The MBA way.......

PR Review :: 9-Jun

2007-06-09T23:03:00.001-07:00

9th evening: Probably coz of continuous sitting with a book after a long time & that too… getting stuck with the Probability, Permutations & Combinations made me feel sick… so, I'd put the PR aside and just checked the other collections I had on GMAT; then found the Twinsplitter's GMAT strategy which I've saved more than 1yr ago! (BTW, for the ones who doesn’t know him, TwinSplitter is 790 scorer in GMAT)… I was a bit relieved to see his debriefing which said we need not bother so much about the Probability, Permutations & Combinations part… but this gave me more insights. Following are some useful points:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before the test, I went through my mind considering the possible range of scores, and came up with this:

Quant:

Good Day: 51

Average Day: 50

Bad Day: 49

Verbal:

Good day: 50

Average Day: 47

Bad Day: 44

My General View on Prep:

I liken prepping for these tests to an athlete preparing for the season. Rather than sort of work each muscle each day, they specifically target one muscle at a time, spending one day doing bicep only workouts, another doing chest workouts, etc. In the same way, I believe that you should target each specific aspect of the test, concentrating on it and really getting in the mode for it, then moving onto the next type of question. However, when you move on, still do 10 questions a day for each previous section you've done. So, for example, if you start off with quant, then two weeks later you focus on SC while doing 10 quant questions a day. Then, when you move on to CR, you do 10 quant questions and 10 SC questions a day, while still keeping your main focus on CR. Note that using this method, you will be spending progressively more time as you get closer to the test, which is probably a good idea anyways.

How to Decide Which Aspects to Target First and For How Long:

[1]I believe that, in general, 2 weeks on a specific subject will give you an absolutely solid grasp on it. However, if there are some sections that you feel need more work than others (i.e. if you're strong in CR but weak in SC), then you could spend only one week on the one you're strong at and 3 weeks on your weakness.

In my opinion, it is best to put quant first for two reasons:

1) this site has a lot of great quant questions/resources, and it's easier to utilize them if you're caught up and fresh in quant,

2) Quant is the easiest to keep fresh by doing a few problems a day, so if you put it in the beginning then you still probably won't forget most of it by the time the test comes around.

As far as what to put second, I believe that it is best to put your biggest weakness in verbal second. Why? Because the topics you put near the beginning will be the ones you get the most practice on, since you'll spend 2 weeks targeting them and then will also do 10 questions a day in these topics from then on.

In other words, here's the prep plan I would recommend to most people:

Quant (2 weeks)

Biggest Verbal Weakness (2-3 weeks)

2nd Biggest Verbal Weakness (2 weeks)

Verbal Strength (1-2 weeks)

All Types of Questions, General Prep, and Practice Tests (2 weeks)

For a total of about 10 weeks.

Note: Any time I found some helpful information on this site, I copy and pasted it into a word document. In general I think this is a good way to keep track of all of the important stuff you see on the site. And, because I did that, now I have a ton of stuff to share with you guys (see resources for each section).
How I Targeted Each Section

General Strategy: My prep for quant consisted of three parts (in this order):

1) Going through Kaplan's Math Workbook, underlining all of the important concepts, making notecards of these concepts, and doing the practice problems to strengthen these concepts.

2) Scouring TestMagic for all of the great resources that I knew it had on quant, and making notecards of the concepts in these resources. (resources listed below).

3) Doing tons of quant problems from my many question sources (sources listed below).

Sources of Quant Questions:

1) Kaplan's Math Workbook did every problem in the book

2) Kaplan 2005 (with the CD) did every problem in the book, as well as all the Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency Tests on the CD. However, I didn't do any of the CAT full length tests, which I'll discuss in practice tests.

3) Official Guide only did the questions categorized as hard bin by this document.

4) I bought Kaplan 800 but never ended up having enough time to get to it. However, I've heard great things about it, and would thus recommend getting it.

5) TestMagic--Quant Section. Like Grey said, if you search all topics started by Nuthan in the DS section, you'll get hundreds of DS questions to practice on. Also, searching posts made by Lego, Grey, and Shaq can be a great way to find the best problems on this site, and it will also show you how the math geniuses approach problems. But while we're on the subject of math geniuses--don't be intimidated if they come up with brilliant solutions you never would have thought of. Many of the quant questions on this site are much more difficult than what you'll see on the real GMAT.

Quant Resources (note--I probably shouldn't even include all the comb/perm stuff on here b/c I know you guys will spend too much time on it then , but I figure if you're going to waste your time on it, might as well have an easier time finding the stuff

Must Have:

Great Math Review

Arithmetic and Geometric Progressions

Overview of Combinations

Overview of Permutations

HCF and LCM Stuff -- The beginning is simple, but further down there are some helpful tricks I didn't know about

Venn Diagram -- check out my post second from the bottom on the first page. Has everything you need to know about 3 category sets.

Note: For two category sets, it's simply P(AuB) = P(A) + P(B) - P(AnB)

Everything You Need For Prob/Comb/Perm

Compilation Of Prob/Comb/Perm Questions

Compilation of Tough Problems

Also Helpful:

How to do well in quant

Basic info on standard deviation (math reference in Kaplan tells you how to calculate it)

Sentence Correction

General Strategy: As I said when discussing my PP1 results, I only got around 65% of these right on my first test. By the time of the test, I averaged 1 wrong out of every 100 questions. Here's how I improved so much:

First thing I did was buy Manhattan GMAT's Sentence Correction Guide. While it's true that, as everyone says, OG is the bible for practicing verbal, I would say that this book is the bible for learning the rules of SC. This book is so comprehensive it's amazing. I cannot emphasize enough what an important role this book played in achieving my score. Also, the friend I told you about who got a 750 without studying did actually spend a couple of days studying. The only thing he studied was this book, and as a result his verbal score jumped from 40 on PP1 to 44 on the actual GMAT.

Here's how to utilize the book:

First, go through Manhattan GMAT's SC guide, highlighting every important point (which, in my opinion, is almost every point in the book) and then making notecards out of those points. Memorize them every chance you get (I did this whenever I rode the bus). At the end of each chapter, Manhattan GMAT lists a set of problems in OG which test the concept you learned about in that chapter. Doing the problem set knowing what type of error you're looking for will make you adept at noticing that problem.

One final note: I never ended up using the 1000 SC doc because I found that repeating OG was enough, but if you feel like you're running out of questions, there are several great questions in 1000 SC as well as in the FREE ETS paper tests that I'll provide links to later.

Resources for SC:

Spidey's SC Notes

1000 SC's

Grammar Reference Didn't use it myself, but looks pretty comprehensive for anyone who wants to check it out.

Critical Reasoning

General Strategy: The way I approached CR problems was much different than the way Kaplan (and most books) recommend it. Unlike most people, I don't read the question stem before I read the stimulus. Rather, I read the stimulus first, trying to get a thorough understanding so that regardless of what the question is, I'm ready to attack it. I really think that this helped build my logic skills, so that I was better prepared for any kind of CR question than I would have been if I had a more question-type-specific approach. I feel that had I tried to read the question first, I'd be so focused on trying to find the assumption/implication that I wouldn't understand the argument as a whole intricately enough to analyze the answer choices appropriately. One reason I trusted this approach is that TestMasters, the company known for being the best LSAT prep course, recommends it (and the LSAT is 1/2 CR, so you figure an LSAT prep course would be particularly privy to how to approach the problems). However, each person should take the approach they feel is best!

Recommended Prep Approach:

I think that the reason I was so good at CR is because, as I said above, the LSAT is half CR, and its CR questions are MUCH more difficult than those on the GMAT. They are extremely nitpicky, which helps you become very logical and helps you spot the errors in GMAT arguments in a second. Thus, I would recommend buying the "Next Ten Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests ", which contains 500 LSAT CR questions. If you don't want to buy the book but still want a few LSAT questions, download this free LSAT test. Do those when you're targeting your CR skills, and then start doing the CR in the OG once you start getting closer to the test (just to get used to the GMAT's style of CR).

As far as boldfaced [Mamidala1]

questions, I didn't specifically prep for them, although the LSAT contains some questions which are similar (argument structure questions). Like others have said, process of elimination is pretty helpful in the boldface.

For those of you still looking for boldface questions, I heard that akasans has posted a lot of boldfaced CR's on the site.

Resources for CR:

I don't have any, I'm sorry

Reading Comprehension

General Strategy: I don't really have much of a strategy on reading comprehension, I just sort of read it and answer the questions. One thing that I found was that reading on the computer was very easy for me, perhaps because I read articles online all the time. Many people suggest using the economist online, but that costs $$. Instead, check out McKinsey Quarterly, which will help your ability to read on a computer screen, your knowledge of business examples (if you get a business issue on AWA), and will probably help your career too by making you knowledgeable on several business issues!

One thing which I think helped me a lot on both my RC and AWA was the fact that I read the editorial section of the Wall Street Journal every morning on the way to school. It does several things for me:

1) Exposes me to complex arguments similar to those in RC and CR

2) Gives me practice reading on topics which I am often unfamiliar with

3) Keeps me informed, so that I have more real life examples to use in AWA.

Finally, perhaps my most important piece of advice on RC is to use the RC's that come in that LSAT book (linked above in the CR section) as practice. The LSAT passages are much more complex, and the questions are much more specific, so that you'll be forced to get better at remembering what you read! Use the LSAT book when targeting RC, and then as the test nears, start doing the OG RC's.

Resources for RC-- I'm not sure regarding the quality of any of these because I haven't gone through them, but I did copy good links whenever I saw them in case I needed more practice for RC, so I figured I might as well share :-) :

Ten Vocabulary Learning Tips if you feel like not knowing some of the words in the RC's is hindering your ability to do well (although it's very normal not to know some of them).

More RC Materials

Even More

Analytical Writing Assessment

General Strategy: Spend a couple days before your test thinking of some big fancy words (my words of choice were eludicate, juxtapose, paucity, dearth, and some other ones that I have now forgotten), as well as some real life examples. I have found that if you have 6 real life examples, odds are 3 of them will be moldable (if that's a word) to become relevent to your topic in analysis of an issue. Attached are my AWA templates (sorry Stormgal, I only know how to attach things in threads!). They are essentially a hybrid of Erin's, Sybersport's, and several other templates that I have found on this site.

As far as prep for AWA, I didn't have any. I simply checked a couple topics out, thought about what I'd say for them to get my mind in the writing mode, and that's about it. However, if you would like a book to build your AWA, Spiderman recommended this book which seems like it would be helpful because you can see how others approach it and steal some of their arguments!

Resources for AWA:

Erin's Template for Analysis of an Issue

Template for Analysis of an Argument

Sybersport's (who got a 6.0) Advice

Formatting Rules (makes the grader nice to you!)

More General Resources

There's tons of good (free) stuff I found through TestMagic! Here it is:

All 9 Paper Tests

Calculating Paper Test Scores

OG Softcopy

Free Manhattan GMAT CD

Categorization of OG Questions (I know I've linked to it already, but just wanna make sure everyone gets it, it's really helpful!)

Too many resources to name

Answer Grid that Times You

Prep Strategy Site

Prep Strategy Site #2

Prep Strategy Site #3

Timing:

I didn't put much effort into working on timing, mostly because the LSAT is far more time constrained than the GMAT and I was thus able to work very quickly on everything. In other words, by working in high-pressure, time-constrained situations, my timing got better. Thus, I would recommend doing the same, e.g. only giving yourself 15 minutes to do 10 problems rather than 20 minutes. However, only do this once you know the concepts, because otherwise what's the point of going quickly when you don't even know what it is that you're doing quickly!

I think Kaplan's CD is really good for improving timing in Quant...while giving you only 25 minutes for 20 DS questions may seem ridiculous, it sure makes the actual GMAT, with 2 minutes per question, seem much easier.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also I'd attempted the ETS' GMATPrep last week and to my surprise, I'd scored only 540 when I was expecting >600. this was the break up:

Quant

Verbal

Overall

540

Quant% Correct

64.86%

Verbal% Correct

53.66%

Based on this, I've revised my strategy like this:

Need to concentrate on Verbal
I need few more books for my prep:

GMAT Sentence Correction
Kaplan Math Workbook
Need to read the centre pages of THE HINDU, editorials of online news papers etc. (probably Mcinsley Qrtly)

PR Review :: 8-Jun

2007-06-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the answer to my question - is the PR review of major Math and Verbal topics enough? PR said in the 43rd page this book cant take the place of a basic foundation in math. If someone needs that, then they are suggesting to buy PR's book "Math workout for the GMAT"; but one gud sugn again from PR - "If your purpose it to raise your GMAT score, it’s a waste of time to learn math that wont be tested" - gud one isnt it??
Imp. In MATH: when you finish a problem, always take 2sec to reread the problem to make sure you've actually answered the question

Some math that I've learnt new/refreshed from PR

Divisibility rules:

A no. is divisible by 3 if the sum of its digits can be divided by 3 (without remainder of course!)
A no. is divisible by 4 if the sum of its last two digits can be divided by 4
A no. is divisible by 6 if the divisibility of that number by both 2 as well as by 3 works :)

IMP NOTE: ETS never puts 0 in the remainder

Comparing fractions:

To compare, multiply numerators of one fraction with denoinators of the other; where this product is more, the fraction of that side is greater!

Probabilities, Permutations & Combinations always challenge me!

Coz I did not learn these in my acads (I'm not sure if I'd skipped this chapter then!)

Some Techniques

Try plugging the answers in the question to find the right answer, but only if the question si relatively straight forward and if the answer choices are numbers - always start with the middle answer, if the result is too small, try then the next larger answer; if the result is too high, try the next smaller one
In problems where 'must be', 'could be' or 'cant be' PLUGGING IN always almost helps, but you may need to plug in more than one number

My Notes from Princeton Review

2007-06-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

GMAT format: So Simple :) {reported on a scale of 200 to 800}

Two 30min essays (optional 5min break) {reported on a scale of 1 to 6 with half pt increments}
75min - 37q MATH i.e. 2min max. for each question {reported on a scale of 0 to 60}

Prob solving
Data sufficiency

75min - 41q VERBAL i.e. 109sec or 1min 49 sec - Target should be 1min 30mins per question {reported on a scale of 0 to 60}

Reading Comprehension
Sentence correction
Critical reasoning

Interesting to note that one quarter of the questions in Math and Verbal sections don’t count to the score!! Anywayz, this doesn’t matter to us!
I lost my Princeton review CD, but glad to know that I can take the same tests online @ www.princetonreview.com/cracking
Strategy sugd by PR: You must always tell your interviewer what he or she wants to hear, same with GMAT too… i.e. know how ETS thinks while setting the paper and think accg.ly….. And PR finally says that we should jever accept the score ETS assigns us as an accurate assessment of our abilities; it suggests us to think of GMAT just as game - a game we can wit at!! GAMES always makes me more interested than my studies, so even GMAT should be a good challenge for me if I treat it a game!! Thanks PR for those words :)
PR uses Mr. Joe Bloggs as an example to show how not to think about different questions. PR asks us to use Joe Bloggs principle (1) to use POE to eliminate incorrect answer choices (2) avoid careless mistakes; but PR cautions us here - when using Joe Bloggs principles, we need to make adjustments as the difficulty levels go up! I need to go thru the entire book to know how to make adjustments :)
Early questions count more than later questions

should I take extra care at the start, taking lil more time for each question if required?
PR suggests starting slowly and gradually picking pace; they say even if you end up with very lil time at the end, you can still reach 700 coz a mistake later in the test is less costly!! But the imp. thing here is we have to answer all the questions with intelligent guesses using PR's POE (Process of Elimination) method

PR book orgn - test taking techniques with review of major topics first, practice test and then bins of practice questions!! But is the PR's review on major topics enough?? I don’t think so….
BIN strategy - know your bin first!! PR mentions this at many places through out the book to make intelligent guesses!! They say an EASY QUESTION in math usually takes 1 or 2 simple steps, where as a MEDIUM QUESTION takes min 2 steps and a DIFFICULT QUESTION min 3 steps to solve!
Activity on 6th june

Tried to schedule my GMAT date online… but it said the info is incomplete and that they'll get back to me in 2/3 days :(
Gave my schedule to a doctor whom I've approached to make me physically fit - just to ensure I'm accountable for someone through out my GMAT prep!

My Journey... Reloaded

2007-06-05T00:47:00.000-07:00

After a very very long time (almost 1.5yrs from the date of my first post), I've restarted my journey two days back. This time I'm not going to let it go as I want to apply for ISB (Indian School of Business) by any means this time. I had visited ISB last week and it was great to be there! I'm not yet sure whether I would be able to start my MBA program in 2008, but still I want to make sure I apply and get into ISB this time itself. ISB has two application cycles - the deadline for the first being 15th September and for the second being 15th November. I initially thought I will go for the first cycle. In that case I would have to write GMAT in August itself, which I feel is risky for me as my job responsibilities are adding up every day. I should curse myself for my stupidity of my last 1.5yrs of laziness. Anyways, that has given me tremendous experience of course! The point here is... I'm going to write GMAT in October and will apply for ISB in the second cycle before 15th November.

Hence I started my journey two days ago with the plan from www.beatthegmat.com as the baseline. So my high level plan looks like this (Don't laugh at my target score... I always believe in aggressive targets):

	GMAT Prep Plan - Target Score 780

	Parallel Activities: Flashcard prep & revision
		Start	End	# of Days
Day 1-10	Review of Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT	5-Jun	14-Jun	10
Day 11-12	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	15-Jun	16-Jun	2
Day 13-22	Review of Kaplan GMAT 2005	17-Jun	26-Jun	10
Day 23-25	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	27-Jun	29-Jun	3
Day 26-28	Off :: Friend's Marriage	30-Jun	2-Jul	3
Day 29-36	Review of Kaplan GRE & GMAT Math Workbook	3-Jul	10-Jul	8
Day 37-38	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	11-Jul	12-Jul	2
Day 39-46	Review of Official Guide, Reading Comprehension section	13-Jul	20-Jul	8
Day 47-48	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	21-Jul	22-Jul	2
Day 49-50	Off :: Optional	23-Jul	24-Jul	2
Day 51-58	Review of Official Guide, Data Sufficiency section	25-Jul	1-Aug	8
Day 59-60	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	2-Aug	3-Aug	2
Day 61-68	Review of Official Guide, Sentence Correction section	4-Aug	11-Aug	8
Day 69-70	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	12-Aug	13-Aug	2
Day 71-78	Review of Official Guide, Critical Reasoning section	14-Aug	21-Aug	8
Day 79-80	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	22-Aug	23-Aug	2
Day 81-82	Off :: Optional	24-Aug	25-Aug	2
Day 83-90	Review of Official Guide, Problem Solving section / review of Analytical Writing Assessment	26-Aug	2-Sep	8
Day 91-92	Tests & Analysis of Test Results	3-Sep	4-Sep	2
Day 93	Enjoy the Birth Day!!	5-Sep	6-Sep	2
Day 94-139	- Practice, Practice & Practice!! Practice, Test, Analyze, Improve!!! - Also work on Essays & Recommendations	7-Sep	22-Oct	46
	GMAT Test	Tuesday, October 23, 2007

	Key Dates for ISB Admissions Academic Year 2008-2009
	Process Cycle	Cycle 1	Cycle 2
	Application Opens	1-Jul-07
	Deadline	15-Sep-07	15-Nov-07
	Interviews	Oct/Nov 2007	Dec 2007/Jan 2008
	Offer Decision	By Dec15, 2007	By February 15, 2008
	Acceptance Decision	15 days from date of offer
	Commencement of Pre-Term Courses	April 14 to April 29, 2008
	Commencement of Core Term Classes	30-Apr-08

First review of Math section from Princeton Review

2006-03-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

Haaaaaa....... I'm back to prep after a long time :) Started off with Princeton Review (PR) - Math section; reviewed the Math section in the last week & have taken the math warm up test today - scored 17 out of 20; Frankly, 3 of those correct were guessed; PR is suggesting me to practice question in medium & difficult question bins in the book. Will work on them & also will start the Verbal section in this week. Lemme see - I feel I've to work a lot in this area!

Just reviewed strategies suggested by "Test Magic" - to follow Official Guide n Kaplan for better GMAT strategies. Will turn to them very soon!

Delay in my Journey :(

2005-12-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

I am quite busy in gathering info to update my popular CSQA blog as I've been getting so many mails requesting me to put in the guide according to the new version of the CSQA - Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK 2006).

Hence, my journey to MBA came to a stand still. Not a good sign though - but I'm happy that this is to help many others in helping not to stop their CSQA journeys :) I've estimated that this CSQA guide blog updation shall be finished by this year [only one week more :)] so that I can continue with my GMAT prep from the new year! And that's the reason why I'm going to shift to a dorm at our office to stay alone - tough decision to stay away from friends; only my target GMAT score of 750 can justify this!

Preparation - Second Day

2005-12-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

I could not spend more time this day.

I met my friend Madhavi to congratulate her on being commissioned as Flying Officer, Indian Air Force. Felt quite elated to see her interview along with her photo was published in the local news paper - available at this location.

Later I had a fun with some experiments in cooking chicken which turned out to be a great success. Later watched the movie - "Apaharan", didn't like it though :(

Mission MBA - GMAT: my first step

2005-12-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

This day is an important one for me - I've taken a decision on MBA. It relieved me of the following dilemmas which were stopping me until now:

Whether to go for MBA or look for other options in software? MBA
Should I go for CAT or GMAT? GMAT
What should be the target date? April 2006

I'm targeting score of 750. I know this is tough keeping in view of my current level of preparedness. But I believe nothing is unachievable unless we give up!

I'm going to start with the Princeton Review - Cracking the GMAT

I've chosen www.beattheGMAT.com as my first online guide to start my prep. As was pointed in this site, I'm going to use the following fora:

Few articles listed below from Pagalguy.com provided better insight for me, specially the Part 2.