Hi! I am back!!
My experience:
I was not very sure about whether to give the GMAT or not. So I thought that I should gauge my chances before letting go of $250 (this was a week and a half after I finished my undergrad education in May last week). So, I got OG and Kaplan 800. On the 3rd day of my prep I gave the two powerprep tests. When I got 750 and 730 in them, I thought why not? I booked the GMAT for the next week (as I had little time on hand since IIML session starts June 28th) and got down to work. Here’s my schedule.
My schedule:
Day 1-3:
Go through the fundamentals of SC and CR and then Kaplan 800 probs in these areas. The problems are pretty good and the solution given is in detail. So, even if you can’t learn to spot the right answer, you can still get to it by POE (process of elimination). The biggest thing I learnt is the POE. You should know not only why a particular choice is right but also why the rest are wrong.
Didn’t do the OG as it contains all the questions in the powerprep software and doing so would have skewed their results.
Gave Powerprep tests.
Day 4-6:
Booked GMAT (dates were luckily available!).
Finished Math from Kaplan 800. (Questions were quite easy compared to CAT questions)
Then did OG SC.
Day 7-9:
Completed OG CR.
Went through RC basics and did a few passages from Kaplan 800. They give you the idea of how the tough passages might be and why exactly they are tough. I found that I was particularly weak in “what can be inferred from the passage” type questions. So, went through all my mistakes and tried to analyze what I thought before marking the wrong answer.
VERY USEFUL TIP: Most of the times, such questions will have answer choices which deceptively present what is given in the passage. Such answer choices are usually wrong. The question asks you to infer – i.e., deduce a new conclusion from what is given in the passage, not what is already given in the passage. I was usually misled by such choices.
Day 10:
Went through the passages in OG.
Day 11:
Googled for tips on GMAT essay writing. Went through a few well written essays for both issue type and argument type. Saw on another forum that GMAT essays are not given much importance in admissions. They are usually used to judge whether somebody else has written your SOPs for you.
VERY USEFUL TIP: Do not bother going through all the 280 essays or even read the topics. Go through a few well-written essays and get to know the general format for writing such essays. They are surprisingly very similar to each other. Make a template that you feel does justice to most of the topics. Such a template is particularly useful for the argument questions. Also make a list of transition phrases so that you don’t have to grope around with ideas in your mind about how to put them across. Example – However, the author ignores the possibility of …, First of all …, Firstly-secondly-thirdly, In addition, the author also assumes that …etc.
Day 12:
Reached Ahmedabad. Went to the centre to get a feel of it. Went through the mistakes that I had committed while solving the OG and Kaplan questions. This time 3/4th of the questions I did were right. Went through the explanations of the remaining 1/4th. Went through the templates again. Crashed early.
Day 13:
0900 – 1300 hrs – GMAT.
Tips:
- The math section would be easy, but mistakes are easy to make. Most people might finish the math section within an hour. There is nothing that you can do with the time left. So why not use the entire time for the math section? Always double check the math answers and triple check the answers to first 5 questions. If you get even one wrong in these you will not be able to recover even if you get the rest of the questions right.
- Read the passages properly before going to the questions. You should understand the message that the author wants to convey. Of course you will have to come back to the relevant part to answer each question but it will increase your accuracy, which is of paramount importance especially in the initial questions. I have tried skimming and then coming back to read the relevant part but it always gave me the feeling that I had not understood something and that something was fishy. Reading the first question before reading the passage helps in answering the first question but most probably surely force you to read the passage again with a new perspective when you face the other questions. So, in my view, always read the passage carefully before answering the questions.
- Use the Princeton review steps for SCs. I got them for free after some googling. They are very useful and introduce you to the basic errors that usually occur in GMAT SC questions. Do the OG and go through the explanation of all the questions that you found tough to answer (questions where you thought 2 or more choices are likely to be correct) even though you got them right and questions that you got wrong. Read to understand not only why the given choice was right but also why the other choices were wrong.
- Form a mental equation for every CR question. Example: the author concludes X based on Y and Z. Imagine Y + Z => X. So, if you have to weaken the argument you can weaken either Y or Z or the connection between Y, Z and X. This will help you in not getting confused reading all the answer choices.
- While writing the essays make sure that you leave the last 2 minutes for going through the essays in order to correct any typos or grammatical mistakes.
- Get adequate sleep the day before and visit the test centre to know what is allowed inside and when to report the next day. The lady of prometric might tell you that you have to reach the centre one hour in advance but there is no need to go there so early and tense yourself up. That time is better spent in the bed. And the most important thing, don’t just tell yourself that you can do it, know that you can! (Courtesy: The Matrix movie. But is very important in this context since the mental energy you spend in thinking about whether you can do it can eat up into you prep time and energy big time)
BOL to all the junta ...
Vaibhav.
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