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How Do I Start ??

by rickyishere » Tue Oct 14, 2008 5:14 pm
Hi All,

After months of reading different posts on this great forum I have finally scheduled my GMAT exam. I gave GMAT mock test and scored 430. My target is 700+ and although it seems a long shot considering my current score, I know I can attain that score if I organize my studies well. I just wanted to get some kind of feedback from all the experts out here as how to prioritize the studies of different section. Details of of Powerprep1 :
430, Quant 32, Verbal 17.

Weaknesses: 1) Silly mistakes in quant.
2) Lapses in concentration. ( unable to sit and focus for more than 45 minutes :( )
3) Got 50 % accuracy in SC, 47 % in RC and 30 % in CR. In CR, I wasn't sure if I answered even one question correctly. For some questions in SC, I based my answers if the option " sounded right".
4) DS is an issue in quant, as I don't know the correct strategy to approach them.

Books I have : OG( orange, purple and green)
MGMAT Sentence Correction
Kaplan Math Workbook
Kaplan GMAT 800
Kaplan GMAT Premier Program
My strategy : a)Start with Verbal and try to finish SC, RC within first two
weeks. (Books to be used MGMAT, OG)
b) Review concepts of Quant and practise questions for one
week ( Books to be used OG, Kaplan Mathwork book)
c) Finish CR in next week and give the GMAT prep(Books to
be used MGMAT, OG)
d) Evaluate score obtained and how to improve for the next
one month (new strategies/tricks/concepts)
Timing is weakness which I could have listed above, but I guess that will come once I start practising lots of questions.

Thoughts ??

Thanks,
Ricky
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by bekkilyn » Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:37 pm
I'd suggest putting the majority of your focus on the OG (and the two OG supplements) when it comes to the problems since they are the closest you are going to get to the problems on the actual test.

When studying, you don't necessarily need to sit and focus for more than 45 minutes at a time. In fact, you may do even better breaking up that time into smaller sessions. Perhaps 15-20 minutes between breaks. You want to make sure that you are getting the most out of your study sessions, and if your mind is wandering off after a certain point, continuing to force yourself to study is unproductive. Your mind needs time away from the focus in order to process the material.

You will need stronger focus on the actual exam, and that's probably where the practice tests can help you the most. Doing a practice test once a week or every two weeks (depending on how much time you have before the real exam) while trying to simulate the actual test environment (writing the essays, taking the breaks, etc.) can help get you used to the focus you will need for the test. The score really isn't that important when using the tests to build test stamina so it doesn't matter if you take the same test multiple times.

For regular study though, use your mental energy wisely. You don't have to study everything all in one long block. Break it up and do it a few minutes at a time.
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by rickyishere » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:19 am
Hi Bekkilyn,

Thanks for your suggestion, it makes sense. If I may ask, what stage of GMAT prep are you in ?
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by bekkilyn » Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:09 am
I'm still going through the OG material. When I get to a point where I don't fully understand a math concept or can't remember a grammar rule, then I'll look them up in another reference or ask here on the forum. Currently, I don't have any GMAT specific references other than the OG, so so my math reference has either been Google or my statistics/quatitative methods textbook. For grammar, I've been using an old version of the Harbrace College Handbook or a book called Keys for Writers that I had to buy for a Communications/Research class I took back in January.

Since my quantitative is normally weaker than my verbal, I recently ordered a book called Math Review For Standardized Tests by Cliffs Test Prep. I haven't heard it mentioned here and have no idea if it's any good for GMAT purposes, but it was $8.79 at Amazon and I needed another book with my last order (ordered the two OG supplements) to get the free shipping and thought I'd try it out since it received good ratings there in general.

I'm very supportive of the quality over quantity philosophy, so I'm planning to study the OG materials up until the time of my test in December.

My advice in my post was a compilation of my own beliefs mixed with some of the best advice I've read from others here on this forum. Plus, you have to remember that what works for others may not entirely work for you. You have to learn your own specific strengths and weaknesses and customize your study strategy accordingly.

What I've found very interesting in my own studying is that even though I've always had very good verbal skills, it is still very important for me to study those areas, particularly in the OG, because I still come across things that catch me by surprise, or find that I didn't know something as well as I'd thought.

I'm having fun with it though!
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by rickyishere » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:04 am
Hi Bekkilyn,

How are you approching your SC? I started that as my preparation point and running into few problems. I am using MGMAT SC as the book to build my concepts and then doing problems at the end of the chapter. They have also listed questions on OG and Verbal Review which tests you on the same concept learnt earlier in the chapter. However, I dont seem to have consistency and of the problems given, my accuracy varies from 50-75 %. Lot of times it happens due to the fact that I am able to narrow down my choices to 2 options but then always choose the wrong one. Are you moving on and learning new concepts once you have identified your mistakes or do you still do those problems all over again before you get 100% hit? I can't do the latter coz in most cases, I do remember the answers and doing them again is just a waste of time knowing what the answers are.

Thanks !!
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by bekkilyn » Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:33 am
Right now, I'm doing a mixture of both. I'm doing some new SC mixed with reviewing the old SC. When reviewing the old sentence construction, I might remember the correct answer, but I don't consider that I've gotten the problem 100% correct until I can explain exactly why the answer is correct.

Just for an easy example:

A. Bob visited his grandmother, sliced an onion, walking to the store.

vs.

B. Bob visited his grandmother, sliced an onion, and walked to the store.

I may already know that the answer is B, but why? If I see this example again knowing that B is correct, it's not good enough for me to say, "Oh it's B!" and move on to the next one. Before I consider this answer correct, I have to review why it is correct and why A is incorrect. Why is A incorrect? For one, it sounds like Bob tried to take a slice out of an onion while the onion was walking to the store.

Secondly, "visited" and "sliced" are in past tense while "walking" is in present tense. The verbs might be slicing at each other next because they are not in agreement.

Thirdly, the parallelism of the sentence is ruined. "Bob visited, sliced, walking" doesn't really make much sense, but "Bob visited, sliced, and walked" is much clearer.

Sentence B is correct because the parallelism is there, the verbs are happy and in agreement with each other, and it is clear that it was Bob who visted, sliced, and walked.

So when I'm reviewing a SC, I have to recall all of these things before I can truly believe I understand the problem, not just know the right answer. On a true SC problem, there will three other possible choices as well, so the same must be done with them.

So for new SC, you will have the opportunity to analyze for the first time on the spot, and for the review SC, you have the opportunity to find out if you really understand the sentence.

When you run into those two final choices and then make the wrong choice, that's an opportunity to find out why you are so frequently making the wrong choice. There could be a grammar rule that you don't know. For example, if you are always confusing "like" vs. "as" you may end up picking the sentence with "like" when it should be "as" and vice versa.

If you just keep doing new problems without going back and taking care of the issues from the previous problems, you will just keep repeating the same mistakes.
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by rickyishere » Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:45 am
Makes sense, so I guess it will be better for me to go back and review all the questions(right or wrong) on MGMAT SC for the first two chapters ( Concision, Clarity & Subject Verb) before I move on to the third. Is there any good book to cover the CR piece? I downloaded some of the word documents on this website but I am not sure if that is sufficient. CR is my weakest link in Verbal...

Thanks again...
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by bekkilyn » Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:15 am
For CR, I've heard that some LSAT preparation books can be very helpful, though they aren't exactly like the GMAT questions.

I think the main key with CR and RC is to just get as much practice as possible reading things critically and picking them apart. For CR, make sure that you are first understanding what the author is saying in the initial passage. You may need some practice just going through and writing down the author's point of view for various problems, without even bothering with the actual questions at that point. Once you understand the situation, then it will be easier to determine what could best support or argue against that situation.

Also, if you run into any words you don't know, then make sure to look them up because even just one misunderstood word can skew the entire meaning of the passage or statement.

You're still going to want to go through CR similar to SC though and understand why each statement is correct or incorrect and how you might apply that reasoning to new CR problems.
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by rickyishere » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:10 am
Hi Bekkilyn,

SC is making me go crazy. I decided to redo the problems of OG and purple book listed in the first two chapters of MGMAT. Contrary to my belief, I did not remember any answer and I ended up getting 16/21 correct. I don't think I did anything different then the first time except for reading the questions thoroughly and without jumping into the answers too soon. Which brings me to the question of whether I should go through each chapter/question listed in MGMAT??. I think it's too detailed and sometimes explains more concepts then what one would need. For example, subject-verb agreement, right tenses, clarity of the sentence are the things which I really look for while solving SC problem. Apart from that, there are way too many things to think of/handle in the short time given. I am not sure if I should go through the book entirely or do as much problems (from 1000 SC) etc so that I know what to look for without going into too much detail. My first language is not English but, I have always felt that my verbal skills are decent enough and sometimes reading all the detailed grammar rules makes thing more fuzzy then what I already know.
Your thoughts?

PS: I am an avid reader and writer (blog)
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by bekkilyn » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:24 pm
You don't want to bog yourself down in too much detail all at once because, you're right, it just gets confusing after a point. I'd look at the most common mistakes you are making on the sentences you are getting wrong, and then go through the chapters that deal with those particular errors in more detail. The idea is to get those concepts so ingrained in your mind that you will be able to recognize them on a test without spending a whole lot of time in the analysis because you probably aren't going to have time to go through the whole MGMAT procedure on the real exam.

Make sure you also look at the OG problems you got right, too, to make sure you didn't get some of those right just because you got lucky. You will want to count those as errors in your practice to make sure that you don't overlook them on the test when you might not get lucky getting them right.

I can tell that you have had a lot of practice reading and writing. :)
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by rickyishere » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:31 pm
Thanks, how is your SC coming along? Any strategies you are adopting?
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by bekkilyn » Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:28 pm
I'm actually going over more of the grammar rules right now since I don't always know the technicalities of why I've gotten something right or wrong. Many times I know the right answer because it sounds right and I've seen and heard it used correctly hundreds of times, but I don't always know why, so I'm trying to make sure I know why for when I can't just sound it out.

I'm also working on attentiveness. Sometimes when I get something wrong, it's just because I got careless or felt rushed.
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