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Newbie raring to go!

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Newbie raring to go!

by badri077 » Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:23 pm
Hi all,

Been preparing from scratch for about 3.5 weeks. Have another 41 days to go. Here's my plan and status so far. Comments/feedbacks are solicited and more than welcome!

background
1. Covered the basics so far in terms of prep. (OG 11th edition).
2. Quant seems the easiest for me (I'm an engineer). Like they say I need practice (lots of it).
3. Verbal is my problem (Patience and mind gymnastics!). I'm from India and I learnt English from a very young age. As a result I don't remember rules and often rely on what sounds right.
4. Planning on daily 2-4 hour studying. Full length tests every saturday. (Total 5-7 in all)
5. Planning on daily blog update as a discipline thing and to track.
questions
1. I'm planning on 1 CAT test from OG now and the 2nd one just before the exam. Any suggestions for the tests in between ? (Manhatten GMAT ?)
2. Daily 2-4 hours study strategy (Have covered 50% material in OG so far. Any other material ? Manhatten OG)
3. Verbal ? Well I'm trying hard to follow all the amazing tips from Sahil and the others..
4. There seem to be so many tracking sheets on the wiki. Any particular favorites ?

Thanks and hope all of us do well!
-BR
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by Stacey Koprince » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:09 pm
I'll let others comment on which particular sources they find most useful.

In your study sessions, try to do them in 1.5 to 2 hour increments. After that, your brain starts to get tired and you don't assimilate the information as well. If you want to do two 2-hour study sessions in one day, separate them by a substantial break (several hours at least).

Keep a log of your strengths and weaknesses across particular topics, question types, and methodologies (including timing and pacing). Use this to help direct your study.

Make sure to take substantial time to review your practice tests - it can take 8-10 hours to review one test thoroughly.
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Feedback from first test

by badri077 » Sun Jul 15, 2007 11:27 pm
Thanks for those tips Stacey. Will keep them in mind.

Just took my first timed test today (GMATPrep). Would appreciate some insights/feedback here.

Overall - Abysmal. Timing and pacing was really off for me. Need to improve reading concentration
Q-35, V-35. Overall - 580

AWA
- Not rated.
- Barely finished on time.
- Need more practice with topics and templates

Quant
35 - scaled score ( 16/28 )
- Couldn't attempt all questions
- Got bogged down in a few questions. Didn't guess and move on. A painful lesson!
- Some of the questions were a lot of harder than the sample questions on OG (11th ed).

Verbal
35 - scaled score (25/41)
- Learnt from my quant section disaster. Doubled up and completed all questions in time.
- Need to improve concentration. Tend to re-read many lines in RC
- Need to keep better track of time during RCs
- Need to improve parsing/understanding speed of SC alternatives

-Is the GMATPrep adaptive ?
-Also how does the scoring work ? I'm trying to understand the identical scaled scores in Q & V given that I attempted fewer questions in Q.
-Do people in the actual exam just skip all the explanatory screens without even a glance and jump to the questions ?.

Thanks,
-B
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Re: Feedback from first test

by Sadowski » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:23 am
badri077 wrote:Thanks for those tips Stacey. Will keep them in mind.

Just took my first timed test today (GMATPrep). Would appreciate some insights/feedback here.

Overall - Abysmal. Timing and pacing was really off for me. Need to improve reading concentration
Q-35, V-35. Overall - 580

AWA
- Not rated.
- Barely finished on time.
- Need more practice with topics and templates

Quant
35 - scaled score ( 16/28 )
- Couldn't attempt all questions
- Got bogged down in a few questions. Didn't guess and move on. A painful lesson!
- Some of the questions were a lot of harder than the sample questions on OG (11th ed).

Verbal
35 - scaled score (25/41)
- Learnt from my quant section disaster. Doubled up and completed all questions in time.
- Need to improve concentration. Tend to re-read many lines in RC
- Need to keep better track of time during RCs
- Need to improve parsing/understanding speed of SC alternatives

-Is the GMATPrep adaptive ?
-Also how does the scoring work ? I'm trying to understand the identical scaled scores in Q & V given that I attempted fewer questions in Q.
-Do people in the actual exam just skip all the explanatory screens without even a glance and jump to the questions ?.

Thanks,
-B
1) GMAT Prep is, in fact, adaptive.
2) A 35 on quant is a lower percentile score than a 35 on verbal. For instance, I believe a 50 on quant is 95th percentile, while a 42 in verbal is about 96th percentile. I guess that many more people score higher on quant than on verbal. Maybe Stacey knows more about this...
3) The explanatory sections will always be the same, so if you've seen them once there's no need to read through them again. However, on test day it may behoove you to go slow through everything and take it all in. After all, you're spending $250 to take this thing. Use the full allotted time and get your money's worth!
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Reg: Unattempted questions

by badri077 » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:46 am
thanks for those tips Sadowski!
So for me this essentially means that a vast majority of the test-takers scored above 35.
Does the score computation enforce a heavy penalty for unattempted questions ?

-B
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Re: Reg: Unattempted questions

by Sadowski » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:35 am
badri077 wrote:thanks for those tips Sadowski!
So for me this essentially means that a vast majority of the test-takers scored above 35.
Does the score computation enforce a heavy penalty for unattempted questions ?

-B
Yes! By far the worst thing you can do when taking the GMAT is leave a question unanswered. I'm actually quite surprised that you answered only about 2/3 of the questions and still got a 35. Even if you only leave the very last question unanswered, your score will suffer for it. The art of taking this test is knowing when you've reached your limit on a question and just guessing - it will happen. If it doesn't happen and you can do every problem they throw at you in 1.5 minutes, then you're officially genius.
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:38 am
What Sadowski said.

No one's quite sure why they use the same 0-60 numbers for math and verbal but the actual scale is different. But, yes, the same score in each means a vastly different percentile ranking.

Roughly, a 35 in verbal is about the 75th percentile and a 35 in quant is about the 50th percentile. (So, no, the vast majority do not score above 35.)

Also, there are two levels of "explanations / instructions" on the test. There's one set you do before the test starts, in which case feel free to take your time b/c it's not eating into your test time. But you also get explanations within the test itself for the 5 different question types (PS, DS, SC, CR, RC) - those you don't want to read because you'd rather spend time doing the problems. So for those, yes, you want to know the instructions in advance so that you can just skip right on through.
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