I am back...

Hello Readers,

First and foremost, let me apologize for neither posting nor answering to your queries for such a long time. I have my reasons for doing so. First, I was not preparing consistently, owing to work and other personal pressure, and second, I was really adamant not to post unless I studied with all vigor. If I happened to post when I was not preparing with such seriousness, it would falsely satisfy my sub-conscience.

However, I took the GMAT and literally screwed it up. I would not like to discuss this any further. I am still contemplating on why everything went wrong, but in vain. Im clueless till this moment. Given that I am person who does not rest till I succeed in anything I undertake, I am determined to beat the GMAT. Right now, I am giving it a break, while having applied for one college, in India.

I will be giving GMAT after a month or two. Meanwhile, I will be regularly updating on my progress in preparation as well as on my B-school research.

Festival of Lights, MasterGMAT etc..

Long time again since I gave an update. I have been constantly preparing though. I am at my home town for a week now, for celebrating the 'Festival of Lights'. Meanwhile I happened to take the free 7-day trial of MasterGMAT course which boasts of a 120 point improvement. And blimey! This course has the power to do it. I had not taken any courses before this for the GMAT, but this course impressed me so much that I am thinking of taking the complete course. 

I have been going through the course every now and then. The best part is their flexibility and the thorough explanations provided for every bit of lesson they teach or problem they give to test our knowledge. I definitely love their course. As of now, my prep status goes like this.

I have also been working on questions from Magoosh GMAT, and I can say for sure I am improving.

Quantum CAT - Number properties

Aristotle SC - Finished the basic grammar stuff (Part 1 of the guide) : People say it is a guide to be completed before doing MGMAT's SC, and let's see. 

Re-reading the PowerPrep CR Bible.

I am reading the book 'Rich Dad Poor Dad', and so far it is just awesome. I ll update more in the days to come.

Featured on Accepted.com

Sarah from accepted.com contacted me about a month ago, and I had an interview with her. The questions were good, and they reflected the analysis of your profile and your ideas about application to b-schools. I liked the way the questions were sequenced. You can see it published here .

Since I have not started vigorously applying for b-schools till date, I found it to be a starter to analyze my profile and my ideas about applying to b-school. Do read the interview script at the above link, and share your comments.

Practice session 1

A weekend is gone and there has been some progress. The saturday was fun filled given that we celebrated the Sports Day at our organization. It was fun @ the YMCA grounds for a whole day. I returned home late that evening all tired from the fun that day!

Sunday was a good day and I could do actually do some studying, practise, and also relax. I solved a few questions from the '1012 GMAT' book, from The Princeton Review. In my opinion these are of 600-700 level, and found them doable. I was browsing through gmatclub forums and I happened to read through a few strategies that took test takers from 650 to 700+ with disciplined practice. I promised to myself, I will stick to my schedule.

I happened to come across the link to BTG's practice questions. I've always wished that these practice questions were available at a discounted price and I was happy that this time I happened to see them on discount. I quickly got one of the packs and started taking tests. I should say, it is worth it. The environment and explanations given are crisp and clear and gives you the advantage of comparing yourself with the average scores of other Magoosh test takers.

I have taken like 6 to 7 tests on Magoosh now, and I am happy to say I am improving. I felt the need for revising the basics of SC and CR from the MGMAT SC and CR Bible respectively. I realize I need to work a lot on my quant score, I should increase it by atleast 5 to 6 points. I am looking forward to preparing for CAT (Indian Entrance Test for entry into the prestigious IIMs), which is way tougher than GMAT Quant. This will automatically improve my GMAT Quant scores.

Gearing up for GMAT #2

It has been a long time since I actively posted here. Variety of reasons behind. Office, personal life, projects have taken a large part of my everyday life, giving me little time to think about GMAT. I even considered dropping the idea of a second GMAT attempt for a while. Now I am back on track, and you will regularly see updates and progress.

I took quite sometime analyzing my mistakes during the last GMAT preparation time, and the problems with my approach. I happened to read through BTG and gmatclub posts on retaking GMAT, and several other posts which gave me an idea of how to proceed from this point. I am considering changing the pattern of studying this time.

From now on, I will post some questions on my blog, so that we also have a chance to discuss on the questions, and come up with more concrete reasoning for the solution behind. I will also post my progress on a daily basis as usual.

For a push today, let me tell you what I have been doing over the last weekend regarding GMAT. Not much, but I took a few practice tests that were available on free on gmatclub.com. I should say, my brains were beginning to get rusty about GMAT. For quant, I have been looking at several questions on gmatclub forums, and answering them with the timer 'on'. It worked out quite well.

I am determined to spend extra time on my weak areas:

• Data Sufficiency
• Reading Comprehension

I am currently signed up for the basic free packages available on BTG and gmatclub. If you have any other suggestions, do let me know. My access to GMATPrepNow has now expired. It was one awesome source to quickly learn a lot of concepts which haunted me for a long time.

And additionally, I have the GMAT ToolKit and MGMAT FlashCards on my iPod, which help me from getting bored while travelling. I have also added a few vocabulary apps as well including a couple of classic novels of my choice.

Here are a few questions for discussion:
http://gmatbytes.blogspot.com/2011/10/presidential-campaign-sc.html
http://gmatbytes.blogspot.com/2011/10/problem-on-mixtures.html

I will post questions like the above in my second blog, so that this one does not get cramped with lot of details.

The G-Day

Moderate preparation levels; moderate practice levels - and here I am giving a debrief of GMAT #1.

Preparation :

I booked my exam for August 23, 2011, giving a complete 3 months for preparation. And I felt confident about my plan in mind. Until the big health blow and project deadlines in office broke my regular study hours. To see my progress levels, you can take a look at this blog.

Getting a good 41 days of preparation did not really get me reach my target. There was a good level of break here and there in between my prep schedule which ultimately lead me to think that I will not be able to score as much as I targeted. In course of my preparation, I realized, I was always scoring well in SC, as compared to other sections. Math is never my cup of tea, and this was something that hit me hard on my score. I would not say my verbal was too good, but at least I found it better than my Math score.

As with everyone else, RC is the weakest area, where I could not find much room for improvement, even after trying out different strategies. How much every modes I try for RC, during the test, all that stays in my mind is that I quickly finish off that particular RC quickly and move on. It came to me as a big blow on my G-Day.

Though my target score is very high, I consistently scored between 600 and 660 in all my practice tests. It was already a disappointment for me, as it is said, whatever you score in your practice tests is close to what you will score on test day. And something kept telling me, that I will score 650.

The Day:

My exam was scheduled at 10:00 am in the morning at a center just 11 km away from my house. So I decided I will start 2 hours early keeping in mind the traffic constraints. I started at 8:10 am hoping to reach at least half an hour before the scheduled test time. And to my disappointment, the traffic blocked me from all sides. Whichever different route I took, it was full of vehicles blocking the road. The biggest mistake I did was to drive my bike that day to the test. I reached the exam center sharp at 9:57 am, having informed the test center of my situation. I finally reached the center totally exhausted. And to my disappointment, the lift was nowhere close to stopping, when I reached the building.

The center was in the 6th floor and to add to all the traffic tragedy, I had to walk up all 6 floors by stairs. By the time I reached the 6th floor, my knees went shaky. I spoke to the center official, and I drank some water, and got ready for the test in the next 5-7 minutes. Given all the confusion, my mind was totally blocked, and was not functioning as much as it did during the practice tests. With just a few points to highlight my point of view on the issue and argument, I took a quick break of 5 minutes, had some fruits, and had water and started off with the Math section.

Math seemed good initially, but slowly the tiredness started creeping in. Towards the middle of the Math section, I was totally blank, and could do nothing but skip questions to compensate for the time loss. And so many DS questions at a stretch took a toll on my concentration levels. I have a mindset that I am weak in DS, and this added to the bad moments.  I was sure that my score was going down towards the end of the Math section

The break after the Math section, boosted me up at little, and verbal started off well. Though I took my chances on 1 or two questions, here and there, I was not completely off at any point of time. And I was sure that my score was not going to touch my target score.

And after scrolling through the pages after the test, I got my score.

A 650 with Q-44, and V-35 --- A mind game.. That’s what I thought, and that’s what I got.

Obviously not satisfied with my score. I have scheduled my GMAT #2 for October 31, 2011. Hope things work well this time. I am meanwhile taking a short break off preparation, reading through articles ob BTG, gmatClub forums. Any tips/suggestions to boost my score in my upcoming GMAT is welcome!

The Week before GMAT

Oh, and it was one hell of a week for me @ work. With project deadlines fast approaching, and the Independence Day celebrations @ office, and managing the events associated with it, I had almost forgotten that my GMAT was also fast approaching. I had little time to do my last minute prep for GMAT.

What I could do, was just wake up a little early and take a test in the morning, though I had very less time to analyze them. Actually speaking, my first practice test score was 660 as I mentioned in the last post, and apparently that was the highest score I got in all practice tests. And I realize that is purely because, I was not taking tension when I took that test.

Further on, I was too tensed just trying to make sure all through the test that I got a question right and that boosted my score. Apparently I ended screwing every test, scoring continuously like 600, 620, 630, 640 etc. My highest score had been 660 as I already mentioned.

And again, getting hardly 3 hours a day to take the test, I could not spend much time analyzing. So this is how my last week went. With so much to take at a time!

Day 41 - MGMAT SC

To all Indians out there, Wishing you a very happy Independence Day :)

Today, my plans were a little screwed up by the end of the day. I started with reading a chapter on CR from Kaplan 800, only to realize I got 3 of 7 questions wrong in them.

Quickly deciding on the agenda for the rest of the day, I decided to take a full length test, followed by analysis. But it so happened that my friend had come and I was unable to take the test.

I put off the idea of a test, now that the time is past evening, and most of my energy drained out. I took MGMAT SC, and reread the chapters that I had already covered, followed by Chapters on Modifiers, Verb tense, mood and voice, Comparisons, Idioms, and Odd and Ends.

Each of these chapters was equally interesting, the only point is to do a thorough practice before I could take another test. Loved reading through them. I did them pretty quick considering shortage of time, grabbing just the main points. Idioms was a huge chapter to read through, so I skipped here and there covering areas which I thought I was weak at.

There are advanced chapters still left, which I am planning to cover tomorrow.

Material Covered:
MGMAT SC - Pages 81 to 203.
Kaplan 800 - Chapter on CR

Days 39, 40 - OG CR, MGMAT CAT#1

Its August and it is countdown time. I have exactly 9 days left for my GMAT. It is definitely frightening to think I cannot take out much time from my work, to prepare for GMAT. I am trying my best to find time and do some practice tests. Apparently I succeeded in taking the first effective practice test today.

I completed the OG 12th edition CR practice questions yesterday. And I should say the last 20 questions made me lose my confidence for the exam. Following this I have 3 continuous days off from work, thanks to Independence Day (Monday).

I woke up today morning, quickly went through the strategies I formulated for CR and RC, and Geometry type questions. I worked on a Diagnostic Math test from my MGMAT account today morning. I am attaching the score sheet of the diagnostic math test below.

I registered online my MGMAT SC book today morning, and was quite determined to give a full length test from MGMAT. And yes, my first test score goes as follows:

I am not even close to satisfied with my score, but it is good for a start. The last full length test which I attempted when I was ill, really scared me. But today's test has taken me out of that fear, and I hope to get better with more practice tests.

Material Covered:
MGMAT Math Diagnostic Test
MGMAT CAT #1
OG 12th Edition - Pages 494 to 524

Day 38 - Critical Reasoning

Hi Reader,

It has been a long break since my last update. My break was not because I wanted a break, but because office kept me so busy to turn to GMAT. Day and night with office work! Hectic hours! Unfortunately, this is the plight till the end of August, and I have my exam scheduled on the 23rd. I will try my best to squeeze some time out of this touch schedule and work for GMAT as well.

Updates are quite meagre for a full week. I tried CR questions from Official Guide 12th Edition. Otherwise I have been discussing with friends about applications and essays. Right now, given my busy schedule, my only target is to take as many tests as possible and complete OG.

Material Covered:
Official Guide, 12th edition - Pages 482 to 493

Day 37 - Data Sufficiency

The last two days were pretty packed, with hectic office hours followed by an hour of preparation. And this time, the weekend in also packed with project-specific training sessions. I completed questions 51 to 100 during the last two days, with not so much concentration. I just managed to finish them with just 80 to 85% accuracy.

Planning to take up a practice test over the weekend or by Tuesday, given that my parents will be visiting me.

Material Covered:
Official Guide - 12th Edition -Pages 277 to 281

Day 36 - Data sufficiency

Andddd finally… I tried conquering my fear about DS type questions. Not bad! Pretty decent drills and found it pretty interesting as well. Understanding how these questions actually are. Tried the DS questions (50 numbers) from OG 12. I could solve more than 45 correctly. And I guess I did not take more than 1.5 minutes for me to solve per question. But I have no idea where I will stand if I come across really challenging questions. 

And, its 3 am in the morning as I type this. Its kinda interesting to sit here and wonder about the rains outside and solve DS questions in parallel. Its nice that the rains know when to shower! :) They have so far not disappointed me in the morning when I goto office. While coming back it is always fun to get wet in the rains!

Material covered: 

Official Guide-  12th Edition- Pages 267-276 (50 questions)

Days 30 -35 - OG Problem Solving

Given that I have exactly a month left for my big day, I opened my OG, and started working on the quantitative section. It instilled more confidence in me, though towards the end I got worried. A few questions were familiar but I could not reach the exact idea within a period of 1 minute and 30 seconds. I guess I need more and more practice now.

The easiest for me was Arithmetic, wherein I could play all the tactics I learnt for my CAT exams (Indian MBA Entrance exam). Geometry was good as well, thanks to GMAT Prep Now. My biggest problem was with Coordinate Geometry, followed by Set Theory. But its all because of the lack of touch with those topics. High time I went through these topics. Questions from these topics took more than 2 minutes, and the questions from the other familiar topics took less than 2 minutes.

It had been a happening week @ office, with celebrations and event organization and work together. I had lots of fun and lots of interaction after quite a long time.

Material covered:
Official Guide 12th Edition - Pages 144-264

Day 29 - Cause and effect Reasoning, Strengthen/assumption type - CR

I quickly went through the details about Cause and Effect relationship type questions and Strengthen/Assumption type questions from Powerscore CR bible. It gives clear ideas to eliminate wrong answers, as well as clear ideas to pick the right one. 

I am planning to make a note of the tips in my handbook for easy reference. These are details which we will be able to remember only with repeated practice. And to make effective use of these tips, I am planning to practice atlas 10 questions every day, before I wind up my preparation for the day.

Material Covered:

Powerscore CR bible: Chapter 7 (Cause and Effect Reasoning), Chapter 8 (Strengthen/Assumption questions) - Pages 133 to190

Day 28 - 'Main Point' & 'Weaken' type CR questions

Hi reader,

I quickly finished two chapters from the Powerscore CR bible today. Pretty interesting chapters, but I guess just one chapter is possible in a day. By the time I completed, Weaken type questions chapter, I was exhausted. It was too much that I got confused. Not to forget the long pressing day at office today.

Today was a terrible day with a lot of complexities totally unwanted. My health is meanwhile getting better. Thanks to my manager for letting me work from home for a couple of days!

This strikes a cord. Soon I will post something on my views on 'Smart Working' and its pros and cons. Pretty interesting and debatable topic between different levels of employees at a company.

Material covered:
Powerscore CR bible - Pages 100 to 132 ('Main point' and 'Weaken' type questions)

Day 27 - 'Must be true' type questions in CR

Yesterday, I finished the 'Must be true' question type in detail from Powerscore CR bible. At this point, I should say something about the PowerScore CR bible. This book is intended to understand the roots of a question type, and to attack the question with information about where exactly the question-makers would have tricked the GMATter.

If you are looking for methodical formulae to attack the CR questions, then this is the book for you. I understood that this book makes a big difference to your CR strategy, provided you are able to use the strategies given appropriately.

Material Covered:
PowerScore CR bible - Pages 73 to 100.

Day 26 - Probability and Statistics Modules

In the last post, I forgot to mention the sole companion during my illness. Yes! 'The Economist' was the sole companion for me throughout the days I was ill. I was unable to watch any videos or use the laptop, nor was I able to read solid tips for GMAT. So, I started spending my time reading this magazine throughout the day but for the time I slept. I cannot deny from saying that this is such a wonderful magazine. Apart from improving your knowledge on the subject, it really helps a GMATter. If you read through an article, and look for the gist of it, you will know what I am talking about.

And today, I did two modules from GMATPrepNow.

Statistics Module

    Mean, median and mode

    Range

    Weighted averages

    Standard deviation

Probability Module

    Finding probabilities by counting

    Complements

    “At least” & “at most” questions

    “Or” probabilities

    “And” probabilities

    Mutually exclusive events

    Independent events

Awesome videos, short and crisp! Enjoyed the modules.

Material Covered:

GMATPrepNow - Statistics and Probability modules

Day 25 - Critical Reasoning question types + Math Counting Module

It was a period of sickness over the last few days, with a high fever, cold and cough eating away all my energy. This kept me in rest all day long. I finally tried to gather some energy and put it to use for my preparation. I still lack the energy to roam around and do normal activities.

I did Chapter 3 of CR bible, which segregates the different types of CR questions into 3 categories. This categorization is pretty interesting. Overall, there are question types like

Prove

1. Main point
2. Must be true
3. MEthod of reasoning
4. Flaw of reasoning
5. Parallel Reasoning

Help

1. Strengthen/support
2. Resolve the paradox

Hurt

1. Weaken

The description they tried to give was simply amazing. This book gets more interesting as I turn more pages.

After this, I headed on to finish the 'Counting' Math module from GMATPrepNow. Needless to say, these people have done an amazing job. WIth simple 3 to 8 minute videos, the tutor has tried to make an everlasting difference in the minds of the student. This module covered the following topics.

1. Fundamental COunting Principle
2. Factorial Notation
3. Handling restrictions
4. 'Atleast' and 'Atmost' questions
5. The MISSISSIPPI rule
6. Combination questions
7. Permutation type questions

This left me partly satisfied after a week long ill-health.

And I gave a full test in the midst of all illness, and the score turned out to be real pathetic. That was a mood spoiler for me, but it has also risen the spirits in me to work harder.

Material Covered:
Powerscore CR Bible - Pages 47 to 72.
GmatPrepNow - Counting module

Day 24 - Pronoun Strategy for SC

Short and quick update.
Completed Chapter 5 - Pronouns from MGMAT SC. Awesome chapter. Systematically deals with pronoun errors. Enlightened me! Refer to this link for some tips on pronouns.

I m loving this guide. In short, the best guide to SC. Keep practicing, or you will lose what you've learnt.

Reading magazines as and when I find time. These days, interests lie in planning some exciting events for the team and the organization. Its tough and adventurous - life, studies, office…

Material Covered:
MGMAT SC - Pages 65 to 79.

Day 23 - Subject Verb Agreement and Parallelism concepts - MGMAT

Sentence correction - quiet but complex. At the outset, it seems like something manageable, but as you start solving more and more questions, you realize how much you need to know in order to crack this part of GMAT.

Thanks to MGMAT SC and Kaplan's Premier!

The above books are doing a great deal in helping me clarify the concepts. Here and there when I get stuck, the explanations that these books provide, are just to the point and it clears your doubts instantly. I finished the chapters on 'Subject-Verb agreement strategy' and 'parallelism' concepts in MGMAT SC. The practice question set is really good, I must say. Though just 15 in number, it does a great deal in practicing all the concepts that was learnt.

I have also been reading the magazine 'The Economist'. It is a must read for those who are not naive at topics related to economics. And for the rest, it will be a comfortable and good read to cover all that has happened throughout the week.

I am parallely working on questions in OG, considering that I have just a month left for GMAT..

Material completed:
MGMAT SC - Pages 33 to 63.

Day 22 - GMATPrepNow Geometry

Wow is the feeling I have right now..

I used GmatPrepNow videos to do the Geometry module for GMAT. And this is the first time I used them to completely understand a module, and I felt so relieved I didn't have to spend long time for learning this module. Amazingly short and crisp lessons, easy to understand, and clearly dealt with concepts, in short length videos.

The division into small topics of maximum 8 minutes only, gives the feeling that it is not too much to take at a time, and it still gives the necessary details required for GMAT. I enjoyed learning all the lessons, and going through the sample questions. It is definitey fun learning from videos than going through the books.

:)

Topics covered:

• Lines and angles
• Isosceles and equilateral triangles
• Right triangles
• Special triangles
  (30-60-90 & 45-45-90)
• Similar triangles
• Quadrilaterals

• Circles: area & circumference
• Circles: sectors & arcs
• Circles: inscribed angles
• Circles: tangent lines
• Circles: inscribed angles
• 3-dimensional objects

Material covered:
GMATPrepNow Geometry Videos complete + Practice questions

Day 21 - Sentence Correction (MGMAT)

Though I did the studying two days ago, it took me so long to find time to update it here. I worked on chapter 2 in MGMAT SC which meant a lot to approaching SC questions in GMAT. Their short and crisp ideas gives a clear idea about what to look for in a SC question. Look for errors in the following areas in that order.

1. Grammar
2. Meaning
•     Choose your words
•     Place your words
•     Match your words
3. Concision
•     Avoid redundancy

Apparently this is what most of the reading from various websites suggests, but for MGMAT, this is a kickstart, to the more complex aspects to look for in SC.

And I am happy to say, with yesterday, I completed three complete years of my work life, and in Logica. As I step into this new year of work life, I believe there are plenty of challenges waiting for me, to learn, and focus on.

I just received the first issue of 'The Economist' at my desk yesterday. An amazing resource for both general reading, and from GMAT context.

Material covered:
MGMAT SC - Pages 19 to 29.

Day 20 - Quant (Kaplan) and MGMAT Sentence Correction

Though I have not been so regular, I have been trying to tone up my skills to my level best. Over the last few days, I have been trying to read through plenty of websites, particularly, Economist and NewYorker magazine online. I subscribed to 'The Economist' as well, constantly reading through the articles there. I have started liking those articles and the way they are being presented to the reader. New Yorker, is another exciting magazine. The first attraction for me about New Yorker is their look and feel. It is just awesome and makes me read more articles every time I hit the website. 

I read through the following topics in Kaplan Premier 2011 guide.

1. Overlapping Sets
2. Combinations and Permutations
3. Probability
4. Ratios
5. Percents
6. Powers and Roots

Following this, I read through the first chapter of MGMAT's Sentence Correction guide. The way they take the flow is just awesome. It just increases my interest to learn more from the book. 

Material Covered:

Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 - Pages 251to 281

MGMAT Sentence Correction - Pages 13 to 17

Updates on ISB..

The Admission season has begun already for ISB, this year. As part of this, ISB is conducting information sessions at various locations in India and some other parts of the world. I am sure atleast 40% of us, preparing for GMAT would be applying for ISB. And for Indians, it would probably be the first target.

For those of you, who do not have a clue about ISB, here is your treasure.
For all the applicants out there, logon to www.isb.edu and navigate to Admission Events

Any Chennai-ites out there planning for a session? If yes, leave a comment, so we can actually meet up..! I am planning to attend the session in the month of August, 2011. As for ISB, a new campus is coming up at Mohali and regular academic sessions are expected to commence in 2012.

I can keep talking about ISB, but let me cut it short for now. And yes, the first round admissions deadline falls on September 15, 2011.

Day 19 - Combinatorics, MGMAT

The most scary topic for me amongst all the quant topics. I always get confused with the concepts. And I kicked-off prep with MGMAT books, after completing TIME concepts for Rates and Work.

It safely cleared my concepts to an extent. Doing more questions will probably clear them better. I just realized that keeping a cool head will actually make it easier to answer questions. Combinatorics is better understood only by thinking into the question given than looking at it as a question posed in front of you. 

Watched a pretty exciting movie meanwhile 'Band Baaja Baaraat'.. Colorful awesome movie, which can immediately bring a positive effect to the mind. Was fun! :) 

Material Covered:
MGMAT Combinatorics - Pages 65 to 82

Day 18 - Rates and Work, Ratios : MGMAT

Rates and Work, something I fail to get right the first time, is an area of fear for me all the time. I keep going wrong, for some reason or the other. Need more practice on this. I worked on the strategies given in MGMAT, but I think they hold good for someone who has not been in touch with Math for a very long time. Having prepared for CAT my idea of Rates n Work never goes off the normal method I use to solve them.

However the table structure does help, though their explanation is confusing at certain areas. I guess TIME, India books do a much better job, at least for me. I did all the 15 basic level questions given at the end of the chapter, which cleared my head about how I usually solve them. I guess I will follow my method which I am more comfortable with.

Coming to Ratios, it was simply brushing through the basics, following by a set of 15 practice questions, out of which just one was comparatively time consuming. It took more time to read than to solve the question. Otherwise, this area is something anyone can crack provided he has good concentration. 

Material Covered:
MGMAT Word Translations - Pages 31 to 51.

Day 17 - Powerscore, CR Basics

After a hectic long week, I got into study mode again, with Powerscore CR Bible.. It has been informative and fun reading the first two chapters of the book. This bible is clearly a better option for CR than any other book, in the way that it goes step by step in lucid steps to make the seeker understand the GMAT perspective of the arguments and conclusion, and assumptions and inferences.

I have also been going through BTG forums, and have been actively participating in the discussions. It is actually good learning, through the forums. Also, we get to know a lot of off-info about the application details.

Will keep you posted about the details in the upcoming posts.

Materials Covered:
Powerscore CR Bible: Pages 1 to 46.

Day 16 - Kaplan Math Concepts

Right from the day I booked my GMAT, I have been ill / down for some reason or the other. I have been preparing though, but not at a full stretch. Over the past few days, after completing verbal basics from Kaplan Premier, I continued going through the book for the Math content, and its quite basic, considering the tough CAT preps last year. I have been doing some sample problems, that came with the book after every short chapter. Kaplan has general strategies which I guess a person decent enough at his math would already know. Nevertheless, it is a very good book for a starter.

Another good material to test your skills on, is the Manhattan GMAT flash cards that are available on their website. The best part is you can view the questions without even logging in.I spent quite sometime working on those questions, whenever I felt exhausted.

BTG videos are so interesting to miss. I watched a few videos, which is definitely a value add to the preps. Apart from BTG, there is this new website that I am feeling soo attached to, and that is gmatPREPNOW. The videos start from the basic and move to tough areas in GMAT, and makes us feel relaxed as we watch it, at the same grasping the concepts.

A pretty exciting break during these days was BTG badges. I could actually see a lot of users wake up in many forums, including me of course, to actively participate in discussions. As for me the fun was more about finding out what types of badges BTG offers; this meant that I be active on the forums. It actually made me involve in a variety of discussions, and skim through all the forums every now and then to see if any interesting discussion happens.

I felt there is also a bad part attached to it. Though we gain with every discussion on the forum, at a certain stage, it gets so obsessive that going back to study mode is difficult.

Ahem! But yes, we need a control over everything in life!

Material covered:
Kaplan 2011 GMAT Premier:  Pages 221-250
GMATPrepNow videos
MGMAT website flashcards (WT)

Tip for the day: Focus! Practice! Focus! Practice!

Day 15 - Kaplan RC Practice

As a quick continuation to yesterday's RC strategies from Kaplan's Verbal Workbook, I went on to do practice questions along with some strategies in the following chapter. Again, my accuracy level remained the same. However, the ease of skimming through the necessary areas got better.

I feel more confident of where I have to concentrate exactly when reading through a passage. I guess practice makes it perfect when it comes to GMAT. The more I practice, the more I learn and therefore the better I become. With every passage from different area, say, economy, sociology, biology, reading gets better. Familiar areas strike the cord, and makes me realize the areas where I have to concentrate.

I guess I will do at least 2 passages everyday, to keep myself fit about RC. I guess the last few days, I have been studying everyday, and it makes me feel good after a long time. Primary reason is the work at office keeps me active all day, and the same continues as I reach home. Positive air is around, and I learn better.


Material Covered:
Kaplan Verbal Workbook - Chapter 4 - Pages 45 to 69.

Day 14 - Reading the GMAT Way

Watched a delightful rugged romantic-comedy 'Pyaar ka Punchnama' last night. Following this, I did Chapter 3 of Kaplan Verbal Workbook. After doing Kaplan's RC, it was actually exciting to read through the passages for the thrill of finding out if I am able to answer the questions properly. And yess, I was 95% accurate in answering the practice questions. Now that I am moderately confident, I went on to read the Verbal Workbook strategy.. Voila! It just corrected the exact area I was not sure of in RC. \m/

Now that I know what to do about RC, my style of reading the passage for GMAT has become different. I know how to focus and what to focus on. Thanks Kaplan. Today, I will try to cover Chapter 4, of Verbal Workbook and follow it up with practice questions.

Material Covered:

Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook - Pages 31 - 43

Day 13 - Kaplan RC Practice

A tiring week just came to its end. Every minute was spent wisely and I still feel short of time to complete my activities. Weekend is the best time to sit down to study with complete concentration. And so, I sat to solve RC questions from Kaplan's GMAT Premier guide. Initially I was skeptical about Kaplan's method, but man, they are really awesome. Ground rules to crack RC, is clearly set in Kaplan.

These rules will just help you get closer to the answer, considering the fact that you need to concentrate on the passage as you read. Kaplan suggests a Passage Map; in addition to this, I suggest a Passage Memory Map, wherein you restate the gist of the passage in memory in an orderly fashion, and hold them for a while till you answer the questions. I solved the complete RC set of 50 questions with around 10 passages in 70 minutes. 

Concentration is the key. If you don't understand a subject or if you are not interested in a particular subject, just tame your brain to pretend to like the topic and pretend to read with all interest. You are halfway through. To finish it, you just need to concentrate again ;)

Material Covered:

Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 - Pages 169 to 220.

Day 12 - Kaplan's RC Strategy

Heavy week with loads of work in the office. Today I reached home early, taking some rest and thereby gathering more time to study - thanks to my headache !

I went on with RC strategy on Kaplan. I did a few pages, but I am really not sure if Kaplan's method will work for me as far as RC is concerned. Even after reading pages, I resumed to my own mode of solving RC questions. And I guess that works out better for me till now. But I am trying to go through Kaplan's method and start applying it, because it gives me the luxury of quickly reaching for the area of the passage where the answer is located.

Again the key is to concentrate. It will take just 2 to 3 minutes to read through the entire passage once clearly and absorb the important data, and jot it down. Given this concentration level, it is definitely easy to answer the questions that come along. Somehow if you happen to get a topic that interests you, well and good. I guess RC will then be manageable. So far, topics on Biology and Paleontology are the only scary topics that I keep seeing over and over again, where details are discussed as supposedly scary, but I felt every read good. Lets see, maybe some other topics will make me feel bitter about RC.

Material Covered:
Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 - Pages 147 to 168

Day 11 - Kaplan SC Practice

Day 11, was thought provoking with plenty of ideas. I meanwhile tried to complete SC from Kaplan's Verbal Workbook, finishing the ideas plus two practice tests within time limits.

The explanation given in Kaplan Verbal Workbook, and the examples given are pretty good for a person just beginning GMAT preparation. I have read in many areas online, that MGMAT has proven strategies for SC. I am yet to work on it. Will keep you posted as I do it.

I guess I will start doing RC basics now. Since my time is limited now, I need to focus and get things done. Even two days on weekend could give me solid amount of time to cover up for what I lost for the whole week. I just had to focus.

Material Covered:
Kaplan Verbal Workbook, Pages 15 - 30, Pages 101-116.

Day 10 - Kaplan SC Strategy

It was a long tiring break, with bad health taking a toll over me. I finally gathered some strength to get back to business. And I continued from where I left. Its Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 again, Sentence Correction.

Since I find myself quite comfortable with these question types, I quickly read through the intro part, and jumped to questions. The intro was short and crisp to the detail. Loved doing them. The exercise was definitely interesting, and I could clearly finish 50 questions in an hour. All those crisp short details which Kaplan has provided was definitely helpful in quickly reaching the solution for any question.

There were certain advanced level questions where I really stumbled to reach for the answer, but I sure learnt some good techniques to quickly arrive at an answer.

Meanwhile I also read, 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell. An amazing read, but got a little boring with too much of explanation. I will soon post a review of the same, in my other blog.

Material Covered:
Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 - Pages 97 to 146

Tips:
Do a complete topic with just short breaks. The concentration breaks will be less, and I am sure we can learn better.

Day 9 - CR Practice from Kaplan Verbal Workbook

Its been pretty interesting digging more into CR strategies. I am falling in love with these questions. Man! So much thought!

I read through the strategies given in the Kaplan Verbal Workbook, and solved the 12 questions that came with it. I followed it with the timed Practice questions! And whoa! I did finish it on time.

I should definitely worry about my accuracy level though. But with today I feel it is primarily because I was not involved with 100% concentration. It is actually tough to solve so many questions at a time. A kind of irritation strikes when I finish half the number of questions. Its been two hours of studying with not so much output I should say. By this, I mean I did not get a lesser number of wrong answers.

This only makes me feel how much practicing is important for GMAT :)

Material Covered:
Kaplan Verbal Workbook - Pages 71 - 97, Pages 155 - 165

Tip : Practice, practice and practice, gradually increasing the number of questions you try and attempt.

Booked my GMAT test date

Finally booked my GMAT test date.. I am giving GMAT on the fourth Tuesday of August, 2011.

Atleast I know for sure, that I am going to give my test this day :)
I seem to have renewed energy now, and I am sure I will work harder and be more focussed on timelines for study.

Day 8 - CR Practice Questions, Kaplan

I have been doing a lot of online practice questions of late, whenever I find time in the office, and that has been satisfying me even if I could not spend time in the evening after office hours. I have also worked out all the practice questions in CR from Kaplan GMAT Premier book.

I could understand that the more questions I do, the more comfortable I feel with the type of questions. What was difficult in the beginning could be easily done when I was done doing atleast 25 questions. Man! Practice can do wonders to GMAT. I am now confused if should make myself completely sure about CR and proceed to the other areas or do it parallely with other testing areas. If anyone can give me your insights, it will be more than helpful.

Material Covered:
Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011, pages 56 to 101.

Day 7 - CR Practice Questions

I was pretty disappointed about the answers that I got wrong in the first ten practice questions from Kaplan's GMAT Premier book in CR section. I was wrong because I did not concentrate enough on the exercise. It was because I quickly got exhausted about doing questions. I felt they are too much to concentrate.

So, I reread the entire CR strategy from Kaplan, and tried redoing every question. It did some good as I could understand where I went wrong. I then followed it up with 10 more questions. Though I am slow, I feel comfortable when I am able to go steady on the road to GMAT. Apparently, CR freaks me out so much, that I tend to slow down and do my best to get the questions right. Once I become comfortable with the strategies and its application, it will become easier for me to gain speed and withstand the stress that these questions pose on me.

I have summarized the means I use to solve a CR question currently, on this link. Check it out.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Materials covered:
Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 -  Pages 50 to 55.

Day 6 - Kaplan's CR Strategy

Well Friends,

It is too much of lazing around now.. Though the last one had its own interesting events, I am pretty disappointed with the kind of progress I am making. Its time to hit myself hard and ask myself to study.!

I have been simply trying to keep away from books calling myself busy. Somehow, I managed to study something. The Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011, is one awesome book which is a good way to begin preparation. It gives you a refreshing start, and I bet it made me feel more comfortable about the whole GMAT thing. It does not make you feel overwhelmed about GMAT, as many other books do.

Anyway, the first three chapters gave an initial idea about GMAT. I had mentioned about it in the earlier post. I headed off to go through the Critical Reasoning Section ie., Chapter 4 of this cool book.

It gives you an idea of the problem types that come in this section. Approximately 12 CR questions on the GMAT, means plenty of time and effort has to be given considering your ability to crack this section.  Kaplan has come up with a quick strategy to solve CR questions, which is even more helpful. When I tried solving CR questions before using Kaplan, it was too much to take without a definitive strategy. Now it seems a lot more easier!

I just managed to do some 10 practice questions from the exercise. I could see an improvement, though I am not up to the mark.

Material Covered:

Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011 - Pages 27 to 50

Tip for the day: Use some definitive strategy to attack the GMAT. Otherwise, you are bound to lose too much of your time.

I wordle'd my blog..

 

The most used words on my blog.. :) 

Thanks to Wordle!

Day 5 - No support for Mac

I got my Kaplan Premier GMAT 2011 yesterday. I was going through the book only to find out that Kaplan as well does not support Macs. What is with GMAT and Macs.. Neither does GMATPrep software nor the Kaplan CD work on Mac. I wonder when a relevant Mac version will be released.! I find it very difficult to manage my CDs on my office computer and study with my Mac at home. I wish there was better support for Mac.

I have been reading the first three chapters of the Kaplan book, and it just recapped on some of the very basics of the CAT, GMAT. Currently I am doing Chapter 4, Critical Reasoning. I had prepared for the Indian Management Entrance tests, like the CAT, NMAT etc., and I should say, GMAT is way different in the approach. I like the CR section in particular, which is also part of the XAT in India. It is a compelling section where I try to keep solving more and more. Interesting!

And a blog post by ClearAdmit, talks about the new question format for GMAT Integrated Reasoning section. This has been a regular section in the Indian entrance tests, and apparently the most time consuming section for me. I wonder what kind of questions this section will have in GMAT.

Material Covered:

Kaplan Premier 2011 GMAT - Chapters 1,2,3

Over the last few days..

Its been quite a while since I really spent good amount of time studying. I was busy over the last few days, stuck with a lot of personal tasks. But that did not completely put me off from GMAT. A little brush up on the vocabulary will always do its part to better GMATing.

And BTG always comes to the rescue. Those short and crisp 10 minute videos on various topics from Knewton, MasterGMAT etc. prove to directly improve the efficiency of solving related questions. I had even become tempted to register for the MasterGMAT's course online, but for the heavy pricetag attached.

Tips and tricks to do the math quicker and its practice, has been yet another thing that I hav been concentrating on. I understand that time management balancing both work and GMAT prep is the most important challenge to handle.

Everytime I see a video on MasterGMAT, I try to do the question on my own, and it so happened that almost everytime, I got my answer right. But the kind of explanation I had for the right answer was different from the one that was given as explanation. I am planning to write a post on what I learnt from these videos, soon.

Reading a book is as important as doing everyday math questions. It improves ur reading speed as well as your knowledge and vocabulary. And so, I have a good set of books in queue. I guess a few of these books are already mentioned in my earlier posts.

The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell) - Reading currently

Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)

Future Shock (Alvin Toffler)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert M. Pirsig)

Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

We The Living (Ayn Rand)

I have carefully chosen these books, so that I really learn a lot out of them. Fountain Head by Ayn Rand is another great addition. I have already read it and I should say, its definitely a good read. Another book that is of interest to me, is 'No One Here Gets Out Alive' the first biography of Jim Morrison, lead singer and lyricist of the L.A.rock band 'The Doors' written by the journalist Jerry Hopkins. I do not know the insides of the book, but would love to read this one.

As I write this, I hit upon a few links, which I am sharing below.

http://www.gmathacks.com/main/mental-math.html

http://listverse.com/2007/09/17/10-easy-arithmetic-tricks/

http://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-guide.cfm

The Kaplan start..

I have two new additions to my study material:

1. Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook

2. Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook

As of now, my study plan has been rescheduled. I have been very random, at addressing new topics everyday, and so I have decided to give a shot at the Kaplan Workbooks first, followed by the Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011. I guess, after this I can understand where I am still lacking and then go through the Manhattan GMAT to strengthen those areas.!

I have been quite excited about planning employee engagement events at my workplace, that being pending for a long while now. And now that I have a schedule ready for the same, I can go forward to building it stronger and executing it.

Green Tip for the day:

How about uploading your flash cards to your mobile, rather than printing it!?

Save paper, Save earth! Its our responsibility!

Three Great Tools for Success in the GMAT

Yesss.. I just witnessed India win Pakistan in the ICC World Cup Semi-Finals.. It is a moment of pride for India. My facebook has been overflowing with status updates, praising India and feeling proud about the victory. It is definitely a moment of great delight. Amazing team work, Team India! Hats off!

Looking forward to the Finals on April 2nd, where I expect India to win the finals J I pray it does! I (oh! Not just me.. the whole of India) would love it, if God Sachin would lift the cup in his last ever World Cup match.!

And one more thing that excited me today, is the brand new BeatTheGMAT website launched.! I have been in love with it completely. I have been watching Eric update on facebook, and I have been refreshing page by page, all the open articles on my desktop. Yes, it is better organized for the GMAT and MBA applications and beyond. Way to go BTG! And yes, the new logo is cutee.. I love it..!

Most of my day, I spent revising Chapter 1 from Manhattan’s Word Translation guide, and a part of Chapter 2. The cricket world cup semi-finals kept me busy. I read a few articles on the new BTG, and also watched the video, ‘Creating a Long Term MBA Plan’, and it was definitely a knowledge add. Being a newbie to GMAT and MBA, this video was extremely helpful.

I am now beginning the use of Error Logs. I feel it is a better way of keeping track of errors and avoiding them in future. Now all I need to do, be more disciplined so that I am regular and strong at my preps. I once used to get frustrated with the errors I get on my practice questions, until my friend told me, be happy you got an error. And yes, he was right. I am learning better from my error.

And another good practice is making flash cards. A good idea for beginners like me is to make use of existing flash cards (like those of BTG). As I start using it, I understand how to make one, and in the process remember a lot of new concepts and ideas.

Three great tools :
1.   Error Log
2. Flash Cards
3. GMAT progress chart ( To keep track of practice test scores)

Day 4 - CR Elimination Strategy and QA Rate problems

As I said, I have not been keeping well last week. My good friend visited me over the weekend, and we had a really good time, discussing everything under the sun.

I could hardly squeeze in time to sit to study. I was surrounded by people all day long. And yes, it felt good to meet friends after a long time.. This week I am gearing up for my roomie's wedding. She is a close friend more than a roomie.

Yes, I worked on a couple of CR questions, and a few Age and Rate related problems. This was just to make sure that I didnt lose touch with something that is of prime importance at the moment.

I happened to discuss a CR question with a friend, who got admitted to one of the best B-Schools in the world. And I learnt just elimination can solve half of the problem. And how we attach importance to every single word of the CR arguement is very important.

Though it was just one CR question that I discussed with him, I learnt a lot. It is good to share your knowledge with a friend who is preparing for GMAT. I have not been thoroughly active in forums, but I guess doing so, will do a lot of good.

Rate problems are sometimes my strength and sometimes not. I think Manhattan Word Translation guide can do a good deal in strengthening my base for these problems.

And yes, I have been reading 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell, for almost half a month now, in bits and pieces, and I should say, its a great book. It is something almost none of us have been investigating much about.

I will not be so active for another week now, though I will write a couple of posts as and when I study.

Material used:
Manhattan GMAT Word Translations - Chapter 2
www.platinumgmat.com (This site has good practice problems to utilize free hours in the workplace.. They are fun too.. )

Tips:
Subscribe to Daily Verbal and Math question from BTG (Beat The GMAT). It really helps.

If you believe..

Day 4, this is supposed to be.

I am not doing well healthwise, and I thought I'd rather take some rest today.
Anyway, I thought I will share my other blog address here, so you get an idea of my thoughts and ideas on different subjects.

Here you go: Kruthika's "If you Believe!"

Day 3 - CR Arguement Structure Strategy

Day 2 began with a lot of questioning to myself, about how long will I take to make myself stronger in the topics. I feel that the sections I need to concentrate on more was RC, CR and SC.

I thought it would be right to start with CR. I will continue practising Math every now and then, but Verbal will be of prime importance.

CR is something I dread after seeing the results of the diagnostic test. Thanks to MGMAT. I feel relieved as I seem to be gaining confidence. I am using MGMAT CR to get a feel of how to approach questions, but I have my own ideas as well. After all every individual has his own way of attacking questions.

I read through the first chapter in MGMAT CR “Argument Structure Strategy”. It is definitely a good chapter to start off with, because it talks about how a CR passage is usually structured. It gives a clean picture of how a CR can be broken down to the format

“Premises+(Assumptions)=Conclusion”

I felt there could have been more questions to practice, but that is never a problem as plenty of CR questions are available on the world wide web.

Though one area of this was a little tricky to understand, it was a good one overall.

Material covered:

MGMAT CR : Pages 1-25

Tips:

Practice what is learnt everyday, during work when you want to take a break.

I feel more positive today. I will get back with something new tomorrow. J

Day 2 -Verbal Diagnostic Test

It was a pleasant break on a Sunday, hanging out with a good friend of mine, who came here for the weekend.

Today was a tiring day at work, so it was just 1.5 hours I could devote that too with not a lot of energy. I tried solving the diagnostic test on Verbal ability from OG12.

The questions were of good quality, and yes, I realized the need for a very fresh mind to solve those questions. I found it very difficult to concentrate on the passages. Overall, I felt it tough as I simply guessed answers to most of the questions. I am yet to make a review of the OG questions. Probably that should be done in the morning hours of the day with a fresh mind. 

When I read the RC passages today, I could hardly assimilate them to answer to the questions. And CR is no easy deal. It was absolutely demanding the reader's concentration, and I lost it today owing to the tiredness I have today.

Material covered:

OG12 : Pages 27-45

Tips:

Study for verbal section when the mind if fresh to accept more data.

To concentrate better on RC, read books and news article covering everything under the sun.

Reading a book everyday for atleast an hour nonstop is a must to develop concentration abilities and speed.

Overall, this is not a positive sign. All I can say today is that, I have a long road ahead, and nothing can be taken light with an exam like GMAT. This is totally unlike CAT(Common Aptitude Test for Indian Management Insitutes) where skipping a topic also will not matter in some cases.

Plenty of learning is ahead, and the journey is definitely compelling with learning something new each day. 

With quant, what I need is practice, and with verbal, what I need is methodology to eliminate and choose. Hoooo… That was bad for a start; but failure is the stepping stone to success. 

1:41 am, March 15, 2011: Feeling quite disappointed with my RC results, I went on to look at one of the RC practice videos from gmatpill, and 'wow' was the feeling I got. When you know how to split the passage into teeny tiny bits that can be easily captured, RC will no more be a pain. But yes, even this is a herculean task. Needs plenty of practice, without which any person will tend to follow his normal methods.

Day 1 - Arithmetic diagnostic test

Here I come, submitting my day one before you, dear reader.!

A gap of 2 months before I last studied has truly played spoilsport today. I found it pretty difficult to get into the flow.

I started with solving the Diagnostic test on Quant from OG12. According to their rating, I stood at the highest possible rating they provided. Infact, that made convinced enough to give a gently push today. I started off with basic Age problems today. Ahem! I should say something here. You might be wondering why did she straight hit on Age problems, skipping everything before it. Yes.! Numbers are something I hate to work with. I tend to push them for a while till I get used to the study plan.

Coming back to Age problems, all you need to understand is really ‘Word Translation’, as MGMAT calls it. You should be good enough to convert English language to the mathematical data they represent.

For eg., ‘Joseph got twice as many apples as bananas..’ you should be good enough to convert this as ‘number of apples = 2 * number of bananas.

These kind of details are concentrated on MGMAT Word Translation guide. Further, some more methods to work on Age problems in an easier way have been discussed. I am generally good at these problems, but the strategy that is followed by MGMAT might actually reduce time with practice, than our usual methods would.

I solved all the practice questions on Age topic from MGMAT.

Material covered:

·      MGMAT Word Translation – Pages 1- 30.

·      OG 12 – Pages 1 -26.

Tips:

·      Don’t miss a single line marking it as unnecessary. Every line has its value.

·      Concentrate for atleast 2 hours per day.

·      Read a book for atleast an hour everyday; don’t just read. Comprehend. Break the complex data into simpler ideas in your mind. Jot them down till you know you can remember them.

·      Browse, about latest news and their dig them.

What is realized today is, practice is the most important when it comes to GMAT. We do nothing more than high school math, and what is required is using our tricks to get to the solution quicker. 

GMAT Preparation Material

Starting with GMAT preparation requires atleast a week’s analysis into where you stand, and what you need to do to succeed in getting a great GMAT score.

I have been analyzing my skills here and there, and I feel all I need is more confidence and practice and regularity. Of course, certain areas in GMAT are relatively deeper than certain other Indian entrance exams. I am planning to take my GMAT only after I completely have the confidence to crack it, probably around the month of July or August, 2011.

I have the following copies with me:

1.   Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12^th Edition

2.   Kaplan 800

3.   Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Strategy Guide, 4^th Edition

4.   Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning Strategy Guide, 4^th Edition

5.   Manhattan GMAT Word Translations Strategy Guide, 4^th Edition

I frequently refer to the following websites.

www.gmatclub.com ( I ll refer this as GC)

www.beatthegmat.com (Referred as BTG)

http://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-flashcards.cfm

As I read from the forums on GC and BTG, I have the following review/idea about books.

OG 12^th edition – Should be kept for the final practice after one is clear with all the concepts involved in GMAT.

Kaplan 800 – Contains higher level GMAT questions for those targeting 700+ in GMAT. This is to be done, if additional practice of tougher questions is required.

Manhattan GMAT Strategy Guides - By far the best comprehensive guide for anything and everything you need to learn for GMAT. I have only a few of these guides, which I considered essential for my level. For example, I am not so good at Probability and Combinatorics, so I have the Word Translations guide from MGMAT to guide me through. Same holds true for SC and CR guides as well.

People discuss that is there no best RC guide, but MGMAT RC is definitely good for people who are poor in RC. Reading books will lessen half the burden, and yes reading books should happen over a long period.

Reading books and newspapers is very important going forward.

Some of the books I consider reading during the course of my preparation, and of course it is a suggestion for you as well.

1.   Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

2.   The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand

3.   Future Shock by Alvin Toffler

4.   Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

5.   To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

6.   The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

7.   Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

These are books that hit my mind as I write this. I will add more to this post, as and when I come across better and compelling ones.

I have been a constant observer of forums for quite a while now, and I feel participating in the forums and sharing your ideas and clarifying your doubts/ others’ doubts will itself make a great deal of improvement. For people like me, who work, during office hours, whenever we get a small break, it will be beneficial to go through these forums, and interact.

The one area which I am really not sure of till date is Analytical Writing Assessment section. I am yet to research on it. When I am done with one, I will come back with a quick brief on AWA section. And yes, as the majority suggest, this section is as important as the other sections and deserves attention and practice.

Using an error log, probably an excel sheet, will be a good aid to our preparation if we update it regularly. I have been suggested this idea, right from school for Math area. It is definitely a good tool, because I have seen it work. All you need is the patience to fill it up and maintain the record, and also review it.

That’s it for now. Will keep the post updated as and when I gather data.