Hello everyone It’s odd that my first post here is infact my GMAT debrief. But who cares about conventions anyway, I have been mooching off this forum(this and others) for the past couple of months in my preparations and I honestly feel I owe…
Hello everyone
It's odd that my first post here is infact my GMAT debrief. But who cares about conventions anyway, I have been mooching off this forum(this and others) for the past couple of months in my preparations and I honestly feel I owe something back at the very least.
Alrite, getting to the point, I gave my GMAT last week.Overall: 760 (99%ile)
Quant: 50 (94%ile)
Verbal: 41 (92%ile)
AWA: 6.0 (87%ile)
Tests that I took(1st part is not in order, as it was too long ago(roughly 2months)):-
Power prep 1: 640 (49,28 ) ->The beginning of it all (2 or 3 months before the test)
Crack the gmat free diagnostic 640(58,16) (Don't Ask! Didn't quite comprehend the absurdity of the scores when I first received it as I had no point of reference)
Power prep 2: 720 (50, 37) (1 week after Powerprep 1. Worked only on SC during this period.)
Princeton review test1: 620 (don remember the break up, but I remember their algorithm was flawed. I think I got a 46 in quant for 2 mistakes!)
800 Score test 1: 730(51,37)
Cambridge Test series: 670-690 (Actually gave me a range!)
Actually remember giving lots more, can't seem to recollect. Will fill it in when I do.
Later tests, after registering for GMAT, 1 month to go(This are the real serious ones):-
Kaplan Test 1: 600(50,30) (1 month to go)
Powerprep 1(reinstalled): 750 (51,39)
Gmat Prep 1: 710 (50,35)
800 Score test2: 740(51,38 )
Manhattan Free Test: 650(48,33)
Gmat Prep1(reinstalled): 730(51,37)
Manhattan Test 1: 710 (50,36)
Manhattan Test 2: 710 (50,36)
Manhattan Test 3: 680 (51,33)
Gmat Prep2: 750 (51,40) (1 Week to go)
Manhattan Test 4: 740 (51,40) (3 days to go)
Manhattan Test 5: 740 (51,40) (2 days to go)
Significant milestones:-
I am not gonna mention much about Kaplan tests. Their level of questions are not really that tough (even though I didnt do well, thats not the point.) Do their tests only if you have the time. Their algorithm also seems to shave 10% of your score. Ie if your score should have been 770, you get 700 on Kaplan. If it was supposed to be 660, you get 600.
Nevertheless, the real milestone was GMATprep1. I was taking things too easy until then after giving the Power preps, cos though they(Ppreps) are GMAT questions, and used to be the real GMAT once upon a time, they are way simpler for some reason. On the Powerprep 1(reinstalled), I actually finished Quant in less than 50 minutes, and that too I was snacking and drinking(soft drinks---dont get ideas!) the whole time while I was giving the test. And I got every question(all 37) correct. Even the verbal I did not give very seriously, and ended with a decent score. This was a real false high. The next day when I took GMAT prep1(expecting more of the same), I came crashing back to earth. Though I may have gotten 50 on quant, dont let it mislead you. The level of quant on the GMAT prep was exponentially higher. I myself had doubts whether this was actually GMAT prep! Was GMAT math really this tough?
The truth is, it isnt. I was just done in by the surprise factor. Powerprep sticks to the GMAT formula of 13-14 DS, and rest being of the roblem solving variety. GMAT prep on the other hand seems to have no discernible pattern. On my first GMAT prep, I got 20 DS questions(no joke!). And DS does take significantly longer than problem solving. That threw my timing totally off. So be prepared.
The other milestone was the first Manhattan test. This test series is highly recommended on other forums, and no harm in trying the free one is there? Their quant made GMATprep look like Kindergarten stuff compared to their college level calculus. I fared miserably in my first Manhattan quant, as almost every question had me go Are you kidding me! when I saw it. I have a huge ego when it comes to math, and its not like these questions were unsolvable, it is just that the questions in Manhattan are not the 2 or 3 step problems you see in GMAT, but more like 10 step problems. And if you are doing well, you keep getting bombarded with more of them, with no respite. It was an eye opener! And their verbal was quite on par with the GMAT level, and I feel quite a reliable indicator(except for their RC, which goes way too much into specific details sometimes).
I promptly bought the entire Manhattan test series after that dismal performance and I would like to say it was a major influence on my performance, providing so many reliable tests during those last few days to track my progress. Their assessment reports are quite useful as well for those lazy enough to make tally tables and assess their weak areas. Very informative breakdowns and data analysis functions are available. And their scores are always oddly consistent.
Lessons learnt from Manhattan test series:-
How to do DS. This may seem elementary to those who did prepare diligently for quant, but my approach to DS until then had been one of brute force. I would solve the entire DS until I got the final answer(or not) to determine sufficiency of given info. Thanks to the Manhattan tests, I learnt to really determine sufficiency, and not the real answer, cos if you try to solve completely, you may as well kiss your chances of finishing your test goodbye. Secondly, it teaches you to gamble. Though this is not a great advice, it is important to know that not every problem may be that simple. There are always one or the other to which you may need to accept defeat in order to proceed. True you could solve it if you had 5 more mins. But that would mean less time to finish the test. All my Manhattan tests in which I got 51 in quant, I had at least 3-4 mistakes. I gave each of them a good 2 minutes of working over before giving up and ballparking a guess. None of them were unsolvable, but I had learnt to pick my battles.
The Manhattan tests helped me figure out that you don't need to maintain a perfect slate to crack a 51 in quant(I may be wrong about this considering my eventual score on the GMAT). This helped me in getting 51 in my subsequent GMAT prep attempts, as I did not have all 37 correct in either of those occasions(2 and 3 mistakes respectively, most of them avoidable silly ones!).
Important: GMAT prep does skew your scores a bit and makes you a tad overconfident. This may explain the recent spate of people who had a huge deviation in their actual GMAT as compared to their GMAT prep scores. The reason is that a large number of GMAT prep questions are found in OG. Luckily I hadn't started on OG math at that point(GMAT prep 2, 1 week to go), but a lot of the verbal questions appeared familiar(almost 7-10). This was not the case for the my earlier GMAT prep tests as I hadn't had studied the OG yet at that point. But this seriously put a scare in me, and I deliberately wasted 2 mins during the test doing nothing everytime such a familiar question(for which I already knew the answer) turned up. I was trying to simulate an actual scenario, where a real tough question may have turned up instead on the GMAT exam. This kinda backfired towards my score on that exam, as I was left with less than 10 mins for my last 7 questions. And I got 5 of my last 6 questions incorrect as a result(Considering I had only 5 errors in the first 35, I was definitely not thrilled at my deliberate time wasting tactic). But nevertheless, getting a 750 despite that helped me rest in peace that had they been real toughies on the actual GMAT, this may have been my score at the very least.
Gyaan to impart:-
- Write as many tests as possible. Spend at least as much time giving tests as you do studying for it. Its always good to know what progress you are making, and to mentally train yourself for the big day.
- Go through as many GMAT forums as you can. Just reading random discussions may help you pick certain nuances which may seem insignificant, but could be stuff all the best books may have forgotten to mention
- At the very least, read most of the debriefs. And not just the high scoring ones. Try to identify what works and what didnt for various people. If you know yourself, you may be able to identify what works best for you and save time. Else if you are like me and dont trust anyone, may as well try everything and decide for yourself what works. You still need to stalk the forums to get a list of everything. ;)
- After writing your GMAT, take some time off, party if you have to, but after the dust has settled, irrespective of your score, do give your debrief. The ones given by people so far helped me immensely, and is probably the only reason I am giving mine, despite being the epitome of laziness. I hope I can help this carry on and help others like me.
I have kept this post as a general summary on my practice tests, which I think were most important to my whole ordeal. I will write another one about my preparation approach and study material shortly. And after regaining my breath, maybe an exam day debrief is in order as well.
Hello everyone
It's odd that my first post here is infact my GMAT debrief. But who cares about conventions anyway, I have been mooching off this forum(this and others) for the past couple of months in my preparations and I honestly feel I owe something back at the very least.
Alrite, getting to the point, I gave my GMAT last week.
Overall: 760 (99%ile)
Quant: 50 (94%ile)
Verbal: 41 (92%ile)
AWA: 6.0 (87%ile)
Tests that I took(1st part is not in order, as it was too long ago(roughly 2months)):-
Power prep 1: 640 (49,28 ) ->The beginning of it all (2 or 3 months before the test)
Crack the gmat free diagnostic 640(58,16) (Don't Ask! Didn't quite comprehend the absurdity of the scores when I first received it as I had no point of reference)
Power prep 2: 720 (50, 37) (1 week after Powerprep 1. Worked only on SC during this period.)
Princeton review test1: 620 (don remember the break up, but I remember their algorithm was flawed. I think I got a 46 in quant for 2 mistakes!)
800 Score test 1: 730(51,37)
Cambridge Test series: 670-690 (Actually gave me a range!)
Actually remember giving lots more, can't seem to recollect. Will fill it in when I do.
Later tests, after registering for GMAT, 1 month to go(This are the real serious ones):-
Kaplan Test 1: 600(50,30) (1 month to go)
Powerprep 1(reinstalled): 750 (51,39)
Gmat Prep 1: 710 (50,35)
800 Score test2: 740(51,38 )
Manhattan Free Test: 650(48,33)
Gmat Prep1(reinstalled): 730(51,37)
Manhattan Test 1: 710 (50,36)
Manhattan Test 2: 710 (50,36)
Manhattan Test 3: 680 (51,33)
Gmat Prep2: 750 (51,40) (1 Week to go)
Manhattan Test 4: 740 (51,40) (3 days to go)
Manhattan Test 5: 740 (51,40) (2 days to go)
Significant milestones:-
I am not gonna mention much about Kaplan tests. Their level of questions are not really that tough (even though I didnt do well, thats not the point.) Do their tests only if you have the time. Their algorithm also seems to shave 10% of your score. Ie if your score should have been 770, you get 700 on Kaplan. If it was supposed to be 660, you get 600.
Nevertheless, the real milestone was GMATprep1. I was taking things too easy until then after giving the Power preps, cos though they(Ppreps) are GMAT questions, and used to be the real GMAT once upon a time, they are way simpler for some reason. On the Powerprep 1(reinstalled), I actually finished Quant in less than 50 minutes, and that too I was snacking and drinking(soft drinks---dont get ideas!) the whole time while I was giving the test. And I got every question(all 37) correct. Even the verbal I did not give very seriously, and ended with a decent score. This was a real false high. The next day when I took GMAT prep1(expecting more of the same), I came crashing back to earth. Though I may have gotten 50 on quant, dont let it mislead you. The level of quant on the GMAT prep was exponentially higher. I myself had doubts whether this was actually GMAT prep! Was GMAT math really this tough?
The truth is, it isnt. I was just done in by the surprise factor. Powerprep sticks to the GMAT formula of 13-14 DS, and rest being of the roblem solving variety. GMAT prep on the other hand seems to have no discernible pattern. On my first GMAT prep, I got 20 DS questions(no joke!). And DS does take significantly longer than problem solving. That threw my timing totally off. So be prepared.
The other milestone was the first Manhattan test. This test series is highly recommended on other forums, and no harm in trying the free one is there? Their quant made GMATprep look like Kindergarten stuff compared to their college level calculus. I fared miserably in my first Manhattan quant, as almost every question had me go Are you kidding me! when I saw it. I have a huge ego when it comes to math, and its not like these questions were unsolvable, it is just that the questions in Manhattan are not the 2 or 3 step problems you see in GMAT, but more like 10 step problems. And if you are doing well, you keep getting bombarded with more of them, with no respite. It was an eye opener! And their verbal was quite on par with the GMAT level, and I feel quite a reliable indicator(except for their RC, which goes way too much into specific details sometimes).
I promptly bought the entire Manhattan test series after that dismal performance and I would like to say it was a major influence on my performance, providing so many reliable tests during those last few days to track my progress. Their assessment reports are quite useful as well for those lazy enough to make tally tables and assess their weak areas. Very informative breakdowns and data analysis functions are available. And their scores are always oddly consistent.
Lessons learnt from Manhattan test series:-
How to do DS. This may seem elementary to those who did prepare diligently for quant, but my approach to DS until then had been one of brute force. I would solve the entire DS until I got the final answer(or not) to determine sufficiency of given info. Thanks to the Manhattan tests, I learnt to really determine sufficiency, and not the real answer, cos if you try to solve completely, you may as well kiss your chances of finishing your test goodbye. Secondly, it teaches you to gamble. Though this is not a great advice, it is important to know that not every problem may be that simple. There are always one or the other to which you may need to accept defeat in order to proceed. True you could solve it if you had 5 more mins. But that would mean less time to finish the test. All my Manhattan tests in which I got 51 in quant, I had at least 3-4 mistakes. I gave each of them a good 2 minutes of working over before giving up and ballparking a guess. None of them were unsolvable, but I had learnt to pick my battles.
The Manhattan tests helped me figure out that you don't need to maintain a perfect slate to crack a 51 in quant(I may be wrong about this considering my eventual score on the GMAT). This helped me in getting 51 in my subsequent GMAT prep attempts, as I did not have all 37 correct in either of those occasions(2 and 3 mistakes respectively, most of them avoidable silly ones!).
Important: GMAT prep does skew your scores a bit and makes you a tad overconfident. This may explain the recent spate of people who had a huge deviation in their actual GMAT as compared to their GMAT prep scores. The reason is that a large number of GMAT prep questions are found in OG. Luckily I hadn't started on OG math at that point(GMAT prep 2, 1 week to go), but a lot of the verbal questions appeared familiar(almost 7-10). This was not the case for the my earlier GMAT prep tests as I hadn't had studied the OG yet at that point. But this seriously put a scare in me, and I deliberately wasted 2 mins during the test doing nothing everytime such a familiar question(for which I already knew the answer) turned up. I was trying to simulate an actual scenario, where a real tough question may have turned up instead on the GMAT exam. This kinda backfired towards my score on that exam, as I was left with less than 10 mins for my last 7 questions. And I got 5 of my last 6 questions incorrect as a result(Considering I had only 5 errors in the first 35, I was definitely not thrilled at my deliberate time wasting tactic). But nevertheless, getting a 750 despite that helped me rest in peace that had they been real toughies on the actual GMAT, this may have been my score at the very least.
Gyaan to impart:-I have kept this post as a general summary on my practice tests, which I think were most important to my whole ordeal. I will write another one about my preparation approach and study material shortly. And after regaining my breath, maybe an exam day debrief is in order as well.
- Write as many tests as possible. Spend at least as much time giving tests as you do studying for it. Its always good to know what progress you are making, and to mentally train yourself for the big day.
- Go through as many GMAT forums as you can. Just reading random discussions may help you pick certain nuances which may seem insignificant, but could be stuff all the best books may have forgotten to mention
- At the very least, read most of the debriefs. And not just the high scoring ones. Try to identify what works and what didnt for various people. If you know yourself, you may be able to identify what works best for you and save time. Else if you are like me and dont trust anyone, may as well try everything and decide for yourself what works. You still need to stalk the forums to get a list of everything. ;)
- After writing your GMAT, take some time off, party if you have to, but after the dust has settled, irrespective of your score, do give your debrief. The ones given by people so far helped me immensely, and is probably the only reason I am giving mine, despite being the epitome of laziness. I hope I can help this carry on and help others like me.
Hi :1eye:
First of al congrats fr cracknig the GMAT.:clap:
I was gonig through ur way of prep, im even aiming fr GMAT in somewhere may'08. can you suggest me to how to get started fr the prep of GMAT. Rite nw im workng fr an MNC ad with trhe hectic schedules:banghead: its tough to keep pace with studies. so can u sugest me something??
Cheers :cheers:
richidiva
Hi :1eye:
First of al congrats fr cracknig the GMAT.:clap:
I was gonig through ur way of prep, im even aiming fr GMAT in somewhere may'08. can you suggest me to how to get started fr the prep of GMAT. Rite nw im workng fr an MNC ad with trhe hectic schedules:banghead: its tough to keep pace with studies. so can u sugest me something??
Cheers :cheers:
richidiva
Hi "richidiva"
You have caught me at an awkward time as I haven't quite completed writing my promised post on my GMAT preparation yet. Give me another one hour or so to work at it, and hopefully it should be up by then for your(as well as everybody else's) benefit.
All the best
Preparation approach
Materials referred : Way too many. I don't even wanna list all of them for fear of giving people a stroke just by reading the list.Typical Indian student mentality of not wanting to inadvertently miss out on something.
But let me cut the crap and give you the truth. All you need is OG. You will not need anything more as part of your theoretical preparation. Things will be much clearer with regards to your preparations once you realize this simple truth. But again, you need to realize it for yourself, my word will not do. I too read numerous debriefs about various people advocating the same. But I always believed(and you should too actually), that what worked for them, need not work for me.
Nevertheless, 2 weeks from the exam, I finally did attain moksha when I realized that everything else is just additional. Its not crap, but it does not add much incremental value to OG, instead, it probably takes away the additional time you may have spent practicing OG. (I did regret this. Believe it or not, I did not get to complete OG for anything other than maths. I hardly did more than 10-20 RCs!!! More on that later).
My preparation approach may have been slightly different(again, what worked for me need not work universally). I started off with a Powerprep test(Powerprep1 listed), just to gauge where I stood. This was before any preparation whatsoever. I had never seen a GMAT question before, nor did I know of the format. All I had done was go through the sample questions given in the software to get a feel of what it was really about(That did familiarize me a little regarding the format then). Thats all. No basics, no theory, no practice, right into the test. Though I am no expert, I would suggest this as a must do. Its not really about the score(my score was nothing to scream about), but at least it gives a very unbiased report of your weakness. Do prepare a statistical chart of your performance on this test to know your weak areas that you may need to work on. (I did later go on to find diagnostic tests offered by other companies like Kaplan etc, but nothing beats Power Prep as these were actual GMAT questions once upon a time! Also, I do not believe performance on the Kaplan to be truly reflective).
After that point, I would say it was more of giving more tests, while taking a little time on brushing up on theory for me. I did not prepare anything for quant(My math was always strong, though rusty, as it hasnt been used for almost 7 years now), except for the last 2 days when I finished OG, that too just for the mental satisfaction of not leaving it undone. I worked heavily on SC(my weakness as per that first Powerprep performance) and CR(though apparently I did well on the first test, my performance was never consistent).
The real studying started only after I registered for my GMAT appointment(for Sep 27, I had one month left when I booked my appointment). Until then for a month or more, I was only scrounging through various forums like this one, reading one debrief after another to know what worked and did not work, and noting down all lessons learnt. There was light studying going on meanwhile(I read through Princeton review, an enjoyable read, I would recommend it, but was never that serious then, so not sure whether there was any real benefit). Same goes with the other material I used during that period. The only constant was giving tests(once a week), and noting down additional things to work on. Strategy was to work on one aspect for a week, then give a test to see if there was an improvement in that area with all other factors remaining constant. Needless to say, without a certain level of seriousness, this effort is quite futile, but nevertheless, the constant test taking makes you immune to the intense effort that is the 3 and a half hours of sitting through the GMAT.
Individual guides recommended:-
Sentence Correction: Manhattan SC guide. No doubt about it. Been endorsed by one and all for good reason. Didnt quite realize its effectiveness till 1 month before the exam. Importantly, it contains OG problems listed section by section for each type of SC error, and it really helps doing them in that order. Your mind becomes trained to identify those common errors.
The key to sentence correction: realizing what is tested is how well you can identify GMAT SC errors, and not your command of english grammar. I don't really believe my english is that bad. True it isn't great, but it isn't pathetic either. But then again, what you need to realise is that what GMAT tests is something totally different. Understand this key, and you will start loving this section.
Critical Reasoning: Manhattan CR and RC guide. This advice is a wee bit misleading, as this book contains no effective techniques really, but just the sectional organization of problems to be practised from OG gives it my vote. It gives you the individual rules first, for each argument type, followed by list of problems in OG to be practiced. Just complete this in said order, and you are as good as gold.
I would like at add an extra note here though, in case there are others like me out there, who werent blessed with a photographic memory and are generally pathetic at memorizing stuff. I admit I am terrible at remembering things without reason. If it had to be done, I always got around by doing something cheeky as making up mnemonics or something. But all the CR rules for each CR argument type was a bit too much, and with no adequate explanations given in any of the books I used, I had almost given up(This was the reason for my sketchy performance in CRs throughout, I never had them figured out).
This was until I stumbled onto the Powerscore CR bible(recommended on another forum). Anyway, this may not exactly be a very good GMAT specific material, but this totally saved my day, as what it contained were logical reasons behind all those rules. It essentially taught me the psychology behind those CR questions, and after understanding that, CRs were a breeze.
To illustrate the effect:-
Lets say you have x+7=0.
This means that x=-7, correct?
But why? Its cos you are taught that if you bring something to the other side of the '=' sign, you need to change the signs. Now this is kind of my weakness. I can never really memorise rules like this without knowing why. All books on CRs usually only teach you the rule that if you bring something to the other side, you change signs.
Now lets say someone told you that for the same equation, you can subtract both sides by 7(since 7=7, or -7 = -7). So you have x+7-7=-7, or x = -7(since 7-7=0)
Once someone explains it this way, it's clear. I now know the why and dont need to memorize any of the so-called rules which I can trust my memory to conveniently forget during crunch time. This is what the CR bible helped me in. It taught me the why. Agreed my analogy is terrible, but I hope you can see what I was driving at.
Reading Comprehension: I will go out on a limb here and guess that the Manhattan CR and RC guide would be enough. This was one area I really did not concentrate on due to time constraints(I wasnt that great at this either). But this was a calculated risk. I just spent my last day(or last nite before the exam rather) practicing the last 20 odd questions from OG. That was all, but even that was good to give a confidence boost.
Quantitative section: I am probably the worst person to give any advice regarding this. But even despite my huge ego regarding math, I still did OG's quantitative section in its entirety(even if that was 1 day before the exam). So do this at the very least!
AWA: It's not a myth, it is true. You dont need to write a great literary piece to get a 6. All that matters is coherence and structure. Content is a negligible part of the whole equation.
Winning formula: 5 paragraphs.
1 of which is Introduction,
1 of which is Conclusion,
and 3 distinct paragraphs to drive your point(s) through.
This itself should assure you a 5. Add an example to each of your 3 paragraphs in the main body, and you most likely have a 6. Try it for yourself if you dont believe me!
Lessons learnt(overall):-
I had heard great things about Kaplan 800 and how it is crucial to get from 700 to 750+ etc. I did buy this book, but I did not find their selection of problems very relevant, neither do I think it helped me in any way. I dont think I did more than 25% of this book either. But then again, its quite likely I missed something the others saw. In my opinion, this can easily be skipped. It wont hinder you from crossing that 750 barrier as is usually purported.
There is nothing wrong with any of the GMAT preparation books individually published by a never ending list of companies. All of them earnestly try to teach you various tricks, approaches and strategies. The only bad book I came across was Barons. What were they thinking, really?
Honestly, OG alone can help you get upto 800, provided you have that aptitude of course(It is not a miracle worker). You really dont need anything else. Just practice, some determination, and of course confidence.
Materials referred : Way too many. I don't even wanna list all of them for fear of giving people a stroke just by reading the list.Typical Indian student mentality of not wanting to inadvertently miss out on something.
But let me cut the crap and give you the truth. All you need is OG. You will not need anything more as part of your theoretical preparation. Things will be much clearer with regards to your preparations once you realize this simple truth. But again, you need to realize it for yourself, my word will not do. I too read numerous debriefs about various people advocating the same. But I always believed(and you should too actually), that what worked for them, need not work for me.
Nevertheless, 2 weeks from the exam, I finally did attain moksha when I realized that everything else is just additional. Its not crap, but it does not add much incremental value to OG, instead, it probably takes away the additional time you may have spent practicing OG. (I did regret this. Believe it or not, I did not get to complete OG for anything other than maths. I hardly did more than 10-20 RCs!!! More on that later).
My preparation approach may have been slightly different(again, what worked for me need not work universally). I started off with a Powerprep test(Powerprep1 listed), just to gauge where I stood. This was before any preparation whatsoever. I had never seen a GMAT question before, nor did I know of the format. All I had done was go through the sample questions given in the software to get a feel of what it was really about(That did familiarize me a little regarding the format then). Thats all. No basics, no theory, no practice, right into the test. Though I am no expert, I would suggest this as a must do. Its not really about the score(my score was nothing to scream about), but at least it gives a very unbiased report of your weakness. Do prepare a statistical chart of your performance on this test to know your weak areas that you may need to work on. (I did later go on to find diagnostic tests offered by other companies like Kaplan etc, but nothing beats Power Prep as these were actual GMAT questions once upon a time! Also, I do not believe performance on the Kaplan to be truly reflective).
After that point, I would say it was more of giving more tests, while taking a little time on brushing up on theory for me. I did not prepare anything for quant(My math was always strong, though rusty, as it hasnt been used for almost 7 years now), except for the last 2 days when I finished OG, that too just for the mental satisfaction of not leaving it undone. I worked heavily on SC(my weakness as per that first Powerprep performance) and CR(though apparently I did well on the first test, my performance was never consistent).
The real studying started only after I registered for my GMAT appointment(for Sep 27, I had one month left when I booked my appointment). Until then for a month or more, I was only scrounging through various forums like this one, reading one debrief after another to know what worked and did not work, and noting down all lessons learnt. There was light studying going on meanwhile(I read through Princeton review, an enjoyable read, I would recommend it, but was never that serious then, so not sure whether there was any real benefit). Same goes with the other material I used during that period. The only constant was giving tests(once a week), and noting down additional things to work on. Strategy was to work on one aspect for a week, then give a test to see if there was an improvement in that area with all other factors remaining constant. Needless to say, without a certain level of seriousness, this effort is quite futile, but nevertheless, the constant test taking makes you immune to the intense effort that is the 3 and a half hours of sitting through the GMAT.
Individual guides recommended:-
Sentence Correction: Manhattan SC guide. No doubt about it. Been endorsed by one and all for good reason. Didnt quite realize its effectiveness till 1 month before the exam. Importantly, it contains OG problems listed section by section for each type of SC error, and it really helps doing them in that order. Your mind becomes trained to identify those common errors.
The key to sentence correction: realizing what is tested is how well you can identify GMAT SC errors, and not your command of english grammar. I don't really believe my english is that bad. True it isn't great, but it isn't pathetic either. But then again, what you need to realise is that what GMAT tests is something totally different. Understand this key, and you will start loving this section.
Critical Reasoning: Manhattan CR and RC guide. This advice is a wee bit misleading, as this book contains no effective techniques really, but just the sectional organization of problems to be practised from OG gives it my vote. It gives you the individual rules first, for each argument type, followed by list of problems in OG to be practiced. Just complete this in said order, and you are as good as gold.
I would like at add an extra note here though, in case there are others like me out there, who werent blessed with a photographic memory and are generally pathetic at memorizing stuff. I admit I am terrible at remembering things without reason. If it had to be done, I always got around by doing something cheeky as making up mnemonics or something. But all the CR rules for each CR argument type was a bit too much, and with no adequate explanations given in any of the books I used, I had almost given up(This was the reason for my sketchy performance in CRs throughout, I never had them figured out).
This was until I stumbled onto the Powerscore CR bible(recommended on another forum). Anyway, this may not exactly be a very good GMAT specific material, but this totally saved my day, as what it contained were logical reasons behind all those rules. It essentially taught me the psychology behind those CR questions, and after understanding that, CRs were a breeze.
To illustrate the effect:-
Lets say you have x+7=0.
This means that x=-7, correct?
But why? Its cos you are taught that if you bring something to the other side of the '=' sign, you need to change the signs. Now this is kind of my weakness. I can never really memorise rules like this without knowing why. All books on CRs usually only teach you the rule that if you bring something to the other side, you change signs.
Now lets say someone told you that for the same equation, you can subtract both sides by 7(since 7=7, or -7 = -7). So you have x+7-7=-7, or x = -7(since 7-7=0)
Once someone explains it this way, it's clear. I now know the why and dont need to memorize any of the so-called rules which I can trust my memory to conveniently forget during crunch time. This is what the CR bible helped me in. It taught me the why. Agreed my analogy is terrible, but I hope you can see what I was driving at.
Reading Comprehension: I will go out on a limb here and guess that the Manhattan CR and RC guide would be enough. This was one area I really did not concentrate on due to time constraints(I wasnt that great at this either). But this was a calculated risk. I just spent my last day(or last nite before the exam rather) practicing the last 20 odd questions from OG. That was all, but even that was good to give a confidence boost.
Quantitative section: I am probably the worst person to give any advice regarding this. But even despite my huge ego regarding math, I still did OG's quantitative section in its entirety(even if that was 1 day before the exam). So do this at the very least!
AWA: It's not a myth, it is true. You dont need to write a great literary piece to get a 6. All that matters is coherence and structure. Content is a negligible part of the whole equation.
Winning formula: 5 paragraphs.
1 of which is Introduction,
1 of which is Conclusion,
and 3 distinct paragraphs to drive your point(s) through.
This itself should assure you a 5. Add an example to each of your 3 paragraphs in the main body, and you most likely have a 6. Try it for yourself if you dont believe me!
Lessons learnt(overall):-
- Don't overlook RC. Just practice OG completely, should be enough.
- However good you are in Math, at least complete OG.
- OGblah..blah..
- OGblah..blah..
- In short, just complete OG end to end at least once, its all you need.
I had heard great things about Kaplan 800 and how it is crucial to get from 700 to 750+ etc. I did buy this book, but I did not find their selection of problems very relevant, neither do I think it helped me in any way. I dont think I did more than 25% of this book either. But then again, its quite likely I missed something the others saw. In my opinion, this can easily be skipped. It wont hinder you from crossing that 750 barrier as is usually purported.
There is nothing wrong with any of the GMAT preparation books individually published by a never ending list of companies. All of them earnestly try to teach you various tricks, approaches and strategies. The only bad book I came across was Barons. What were they thinking, really?
Honestly, OG alone can help you get upto 800, provided you have that aptitude of course(It is not a miracle worker). You really dont need anything else. Just practice, some determination, and of course confidence.
Preparation approach
Materials referred : Way too many. I don't even wanna list all of them for fear of giving people a stroke just by reading the list.Typical Indian student mentality of not wanting to inadvertently miss out on something.
But let me cut the crap and give you the truth. All you need is OG. You will not need anything more as part of your theoretical preparation. Things will be much clearer with regards to your preparations once you realize this simple truth. But again, you need to realize it for yourself, my word will not do. I too read numerous debriefs about various people advocating the same. But I always believed(and you should too actually), that what worked for them, need not work for me.
Nevertheless, 2 weeks from the exam, I finally did attain moksha when I realized that everything else is just additional. Its not crap, but it does not add much incremental value to OG, instead, it probably takes away the additional time you may have spent practicing OG. (I did regret this. Believe it or not, I did not get to complete OG for anything other than maths. I hardly did more than 10-20 RCs!!! More on that later).
My preparation approach may have been slightly different(again, what worked for me need not work universally). I started off with a Powerprep test(Powerprep1 listed), just to gauge where I stood. This was before any preparation whatsoever. I had never seen a GMAT question before, nor did I know of the format. All I had done was go through the sample questions given in the software to get a feel of what it was really about(That did familiarize me a little regarding the format then). Thats all. No basics, no theory, no practice, right into the test. Though I am no expert, I would suggest this as a must do. Its not really about the score(my score was nothing to scream about), but at least it gives a very unbiased report of your weakness. Do prepare a statistical chart of your performance on this test to know your weak areas that you may need to work on. (I did later go on to find diagnostic tests offered by other companies like Kaplan etc, but nothing beats Power Prep as these were actual GMAT questions once upon a time! Also, I do not believe performance on the Kaplan to be truly reflective).
After that point, I would say it was more of giving more tests, while taking a little time on brushing up on theory for me. I did not prepare anything for quant(My math was always strong, though rusty, as it hasnt been used for almost 7 years now), except for the last 2 days when I finished OG, that too just for the mental satisfaction of not leaving it undone. I worked heavily on SC(my weakness as per that first Powerprep performance) and CR(though apparently I did well on the first test, my performance was never consistent).
The real studying started only after I registered for my GMAT appointment(for Sep 27, I had one month left when I booked my appointment). Until then for a month or more, I was only scrounging through various forums like this one, reading one debrief after another to know what worked and did not work, and noting down all lessons learnt. There was light studying going on meanwhile(I read through Princeton review, an enjoyable read, I would recommend it, but was never that serious then, so not sure whether there was any real benefit). Same goes with the other material I used during that period. The only constant was giving tests(once a week), and noting down additional things to work on. Strategy was to work on one aspect for a week, then give a test to see if there was an improvement in that area with all other factors remaining constant. Needless to say, without a certain level of seriousness, this effort is quite futile, but nevertheless, the constant test taking makes you immune to the intense effort that is the 3 and a half hours of sitting through the GMAT.
Individual guides recommended:-
Sentence Correction: Manhattan SC guide. No doubt about it. Been endorsed by one and all for good reason. Didnt quite realize its effectiveness till 1 month before the exam. Importantly, it contains OG problems listed section by section for each type of SC error, and it really helps doing them in that order. Your mind becomes trained to identify those common errors.
The key to sentence correction: realizing what is tested is how well you can identify GMAT SC errors, and not your command of english grammar. I don't really believe my english is that bad. True it isn't great, but it isn't pathetic either. But then again, what you need to realise is that what GMAT tests is something totally different. Understand this key, and you will start loving this section.
Critical Reasoning: Manhattan CR and RC guide. This advice is a wee bit misleading, as this book contains no effective techniques really, but just the sectional organization of problems to be practised from OG gives it my vote. It gives you the individual rules first, for each argument type, followed by list of problems in OG to be practiced. Just complete this in said order, and you are as good as gold.
I would like at add an extra note here though, in case there are others like me out there, who werent blessed with a photographic memory and are generally pathetic at memorizing stuff. I admit I am terrible at remembering things without reason. If it had to be done, I always got around by doing something cheeky as making up mnemonics or something. But all the CR rules for each CR argument type was a bit too much, and with no adequate explanations given in any of the books I used, I had almost given up(This was the reason for my sketchy performance in CRs throughout, I never had them figured out).
This was until I stumbled onto the Powerscore CR bible(recommended on another forum). Anyway, this may not exactly be a very good GMAT specific material, but this totally saved my day, as what it contained were logical reasons behind all those rules. It essentially taught me the psychology behind those CR questions, and after understanding that, CRs were a breeze.
To illustrate the effect:-
Lets say you have x+7=0.
This means that x=-7, correct?
But why? Its cos you are taught that if you bring something to the other side of the '=' sign, you need to change the signs. Now this is kind of my weakness. I can never really memorise rules like this without knowing why. All books on CRs usually only teach you the rule that if you bring something to the other side, you change signs.
Now lets say someone told you that for the same equation, you can subtract both sides by 7(since 7=7, or -7 = -7). So you have x+7-7=-7, or x = -7(since 7-7=0)
Once someone explains it this way, it's clear. I now know the why and dont need to memorize any of the so-called rules which I can trust my memory to conveniently forget during crunch time. This is what the CR bible helped me in. It taught me the why. Agreed my analogy is terrible, but I hope you can see what I was driving at.
Reading Comprehension: I will go out on a limb here and guess that the Manhattan CR and RC guide would be enough. This was one area I really did not concentrate on due to time constraints(I wasnt that great at this either). But this was a calculated risk. I just spent my last day(or last nite before the exam rather) practicing the last 20 odd questions from OG. That was all, but even that was good to give a confidence boost.
Quantitative section: I am probably the worst person to give any advice regarding this. But even despite my huge ego regarding math, I still did OG's quantitative section in its entirety(even if that was 1 day before the exam). So do this at the very least!
AWA: It's not a myth, it is true. You dont need to write a great literary piece to get a 6. All that matters is coherence and structure. Content is a negligible part of the whole equation.
Winning formula: 5 paragraphs.
1 of which is Introduction,
1 of which is Conclusion,
and 3 distinct paragraphs to drive your point(s) through.
This itself should assure you a 5. Add an example to each of your 3 paragraphs in the main body, and you most likely have a 6. Try it for yourself if you dont believe me!
Lessons learnt(overall):-I had heard great things about Kaplan 800 and how it is crucial to get from 700 to 750+ etc. I did buy this book, but I did not find their selection of problems very relevant, neither do I think it helped me in any way. I dont think I did more than 25% of this book either. But then again, its quite likely I missed something the others saw. In my opinion, this can easily be skipped. It wont hinder you from crossing that 750 barrier as is usually purported.
- Don't overlook RC. Just practice OG completely, should be enough.
- However good you are in Math, at least complete OG.
- OGblah..blah..
- OGblah..blah..
- In short, just complete OG end to end at least once, its all you need.
There is nothing wrong with any of the GMAT preparation books individually published by a never ending list of companies. All of them earnestly try to teach you various tricks, approaches and strategies. The only bad book I came across was Barons. What were they thinking, really?
Honestly, OG alone can help you get upto 800, provided you have that aptitude of course(It is not a miracle worker). You really dont need anything else. Just practice, some determination, and of course confidence.
Hi,
Sory tht i caught u then in an awkward situation, bt i went through ur post quite convincing bt i wud suggest you to give us all a list of all the books u refered with some rating of urs probly so tht we all can refer to the books more appropriately......
Stiilllll thanks for the info sharing ........
Cheers :cheers:
richidiva
Hi,
Sory tht i caught u then in an awkward situation, bt i went through ur post quite convincing bt i wud suggest you to give us all a list of all the books u refered with some rating of urs probly so tht we all can refer to the books more appropriately......
Stiilllll thanks for the info sharing ........
Cheers :cheers:
richidiva
Hi "richidiva"
I think you probably missed the intent of my post there. I have advocated not depending on books entirely, based on my experience. As such, given the feedback I have given earlier, I would be the worst person to be suggesting books for GMAT preparation.
Again, it is only my opinion. Do not take this as a gospel that books are not needed for GMAT preparations. Different approaches work for different people. I personally never quite finished any GMAT book that I touched, so am not in any position to give any sort of objective review of a material which I did not finish in its entirety. Nevertheless, there are numerous posters out here who have used books and done splendidly on the GMAT. They all seem to have their own personal favorites based on personal experience, and I am sure they would be happy to give you their lists with their individual ratings if asked.
I'm sorry I couldn't be of any help there, but if anyone has any non-book rating related questions, I'll try my best to help out.
Hi "richidiva"
I think you probably missed the intent of my post there. I have advocated not depending on books entirely, based on my experience. As such, given the feedback I have given earlier, I would be the worst person to be suggesting books for GMAT preparation.
Again, it is only my opinion. Do not take this as a gospel that books are not needed for GMAT preparations. Different approaches work for different people. I personally never quite finished any GMAT book that I touched, so am not in any position to give any sort of objective review of a material which I did not finish in its entirety. Nevertheless, there are numerous posters out here who have used books and done splendidly on the GMAT. They all seem to have their own personal favorites based on personal experience, and I am sure they would be happy to give you their lists with their individual ratings if asked.
I'm sorry I couldn't be of any help there, but if anyone has any non-book rating related questions, I'll try my best to help out.
Hi,
I didn't meant to offend you and i had the basic intention of urs for this post bt still its nice to see some1 sharing his experience and his meathodolgy of studiing.... even if u don't advocate the books u can tell every1 the name of the books u never finished(joking:poketoungeb:).
u can have a list of books and the people can look into then if they wish too....
That was my opinion. rest on u.
Stiil thanks fr the info
Cheers:cheers:
richidiva