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Prep Advice Needed

by pranaygupta86 » Tue May 31, 2011 1:48 am
I had posted the below in a existing thread, but didn't get any replies. So am trying my luck again. Thanks.

ORIGINAL POST

Hi everyone

First of all, thanks for all the time and effort you guys put in. It's a huge help to say the least.

I have been preparing for the GMAT for around a month and will the taking the test in the first week of July. I needed some advice on my preparation in the coming month. First, some background on my prep so far.

I am an engineer with decent math skills and I don't think I have verbal impediment. I started my prep by going through information about the test and types of questions, strategies etc. I then moved on to reading through (and taking notes from) Manhattan SC, RC and CR guides. I then moved on to questions from the OG and Kaplan Verbal Workbook (interspersed with my reading). I did the questions untimed and here is how I fared:

OG:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 95% correct
CR - 95% correct

Kaplan VWB:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 85% correct
CR - 95% correct

I have also taken two MGMAT CAT tests in the past two weeks. The details:

CAT 1: 720 (Q-45, V-42) was very rusty on the quant section
CAT 2: 770 (Q-50, V-45)

On the verbal section in both tests, I got around 8-9 questions wrong and they were evenly distributed among the 3 types of questions.

I would like to know what I should plan to do to maximize my score. I have been analyzing all the questions that I get wrong or am not sure about. I have also ordered the Verbal Review by GMAC for further practice.

It would be awesome of someone could give me pointers on the following:
1. Study plan and material I should cover
2. A good source of practice material (verbal) where I can practice questions of a higher difficulty level
3. Tests I should take other than MGMAT and GMAT Prep
4. Methods for improving individual skills for particular question types (SC,CR,RC)

I'd really appreciate any advice and sorry if I've bored you to death by now.

Thanks again.

Regards
Pranay
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by sivaelectric » Tue May 31, 2011 6:24 am
pranaygupta86 wrote:
Manhattan SC, RC and CR guides. I then moved on to questions from the OG and Kaplan Verbal Workbook (interspersed with my reading). I did the questions untimed and here is how I fared:

OG:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 95% correct
CR - 95% correct

Kaplan VWB:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 85% correct
CR - 95% correct

I have also taken two MGMAT CAT tests in the past two weeks. The details:

CAT 1: 720 (Q-45, V-42) was very rusty on the quant section
CAT 2: 770 (Q-50, V-45)

It would be awesome of someone could give me pointers on the following:
1. Study plan and material I should cover
2. A good source of practice material (verbal) where I can practice questions of a higher difficulty level
3. Tests I should take other than MGMAT and GMAT Prep
4. Methods for improving individual skills for particular question types (SC,CR,RC)
Materials - MGMAT guides are awesome and especially for Verbal, Practice from OG12 and verbal and quants 2nd edition from GMAC. Kaplan 800 book is good if you want 700+ questions. With the kaplan book you have, you get a code which can be used to register for online exams. Take GMAT prep Tests, Kaplan Practice test. :) Hope I helped
If I am wrong correct me :), If my post helped let me know by clicking the Thanks button ;).

Chitra Sivasankar Arunagiri
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by vineeshp » Tue May 31, 2011 6:25 am
You are already scoring highly.

I think you dont need any more tests. The 6 MGMATs, and the 2 GMATPreps (with repeats?) gives you enough tests to take between now and 1st week of July. You will do well.

You are already doing really well on the Verbal too. So I suggest that LSAT CR, RC 99 and Aristotle SC questions should be enough for additional practice. For SC, if you just do the OG well and visit the explanations for all answers, you will be fine.

Dont stress yourself out. Since you are already doing ok, just space out your preps. That should be more than enough.

Most people do average on the first few MGMATs because the set has all tough questions still available. You are already hitting 770 there.
Vineesh,
Just telling you what I know and think. I am not the expert. :)
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by pranaygupta86 » Tue May 31, 2011 11:35 am
Thanks a lot guys, esp for the advice on books. I'll get these and keep you posted. Thanks a ton again.

Cheers
Pranay
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by pranaygupta86 » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:07 am
Hey guys

I gave my 1st GMAT Prep test yesterday. The details:

Overall: 770
Quant: 51 (0 incorrect)
Verbal: 42 (5 incorrect - Qs 2,3,9,10,18)

In the verbal section, I got 2 sentence correction and 3 critical reasoning questions wrong. The SC errors were pretty much blunders on my part, but the CR errors were a different story. In all 3 cases, I was able to narrow it down to 2 choices and ended up picking the incorrect one. It was like I was unable to get the line of thought the question wanted me to. What can I do to avoid such mistakes?

Also, I now have around 30 days till my GMAT appointment. I plan to take around 2 test a week till then and continue practicing questions everyday. I will step up my efforts in the last 7-10 days to revise the concepts I have learned and take tests more frequently. Any advice around my plan would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your time.

Regards
Pranay
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