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.