GMAT Review: Part II - Tips

Part II of the GMAT Review deals with tips for acing the GMAT - what to do, what not to do, based on what I've learnt and what I've read. See Part I for information on learning and strategy. The following bits of information are resources and procedures I highly recommend in order to get a good score.

Plan your timeline


Create a study timeline. This should vary from person to person, as it depends on the areas of weakness or the areas you would like to target. Take a practice test to gauge your level, and go through the answers to find out the areas in which you are lacking. Most people are weaker in Verbal, so start with that. Devote a certain number of weeks for each section of the GMAT. I suggest devoting approximately two hours a day per weekday and maybe four to five hours a day per weekend - this means that your entire prep should last around 3 months. 

Learn first, then attack the questions

Read through the concepts presented, as well as the strategies put forward to help you tackle each type of question. Each concept is usually presented with an example. Work through these as you learn, so that you can help understand how they are used. Use the review questions in each strategy book to help you.

Flashcards

You can download some free flashcards here. Or you can use Manhattan GMAT's flashcards, available for free with any purchase of MGMAT products. Or (and this is my advice), make your own. There is no better way to instill the concepts in your head than by writing it down. You can also make the flashcards in the format that would suit you the most. I made my 'flashcards' on PowerPoint, and you can find them here:

Sentence Correction

Critical Reasoning

Reading Comprehension

Data Sufficiency

Problem Solving

Official Guides

Bear in mind, however, to not start practicing questions from the Official Guide that address those concepts. Questions on the GMAT are never organised by concept, nor by topic, and practicing them in order will not help you one bit. You need to have all strategies and concepts in your head so that your mind learns how to switch from one to another; you need to learn how to switch from RC to CR, from stats to algebra, from SC to RC. I suggest learning and working through each strategy book, before then devoting all your time on the OGs. 

Use an error log

There are several available online, but my favorites are the ones found here. I downloaded them and updated them as I was working - yes they do slow you down as you have to update the log after every question, but they do help you in figuring out which areas you need to target and what your strengths and your weaknesses are. 

Take a break

There's no point in taking time off work or studies and concentrating solely on the GMAT for 12 hours a day. The test works to test your understanding and your ability to think, and not your memorization techniques. Try not to exceed 20 hours of GMAT-related study a week, and take one day off per week - one day where you don't even think about the GMAT. Your brain needs that break to work better.

Practice tests

Take one of the free practice tests available from GMAC on www.mba.com as a diagnostic before you start your prep. It will help gauge your level so you know where you stand and just how much you need to improve. Take the same test again after you have gone through the strategy books and worked through the review questions. There should be some sort of improvement - if not, its time to review those concepts. If you have improved, then dive into the OGs. Manhattan GMAT provides 6 full length practice tests, so use those as well; take the first after working with the OG for a couple of weeks. Just a note though - no practice test can be as beneficial to you as the ones provided by GMAC. Use your second practice test a couple of weeks before your real test, so you have the chance to take it more than once if you wish. Aim to take a total of 6-8 full length tests during the course of your study.


Fixing the test date


The biggest mistake I made was fixing my date before the start of my prep. I am one of those people who need a deadline looming over their heads to get working. Unfortunately, since I was living in a new country for an internship, I just did not have the discipline required to work day in and day out on the GMAT - I wanted to travel, really get to know the city and do all those touristy things, since I didn't know if I would ever make it there. Due to this distraction, I wasn't able to fully complete the OG; in fact I was just halfway through, and didn't even touch the OG Verbal and Quant books. So either book your date in advance and reschedule it if you haven't finished with your material, or else only schedule your test when you are sufficiently prepared and are confident of acing the test. 

Before the real test

Do not take any practice tests on the week of your real tests. Do not overwork with practice problems either. Ideally you should not work on the GMAT at all on the day before your test. If you are like me and need to have a look at the problems to get your brain ready to tackle the test, then do one problem in each area on the morning of the test - i.e. one question each for RC, CR, SC, PS, DS and IR. 

To all those giving their tests soon, good luck! Feel free to ask me for anything you need. 

GMAT Review: Part I - Learning

A long overdue post, since I took the GMAT on 14th October 2012. But I was slightly ashamed of my just-acceptable score of 700, which was below the median accepted score for all the six schools I was applying to. Surprisingly, I wasn't the only one in this position, as during the month of October I spotted quite a few posts on BTG about retake stratgies for those already in the 700-800 range. I was annoyed at myself for being able to score upto 750 in practice, and that was probably the reason for the disappointment.  Looking back (gotta love hindsight), it was silly of me to be ashamed - 90th percentile is still no easy feat, and I'm proud of myself. Now that I've moved on, I feel more comfortable talking about it, and hence, this blog post.

My advice for retakers, in case you're interested, is don't sweat it. It is true that schools will focus more on GMAT scores when deciding between two candidates or deciding the admission priority of the waitlisted applicants. But it is also true that once you reach a certain score (let's say 680), your GMAT is crossed off the AdCom's checklist and they're on to other aspects of your application. Everyone knows that there's a plus/minus of 30 points, so AdCom members are generally willing to give you the benefit of those extra points. It may also help to note that if they honestly hesistate on accepting you solely on the basis of your GMAT score, they will contact you and perhaps request you to retake the exam. In fact, I think one of my schools had a checkbox on the self-reporting scores page, where I had to tick whether I would retake the GMAT if I were asked.

When it comes to taking the GMAT, it's important to understand that you just cannot memorise your way through the test. That's not to say some have unsucceeded in doing so; in fact a fellow BTG forum user who apparently scored a 760 on the GMAT recently posted the following "I am in oil. Please advise schools for me." (He said a lot more, but I was too shocked after reading that first sentence that I didn't somehow want to read the rest).

I like to believe one has truly only aced the GMAT if one continues to use the concepts learnt in reality. And for that reason, I cannot stress enough on learning before practicing. My strategies are now perfectly in place, and I also used the knowledge I gained and incorporated it into my essays, which I think definitely helped.

http://www.afewgoodminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Verbal_GMAT_Focus.jpg

Several strategy books exist, and several good ones too. How do you pick? The following post helped me out. I used that list and several other forums, and after almost two weeks, finally chose the following (see my blog post on this topic):

The Official Guide for GMAT Review:

This book is an absolute must for anyone taking the GMAT. From the makers of the test themselves, this has a zillion practice questions, all of them being genuine past questions, and hence really help you get an idea of the types of questions you will be dealing with on the actual test. This book also has some review, but I suggest skipping it, as it's really not that great.

GMAT Quantitative Review & GMAT Verbal Review:

Again, these are practice books with genuine past questions, and while there are a couple of repetitions, most questions are different from the ones in the OG. Get this only if you need more practice after completing the OG. I made the mistake of ordering these early on, and really did not have the time to attack the questions here. 

 

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide - Number Properties:

Great book. The book includes strategies for attacking problems which you have probably seen in O Levels (or equivalent) and hence just don't remember how to deal with them - that's how basic they are. As an engineering student, I've done math that is way harder than this, and end up using the calculator to perform such problems. Not on the GMAT! Totally worth the buy.

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide - Word Translations:

I found this book useful because it helps you to break down the questions into solvable pieces. Too often you get a question on the GMAT that is longwinded, and by the time you finish reading the question, you panic because you have no idea what you really have to do, or else you calculate the wrong value (which is also an answer choice, as the cheeky people in GMAC anticipate your mistakes). While this may not be a must-buy, it's worth it if you're out of touch with word problems. 

Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible:

This was the first book I started with, and I loved it. It clearly approaches the different types of CR questions that will come up on the test - from an explanation on what the question is looking for, to strategies to find the right answer. Best book I bought, in my opinion. Highly recommended. 

Veritas Prep GMAT Reading Comprehension:

This is a pretty decent book - the strategies barely made up 20 pages, after which it was practice questions. But one can't blame Veritas Prep for that - how on earth does one teach reading comprehension anyway? They do a pretty decent job of it. 4 stars.

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide - Sentence Correction:

This ties with the CR Bible for the best book. I'm looking to sell my GMAT books but I won't sell this one. It has everyone one needs to know about grammar and spotting the errors in a given sentence. Yes its a little longwinded, but how else can one cover all the possible grammatical errors that are tested? 100% recommended. 

Part II of my GMAT Review will be out next week, where I'll discuss some tips on how I 'aced' (not really) the GMAT - what I learnt, what I didn't, and how I'd go about it if I were to do it all over again. Check back soon!

8 Life Updates

My New Year's Resolution (or my NYR as I like to call it) was set just a couple of days ago - and that is to be more active on the social networking front.

Silly, you may think. But networking is something I have overlooked as often being meaningless and only for people with way too much time on their hands. At least, that's what I think when I keep refreshing my Facebook page in the hope that something interesting turns up. But over the past couple of months, I have become more involved in LinkedIn and Twitter, and I must say I'm enjoying the 'buzz'. 

Chatting about sports with complete strangers is something I used to previously wrinkle my nose at, but there's nothing more enjoyable than sharing your views with people and having them share theirs. And its not just restricted to football, its tennis, music, movies, engineering, business school, applications, job hunting, just everything.

This NYR also means that my poor neglected blog will get some well-deserved attention from me pretty soon. In fact, there is a whole list of things I'll get to do again once I finish my undergraduate studies in LESS THAN A MONTH. Terrifying times. 

I’m currently in the midst of my final exams for my engineering course – there’s a certain ring to it, I must admit. They say time flies when you’re having fun, but I say time flies whether you’re having fun or not. Where have the last three years gone?

This is not to say I hate my course, but my final year of studies have been a little too difficult to handle, and there’s a large part of me that’s thrilled that the ride is finally ending. Academic-wise, of course. In social terms…well I barely had much of a social life in this final year. But I will miss some people, my close friends, most of whom have plans to leave Malaysia soon after graduation.

I’m taking a break from the highly strenuous exam preparation to update my readers on…my life really. Good fortunes, tasks done, mistakes learnt from – et al. So here you go, in no particular order:

1. MBA applications were completed and submitted by the end of January. I’m not ashamed to admit it – yes I shot for the moon with some of the schools I aimed for. It’s a tall order to get into Harvard Business School when your Engineering undergraduate course is already killing your brain cells one at a time. I applied to six schools, and at the end, interviewed with and got accepted into IESE Business School, Barcelona! It’s a Young Talent Program, where accepted students are allowed to join the MBA course provided they complete a minimum of two years of work experience. I’m SO thrilled about this – I was resigning myself at one point to just forget about B-School apps and concentrate on job-hunting. Now I get to do both!

Image URL: http://blog.paradizo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cathelicopters.jpg

2. Job-hunting has been a little less successful. I applied to a MILLION positions, no joke here, since the application procedure literally just involves a cover letter, a resume, and an online application form. I have been fortunate enough to receive interview invites from Accenture, Bain & Company, Frost & Sullivan, and Theta Service Partners – I think it’s obvious that I’m heading into consultancy eh? Accenture and Frost have both put me on hold; Bain is a ding, while I got into Theta. Still waiting to make a final decision though.

3. Goodbye five-year-old Dell laptop, and hello Apple!! Yes, my birthday present from my parents arrived three months late but it was worth it, as I write this post from my spanking-new Macbook Pro. Still haven’t got the whole hang of it yet, but I’m lovin’ it so far. If anyone has any software recommendations, bring it!

4. I will officially own a Bachelors Honours Degree in Electronic & Computer Engineering in July 2012, and I’ll officially be done with undergraduate academic as of May 31^st, 2012. Our graduation is set for 7^th July, and saying I’m looking forward to it would be a major understatement.

5. Summer 2012 is the first couple of months where I have no studies and no internship; the first summer in a long time when I’ll literally have nothing to do. That said, my summer has somehow turned out to be jam-packed. I head to Bangalore to visit my grandmother for around three weeks in June; I head back to Kuala Lumpur to attend my graduation, and straight up fly to Barcelona on the same night to attend a week-long seminar where I get introduced to the School, the program, other accepted students, and Spain in general. An added bonus in that I’m flying Emirates – luxury awaits! Hallelujah!

6. Spent the year as the Public Relations Officer for the Indian Cultural Society in my University. Good stuff, I think. Enjoyed it to bits. Ended up strongly disliking a couple of people in the process, who I’m slightly sorry to say have gone from “close friends” to “people I used to know.” The strangest bit is that a large part of me doesn’t care much about this change. If I don’t miss them, then they never should have been part of my close friends, right?

7. “Shop ‘til you drop” has been the motto I’ve been living on. I had a ridiculously large shopping spree before my first semester results came out, and it turned out I was worried for nothing, as my results were surprisingly great. I don’t expect that to happen this semester, so I’ve started saving money for my India trip – its time to splurge again. Zara/Mango/Padini/Vincci/SubZero/FOS, here I come.

8. My Final Year Project has finally been submitted. My project involves building a job application portal, which should manage students and staff for the entire Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. Students undergo an optional industrial training placement during the summer, and the portal is supposed to help them apply for a job and satisfy all other assessment criteria. My portal is going to be developed and hosted by IT Support, and is officially going to go live from the next academic year! I'm so excited - my piece of work being used by all. It's thrilling really. 

Okay so I guess that’s about it. Told you I didn’t have much of a social life.

In case you’re interested, my upcoming blog posts will most probably address the following topics:

1. Post-examination bliss

2. A GMAT Review – I have had a couple of people asking me to sum up my preparation, the resources I used, as well as any tips or tricks I may have.

Stay tuned!

Manhattan GMAT Practice CAT 1

I've been terribly ill since yesterday, having a horrible cough and full body cramps. It sucks. I spent almost the whole day yesterday in bed, hugging my hot water bottle for dear life.

This morning, I felt fresh after 12 hours of sleep, and sat down (with my hot water bottle!) to take another GMAT practice test. For those who don't remember, my last two tests scores were as follows:

GMATPrep 1 (before starting my prep): 600 (Q42,V27).

VeritasPrep Free Practice Test 1: 620 (Q45,V31).

And today, I took Manhattan GMAT Practice CAT 1: 690 (Q47,V37).

So although 690 is well below my target score, I was mighty pleased with my result. I was steadily improving, in fact, my verbal score has drastically improved in the last 2-3 months, and I'm thrilled about that. While not much should be made about scores from companies apart from GMAC, I'm going to take it as a sign that I'm definitely getting better and better, as I try to crack that 700-score barrier.

One thing I really like about Manhattan GMAT's practice test is the review they provide at the end of the test. From what I briefly saw for each question, they not only provide you with the question type, the topic focus, and the time taken to solve it, but also the difficulty level and the estimated percentage of students who have answered the question correctly. I think this is a great tool to gauge your level - all my mistakes were in questions with a difficulty level of 700 to 800, thereby showing just why I scored a 690.

Exactly 2 weeks left till the big day.

GMAT Update: I don't even know what week this is anymore

I haven’t been here in a while.

It’s ridiculous just how hectic my life is, just when I need as much free time as I can get for the GMAT. I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting Cologne, Siegen, and Switzerland, each time meeting up with high school friends whom I haven’t seen for at least three years. It was amazing to know that the distance didn’t change a thing – no awkward silences, no feelings of let-down, it was all just wonderful and ended far too quickly in my opinion.   

I was going to post last weekend, but then Liverpool lost to Tottenham in a 4-0 humiliation, and to make matters worse, Novak Djokovic suffered from a partial muscle rupture on his back, and had to retire from his match after writhing on the court in agony. Not a pretty sight. I then managed to break a wineglass in the kitchen, made a chicken curry without a key ingredient as I’d forgotten to buy it, and checked my email to find an unnecessarily  rude message from a Professor at University giving me stick about my late arrival. All this gave me a major headache and I just couldn’t do anything else really.

This is officially my last week in Berlin. Next week I’m off to Paris, and will spend the weekend there before heading home. Sadly, my European adventures have come to an end. But I’ve had a brilliant 13 months, almost irreplaceable really, and I know I’ve met some people and seen some places that I’ll never forget in the years to come.

How can I concentrate on the GMAT when my time in Europe is coming to an end? It’s awful to have such expectations really. But I do try. I have finished all my strategy books, and it’s all OG from now on – practice, practice, and more practice. My scores are alright in the practice problems (as expected, RC being my least scoring section of the test, and SC the highest), but when it comes to taking a full length test, I tend to rush through, subconsciously panicking about the thought that I wont finish the test in time. I therefore end up with some very foolish errors, errors I would have never made had I more time. And I do have more time – when I took a test last weekend, I finished the quant section with 20 minutes to spare, and the verbal section with 16 minutes to spare. That’s crazy; ideally I shouldn’t have more than five minutes left at the end of each section.

Dad’s coming to visit me this weekend (to take some of my luggage back more than anything else really, I really don’t know how I’ve managed to accumulate so many things over the past year), but I still hope to take another test. This time, I shall treat it as a sequence of practice problems so that I don’t panic. Fingers crossed my scores improve!

GMAT Update: Week 7: Very Unproductive!

So Novak Djokovic created history and became the only player to win five Masters Tournaments in a single season by winning in Montreal. I have absolutely no expectations from him now for this week’s tournament at Cincinnati. Hope he saves himself for the US Open that starts in a fortnight.

Liverpool drew with Sunderland. I am bummed – and that’s putting it mildly. The first half was so brilliant, and the second half so awful. It’s only been one game though, 37 more to go!

As far as the GMAT is concerned, i haven’t been able to do much this week. My mind has unfortunately been occupied by other stressful issues, and I’m sorry to say that I’ve therefore neglected the GMAT. I’ve finished part 1 of the book, which contains general strategies as well as an introduction to Data Sufficiency problems, and I’ve begun part 2, the advanced portion of the book. I’m finding it harder and harder as I progress, which makes sense as I’m now in the advanced bit. There are just so many numbers being thrown about that I find myself taking a deep breath, going back and reading the explanations again.

I should be done with this by the end of next week at the very latest; I’m spending a three-day weekend in Cologne with one of my high school friends. I’m so looking forward to it. But that obviously means I won’t have time to work on the GMAT. I’m considering packing the book though; perhaps I could read through at the airport?  

Rather short update this week unfortunately!

GMAT Update: Week 6 - MGMAT Number Properties

First of all, omigawd, I’m in week 6?! I opened my blog to see what week I was on, so that I would be able to title this post accordingly, and had a mini heart attack when I realized I was on week 6. Six weeks have passed since I began studying the GMAT. To put it another way, it took me six weeks to finish revising verbal strategies.

I immediately opened the calendar tool on my computer (and waited for an agonizingly long minute before it finally popped up, I seriously need a new laptop) and counted the number of weeks remaining until 14^th October – my big day. (No, I didn’t use my head to calculate the number of weeks; I physically counted them using the calendar. That’s what panic does to you.) I then breathed a sigh of relief; I still had nine weeks.  All was well again.

So anyway, to recap my sixth week of prep, I’m officially halfway through Manhattan GMAT’s Number Properties.  As an engineer (or should I say, as an engineering student), I have done math way more complicated that what is asked on the GMAT, and at this point I haven’t been seriously tested by any information. My PowerPoint on quant contains just three slides so far. And that’s including the title page.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the quant section is going to be a walkover for me. In fact, it’ll be hard for me to get above 45. Not because I don’t know math, but because what is tested is so basic that I don’t know it and don’t bother learning it. (Does that make sense or am I coming off as a douche?) What I’m trying to say is that, the math in the GMAT doesn’t test your ability to work out complicated equations; it tests your ability to analyze the problem and find a solution without too many calculations. There’s a reason why a calculator is not provided – it’s because you’re not meant to need one.

One thing I feel this book is lacking is a page of all important formulae; for example, a formula to find the area of a triangle that has three unequal sides. I studied this in eighth grade, but just can’t recall anything about such problems (and I don’t particularly want to buy a book on geometry to find out either). So if anyone knows of a website where such important must-know pieces of math knowledge can be found, please do share!

Plans for the weekend? Plenty of sporting action for me, with Novak Djokovic cruising in Montreal and the start of the EPL. But I’ll do my best to squeeze some work in, perhaps more practice problems. Really got to work on that reading comprehension. 

GMAT Update: Week 5 - Practice Problems

Finishing the verbal section was definitely the best thing about this week. I was getting so sick of the MGMAT SC book, and I’m glad that it’s finally done and dusted. The GMAT is far from over though; I started Number Properties, Manhattan GMAT’s first quant guide. It feels so good to finally be getting to the quant section!

I spent Saturday evening doing 20 problems each for SC and CR, and 15 problems of RC.

(Yes, this is how my weekends have become; no social life whatsoever. I’m hoping it’ll be worth it in two and a half months’ time. However, I’m totally taking a break and going out tomorrow to see some of Berlin’s lovely sights.)

On average, one is expected to spend roughly 1 min 45 seconds per question in the verbal section, in order to finish the test on time. My average time per question was as follows:

CR: 1 min 27 seconds

RC: 1 min 57 seconds

SC: 50 seconds!

Clearly I was finding RC a bit of a problem – and I knew this while tackling the problems. My mind would just drift, focusing on other aspects of my life, and it would take a lot of effort (and hence time) to bring the focus back. It doesn’t help that the passages are just so incredibly boring. It’ll definitely be something I will have to work on.

And as for the answers, I got three wrong for both CR and RC, but my SC was perfectly accurate!

GMAT Update: Week 3 - MGMAT Sentence Correction

I started off my third week of prep by practicing the aspects of verbal that I’d already learnt. I did around 10-15 questions for RC and CR. But I found it really hard to try and use the strategies I’d read – not because the strategies weren’t good, but because once I saw a question, I just couldn’t remember what I’d learnt about approaching such problems, and went back to my old way of answering questions.

I got most of my RC questions correct, the ones from the Veritas book. In fact, I think I only made one mistake. But with CR, I made quite a few. That was a huge setback for me, and I realized I needed to go over my notes again and again to get those strategies fixed in my head. I will now start going through my notes for both RC and CR once a week (maybe more often, if I find once a week is not working either).

I then began MGMAT’s Sentence Correction Guide. At this point, I’ve gotta say, I randomly flipped through the book and had a slight panic attack when I saw just how much information was included in the book. I took a deep breath, and started reading. After going through just the first page, I realized that this was a fantastic book, a SC bible really. Not only that, but I also think it’s an excellent grammar book, teaching you all the rules of standard written English, with correct and incorrect examples included for better understanding of the grammar concepts.

At the end of the week, I’ve managed to go through about half of the book. I’m not a native English speaker, but living abroad has definitely helped me with my English, so I feel I’m at an advantage compared to a lot of non-native speakers. I didn’t find the book to be very difficult, but it did have a lot of information. I made notes as I went along, for all the little bits I didn’t know. I already have more slides for SC than I do for RC or CR, and I’m only halfway through!

I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do next week, given that I’m finally moving to Berlin, and I haven’t even started packing. It’s gonna be a busy week for sure.

GMAT Update: Week 2 - Veritas Prep RC

My second week of prep started off quite slowly, I must admit. I think the thrill of completing quite a bit in my first week gave me the impression I can afford to slow it down, which caused me to take my prep a little more casually this week. However, I attribute it mostly to Wimbledon – if Djokovic hadn’t made it to the final I doubt I would have had such a lack of concentration!

Halfway through the week, I finished the CR Bible. I was thrilled about this; I’d go through all the worked problems as I read through the chapters, and I’d gotten around 95% of all problems correct. The flip side to this is that all those problems were quite easy, and were only included in the book in order to properly teach a certain concept/strategy.

I then took some time to create notes from the book; important points that I need to keep reminding me of. Such flashcards are available for download from the BTG website, but I felt I would benefit more if I actually wrote them myself. I used PowerPoint to make my notes, and color coded important words. I’m confident that this will make last minute revision a lot easier for me. Maybe it was a mistake to make notes at the end of the book, but I think this way I was able to identify what was important enough to be noted and what wasn’t. I probably would’ve written a lot more had I started my note making from the start.

The day I finished the book, I didn’t want to start RC, so I went to the BTG forum and answered around 8-10 problems in the CR section. I messed up the first couple of them, but got the rest correct, and took that as a good sign.

The next day I began Veritas Prep Reading Comprehension. My first impression was that the layout of the book was awful. The print was so tiny, and with me already having poor eyes, I was reading the book with my face literally just a hand span away.  The book however, does discuss strategies (even if for only around 55 pages), and contains tons of practice problems as well, so I do think it was a good buy. So far, at least. I was able to answer the first 8 questions all correctly, which is a big step for me considering how awful I am when it comes to RC.


I then managed to finish this book, in terms of reading their strategies. There's not much you can 'teach' on reading comprehension. I now have to tackle their remaining 86 questions, along with the ones in the OG Review and OG Verbal.

Next week’s target: to start sentence correction. 

Diagnostic Test Disaster

Everyone’s been saying I should take a practice test, just to gauge my level. To determine my strengths and weaknesses. To know what areas to work on in the coming weeks. So I went ahead and took a test this morning.

The result was disastrous. I scored a 600.

I read on the BTG forum numerous threads on people losing track of time and hence rushing in the last few minutes to get all their answers in. Hence I slightly panicked; every time I spent a little too long on a question, I would just give up and select an answer at random, thinking at least the next question would be easier. Looking back, that’s probably the worst approach, given that I finished each section about 20 minutes early, meaning that I finished my test almost 45 minutes before time!

I reviewed my answers just an hour ago, and I was shocked to see that only a few questions were answered wrongly due to a lack of knowledge. The rest of the questions were incorrect due to nothing more than pure carelessness.

The bright side? Well, I’ve not started any studying for the test yet, so things can only get better. Plus I have time on my side – the next three months to properly focus and give this a go. I’ve got the resources too, plenty of books that contain plenty of practice questions to keep me going. Additionally, knowing that negligence and inattention to key words is what separates me from a decent score is definitely encouraging.

Time to start learning then.

Cracking the GMAT

Saturday was a very important day for me.  I knew I’d taken a big step in my life. A step that is going either take me forward, or make me rue the day I made this decision.

I’d decided to pursue an MBA.

I didn’t make this decision on Saturday though; this was decided by my family ages ago. Probably when I was doing my O Levels. But unlike most stories you hear about families deciding their children’s futures, I’m not against it. (Well I’m not against the actual decision, is what I mean. I really should try and be clearer).  Not just that, but it’s a prospect that’s actually particularly appealing to me. I’ve always wanted to pursue management – why settle for an MSc when you can have an MBA?

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Before I can even dream of starting this new journey (in Harvard maybe? It could happen!) I have to face (and ace) the GMAT. And from past experience (SATs, what else?), I knew that this was not going to be easy.

The problem is, I’m hopeless when it comes to English. I can speak the language (good enough for people to make sense of what I’m saying anyway), but actual grammar is something I’ve never properly studied. I happened to look at a sample piece of Reading Comprehension (hereby RC) on www.beatthegmat.com (hereby BTG), and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I didn’t even get to the end; my brain just stopped understanding, and hence my mind just stopped reading.

Thankfully my math is a little bit better. Engineering probably helps there.

About six months ago though, I took a sample test from an unofficial site, since I was a newbie at this GMAT thing and knew nothing about BTG. I scored a 740. Ever since then, my target has been 750+. Guess I won’t know if that’s a reasonable target until I take a practice test from an official source.

So why was Saturday important? Well, it was the day my books arrived. My faithful companions for the next three and a half months, as I try my best to master the test (I rhymed! Too bad that isn't going to fetch me a 800). Ordering the books itself required a huge deal of mind work; after reading countless reviews by both students and experts, I finally own the following:

GMAT review:

The Official Guide for GMAT Review

GMAT quantitative (math):

GMAT Quantitative Review

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide: Number Properties

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide: Word Translations

GMAT verbal:

GMAT Verbal Review

Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible

Veritas Prep GMAT Reading Comprehension

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide: Sentence Correction

I’m going to take a lovely break and tour Europe for the next 15 days. But when I come back, that’s when it’ll all begin for me.

Wish me luck!