Hi,
I wrote GMAT on 26th Dec, 08. Got 710 (Q49, V38), AWA 6.0. It was a nice experience not only in writing the GMAT but also preparing for it.(see i just used NOT ONLY <x> BUT ALSO <y>
I really want to thank this site for its repository of questions, intelligent people, both who manages this site, and those who are subscribed and posts and discuss solutions.
I also want to thank Stacey, Ron, Ian, and Stuart for their great posts, solutions, and motivation.
Last but not the least thanks to the active members particularly reachac, cramya, and logitech, parallel_chase ...and many others.........) for their time and effort to post questions and solutions.
Initially I was quite disappointed from my score, as I was expecting 740+.But later after going through various sites, and resources and talking to alumni of various schools, I came to know, that GMAT is only a component of the app, and if the score is in the range of average score, it is sufficient for the app, and may have some affect only in the scholarship part.
Background
========
1. I'm a indian software engineer, working in the largest software product company in the world (No price for guessing that
. I'm married and have a nice, cute, 10 months old daughter. I was not able to give time to my family during my 5 month long preparation, but my family understood and supported me.
Prepartion
========
I started preparation on and off a year back, but that was just getting familiar with the exam. As is the case with most of the Indian engineering students, I was quite ok with maths/ds but verbal was my weak part.
Initially, for 3 or 4 months, I went through various SC questions on this site, and solved 1000 SC questions, which I suppose are not a good resource, and unnecessary eats up your time. But, still these questions were eye opener.
I started my real preparation from July, 08, when I bought few books
1. ManhattanGMAT SC (remember this is NOT Manhattan Review)
2. Official GMAT (yellow book)
3. Verbal Review (Purple book)
4. Kaplan 800
5. Kaplan GMAT
Schedule
=========
I used to take out 2 to 3 hours daily on weekdays (I know sometimes, it was really hard after those arduous office hours). On weekends, I took out almost 4 to 5 hours.
I had planned that I would be giving my exam somewhere in Dec'08, and I had around 5/6 months for serious preparation. I thought of not touching the OG till the end, and rather finishing other books, and solving questions from BTG daily.
Few most important rules for my preparation.
===============================================
1. The most important point I stressed upon, all along my preparation was TIME. Anybody can solve a question in say 10 minutes, but to solve the same question in a flick of few seconds or a minute is a completly different story.
1. For each section (SC, CR, and Math/DS), I used to pick up new question from BTG daily and solved them in a time frame. so, whild doing
SC, I would pick 15 questions, and allot say 15-20 minutes for solving them. This is very very important.
2. Later as I got more used to I started giving small tests of 1 hour from Kaplan CD. Intially, it was hard to sit for an hour, but then I got used to it. I gave 1 hour verbal tests and 1 hour quant tests.
I carried on this schedule till October, without even touching the OG. So, everday it was questions from BTG, and sometimes from https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums. I used to save important questions from these sites, questions that i could not solve or got wrong.
I revised these questions during the last phase of my preparation.
In November, I opened OG for the first time. I knew that I had almost got used to the format of all the sections. I gave the Diagnostic tests present in the OG, and to my surprise I was completely exhausted till the time I reached SC questions of the test. Again, I learned that I had to prepare myself to sit for 4 hours in a stretch.
I planned that I will not study from OG in a casual manner, but do all OG questions as a GMAT test. I planned that I would be doing two OG sessions in a week, and weekend will be for a real GMAT pracice test. I had planned to give two GMATPrep test and 6 ManhattanGMAT tests.
3. In each OG session, I picked 15 questions each of SC/CR/RC and 20 questions each of Quant/DS. I gave 2 and half hour for each such session, and it helped me a lot in my time management, as well as, getting used to taking a long test.
On Saturday, of each weekend I gave a timed Prep Test from Manhattan, along with the AWA. I suppose, this was a right decision, as it prepared me for 4 hour test, and as expected on the test day also, I didn't feel exhausted even after 4 hours of the test. This along with giving OG questions as a timed test was one of the most important decisions, I made during my prep days.
Book Reviews / Recommendations
===============================
1. ManhattanGMAT SC (remember this is NOT Manhattan Review)
First I studied ManhattanGMAT SC book. This is a must book for all the people who want to study SC from GMAT point of view, and who want to solve SC question using some logic and layed rules, rather than depending on your ear. After reading this book, and applying its concept, I got more confident in solving SC questions, and more so, knowing at which part of the SC question, to look at while solving sc questions.
2. Official GMAT (yellow book)
3. Verbal Review (Purple book)
Both the above are must read, at least for verbal sections. Quant is ok, but DS is very good. For DS, I used to do questions from BTG, and here I learnt few tricks from people on the site in solving absolute value questions.
4. Kaplan 800
5. Kaplan GMAT
I didn't like these books much. I found Kaplan 800, an absolute waste, in terms of weirdness of questions. I don't know, but may be at 800 level, one can see these type of questions in real GMAT.
GMAT PREP Test - These are real tests. They are real in all aspect. I found similar concepts questions in my real GMAT.
ManhattanGMAT Test - I guess of all available practice tests, these are closest to the real Gmat. Quant is extremely good, though verbal hinges on the line of good and weird. Still, they are a must take.
GMAT Prep I - 770 (Q50, V44)
ManhattanGmat I to 5 (710, 700, 690, 700, 710)
GMAT Prep II - 720 (Q50, V38)
I have made few notes. I'm attaching a partial Quant notes. I will update and post it. I made verbal notes on paper. I have to make a soft copy, which I will post later.
Once again, thanks to all the great people here.
I wrote GMAT on 26th Dec, 08. Got 710 (Q49, V38), AWA 6.0. It was a nice experience not only in writing the GMAT but also preparing for it.(see i just used NOT ONLY <x> BUT ALSO <y>
I really want to thank this site for its repository of questions, intelligent people, both who manages this site, and those who are subscribed and posts and discuss solutions.
I also want to thank Stacey, Ron, Ian, and Stuart for their great posts, solutions, and motivation.
Last but not the least thanks to the active members particularly reachac, cramya, and logitech, parallel_chase ...and many others.........) for their time and effort to post questions and solutions.
Initially I was quite disappointed from my score, as I was expecting 740+.But later after going through various sites, and resources and talking to alumni of various schools, I came to know, that GMAT is only a component of the app, and if the score is in the range of average score, it is sufficient for the app, and may have some affect only in the scholarship part.
Background
========
1. I'm a indian software engineer, working in the largest software product company in the world (No price for guessing that
. I'm married and have a nice, cute, 10 months old daughter. I was not able to give time to my family during my 5 month long preparation, but my family understood and supported me.Prepartion
========
I started preparation on and off a year back, but that was just getting familiar with the exam. As is the case with most of the Indian engineering students, I was quite ok with maths/ds but verbal was my weak part.
Initially, for 3 or 4 months, I went through various SC questions on this site, and solved 1000 SC questions, which I suppose are not a good resource, and unnecessary eats up your time. But, still these questions were eye opener.
I started my real preparation from July, 08, when I bought few books
1. ManhattanGMAT SC (remember this is NOT Manhattan Review)
2. Official GMAT (yellow book)
3. Verbal Review (Purple book)
4. Kaplan 800
5. Kaplan GMAT
Schedule
=========
I used to take out 2 to 3 hours daily on weekdays (I know sometimes, it was really hard after those arduous office hours). On weekends, I took out almost 4 to 5 hours.
I had planned that I would be giving my exam somewhere in Dec'08, and I had around 5/6 months for serious preparation. I thought of not touching the OG till the end, and rather finishing other books, and solving questions from BTG daily.
Few most important rules for my preparation.
===============================================
1. The most important point I stressed upon, all along my preparation was TIME. Anybody can solve a question in say 10 minutes, but to solve the same question in a flick of few seconds or a minute is a completly different story.
1. For each section (SC, CR, and Math/DS), I used to pick up new question from BTG daily and solved them in a time frame. so, whild doing
SC, I would pick 15 questions, and allot say 15-20 minutes for solving them. This is very very important.
2. Later as I got more used to I started giving small tests of 1 hour from Kaplan CD. Intially, it was hard to sit for an hour, but then I got used to it. I gave 1 hour verbal tests and 1 hour quant tests.
I carried on this schedule till October, without even touching the OG. So, everday it was questions from BTG, and sometimes from https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums. I used to save important questions from these sites, questions that i could not solve or got wrong.
I revised these questions during the last phase of my preparation.
In November, I opened OG for the first time. I knew that I had almost got used to the format of all the sections. I gave the Diagnostic tests present in the OG, and to my surprise I was completely exhausted till the time I reached SC questions of the test. Again, I learned that I had to prepare myself to sit for 4 hours in a stretch.
I planned that I will not study from OG in a casual manner, but do all OG questions as a GMAT test. I planned that I would be doing two OG sessions in a week, and weekend will be for a real GMAT pracice test. I had planned to give two GMATPrep test and 6 ManhattanGMAT tests.
3. In each OG session, I picked 15 questions each of SC/CR/RC and 20 questions each of Quant/DS. I gave 2 and half hour for each such session, and it helped me a lot in my time management, as well as, getting used to taking a long test.
On Saturday, of each weekend I gave a timed Prep Test from Manhattan, along with the AWA. I suppose, this was a right decision, as it prepared me for 4 hour test, and as expected on the test day also, I didn't feel exhausted even after 4 hours of the test. This along with giving OG questions as a timed test was one of the most important decisions, I made during my prep days.
Book Reviews / Recommendations
===============================
1. ManhattanGMAT SC (remember this is NOT Manhattan Review)
First I studied ManhattanGMAT SC book. This is a must book for all the people who want to study SC from GMAT point of view, and who want to solve SC question using some logic and layed rules, rather than depending on your ear. After reading this book, and applying its concept, I got more confident in solving SC questions, and more so, knowing at which part of the SC question, to look at while solving sc questions.
2. Official GMAT (yellow book)
3. Verbal Review (Purple book)
Both the above are must read, at least for verbal sections. Quant is ok, but DS is very good. For DS, I used to do questions from BTG, and here I learnt few tricks from people on the site in solving absolute value questions.
4. Kaplan 800
5. Kaplan GMAT
I didn't like these books much. I found Kaplan 800, an absolute waste, in terms of weirdness of questions. I don't know, but may be at 800 level, one can see these type of questions in real GMAT.
GMAT PREP Test - These are real tests. They are real in all aspect. I found similar concepts questions in my real GMAT.
ManhattanGMAT Test - I guess of all available practice tests, these are closest to the real Gmat. Quant is extremely good, though verbal hinges on the line of good and weird. Still, they are a must take.
GMAT Prep I - 770 (Q50, V44)
ManhattanGmat I to 5 (710, 700, 690, 700, 710)
GMAT Prep II - 720 (Q50, V38)
I have made few notes. I'm attaching a partial Quant notes. I will update and post it. I made verbal notes on paper. I have to make a soft copy, which I will post later.
Once again, thanks to all the great people here.
