I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi,

I just had a quick question with regard to the verbal portion of the exam. Say, I don't study much Verbal but instead focus on my Quant much more. If I keep my Verbal extremely limited... can my score suffer crazy variances come new test day? To illustrate my question better, here is a example:

Say I DONT touch verbal and only focus on math until test day - am I bound to get somewhere between a 27-31?
Is the score I am getting now a "benchmark of my true ability"? What do you guys think?

All the best,
Jas

Hi Jas,

Thank you for your invitation to reply! I'll echo what the BTG guys said...I wouldn't entirely shut down your verbal prep, as I've seen quite a few instances of people reversing their strong and weak suits by exclusively focusing on the weaker and neglecting the stronger.

What I recommend is to do 2/3 of your time on your weaker suit and 1/3 on the stronger. That way, you're fresh and may even improve on what you do well, but you're still emphasizing the area on which you need to improve the most.

My other recommendation to you - if you're doing well on the verbal but struggling on the quant, think about how you can employ the same strategies that you employ on verbal to the quant questions. You'll likely find that you:

-Read carefully on the verbal to ensure that you know exactly what they're asking...that's important on the quant, too.

-Use quite a bit of logic to determine what must be true and what is not necessarily true on CR questions - that's the same thought process that's essential to Data Sufficiency.

-Take quick inventory of the relevant parts of each RC passage or CR question so that you can start working on it...that's rewarded if you can turn words in to mathematical concepts in word problems.

There's enough overlap between the thought processes on either section that if you just ask yourself from time to time "how can I think more verbally", you may find that to be an advantage.

Hi,

A bit of an update on what is going in my studies...

As per the tangible results:

Quantitative:
- Finished the quant NOVA guide - read the chapters and took some notes, attempted each and every practice problem timed. Post working through the problems I make a table which I wrote down the Question, Answer, and Time. I then go through each and every problem in the solutions. After that, I LOG the errors in excel that:
a) took me longer than 2 mins - Time
b) were wrong - Incorrect
c) theres an alternate method of solving it - Method

You can find attached an excel sheet with a sample log for your reference.

Verbal
- Been doing 1-2 RC passages from the OG 11 everyday. Although I have already done these... I am reinforcing the GMAC way of tricking others in their traps. Everything is timed and I read the passage go for the questions and then analyse the errors. I know RC is my weakest section out of strongest suit so I can improve A: my timing B: my overall strategy which influences the whole section C: avoid the GMAC trap.

I started on Feb. 26th and today is Mar.10th so very slow progress given the fact that I am fulltime at this. Nonetheless, I am involved in job applications and a transition phase. I recently got interviewed by Nomura Investment Bank so looking forward to it ... hopefully it doesn't collapse anytime soon:P Also sent thru some apps to JP Morgan and some other companies.

Steps to follow:

Quant:
- Solve every single question from my error log in the NOVA quant workbook.
- Kaplan Math Workbook

Verbal:
- Continue plugging away with the RCs

Intended Plan prior retake:
Kaplan Math Workbook
Solve Error Log #2
MGMAT Guides 1-5
Solve Error Log #3
Magoosh PS
OG 11 PS
OG 12 PS
OG Q R PS
OG 10 PS

My plan is to mainly focus on every muscle at once so at this point in time it is PS. I will exhaust all the PS then move on to DS and then work through 10 PS questions per day while working on DS. Then I will move on to SC and do 20 Questions a day (10PS and 10DS - all from my log).... all this will be paralleled with at least 1-2 RCs every single day no matter what.
Not really planning to take any CATs at the moment - just feel like its a waste of time until I have the knowledge down.

Keep applying for jobs.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, recommendations or jokes please feel free to chime in.

Peace,
Jas

Hi Jas,

We look like we are on the same boat regarding our scores. My problem is the SC and RC ( I am very slow reader). I took MGMAT today and scored 590(43Q/29V). I can say I can do a lot better next time (I Hope:)). for example I slept 5 minutes on one math problem and guess what? got it wrong .

Timing was my problem last time but through regorious practice with stop watch, I was able to finish the exam on time. That is one positive thing to take.

Keep you posted on my progress.

Hey GMAT680,

Sounds great. Wish you all the best :)

Learning to let go is critical. I am sure there will be 2-3 problems in each quant section we cant solve and if we can identify them and within 1 minute make an educated guess - we can spend the cumulative time gained in other questions and improve our chances for success. Also, there is such a high correlation between time spent and accuracy. The more time you spend the more likely you are to get it wrong. (At least in my case - proven to be true) by my analyses.

Anyhow, wish you the best and hope you manage to get to your target - also MGMAT is a bit more difficult I hear so perhaps that 590 is a 610 in disguise.

All the best,
Jas

13/03/10

A bit of an update of whats going on -

- Currently in the Ratio Chapter of Kaplan M Workbook. I really find this to be so useful! Loved the averages balancing trick I didn't know that before but interestingly enough I found a new way of doing this...

Say we have 2, 3, 5, x and the average is 4.

1. Line up the values:
2 , 3 , 5 , x
(In this column bridge the gap)
4 , 4 , 4 , 4

Bridging the gap means:
2+(2) = 4
3 + (1) = 4
5 - (1) = 4
x - (2) = 4

The numbers used to bridge the gap must add up to zero: 2+1+-1+(-2) =0
Solve for X with the equation formed, x = 6.

Looking to finish this book by the end of the week (Friday/Saturday).

Peace

Does anyone know what the difference between

Max Morenbergs Doing Grammar is and Strunks Elements of Style ?

Any reviews, interesting info about them?

All the best,
Jas