I just Beat The GMAT!

Thank you! I'm currently going through OG stuff with the plan of knowing and understanding the material inside and out, or at least as much as possible before Dec. 13. I'm actually having fun with this whole process.

Please keep us updated!

absolutely buddy - you can count on it

-ngufo

What a great post! Thanks!!

I don't know who you are ... I may never ever get to talk to you or see you ... you have touched my life ... I lost my friend today and I was depressed ... I have my GMAT in 2 days ...

Your post and the link to videos have brought me up again ... I know I have committed to do this and I will give it my best shot .... I will do everything to make my friend up there proud of me....

thanks ngufo ...

hey I want to know which kind of questions I have to get right in order to achieve 450 in one week !

If there can ever be a more visual representation of the power of the human spirit and mind
to persvere and win against all odds, it will have to be the election of Barack Obama as the President
elect of the United States.

I sit with tears flowing thru my eyes, flicking thru every channel on TV possible, my heart beating
vigourously, filled with hope faith and joy, my beliefs, my confidence, and my determination
re-fueled re-energized, because what I have lived my life for the last 32 years, seems to have coem true.

The belief that single minded hard work, persistence, as well as the determination to give
everything you have to the immediate task in hand, can make dreams come true. That nothing
is impossible in life ... that ify ou believe in something with your heart and soul, it is just a matter of time before it will come true.

I am re-inforced adn re-energized when I say "Dont ever give up folks" - we can do anything we set
our minds to.

YES WE CAN!!

-ngufo

hi

your gmat experience is amazing and i feel so happy for you.
you worked hard during six months.

thanks and good luck for Harvard because that's what you deserve.

bye

Thank you for your post. It's very helpful. Keeping your background in mind, how did tackle the verbal sections, especially RC and CR? It takes me so long to comprehend and RCs and CRs. I am afraid, that even after practicing all the exercises, my speed to solve RCs and CRs might not improve.

I've gone through the 11th ed of OG, princeton and kaplan course review materials, OG's verbal and math supplemental guides, Kaplan Verbal Workbook 5th ed, Manhattan SC

I'm taking the test on jan 30 and will be go through the following books. I am aiming 700+

-Kaplan math work book 5th edition
-Princeton Verbal workout
-Princeton Math Workout
-Kaplan 800
-OG 10th edition
-Cracking the gmat
-Math Bible
-Verbal Bible
-Barron's math

And of course all the tests and materials that you have suggested. Will highly appreciate your words of advice

I actually clapped after reading that. Congratulations!

Hi nzaidi004,
Replying a little late but hope this helps ....

I had put this in a previous post explaining how I tackled the verbal section for GMAT ...

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You make me remember the same pain I went thru when studying for the GMAT. It was excruciating (RC, CR as well as SC) . Let me first start with a very small thing I did which helped me save crazy amount of time - took me some time to figure it out.

Before every question in verbal that I answered I would the following before even reading the question.

7.35
1. A B C D E

7.39
2. A B C D E

The 7.35, 7.39 is the time when I start to answer each question. It would give me a very good idea of how much time I had spent on each question. ( above it shows me that I had spent 4 minutes on question 1). I would know that I had spent a lot of time, and need to pace myself better. The only area I know I could save time was SC, would try to do that, plus it also helped because if I came across a particularly hard question that I knew would take me time, instead of spending another 4 minutes on it (given taht I knew I was running out of time), i would make a best guess on it sooner.

Based on what you have written, it sounds like you are already doing a good job of timing yourself - trust me that is the MOST IMPORTANT THING. Once you get your timing good, I fervently believe that half of the problem for preparing for GMAT is gone. So that is a good first step. The 1 is the question number, and The A B C D E written is the answer choices. Before even reading the question I would write the above down, (it had become a reflex with me). What I would do is that for each answer choice that I was sure is wrong, I would cross the alphabet out (THAT MEANS NO RE-READING THAT ANSWER CHOICE AGAIN). I saved precious time. The ones that had a circle on it, were the ones that could be the potential choices. Wahtever back and forth I did would be between those choices. Once I decided one was out, I would cut that out, adn continue the same process. It really helped me (because beofre, I would end up re-reading all the questions and getting confused
which was better than the other). Writing the time and the alphabets should be come a part of you, before even reading writing it on paper, and then starting!!

Now coming to the CR portion. I tried 300 different techniques . I was so screwed up - nothing seemed to work for me . I tried reading the passage, summarizing it and writing the premise and the conclusion. First reading the question then the passage -EVERYTHING. Just like you I kept asking, trying new things, NEVER GAVE UP. Finally what worked for me literally was PRACTISE. After a lot of practice I realized that "when I read the question, and then read the passage, for some reason after reading the passage I felt the need to re-read the question being asked again". I noticed that consistently at least in me. So I stopped reading the question first. I would read the passage, and keep track of the main flow. Then read teh question - based on that, it was easy to cut out 1-2 straight off the bat (on the alphabets - as I did that it saved me a lot of time). After that yes for the remaining choices, its re-reading the passage and going back and forth. The
funny thing is that over time, when you TIME EVERY CR passage that you do (I timed every question that I did in the Official Maths guide, offical verbal workbook, as well as the Official guide 10th edition). i didnt do a single question without timing it, write the alphabet, and practise cutting things off, and re-reading the remaining options) over time, I just felt I got the hang of it. It was like one day - CR questions didnt feel so painful anymore. I was able to go thru them relatively painlessly - I had my pattern built. "Immediately write the time, write the question number, write the alphabets, Read the passage well (very very focused), read the question - immediately cut the ones that dont make sense), and then go thru the process of re-reading the passage and making decisions. Once you feel comfortable with what you are diong, stick with it. If you are taking 3 minutes, but comfortable with your technique, and getting it right that is GREAT.
Just keep practising and timing. I am very sure, with enough practise, over time, it will get better. In case you are not timing every question in OG make sure you do.

SC: Dude dont try to figure out the solution before reading the answers . That will kill you - I know because that killed me too . I did the exact same for the first 3 months of practise. I HATED SC. i couldnt for the love of god figure out how the hell to get them right. Every damn answer looked good to me!!!!. princeton gave a good technique. See the underlined portion, and then immediately look at the answers (dont even TRY to figure out what should be right). When you see the choices use the 3/2 technique. Based on the answers you will see that 3 questions have similar usage, like " The children have had their dinner and gone to bed". Three choices will show you have and 2 will shwo you has. You immediately no that has is wrong. Cut your alphabets - great now you just have to figure out the remaining three. Now instead of you trying to figure out what is write, compare teh differences between the three ansewrs. Try to see what the author has done
different in those three choices. Often times that helped me figure out what was right (most times what I thought should be there never was - not sure if my english is that bad, or GMAT just sucks ).
finally make a flash card for EVERY sentence correction question you get wrong... I know that sounds crazy, but trust me, that alone helped me get very very good at SC. It was hard to remember all the idioms, all the patterns. I also have a problem of basic informatin retention. I forget things very quickly (had this problem since I was small). Read something then forget . So by making flash cards and swriting it down (I have explained how I made the flash cards), and practising the questions reguarly, I would remember how the sentence patterns were. In 6 months I had 4 big business card boxes of flash cards (used my official business cards as flash cards). I would practise them regularly. Keep in min dthe usage (try to answer without looking at th eanswer. Not by memorizing the anser, but by memorizing what was wroing - like oh there is a parallelis error here, there isan applies and oranges error here so on so forth (I used princeton verbal to learn
the fundamentals. It explains that very easily). By doing that after 6 months of lots of flash cards and lots of revising I started seeing patterns - it became much more easier. It was only then that I got the Manhattan SC book (it would have been too complicated for me earlier). Later on I was able to add on to my base with the book. (I made flash cards, of important concepts from the book too)

RC: Another painful portion for me. Probably the worst. Given my retention problem by the time I would finish reading the passage, I had completely forgotton what the hell the author was talking about . If you talk about crazy frustration and depression - this area killed me. I remember thinking of buying some mental ability tests, to help me fix my retrention issue, to help me focus. I practiced with soem tools on the web -all it helped was giving me a big headache . I tried everything possible - reading all blogs, asking for help, trying to emulate the techniques people mentioned - nothing worked. Finally with a lot of practise and trying new technique I found a way that worked for me. I realized that the first para and the last para, basically control the entire flow of the passage (introduction and summary para). The paras in middle were like e.gs, or details of some specific thing. If I could keep track of what the first and secon para was talking
about, and have a basic understanding of what was in the middle paras, I was able to do a better job of answering my RC. So when I would read, I would read the 1st and last para very carefully. The middle paras, I would skim thru. When flow/passage structure questions were asked (previously I would get them wrong, as I would be reading everything in detail, and forgetting the same after completing the passage). After my new technique I got those questions right. For questions in which they asked a specific question about the passage, it was easy enough to go and re-read a few lines to get the exact answer - BINGO. I was just so excited the day it started working for me. It happened out of the blue - one day nothing was happening the next day it just happend....


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Hi nedaari,
thanks for the kind words... I am happy that my post is helping people get motivated and continue to believe that they can beat the odds too. Every word in that post is true- those 6 months were the hardest, but the most rewarding for me ...
Most of the other blogs I read the people were so smart, and looked like the GMAT was nothing major for them - for me it hurt every darn step of the way .... I wanted people to know the other side of the story as well

Sometimes when I am a little down and out, I come and read this blog I've posted. Emails from folks like you make my day ..... I get re-energized, my faith comes back and I go after the immediate task at hand with double the energy....

I hope you do great in the GMAT exam, if I can help in any way, please let em know.

Take care,
-ngufo

Hi ngufo,

I am truly inspired by your blog. To tell you more about me, I am also an average performer. I would never consider myself as too good in maths/verbal and at the same time I believe my skills are quite average. I have been preparing for this GMAT for a long time but not continuously. I started purchasing books around March 2008 and started preparations in
around April but couldn't continue due to personal problems and office pressure. Started again in Aug but again couldn't continue till Nov. This time, i have started prep in Dec'08 and I am determined to take the test very soon.

I have seen many blogs written by successful people at GMAT but all the blogs were from high perfomers, who have been performing amazingly all through their life. The thing is, I couldn't relate myself to them easily and even when I tried to follow people who are above my mark, I dont find it easy to follow their techniques.

Then I happened to read your blog last week, almost a year after you have initially written it and I am truly inspired. 'You are just amazing' in all the words of encouragement that you have put in your post.Honestly speaking my target GMAT score a week before reading your post was 650-680 because that was like an honest estimate of what I think i can achieve but now after reading your post I believe 700 is very much feasible provided I believe in myself and do all the necessary hard work to achieve it. With inspiring people around like you, i have the
feeling that I can go for it.

To be precise, I have started to follow some of the techniques that you have mentioned like 20 questions in each section of OG and making flash cards and reviewing each question that I made a mistake. I have tried it now for only a couple of days and still a long way to go But i thought I should leave a note thanking you for the inspiring words that you have
written and the wonderful person you seem to be.

Thanks to Eric as well for creating this wonderful forum ... i find it like a Kingdom of Knowledge (GMAT) and without you, we would have not been able to discuss and praise inspiring people like ngufo.
ngufo, I have decided to follow your steps and You are just amazing

Thanks,
Arise Awake and Stop Not Until Thy Goal is reached

Hi Ariseawake,
Firstly I loved your signature - it talks a lot about you, and your determination. I am sure with your very positive attitude, and determination to succeed - no one can stop you.

when I came to the forum and started reading around, I was very intimidated. Everyone seemed like super achievers and getting a 700+ either seemd supremely easy for some people, or undoable by the remaining .. there seemed to be no middle ground.

I wanted people to know - that GMAT was *crazy hard* for me, but I still got a 720. Anyone out there who doubts there capabilities or thinks they may not have what it takes to do it, needs to know, that if someone as average as me can get the score - truly ANYONE CAN!!

I am so proud today, that my blog helped you get motivated and inspired to go after your dream. That was my intent right along - you just made my day, my month, my year .....

thank you for your post - it inspires me to further go along in life, trying to set goals that may look distant, but are achievable thru sheer determination, passion, and a belief in one self.

Along with your hard work, do put in a prayer to god as well - I know you will achieve what you have set out to do.

Along the way if I can help in anyways please let me know,

Take care,
ngufo

Hi ngufo,

Thanks for your inspiring words again Nice to hear that you liked my signature and I do like it too ! But more than that .. guess what I keep saying to myself these days ... "Never Give up ..Fight on" and it definitely helps to keep going.

Yes, prayers do help Thanks for reminding me that I am a simple human being,and apart from all our hardwork and good will to ahcieve, the Almighty has definitely a part to play to get us to our destination.

Will definitely get in touch with you for any help that I need. Thanks for being what you are and wish all your dreams come true this New year

Thanks,
Arise Awake and Stop Not Until Thy Goal is reached

Thank ariseawake!
It was a pleasure seeing your post again. I will put in a prayer for you as well. However something in my gut tells me, You will absolutely DO IT!!

The brain is an interesting organ, if you can control it all other parts of your body follow... Looks your brain is already hard wired to get a 700+, the rest is all mechanics

waiting to hear your success story in this forum, in the mean while, any help you need anytime I will be there!

Take care,
-ngufo