So I am just starting my GMAT journey....I am a newborn in the world of GMAT and still trying to figure which way is up......
A bit about my background: I have just graduated from engineering college this year and am currently working for a multinational Power and Automation products company...my GPA is not that great (3.18 when I convert from the 10-point scale to the 4 point scale)......I have good high school academic records.....lots of extracurricular as well(but nothing in college....does Partying count?
)........I hope to apear for the GMAT in Jan/Feb 2012 and apply to schools for their fall 2014 intake...in the meanwhile I hope to strengthen my bio....
I started thinking about GMAT during my last semester in engineering college(about 6 months back)....I did a bit of looking around...but my preparations didnt take off till 12th Sept... to be exact...after doing some GMAT OG questions randomly, I decided not to waste any more of those GMAT questions and took a official GMAT Prep test on the night of September 15 to determine my strengths and weaknesses....
I scored 570(Q32,V35) : A BIG dissapointment. I thought i was 'not bad' at math( dare I still call myself an enginner
? )
Quant:I could reach only about two-thirds of the questions within the alloted time and half of the questions I did attemp, turned out wrong. Theres no discernable pattern,.....only that for most of the questions I had the feeling of 'I-know-this-but-for-the-life-of-me-i-cant-remember'.....things like equation of points lying on a straight line....series summations....formula for compound interest...(ya, i could have used simple interest+GP series....but i was running out of tym and i dont remeber series summations anyway).........I need a refresher, big time. (]Any book suggestions here??? I dont think I need a very fundamental book....I think most of the things are in the back of my mind,,,,I just need to clear the dust off them and improve my speed.....ummm....does tht sound like everything in the world? )
Verbal: 50% in SC, 70% in CR and 100% in RC(which might just be a lucky chance).....after studying SC strategies from the Kaplan Premier in the last few days I have discovered that most of my mistakes were in modifiers.....(apparently I slept off when they taught sentence constructions with phrases and clauses- i dont have the vaguest memory of them). SC can be ramped up the most , isnt that correct? I hope so.
In the last 2 weeks I have finished Kaplan premier. Its a good book to begin with....it covers everything just enough to give u an idea of the question pattern in GMAT , but not in too much detail-which can be confusing for someone like me who has just begun the GMAT journey,...
Now that I have been introduced into this world....what should be my next step towards prep?
I am aiming for a 150 point increase AT LEAST. 720+. Big dreams? I wonder....
Currently I have three books: GMAT OG 12, Kaplan Premier and Princeton review 1012. I plan to buy the MGMAT SC guide and Powerprep CR bible pretty soon. For quant I have Sarvesh kumar Verma (an Indian book for CAT in India....anyone studied from this book? WIll this book do for GMAT?)
I am also thinking of getting the OG quant and OG verbal guides....
Am i moving in the right direction? How much time do u think I need to ramp up my score from current 570 level to a 720+ level?
Would love to hear from the gurus(and others ) on this site.
Thanks!
A bit about my background: I have just graduated from engineering college this year and am currently working for a multinational Power and Automation products company...my GPA is not that great (3.18 when I convert from the 10-point scale to the 4 point scale)......I have good high school academic records.....lots of extracurricular as well(but nothing in college....does Partying count?
)........I hope to apear for the GMAT in Jan/Feb 2012 and apply to schools for their fall 2014 intake...in the meanwhile I hope to strengthen my bio....I started thinking about GMAT during my last semester in engineering college(about 6 months back)....I did a bit of looking around...but my preparations didnt take off till 12th Sept... to be exact...after doing some GMAT OG questions randomly, I decided not to waste any more of those GMAT questions and took a official GMAT Prep test on the night of September 15 to determine my strengths and weaknesses....
I scored 570(Q32,V35) : A BIG dissapointment. I thought i was 'not bad' at math( dare I still call myself an enginner
? )Quant:I could reach only about two-thirds of the questions within the alloted time and half of the questions I did attemp, turned out wrong. Theres no discernable pattern,.....only that for most of the questions I had the feeling of 'I-know-this-but-for-the-life-of-me-i-cant-remember'.....things like equation of points lying on a straight line....series summations....formula for compound interest...(ya, i could have used simple interest+GP series....but i was running out of tym and i dont remeber series summations anyway).........I need a refresher, big time. (]Any book suggestions here??? I dont think I need a very fundamental book....I think most of the things are in the back of my mind,,,,I just need to clear the dust off them and improve my speed.....ummm....does tht sound like everything in the world? )
Verbal: 50% in SC, 70% in CR and 100% in RC(which might just be a lucky chance).....after studying SC strategies from the Kaplan Premier in the last few days I have discovered that most of my mistakes were in modifiers.....(apparently I slept off when they taught sentence constructions with phrases and clauses- i dont have the vaguest memory of them). SC can be ramped up the most , isnt that correct? I hope so.
In the last 2 weeks I have finished Kaplan premier. Its a good book to begin with....it covers everything just enough to give u an idea of the question pattern in GMAT , but not in too much detail-which can be confusing for someone like me who has just begun the GMAT journey,...
Now that I have been introduced into this world....what should be my next step towards prep?
I am aiming for a 150 point increase AT LEAST. 720+. Big dreams? I wonder....
Currently I have three books: GMAT OG 12, Kaplan Premier and Princeton review 1012. I plan to buy the MGMAT SC guide and Powerprep CR bible pretty soon. For quant I have Sarvesh kumar Verma (an Indian book for CAT in India....anyone studied from this book? WIll this book do for GMAT?)
I am also thinking of getting the OG quant and OG verbal guides....
Am i moving in the right direction? How much time do u think I need to ramp up my score from current 570 level to a 720+ level?
Would love to hear from the gurus(and others ) on this site.
Thanks!
