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!