780
PP 2 (14-May-2005) - 760
GMAT (16-May-2005) – 750
My Peterson scores were about 670 average. But I didn’t take these seriously
Other resources
GMAT Club math forum
Test Magic forums
www.wikigrammar.com forums
Spidey’s sentence correction notes
Material posted by Praveen_rao7 on GMATClub
My thoughts on the resources
I recommend every book that I used. Most people would get Kaplan, Princeton and [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. But the Kaplan workbooks are definitely worth buying. You get both these book together for less than $25 and they definitely add value to your GMAT preparation armory. I do not recommend [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] 9th edition. 10th edition is what ought to be used. But I actually had a copy of the 9th edition and with the soft copy of the verbal section of 10th edition available, I decided against buying the 10th edition. But looking back that was a silly thing to do. I should have bought the 10th edition anyway.
There has been enough said about the benefit of this forum. Without the forums, I doubt whether I would have even reached 700. The information and resources available here are unbeatable. No classroom training session can match the resources that are available here. And with the best of minds sharing and discussing, what more do you need.
G-Day preparation and the test
The day before the test, I drove down to the test center to see where exactly it is. Incidentally it happened to be a block away from my best friend’s place. So I was really familiar with the area. I went to Target and bought all the snacks that I need. That was two twix bars, a bottle or Orange juice and a can of energy drink.
I scheduled my test for a Monday so I can relax in the weekend. I decided against extensive practice the day before. In fact I just chilled out both on Saturday and Sunday. Other than a powerprep on Saturday, didn’t do anything significant. I went through Spidey’s notes. Went over the Math review in Kaplan and prepared my essay template. The only time I wrote the essay was during my last powerprep. My writing skills are not that bad. I was quite confident that with a decent template, I shouldn’t have a problem scoring a 5.0.
My exam was at 8 am and I knew that I needed to wake up two hours before to do everything in a relaxed manner. So in the last three days, I made sure that I sleep early and rise early. So the day before the test, I slept at 10 pm. No problems sleeping. I had totally convinced myself that I was prepared. And told myself that it doesn’t matter. It’s after all a test. If I screw up I can retake again. I think this is one part that really pulled me through. A good night’s sleep keeps the mind fresh in the morning.
I woke up on G-day and took a long shower. Got ready and went over the essay templates. Packed my snack pack and headed for the test center. Adrenaline pumping….but no nerves.
The test center, at first seemed a little too bright for my comfort. For some reason, I was expecting something darker. But no big deal. I picked up my scratch paper and headed for my system. Before clicking on start, I wrote the template for both issue and argument on the scratch paper. Only after I completed that, that I started my test. I had to select the colleges to send the the scores to. I selected the first one and clicked next. Only then I realized that I actually needed to select all four before clicking next. But it was no big deal, after the test I wrote the other four on a piece of paper and gave it to the administrator there.
First I had to do analysis of an issue. It was not the best of topics. I couldn’t think of too many points. But I had a couple of real life examples that suited the topic. So I completed that with a minute to spare. Analysis of argument was quite easy and there were several obvious assumptions. I aced that with 3-4 minutes to spare. I thought no point re-reviewing it. So clicked that and took a break. Had a finger of my twix bar and completed my orange juice. Went back in about 6 minutes. The test had not started as some others have told here. Only after you click ok does the test restart. So I clicked and got into my real test.
It started off with fairly easy problems. I didn’t need more than a minute to solve my first 7 questions, even after multiple reviews. I thought the level of difficulty would go up significantly after the first 2-3. But although it did, I wasn’t yet into the tough ones. Then came question 8 - DS. It was not a very difficult question per se. The difficulty of the question didn’t lie in the concept that it tested, but was in visualizing the question. It was a geometry question about two squares. It basically explained the figure in words. And I was unable to make the words into a figure. Spent nearly 3 minutes on it….helpless. Then I thought, the question must be wrong or probably is one of those questions that don’t count. I was in half a mind to click and go to next question:rolleyes: . Thank god, I didn’t do that. Nearly after 4 minutes, I was finally able to visualize the figure. Once I did that, it didn’t take more than 30 seconds to answer it. Phew…..that was a close call.
There were a couple of DS questions that needed me to work each of option on paper to get the trick. That’s it. None too hard. There was no question on probability and one straight forward question on combinations. I got a mean/median question towards the end that was quite easy again. I got one question on parabola. Just as Kaplan math workbook had said, parabola question are quite straight forward. I was given different parabola on the x-y axis and had to identify which figure corresponded to the given question. Didn’t take more than 30 seconds to answer. I finished the section with 7 minutes to spare. Overall, I think the math section was far easier than what has been mentioned in these forums. Definitely was not harder than [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] math. If it is of any interest, I scored 50 on Q on each of Powerprep in the last week before my test.
I then took the break. Gulped down the energy drink….and got back in 6 mnts again. The verbal started off with 3 relatively simple SC. Then I got a CR which was ok. 2 back to back RC. I was a little weary thinking bout RC as a lotta ppl mentioned that RCs are harder than [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] standard. Again I have to disagree here. I thought the RCs were of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] standard again. I got 4 RCs in all. One on women’s issue, another science. Don’t recall the other two. But again none of those were difficult. I think that I did best in RC among the three. I screwed up a bit on my timing. There were two SC questions and one CR question that I got stuck on that ate up much of my time. For the last 15 questions, I had 18 mnts. So had to rush in the end. I guess that explains my relatively lower score. I score 40+ on Verbal on an average to above average day.
I think I had a below average day on verbal and an average day on quants. The Q51 was not because I had an excellent day, but because I think the Q itself was much easier than most practice tests (barring Powerprep).
I would like to every single member of the forums who participated. All you guys are fantastic.:tup:
If any of you guys have any questions, please feel free to shoot. There is no such thing as a silly question. That should be the motto of this forum.