Hi Amishi,
I tried to do the review every sunday itself. I would be lying if I told you that I managed to complete all the questions, but I really tried very hard.
Another thing that helped was writing the test earlier in the morning from 9 - 12. after that I would take a 2 hour break and do the review around 2 -4.

My recommendation is that for all the princeton and Official guide tests, do try to complete all the review questions as best as possible. For kaplan I was getting scores of around 500 odd, and hence there were so many mistakes, that I was not able to get thru all of them in time. Plus I was really demotivated after writing the test, I would generally feel really depressed for a day or two after writing the test, and then slowly limp along. Bottom Line - do the best you can!

Another important thing that helped me is that for all themaths/verbal official guides, as well as the Official Guide 10th edition, make sure that you continue this process of reviewing questiosn that you get wrong. I thing that helps more than anything else. The questions I got in the final GMAT, were not repeats from OG, but conceptually following on the same lines.

Really wish you all the best, I really hope you ace the gmat too!

Take care,
-ngufo

Hi Sid,
I used the Princeton books just to brush up on the basics. I was very very bad in both maths and verbal, and 7 years of working, had forgotton all the very basic formulas too. Princeton explains all the concepts in very simple language, plus the data sufficiency is beautifully explained.

Once you complete Princeton, yup I would suggest doing the kaplan maths/verbal guides, they have a much higher level of difficulty, and give you some much needed practice. Kaplan was more for "I now know the concepts, lets try some tough problems" kind of approach.

But at the end, just make sure that you've done every single question from Official guide maths workbook, verbal, and finally the main official guide. The questions are the closest that come to in the final exam (in terms of the difficulty level).

Wish you all the best, very sure you will crack the test big time!
-ngufo

Hi NGUFO,

Great job. Extremely inspiring. Good luck with your HBS applications, let us know how you did.

Cheers,
Jason

Thanks Jason - appreciate the kind words. In retrospect now, I really dont know how I did it. I just know, that when you want something really badly, god gives you the will power to brave thru whatever you need to do......

I love the analogy - that when a ship goes out into the ocean, if it could see the vastness of it, it would get scared, and never leave the port. the reason it survives, is that it takes the ocean one wave at a time....

I guess thats what we are doing, take whatever life brings you one obstacle at a time...

Will definitely come back to the forum and update everyone on how the applications went. There is a wealth of knowledge that we can help each other out on, using this forum.

Wish you all the best, hope that you realize every dream that you set your mind too

Take care,
-ngufo

You obviously have lots of determination and most importantly optimism. The GMAT is just the first step to what is probably a very long road to HBS, you'll need all the drive you can muster.

Your story reminds me of my army platoon commander, who used to tell us that 'what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger'.

Hi ngufo,
Thanks great post.....Really People never fail they just give up
Give me some pointers for RC and CR.....which books you would like to suggest for a weak person like me...

-Ajay

Thanks Jason - that was a very beautiful statement - and I do agree with it whole heartedly..... (What doesnt kill me, makes me stronger...)

I think you have the right spirit, and mind set, plus being in the army, itself makes you stand out in my mind.

Wish you all the best, you dont have a choice now (you are going to nail the GMAT)

Take care, god bless,
-ngufo

Hi Ajay,
Buddy firstly trust me, dont worry that you are weak in some areas. When I started out, I sucked so bad at RC its not even funny. I actually tried to take some mental ability tests, to sharpen my skills, and be able to do a better job. I would feverishly read all the possible solutions people gave to improve my technique. Nothing worked . At the end what got me doing decently, is just lots of practice. I read all the techniques that were taught in Princeton (dont think they helped me much). I then read the kaplan tips on Reading comprehension on the CD, and I remember those being useful. I started making sure that when I read cnn news articles, I read them in detail, trying to remember the summary afterwards. For RC adn CR at the end of the day, the only thing that helped me was practice. You have to find a way that works for you ....

Another thing being, when you do an RC or CR wrong, dont read the answers, try to solve them again on your own. Other wise if that comes agian, you will make the same mistake yet again.

For sentence correction Manhattan GMAT SC book is awesome, adn really really helped me out. I would hightly recommend it.

I can tell you this first 4 months for me were an uphill struggle in Verbal and Quant. Verbal, I just didnt know how to get the answers right. But I would keep trying to find ways of making my readin better. Do make sure you practice all your OG verbal, as well as the OG official guide (timing all the questions). Practise will give you the confidence you need. You will start oiut in the doldrums, but as you do more questions, a pattern will develop on how you are able to attack the questions most efficiently. Thats how it worked out for me...


And finally there is nothing wrong in identifying that you are weak in certain areas. Thats the first step towards making yourself stronger. You have the right attitude, and you are asking the right questions. Just believe in yourself, and practise your life out on all the questions. The rest god will take care of. You give it your 300% - once you've given it your all, god carries you thru the remaining tide ... I truly believe that with my heart.

Wish you all the very best,
-ngufo

Ngufo...I was wondering, that 4 last math questions you did not have time to answer (I think I read that in another post :wink: )...what option did you select A,B,C,D or E?...did you even read them or just guesssed?

Thanks!

Chris,
Thats actually a very good question. I had read thru a few books, and the flash cards that I downloaded from teh website, that choosing D was a good idea for problem solving questions. Thats what I ended up doing for the exam. I didnt have time, to even see what the questiosn are - I barely hit the D for the last question, before the timer popped up.

For DS I really didnt have a set answer in mind. You realy ahve to read the question to be able to make a valid guess. Luckily for me, the last 4 questiosn were all problem solving - I went for all D's.

I do believe that out of the 4 Iguessed a few must have been right, thats why I got a 720.. (its not about how good you are sometimes, I think destiny/god helps!)

Take care,
-ngufo

Hi ngufo,
Thanks for your quick reply.I have some questions:

1] )" I then read the kaplan tips on Reading comprehension on the CD, and I remember those being useful. " .I have a Kaplan CD which I got when I purchase Kaplan Premier book but,that CD just contains the Sectional and Full Length tests....there r no RC tips r u referring to some other CD here?

2] I'm done with Manhattan SC,Kaplan Premier still not significant progress in Verbal .May be I have practive more and practice in the right way...For RC and CR most of the time I don't get the main idea of what author is saying in one reading .I'll read from various source and will try to improve my reading and comprehension speed.....

3] For Quant Do you see the difficuly level of actual exam is more than OG or its the same ?

4]Do you think 1000 SC,CR are worth spending time ?

Thanks,
Ajay

Great Score & Great EFFORT...
Very inspiring debrief...
Congrats... Nothing to say!!!

Hi Ajay

1. the kaplan CD that I think was useful was blue/purple on the top, and it did have practice sessions for Sentence Correction, Reading comprehension and Critical reasoning. The sessions were not very long, but I still found going thru it useful. I tried doing several things to improve my RC (tried making summary notes after each para, etc), nothing helped. The only thing that helped was making sure I understand teh first para, and teh last para very well (have an idea what the outline of the passage is), and then have a okay idea of what the individual paras are talking about, so that you can look into them later for specifics.

2. The actual progress I made in my verbal was when I started doing theOfficial Guide (Verbal workbook), and the actual offical guide questions. Have you finished all of them? Did you make sure you timed yourself while doing all the questions (that really helps one pace oneself)

3. I remember that the final GMAT was not easy. It was equal or more difficult than what I had seen in the prep tests (GMAT prep tests). They tested your concepts more than anything else. If you have been practising and revising all your mistakes, then you wont have a problem cracking.

4. I would recommend doing it, as it does give you practice. however I would suggestion finishing your Offical Guide before doing anything else, thtas the closest in terms to the level of difficulty you see in the actual GMAT.

Wish you all the best,
Take care,
-ngufo

Hi ngufo,
Thanks again for your quick and detail reply.I finished OG 11 some months back. Q was ok.V I had just 30-40% accuracy.... For V I didn't solved in the problems in timed manner but,now while solving any questions I use the excel (which was created by Urshala) of 41 for 75 mins .....
My plan is clear the concepts for all Verbal sections first from Kaplan,MGMAT books and then again go back to OG Books.

I have OG Verbal and Quant workbooks also but haven't touched them till now So, the plan is

STEP 1]Finish Kaplan Comprehensive ,Manhatton SC,RC+CR books for Verbal
STEP 2]Finish Kaplan,Powerprep Tests
STEP 3]Finish OG 11
STEP 4]Finish OG Verbal and Quant workbooks
STEP 5]Finish Manhatton Tests
STEP 6]Finish Gprep Tests

My exam is on 29 th March and I'm still at STEP 1 .
Let me know in case you have any more suggestions at this point of time.
My my weekly tests
I'm getting Q- 30-35
V- 12-20
Verbal I'm not able to finish all the questions in time....
but,Will improve gradually ..

Thanks,
Ajay

Hi Ajay,
I was in a similar status as you were in the first few months of my study. So dont worry too much about that. I dont see the princeton review in your list. Princeton really explained the concepts very well, and helped me get a strong base. Kaplan was far too hard, and not represntative of what comes on the GMAT.

The main point of concern that I see is that March 28th is not too far away. have you thought about postponing the test? I registered for my test when I was getting around 690 in my princeton. It took me 5 solid months to get to that level . I know that sounds painful, but if I had written it before that, I wouldnt have crossed the 650 mark.

In case you do have to write the exam in March, I would suggest that you go thru the Official Guide Maths/Verbal, and all the questions in the main book (10th or 11th edition)whichever you are using (first the workbooks and then the main guide). There are enough questions that will take you 2 whole months to get ready. I think those are the most important, I wouldnt do the other books, in the time that you have right now. In case you are able to postpone the test, you can do everything in more detail.

Do make sure that for every question you get wrong, you try to do it by yourself. Only when you are not able to do that, read the answer. It will help strengthen your concepts. Also please read the chapter on data sufficiency that is given by princeton (it is attached in my post - to a quesstion from imfatt, you should be able to get it from there). It really helps you get the fundas of data sufficiency (helped me a lot).

Bottom line you need to practise practise and practise. That helps you get the momentum. Do make sure you are putting in 2 hours minimum everyday, and good amount of effort every day of the weekend.

Also have you tried to analyse why your scores are low in quant and verbal? What areas are stressing you out, what you need to improve on? There might be specific topics that you are weak in, and befor eyou continue doing any more questions, it might be a good idea to brush up those topics. I was very very bad at percentages and ratio and proportion. Took me a whole lot of time to read and learn the concepts of the same (I used princeton, googled, and finally did a lot of practse from all the books I could lay my hands on to getmore confident on the same).

Another question for you is, if someone was to give you the same question from the test tha tyou wrote last week (taht you got wrong), are you 100% sure that you would get it right? If not then you are not revising enough, and probably thats another area to focus on.

Also for sentence correction/difficult maths formulas, tricks/techniques, are you making flash cards (that you revise once a week). That helps a lot too.

Another thing that was crucial for me to time myself was, I would loose track of the time I spent on any quesiton (and that can really mess things up). To avoid that what I started doing is for each question I would write the time when I start the question. When I started teh next question I would right the time again. that would tell me how many minutes had elapsed. Anything more than 2 minutes for maths, and 1.8 for verbal, tells you that you are going to run out of time, and helps you pace yourself. That worked wonders for me.

I also realized that dont spend too much of time on things that you know are hard and you wont be able to answer. When I got a permutation and combination quesiton, I spent less than 50 seconds on it. Took a well educated guess and moved on - I knew I suced in that area, and would not be able to do the question, so why waste time.

Do remember that you *have* to answer all the questions. that is very very important. YOu loose a lot of points by not completing all the questions on time.

I hope the above helps. YOu have a great attitude, and you are trying very hard. I really believe that with focused effort, and lot of revising, plus timing yourself right you can nail this. Things will go bad, you will feel down and out a lot of times. I felt that almost all the time - but keep pushing yourself. Keep trying to identify your weaknesses and fixing them. Once you've done that, given it your all - leave the rest to god. There really is nothing more that yo can do then

Really hope that everything works out for you, and you do very very well in the exam.

Take care,
-ngufo