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.