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Reappearing for GMAT in 4 weeks

by JP » Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:50 am
Hello all,

I appeared for GMAT on Sep 12 and got 630 (Q46 & V31). I did not study anything for GMAT from September till date. I want to score 680+. I am taking 3 weeks leave beginning Nov 19 and have booked exam for Dec 13.

I believe I need to improve my concepts in CR/RC/SC. So, I am going through various material on this site and preparing my own flashcards. I will supplement it with Stacey and Sahil's notes.

I have the OG 11, OG Quant and Verbal review, OG 10, MGMAT SC guide, Princeton guide and Kaplan 800 books. During the first attempt, I did NOT use OG 10, OG Quant/Verbal review guide and Kaplan 800.

My high level plan is as follows:
1. Review concepts of CR/RC from Kaplan 800 and prepare flashcards
2. Review concepts of SC from MGMAT SC and update flashcards
3. Do problems of CR/RC/SC from OG 11, OG 10 and OG verbal review
4. Take MGMAT SC question bank questions
5. Review concepts of PS/DS from Princeton
6. Do problems of PS/DS from OG 11, OG 10 and OG Quant review
7. Retake MGMAT CAT (6 exams) and GMATPrep Tests (2 exams)

Questions:
1. Please give your thoughts on the above plan and if anything I need to add/modify
2. I have already completed all problem from OG 11 once during my previous GMAT take (Sep). Will re-doing the problem from OG11 be useful as I may remember the answers?
3. Should I look at 1000 CRs / 1000 SC questions as they will be new to me?
4. Any other thoughts /suggestions?

Thanks in advance
JP
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by bates88 » Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:43 am
Normally I would say don't do OG 10 if you have OG 11, but since you already did 11, I wouldn't redo 11. With all the practice materials you have, I think you'll be ok without OG 10. It's fairly old and not hard enough anymore, esp for quant. Use it as a back-up if you somehow run out of practice questions.

Don't use Kaplan for RC/CR. Use Princeton Review. PR is much, much closer to the real thing, esp for verbal.

I wouldn't retake the CATs you've already taken. You will likely see repeat questions, and that will throw off your timing or possibly give you a false sense of security. Do the Princeton Review tests. Four practice tests in 3 weeks should be plenty. MAYBE redo the GMATPrep tests if you really need it.
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by mayonnai5e » Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:56 pm
Two things:

1) It sounds like you have a lot of material you are trying to cover - maybe too much - in just three weeks. I would consider cutting out some of the repeat material (e.g. OG11 since you've already done it) and focus on newer material.

2) If you have not worked in Kaplan 800 and the OG Q and V reviews, doing those together should take up most of the 3 weeks assuming you are taking a good amount of time to review the solutions for every single question. Don't bother with the 1000 materials because it's better to have questions from reputable sources with very excellent explanations (i.e. kaplan 800 and OG material).

I would consider finding some new CATs also. You mentioned you've done the MGMAT and GMATPrep exams so perhaps the 4 PR exams will be good, new practice. I wouldn't do Kaplan because it's gotten bad reviews on this site (I had the Kaplan CD and never did a single CAT in it).
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Thanks for the direction

by JP » Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:37 am
Thanks to both of you for your guidance. I will prepare a plan today focussing on Kaplan 800 and OG review materials. I did go through PR verbal but I thought it was very basic. So, I might stick with Kaplan.

Mayonnai,
I saw your lessons learned link in your signature. It looks fantastic. I am going through it now.

Thanks again,
JP
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by beatthegmat » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:10 pm
Good luck, JP! Please keep us updated on your progress!
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Nov 19 - Initial plan and OGVR CR 1 - 40

by JP » Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:26 pm
Thanks Eric.

The following is the plan I prepared for next 25 days. As I am on leave, I have the full day available for study. I plan to revise flash card early morning and then from 9 am to 5 pm follow the plan given below. Please do comment on the plan.

Today I completed 1-40 CR question from OGVR and got everything right. The timing was a bit slow around 2 minutes for these easier questions. I did review the answers for all the questions.

I had read Mayonnai5e's excellent post and wanted to prepare lessons learned of my own. But not sure how to capture it. In some of the questions, I did guess while answering and when I reviewed the answers, I understand why it was right.

E.g. Question 40 about Dental research CR, the reasoning is that stating something can happen does not necessarily mean it will happen. I have already captured this point in my flash card. I could only think of that may be I should read the question slowly to understand it.

So my quest for Quality over Quantity still continues. May be in next few days it will start clicking for me.

Should I take some private tutoring from say MGMAT or something? Will it help?

One more thing. I realized that may be I have already taken the CR questions from OGVR. For more CR practise, should I use Kaplan 800 or 1000 CRs? I have already done princeton's CRs.

Thanks in advance,
JP

PLAN
19-11 CR Review. OGVR CR 1-40
20-11 RC Review. OGVR RC 1-40
21-11 SC Review. OGVR SC 1-40
22-11 OGQR PS 1-40
23-11 OGQR DS 1-40
24-11 Princeton Test 3
25-11 Princeton Test 3 review
26-11 OGVR CR 41-80, OGQR PS 41-80
27-11 OGVR RC 41-80, OGQR DS 41-80
28-11 OGVR SC 41-80, OGQR PS 81-120
29-11 OGVR RC 81-105, OGQR DS 81-120
30-11 OGVR SC 81-113 OGQR PS 121-160
01-12 Princeton Test 4
02-12 Princeton Test 4 review
03-12 MGMAT Test 4
04-12 MGMAT Test 4 review
05-12 GMATPrep Test 1
06-12 GMATPrep Test 1 review
07-12 MGMAT Test 5
08-12 MGMAT Test 5 review
09-12 MGMAT Test 6
10-12 MGMAT Test 6 review
11-12 GMATPrep Test 2 and review
12-12 Rest Day
13-12 GMAT Day
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by beatthegmat » Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:27 am
I wouldn't decide to take hire a private tutor until after you've taken your first GMAT practice test--you may find that you're performing just fine from self study! If you were to opt for private tutoring, I recommend Manhattan GMAT. Remember, as a Beat The GMAT member you are entitled to a 10% discount.

With regard to your last question, I would practice with OG, Kaplan, PR, MGMAT material before using 1000 CR. The 1000 documents should only be a last resort, since the quality of those questions is highly variable.

Best of luck! You've got a great schedule!
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Re: Nov 19 - Initial plan and OGVR CR 1 - 40

by mayonnai5e » Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:44 am
JP wrote:I did guess while answering and when I reviewed the answers, I understand why it was right.
That sentence is the key to capturing the lessons learned. What was the difference in logic that made you go from thinking an answer was right to understanding why it is definitely right? What steps did you miss in your thinking? Next time, if you were to see the exact same question again or a question that is very similar, what steps/thoughts would you need to incorporate to get to the correct answer?

My lessons learned were just the things that I felt I would need to remember in order to solve a similar question correctly the next time I saw a similar question. There is no real format that must be adhered to since lessons learned are very personal and vary from person to person.

But the two most important things are: 1) Capturing the essence mistake and 2) Figuring a way (any way) to not repeat that same mistake again. That is the micro level lesson.

I also had macro level lessons. For these, you must recognize patterns in your own thinking. For example, I noticed in SC when I got down to two answer choices and I was stuck on a specific error, I would spend minutes trying to decide which one was correct and sat there repeating both in my head over and over. So my lesson for that was to step away from that specific error when only two choices were left and find another error in the sentence and work off that. If no other choice was left, I picked based on my gut/intuition. That is a macro lesson that can be utilized over and over again in SC.

Hope that helps.
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Nov 20 - OGVR RC 1-40

by JP » Tue Nov 20, 2007 4:50 pm
Thanks Eric for your suggestion. I checked the MGMAT fees after knowing about 10% discount. Now, I will really think twice before jumping for it :) They are definitely value for money but may be at a premium.

Thanks Mayonnai too. I am trying to do the same.

I completed OGVR RC 1-40 in 66 minutes and got 35 correct.

Understanding the RC passage:
I tried to understand the passage without rushing to complete it in less than 3 minutes. The understanding helped me in answering most of the questions confidently. Earlier, skimming the passage did not work for me as I kept re-reading the passage and still was not sure of the answer.

Scope Shift:
I am amazed how adept GMAT is in shifting the scope in answer choices with just one word or two. In atleast 3 of my wrong answers, I should have spotted the scope shift. E.g. In OGVR RC 10, I narrowed down the answer choices to two:

C) A theory is proposed and is then followed by descriptions of three experiments that support the theory
D) A generalization is stated and is then followed by three instances that support the generalization

I got confused between theory and generalization and chose incorrect option C. But had I looked for more errors, I should have spotted the word 'experiments' as the passage did not contain any experiments. Both experiments and instances sounded similar to me and did not pay attention. Mayonnai mentioned the same in his macro level lesson mentioned above.

Finally, the difference between theory, generalization and hypothesis:

Theory: An explanation that is well established. Now how to recognize that something is well established, when reading a passage containing new subject such as a science passage, unless the author clarifies?

Hypothesis: A theory that is not yet proven

Generalization: Author's own statement/ deduction

Are the above explanation correct?

Another thing I need to work on is the structure of passage. I get confused a bit. Will see more examples I guess.

Thanks very much Eric and Mayonnai. I cant tell you how much better I feel after having my thoughts run by with you both

JP
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