I just Beat The GMAT!

Hi vgmat2,
Just wrote a very very long email to you, and my browser crashed on me - I guess god wants me to put in extra effort here, so that when I tell you that you need to be persistent, have the faith, and keep putting in the required effort - I am not just talking, but actually mean it .....

So here we go again
1. You mentioned that you were having a very hard time with RC, SC. When I started out with GMAT, what killed me was RC, CR. For some reason my retention was very very bad. I couldnt seem to remember anything I read, and spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the passages. I would get crazy bad scores in verbal. What I started trying to do is focusing on figuring out what my problem was? What was causing me trouble when reading the passage? Was it because I didnt understand the english in the passage? Or the overall meaning of the passage? Or was it just that I couldnt remember the details once the passage was read.....
After a lot of practise, and analysing what I was doing wrong, I nailed it down to the fact, that I had retention issues. I found it hard to remember what was being said in the passage. I then fixed my problem by focusing on the introduction and the summary, understanding the overall flow of the passage, going thru the remaining paragraphs line by line (but not spending too much time), and then when detailed questions came, re-reading portions of the paragraph.

I read a lot of blogs/techniques, tried everything, but at the end what worked for me is just practising trying, trying, until I found a way that worked for me. Suddenly one day after 5 months of limping thru, I was able to actually do an RC passage without that much agony. I wasnt sure how it happened or why - all I knew is my constant struggle to fix my weakness, to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, had reaped its rewards ......

Having read your email I would suggest that you take all the time to read the RC passage (dont time yourself), and then answer all the questions (again taking all the time you need), and then see how you do. In case you do get everything right, that means, that you just have trouble reading the passage, and grasping the meaning fast. And that would mean doing what I did, which is read a article every day from any where (be it cnn, nbc, wall street journal) anything you can lay your hands on, and then after reading the passage, summarize the gist of it and write it. It was hard for me at first, but a little later, reading passages and summarizing them became easier for me.

In case you dont get every thing right even after spending a lot of time on the passage, that means that you are having fundamental issues understanding the passage itself. At this point, you will have to continue practising, identify what is making th epassage difficult for you? Is it hard words being used? Are you having retention issues too? Bottom line you first have to figure out WHAT IS giving your problems when you do your RC. Once you identify that, we can work on fixing the issue ....

For the sentence correction - flash cards are the key. For every SC you do wrong, please please make sure you make flash cards, clearly writing the questions, giving a hint on what kind of question it is (Apple/oranges, parallelism, idioms) etc, and then finally writing the correct portion of the underlined sentence. By constantly revising the flash cards, I grew accustomed to all the usages that are there. Because I got so many of the SC's wrong, I had 3 whole boxes of flash cards. Yo uhave to revise them as much as you can, at least once a week, or once in two weeks, to make sure you keep it refreshed in your mind.... The SC Manhattan gmat book also gives some very very good pointers, but I do know what helped me the most is the tedious writing of flash cards, and the weekly revising of the same .....

Having said all this, at the end it boils down to this for me ... god is miraculous. He will always be there for us, to guide us thru, but for some reason he waits until we have given our heart and soul into what we are striving for ... He waits until every part of you is feeling hopeless frustrated, adn down, until every part of you wants to give up, and let go .... and at this point when you are feeling so down and low, when you gather the faith in some part of you to take that one final small step forward .... ....Its then when he sweeps you in his arms, and carries you across the finish line. I really dont know why he waits so long, and why the road to success/fullfillment has to be so hard, but I do know that he has never ever let me down even once in my life when I have put everything I am into something I want to do - he has always helped me thru.

I do believe that if you continue practising, and trying your best, and contstantly searching for your weakness, and fixing it - at some point you will feel the change for the better... you will feel a remarkable breakthru .....

Its just a matter of time ....

I truly believe you can do it - dont please loose hope...

Take care,
-ngufo

Hi ngufo,

I just wanted to stop by and thank you for the brilliant job you are doing in encouraging board members to do their best in GMAT. I am sure there are many people out there who are inspired by your story just like I was.

Regards

ngufo,

a quick question...

In the SC part, how did you deal with the idioms ? You just cramped it up ??

Thanks.

smar83 wrote:ngufo,

a quick question...

In the SC part, how did you deal with the idioms ? You just cramped it up ??

Thanks.

In addition to the above query:

Do anyone know any resource where all GMAT idioms are listed with examples??? Because I think it will help me to understand idioms better and get hang of them.

Thanks and regards,
Enjoystar

Hi,

Thanks for the info
a) Yes I have retention issue. I have very good long term memory, but not good at short term retention.
b) SC - Due to time constraints - I get lost what is that I am looking in the question. I know all the aspects verb agreement, parallelism, noun-pronoun etc. But at the spur of the moment I am blank. Then I have to put myself together and get back my wits to ans-this consumes lot of time.
CR - somehow I get 75-80% correct on good days.

Well thanks for the information. I have to say "You are such a Charm".

Thanks again and I will keep bothering you.


- V

Hi smart83/enjoystar,
I tried to learn the idioms by just reading them off a book - it didnt help me at all. I could never ever remember the usage. Tried for a whole month and then realized that wouldnt work for me. thats when the flashcards came into work for me. I would make sure that for every sentence correction that I got wrong (idiom or non idiom), I would have a flash card ready in the format that I have described in my post. I also downloaded Eric's flash links (it has a lot of SC/idioms related info in it, that helped me a lot).

I was so bad at SC's that in the 6 months of studies I had literally 3 boxes of flash cards. Revising them helped me learn the usage, plus its so much easier remember the idioms when you have them in teh context of a problem...

I would sincerly suggest that you also make flash cards for the same. I know its tedious, but if you revise it regularly, I can guarateee you - it will really help you get your sentence correction hit rate up!!

Dont forget the manhattan SC - it is very very good for the concepts (but for me, the flash cards were the key, the manhattan SC - was just an icing on top)

Hope that helps,
-ngfuo

hi Partha,
I have been meaning to respond to you for a few days now, really sorry for the delay. You mentioned that you had already started studying the verbal from OG 11. Wanted to double check first, if you hvae written a diagnostic test yet? Generally teh way people create a study plan is as follows.
1. Take a diagnostic test (would suggest taking the princeton one. The OG tests are too valuable to take at this stage, they are the true reflection of your score, adn you want to leave it for the end, when you are in good form)

2. Based on the diagnostics you will konw what you are strong in and what you are weak. For me I sucked in both maths and verbal . Thats why I had to go on an intensive 6 month plan...

3. For me the study plan was :
a. Clean up basics adn fundamentals by reading Princeton (Maths, Verbal), and main edition. I spent a lot of time on these books, they helped me clear up my basics. Note I have the soft copy of the Princeton Maths book, in case you want a copy of the same, do send me an email at [email protected]
b. Once your basics are done - to get practise do the Kaplan (Maths, verbal workbook), and the main Kaplan edition
c. Finally when you have practised enough, and are ready for the main goal - start with OG. Do OG maths, verbal, and OG 11.

d. In between I used the Manhattan SC to clear up my SC basics.

This was the complete plan I used to study for the GMAT. I was pretty bad when I started. It took a lot of effort int he first few montsh to get moving. I had to study every day from 5-7 in the evening (I studied in the office itself in a closed conference room), as after coming home I was not able to study. Plus every weekend would go to office from 8-12 in the morning. On saturday, it was to revise everythign I had studied over the week (and make flash cards etc of anything I may have missed), while on sunday it was to give a practise test.

Later on when I moved on to OG11, I had to change my schedule, as I had to put in 3 hours every day to finish 100 questions (20 from RC, SC, CR, Quant (DS, PS)).

Its not going to be easy , I had a very rough time as well, given I was working. But I would suggest, that you make a mental oath, that no matter what happens you will get a certain amount of work done every week, no matter waht it takes.

I know its easier said than done . It took me 3 years to get the will/determination to make up and mind and stick to it. Three years of stagnating in a job I dont like, and knowing that I had the potential but I was wasting it ......

One day I just knew that if I want to make something of my life, be proud of myself, believe in myself, and do something that I can always remember and cherish - I would have to take a lot of pain. I literally dreamt that I was entering Harvard, that I was one of teh students sitting in the class .... That dream helped me make it thru the 6 months partha. Soemtimes when you want somethign very very badly, god gives you the strength to go thru anything that comes your way.

Ask yourself why you want to do this, what will this give to you, is it important enough for you. Once you have the answer, you will automatically ahve the drive, and hte will and the passion to do it - I truly believe that.

I hope the above did help, its not as detailed as you may like. If you need any other help please let me know, I will definitely try to help out.

Wish you all the best,
Take care,
-ngufo

Hi Eric/gabriel,
You guys are the inspiration, not me..... You have created a website that has helped, is helping and will continue to help a lot of students out there, who wouldnt be able to do as well without the immense information/resources this site provides.

I remember last year coming here, reading a lot of the blogs, and making my own study plan. I know I wouldnt have been able to achieve what I have, without the help of a lot of people who were kind enough to share their thoughts, their experiences and their advice....

I am just reciprocating in kind. I hope that the good work you guys have started, I can add to it in my own little way......

God got me to this website, and helped me achieve something that I thought was impossible last year - I feel compelled to pass on the same to as many people as I can, thats the least I can do ..

Thanks for the kind words,
Take care,
-ngufo

Hi Ngufo,

The only word i can tell you is thanks thanks and thanks again...I have not yet taken the GMAT Diagnostic test yet because i am scared that i will score nothing. I do need to clear the basics of my quants, DS and verbal.I am planning to take the D test n the middile of March-08. I intend to sit for the GMAT in the month of May-08. I don't know how much realistic it is but still i want to do that.

I am going to get Princeton ( Quants,Verbal) today. I will refer to them for the basics. I will need the Quants notes you had made for you. I have mailed you for that...

Thanks for such a nice guidance.Looking forward to have more of that.
Thanks,
Partha[/quote]

Hi ngufo,
This is great post for all the people in the world who are weak in RC
.Yes,I also have the same retention issue in case of RC which you had and I'm on my way to fix in everyday4-5 RC passages....Sometimes I feel demotivated as I get so many questions wrong but,I'm sure one day RC is going to be my strong section.
Thanks ,
Ajay

ngufo wrote:Hi vgmat2,
Just wrote a very very long email to you, and my browser crashed on me - I guess god wants me to put in extra effort here, so that when I tell you that you need to be persistent, have the faith, and keep putting in the required effort - I am not just talking, but actually mean it .....

So here we go again
1. You mentioned that you were having a very hard time with RC, SC. When I started out with GMAT, what killed me was RC, CR. For some reason my retention was very very bad. I couldnt seem to remember anything I read, and spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the passages. I would get crazy bad scores in verbal. What I started trying to do is focusing on figuring out what my problem was? What was causing me trouble when reading the passage? Was it because I didnt understand the english in the passage? Or the overall meaning of the passage? Or was it just that I couldnt remember the details once the passage was read.....
After a lot of practise, and analysing what I was doing wrong, I nailed it down to the fact, that I had retention issues. I found it hard to remember what was being said in the passage. I then fixed my problem by focusing on the introduction and the summary, understanding the overall flow of the passage, going thru the remaining paragraphs line by line (but not spending too much time), and then when detailed questions came, re-reading portions of the paragraph.

I read a lot of blogs/techniques, tried everything, but at the end what worked for me is just practising trying, trying, until I found a way that worked for me. Suddenly one day after 5 months of limping thru, I was able to actually do an RC passage without that much agony. I wasnt sure how it happened or why - all I knew is my constant struggle to fix my weakness, to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, had reaped its rewards ......

Having read your email I would suggest that you take all the time to read the RC passage (dont time yourself), and then answer all the questions (again taking all the time you need), and then see how you do. In case you do get everything right, that means, that you just have trouble reading the passage, and grasping the meaning fast. And that would mean doing what I did, which is read a article every day from any where (be it cnn, nbc, wall street journal) anything you can lay your hands on, and then after reading the passage, summarize the gist of it and write it. It was hard for me at first, but a little later, reading passages and summarizing them became easier for me.

In case you dont get every thing right even after spending a lot of time on the passage, that means that you are having fundamental issues understanding the passage itself. At this point, you will have to continue practising, identify what is making th epassage difficult for you? Is it hard words being used? Are you having retention issues too? Bottom line you first have to figure out WHAT IS giving your problems when you do your RC. Once you identify that, we can work on fixing the issue ....

For the sentence correction - flash cards are the key. For every SC you do wrong, please please make sure you make flash cards, clearly writing the questions, giving a hint on what kind of question it is (Apple/oranges, parallelism, idioms) etc, and then finally writing the correct portion of the underlined sentence. By constantly revising the flash cards, I grew accustomed to all the usages that are there. Because I got so many of the SC's wrong, I had 3 whole boxes of flash cards. Yo uhave to revise them as much as you can, at least once a week, or once in two weeks, to make sure you keep it refreshed in your mind.... The SC Manhattan gmat book also gives some very very good pointers, but I do know what helped me the most is the tedious writing of flash cards, and the weekly revising of the same .....

Having said all this, at the end it boils down to this for me ... god is miraculous. He will always be there for us, to guide us thru, but for some reason he waits until we have given our heart and soul into what we are striving for ... He waits until every part of you is feeling hopeless frustrated, adn down, until every part of you wants to give up, and let go .... and at this point when you are feeling so down and low, when you gather the faith in some part of you to take that one final small step forward .... ....Its then when he sweeps you in his arms, and carries you across the finish line. I really dont know why he waits so long, and why the road to success/fullfillment has to be so hard, but I do know that he has never ever let me down even once in my life when I have put everything I am into something I want to do - he has always helped me thru.

I do believe that if you continue practising, and trying your best, and contstantly searching for your weakness, and fixing it - at some point you will feel the change for the better... you will feel a remarkable breakthru .....

Its just a matter of time ....

I truly believe you can do it - dont please loose hope...

Take care,
-ngufo

Good to hear that Ajay - glad to be of help.

I am very sure you will crack the gmat - you sure have the determination and are putting in a lot of hard work!!

Take care,
-Ngufo

Hi all,

Just thought I'd chime in and say that I simply took down the questions that I couldn't nail and copied them in a single book. NGUFO is right, revision is key. No point sacrificing quality studying time for a rushing to meet a 'goal' of finishing 'at least' how many passages a day. I instead aimed for spending 'how many hours' a day doing high-quality studying.

Best,
NUTPL

Agree with you jason,
For me, anything in SC, I made sure I made flash cards, for the ones I got wrong (because only constant revision would help me remember how to answer them).

For all the questiosn that I would get wrong, I would make sure that I spend time trying to answer it tothe best of my ability before looking at the answer. If I could not answer it even after spending time - I knew this was pretty hard - and made another flash card. If I could answer it, I knew that I willbe able to answer it next time. For very hard maths questions also I made flash cards, so that constant revision would give me a way of solving them. I have a retention problem tend to forget forumlas - hence flash cards helped me revise it constantly...

Key is dont read the answer immediately - try your best to answer it on your own. This was ursula's recommendation too - and it helped me considerable in my GMAT prep effort.

All the best,
-ngufo

First things first - Your post is just amazing ..inspiring ..
i am sure tons of people have benefitted from it and appreciate your help.

NGOFO - I also need some advice from you.

Well here is my story ....

I took my GMAT last week and scored a miserable 550 after preparing for 3 months . Quant 41 and Verbal 25.
I was targetting 700 as my base score. Fell short of time on math and was probably not alert in verbal and probably fell for the traps. this was my 2nd attempt ...after an earlier 570 ...2 years ago..

Here is why I am confused . I used to always get a score of 690-700 in the last 4 GMAT PREP practise tests that i took over the last 1 month and consistently scored 47+ in quant and 37+ in verbal. My last 4 score on GMAT PREP were

690 (46Q, 39V)
740 (50Q, 41V)
690 (49Q, 34V)
730 (47Q, 41V) over last 3 weeks ( but there were 4-5 repetitions in verbal each time) . They were the ONLY tests i took.

I really dont know what happened in the real exam . I found verbal tougher , and often couldnt decide between 2 options in RCs .
Verbal was my strength but somehow I couldnt get the accuracy on RC and CR. I probably got an accuracy of 70% on CR and RC.
And I was very calm ..not very nervous ...so it was not a matter of nerves....so i am really stumped on the difference in score
between my gmat prep and the real exam (


I prepared using 10th OG and 11th OG only . I did 10th OG two times.

But probably I didnt get sufficient practise on 'tough' questions and that might have been the problem. ...perhaps i was a little casual...

when i read your post YOU said " I can tell you this, when the exam started, you could have shot me, and I would hve answered the question with everything I had. Every question had 300% of me when I asnwered. "

i didnt probably have that attitude during the exam...i was a little casual...almost rushing to finish the exam...trying to get thro it...

and now i am so low ...i want to retake the exam in 1 month....help !! ...but how many times can i keep giving this test already done it 2 times....sigh !!

.i just feel like giving up and assuming that an MBA is not my destiny....but i KNOW that I am not bad ...i can do this...and that my academics have always been good....i dont know how to keep myself motivated...