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Originally Posted by geetak Hi,
Whatz the correct way to start the GMAT preparation....i mean what to do.. u guys suggest to buy all the books(if so what kindaa n what r the best for preparation),browse n do the preparation on own..or thru the coaching institues?????????? |
It would depend on the time you have. if you are working, its tough to maintain a fixed schedule.
Here are some tips that might help you. ( based on minimum 2 month prep. schedule)
1. if you want a feel for the adaptive nature of the test, there are only two softwares that i know that allow you to do that. Powerprep and Arco. I know Arco does not have a good reputation, but no practice is good enough. A dilemma here is whether to take Powerprep first or study the OG first. Most of the OG questions are in the Powerprep software. But i would suggest studying the OG earlier on. this will get you a head start on how to tackle GMAT type problems. Take the Powerprep in the final week of your prep. that way, you can benefit from Powerprep because you might not remember all of the questions in the OG after two months
2. Try to find a study partner. it will keep you motivated and you can share your strategies and 'teach' each other.
3. Keep an Error log of your preparation. if you are prepping for two months or more, one tends to lose track of the problems that you got wrong or concepts that you only vaguely understand. I strongly suggest maintianing a log of your errors. everytime you make an error, write it down neatly in a book (your log). write down what you did wrong and what needed to be done. If its about a concept, write that concept down in your own words ( for eg, if you got a probability problem wrong, most probably you made an error in understanding a concept. find out more about it and explain it to yourself in that log). Everytime you begin your prep., first go over your log. you will see that you will feel more and more confident each day. Sure, you will get some other problems wrong. For every problem that you got wrong, you learnt something new.
Maintain this discipline and you should be ok. It sounds boring, but try it for a week or two and see if it works for you
The idea is if you keep repeating errors , the practise will not make too much of a difference. This log should help you improve.
4. Once you think you have covered all the material, start timing yourself in your practice. Set a goal of solving x questions in an hour and go for it. then go back and evaluate how you did. again, make a record of all your errors and keep going at it.
4.1 Start off by taking Kaplan tests. Kaplan tests are tougher than most of the other prep. companies. also, their scoring, as far as i know, is not adaptive. So, just use it for practice, and again keep updating your log. Most guys do not do well on Kaplan tests. I myself had very low scores on kaplan, but i did quite ok the actual GMAT. The idea of doing tough problems is that Knowledge is best retained when we struggle hard to learn it. Instead of solving 100 medium difficulty problems, try solving 20-25 tough problems. Sure, it will be depressing at first, but i am sure you will see the difference.
5. Final week
By this time, if you have maintianed and regularly updated your error log, you will truly appreciate your work. Study these errors in your final week and take the two Powerprep tests.
Some other tips: Probability and Statistics have become a regular topic on the GMAT. Just make an extra effort to study harder problems. No one can say whether you will get some on your GMAT, but its better to be prepared. If you aiming for 700 and more, you will need to do well in Quant.
For sentence correction, you should start with the basics of grammar and make notes for yourself.
For RC & CR, the only way out is practice. after solving enough problems , you should be able to formulate a strategy on how to solve those.
I hope this was helpful.
Sincerely
Aejaz
both for usage of english and for its *glorified* content 
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