[Psychodementia]

EDIT: This thread was primarily started to jot down my random ramblings on the GMAT. Since then I have already taken the test and am on the way apping to Bschools.

Pages 1 - 5 : Talk about my GMAT preping experience

Pages 6/7 : Talk about my GMAT experience

Page 7 onwards : Talk about my apping

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The deed is done. After deliberating for more than 2 months now, I have just registered for the GMAT on 22nd of Novemeber from 5pm to 9pm at the Prometric Testing Center at Lavelle Road, Bangalore.

I wish to use this thread primarily as a means to track my own progress by giving a day by day description of my prepration, strategies used and as always ruminations on sundry stuff.

Some questions that struck me (and Im sure will occur to you too):

(1) Why not blog ?

Heck, I have never blogged in my life. The only thing I can do competently (or so I think) and with relative ease is post on PG. Anyways I would not want to do anything with the blog after the G-day on 22nd Novemeber.

(2) Am I looking for inputs ?

Yes, if its not of the kinds "Hey Arun, good work !! All the best !!". I need your good wishes but I don't want to waste any more server space.
But please do let me know your thoughts on all things that are being written on this thread. One of the primary reasons is also use this as a sounding board and bounce ideas off people.

(3) Will this be a "How to crack GMAT compendium" ?

Far from it. It could be "Everything you didn't want to do on the GMAT but ended up doing". I could fall flat on my face and get a 500 !! In that case it could probably serve as a lesson on what *not* to do on the GMAT. Either ways, treat this as a disclaimer. None of the techniques that I use on myself is assured to work.


I am raring to go with my posts on this thread !!

Arun

PS: I hope the moderators do not take offence to starting this thread for a purely selfish purpose

[pankaj1211]

Hi,

i am pankaj i am also appearing for GMAT may be early november though i have yet not registered for the same.

which all books ru studying for gmat.

if u have softcopy of verbal workout by princeton plz mail it to me at pankaj1211@gmail.com or post it here.


regards
Pankaj

Originally Posted by Psychodementia

The deed is done. After deliberating for more than 2 months now, I have just registered for the GMAT on 22nd of Novemeber from 5pm to 9pm at the Prometric Testing Center at Lavelle Road, Bangalore.

I wish to use this thread primarily as a means to track my own progress by giving a day by day description of my prepration, strategies used and as always ruminations on sundry stuff.

Some questions that struck me (and Im sure will occur to you too):

(1) Why not blog ?

Heck, I have never blogged in my life. The only thing I can do competently (or so I think) and with relative ease is post on PG. Anyways I would not want to do anything with the blog after the G-day on 22nd Novemeber.

(2) Am I looking for inputs ?

Yes, if its not of the kinds "Hey Arun, good work !! All the best !!". I need your good wishes but I don't want to waste any more server space.
But please do let me know your thoughts on all things that are being written on this thread. One of the primary reasons is also use this as a sounding board and bounce ideas off people.

(3) Will this be a "How to crack GMAT compendium" ?

Far from it. It could be "Everything you didn't want to do on the GMAT but ended up doing". I could fall flat on my face and get a 500 !! In that case it could probably serve as a lesson on what *not* to do on the GMAT. Either ways, treat this as a disclaimer. None of the techniques that I use on myself is assured to work.


I am raring to go with my posts on this thread !!

Arun

PS: I hope the moderators do not take offence to starting this thread for a purely selfish purpose

[Catalytic]

great initiative psychoD .. hope u will be able to update this thread regularly (a la indian beatthegmat )
i will also try to chip in on what not to do during ur GMAT studies

for starters all those who plan to start,have started their prep go thru the following post.. i dont recommend the method followed by the poster but the sheer number of links to resources present in the post fulfills practically all ur prep needs.

http://ashishb.blogsome.com/2005/06/...r-beginners-2/

btw this post was picked up by me from another blog who had picked up from some forum .. (p.s advt of my blog not intended )

[Wannabe-MBA]

Originally Posted by Psychodementia

The deed is done. After deliberating for more than 2 months now, I have just registered for the GMAT on 22nd of Novemeber from 5pm to 9pm at the Prometric Testing Center at Lavelle Road, Bangalore.

I wish to use this thread primarily as a means to track my own progress by giving a day by day description of my prepration, strategies used and as always ruminations on sundry stuff.

Some questions that struck me (and Im sure will occur to you too):

(1) Why not blog ?

Heck, I have never blogged in my life. The only thing I can do competently (or so I think) and with relative ease is post on PG. Anyways I would not want to do anything with the blog after the G-day on 22nd Novemeber.

(2) Am I looking for inputs ?

Yes, if its not of the kinds "Hey Arun, good work !! All the best !!". I need your good wishes but I don't want to waste any more server space.
But please do let me know your thoughts on all things that are being written on this thread. One of the primary reasons is also use this as a sounding board and bounce ideas off people.

(3) Will this be a "How to crack GMAT compendium" ?

Far from it. It could be "Everything you didn't want to do on the GMAT but ended up doing". I could fall flat on my face and get a 500 !! In that case it could probably serve as a lesson on what *not* to do on the GMAT. Either ways, treat this as a disclaimer. None of the techniques that I use on myself is assured to work.


I am raring to go with my posts on this thread !!

Arun

PS: I hope the moderators do not take offence to starting this thread for a purely selfish purpose

Hey even im taking up GMAT on 22nd Nov 5pm. To be frank .... i still have NOT started with the preperation. gave a mock Gmat and my score was bad enough to quit. But jus trying to push my luck ... gimme more inputs on hows ur studies going on?

[SNAX]

Originally Posted by Wannabe-MBA

Hey even im taking up GMAT on 22nd Nov 5pm. To be frank .... i still have NOT started with the preperation. gave a mock Gmat and my score was bad enough to quit. But jus trying to push my luck ... gimme more inputs on hows ur studies going on?

Sheesh, some ppl seem to have lotsa $$ to blow :tellme:

For others, all the best! Note that with $250, you get to give GMAT (and get a score of course), and send score to 5 schools. So if you have done your homework, you will save lotsa $$ (by not having to send the scores again because you changed your mind on those schools)

[de1palli]

hey,

thats gr8 work... infact i am giving my gmat on 19th oct a bit early..
thats very good effort to keep posted..abt ur experiences...
well , as catalytic said
the best blog abt gmat i came across
is beatthegamt.com
its awesome compilation of ERIC
all the best

[nucliomaniac]

hi pyschodementia, cool thread.

do post links to any online resources which you may find useful . and we will also try to do the same .

taking the test on the 26th of october in kolkata , a litle after de1palli.

best of luck to all you guys ,

with best regards,

yash

[Psychodementia]

This is amazing - I took the diagnostic GMAT today and ended up with the *exact* scores I got almost 2years ago INCLUDING same split on the individual sections. This was powerprep test 1.

The Verbal 31 really rocked me off my halycon boat. Drastic scores require drastic steps and Im working towards a plan for tackling this. In Quant, I just think I need to be more careful with silly mistakes and circumspect with regards to Data Sufficiency. A 50 is easily achievable if I practice well over the next 2months.

I had gone to Chennai the previous day and slept for about 6hours the day before. After a hectic day in the sultry weather I had less than 5hours of sleep last night in the train. I wanted to really test my concentration power. Remarkably the neighbourhood Ganesh celebration association somehow caught a whiff of my GMAT plans and they had all the latest Kannada hits blaring on the speakers in no time. Splendid, there could not have been a greater test of my concentration. Things got so bad in verbal that I actually got up 3 times to wash my eyes, 4 times to drink water and stretch myself and 2 times to light up a cigarrette. Infact I remembered the Tom & Jerry cartoon where Tom actually puts match sticks between his eyelids to keep it from shutting. No other visual imagery could have describe my state better.

[Psychodementia]

I just did the analysis and came up with some figures:

In Quant, out of the 7 questions I got wrong, 4 were absolute silly mistakes. Either I didnot read the problem question properly or I just clicked on the wrong answer. Horrendous to say the least.

In Verbal, the story is more dismal than I had hoped for. Sentence Correction my accuracy is around the 50% mark, which means out of every 2 questions I attempted 1 was turning out to be wrong.

Another gory fact: 5 of the first 10questions in Verbal was wrong.

I am still reviewing my mistakes. But it seems now I have to divert my focus onto Sentence Correction. Am planning to start with Sumeet Thakur's Verbal Notes (compiled from the resources on the net), OG, PR and Kaplan Verbal Workbook (which Sumeet Seth will hopefully bring in tommorow's Blore GMAT meet)

I am uploading 3 files:

(1) A test tracker excel file that I have created. I hope my future employers do not manage to see this. It is terrible coming from someone with a Masters degree in Computers. Hope to refurbish the file over the next 2 months.

(2) Also attached another Excel file I found on the net (www.gmatclub.com). I have not reviewed it but any opinion has to be viewed in the light of bias and prejudice

(3) A word document that contains the questions that I *geniunely* got wrong in Quant. I mean these are the 3 questions that I was outfoxed in.


Arun

[Catalytic]

Aahh. DS.. worse than SC coz there is no excuse for getting them wrong... SAw the questions.. apart from the first one which still stumped me (involves lot of calculations and plugging) rest 2 are classic GMAT traps that u will learn with passage of time..

I suggest u use brute force against DS. First pick up OG and solve all DS question in sets of atleast 50 . after 5 days u will all (nearly) the traps and tricks of DS .. After u have finished OG give urself a break of 10 days from DS. Then pick up either KAPLAN 800 or Kaplan Higher score CD and give sectional Tests. During these tests u will realise which traps u are able to remember .. This way by the end of 20 days of ur prep u will finish ur Quant and after that just concentrate on Verbal..

P.s when trying to solve DS try plugging in values -2,-1,-0.5,0,0.5,1,2 .. they help a lot in solving the ques faster