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Before starting CATs

by chetan86 » Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:07 am
Hello Experts,

I am targetting 750+ score. My week area is verbal.

Rightnow I am referring below books.
1. OG13
2. MGMAT 5 Quant Guides
3. MGMAT SC Guide
4. PowerScore CR guide

And in future I am planning to refer OG 10/11/12 books.

In order to plan myself efficietly I want to know about below points.
1. Which books one should have covered?
2. What should be the accuracy?
3. How much one should be thorough with all the topics?

Please note that rightnow I am concerntrating on my accuracy so I have not yet started timing myself for any questions.

I am planning to start my CATs from 1st April.

Your imputs/suggestions will be helpful to achieve my target score.
Let me know if you have any question.

Thanks,
Chetan
Last edited by chetan86 on Mon Apr 07, 2014 12:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Mar 13, 2014 5:46 am
To begin, I suggest that you take a full-length practice test right away. There are 3 good reasons to take a practice test early in your studies:

- The test will give you a good taste of what you'll be preparing for over the coming weeks/months.
- This will likely be your worst test score, and as your subsequent practice test scores improve, your confidence will undoubtedly increase correspondingly.
- The results of this test will help you gauge the amount of work required to reach your target score.

I recently wrote an article for BTG on this subject: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/05/ ... st-already

As far as achieving your target score goes, I suggest a systematic (even methodical) approach, in which you take the time to master each topic/concept (e.g., percents, ratios, assumption questions in critical reasoning, comparison questions in sentence correction, etc).

So, for each topic/concept, you should:
1) Learn the underlying concepts (rules, attributes, notation, etc.)
2) Learn GMAT-specific strategies related to that topic
3) Practice dozens of questions all related to that one topic.
4) Don't stop working on that topic until you have mastered it

Then, and only then, move on to the next topic.

To help you focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

While completing questions from the Official Guide (OG), you should you use an Error Log (aka Improvement Chart). You can find a free downloadable Improvement Chart here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-error-log. This will help you identify and strengthen your weak areas.

You should also spend a lot of time reviewing the responses from the Experts on this site. They model the steps one should take when tackling math problems.

In addition to learning the core concepts and GMAT-specific strategies, be sure to work on your endurance and test-taking skills (e.g., time management) by taking several practice tests. If you're interested, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244

Finally, you might consider signing up for Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide).
Each day, you'll receive an email with a series of learning activities that guide you, step-by-step, from Day 1 to test day. This will ensure that you will cover everything that the GMAT tests.

Here's an outline of all 60 emails: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide-outline

Finally, I think that the learning materials that you've already purchased should suffice.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by [email protected] » Thu Mar 13, 2014 4:14 pm
Hi chetan86,

I agree with Brent that taking a full-length CAT is a must, so that you can establish your actual strengths and weaknesses and get a "feel" for the endurance and pacing challenges that the GMAT will involve.

When putting together a study plan, there are some additional details that should be defined, if possible:

1) When do you plan to take the actual GMAT?
2) How much time to you have to study on a weekly basis?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by chetan86 » Thu Mar 13, 2014 10:27 pm
Hi Brent,

Thanks a lot for your time and inputs.
Your all suggested approaches are great, and I'll start working on it asap.

I am keeping an error log so it can be helpful for future reference.

I'll give the full length CAT test asap and post here my score so I can get more suggestions and approaches from your side.

Till I give my final GMAT, I'll keep this thread open and post here the regular updates about my preparation, so you can suggest me if I need to change any plans/strategies.
[email protected] wrote:Hi chetan86,

I agree with Brent that taking a full-length CAT is a must, so that you can establish your actual strengths and weaknesses and get a "feel" for the endurance and pacing challenges that the GMAT will involve.

When putting together a study plan, there are some additional details that should be defined, if possible:

1) When do you plan to take the actual GMAT?
2) How much time to you have to study on a weekly basis?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hi Rich,

Thanks a lot for your inputs and suggestions.

1) I am planning to give my GMAT at the max by 31st May or before that, I can't delay it further as other plans are also in queue.
2) From Monday to Friday I can devote 3-4 hrs and on Sat-Sunday I can devote 7-8 hrs. On weekend I can spend more hours but I thought if I study more and get exhausted then there would not be much benefit so keep limits!!!.

As both of you suggested, I'll give my CAT test asap so you can get idea about my level and suggest how can I reach my dream score. :)

Thanks,
Chetan
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by [email protected] » Fri Mar 14, 2014 12:11 am
Hi chetan86,

It sounds like you've given yourself enough time to study, which is good. As your studies progress, you might find it helpful to give yourself one day "off" per week - so that you can do something other than study. While some Test Takers feel compelled to study every day, there is a long-term risk of "burn out" and it's best to try to plan proactively to keep that from happening.

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by chetan86 » Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:30 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi chetan86,

It sounds like you've given yourself enough time to study, which is good. As your studies progress, you might find it helpful to give yourself one day "off" per week - so that you can do something other than study. While some Test Takers feel compelled to study every day, there is a long-term risk of "burn out" and it's best to try to plan proactively to keep that from happening.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Yes Rich, after reading lots of reviews I have planned myself.
I wanted to apply for Class of 2015 but it seems I have already delayed much. So thought this time I should study well and score as high as possible so I do not miss class of 2016.
Lets see how I am progressing. I will keep you guys updated and regularly ask for your inputs and suggestions.

Thanks,
Chetan
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by chetan86 » Sun Mar 30, 2014 11:21 pm
Finally I gave the full length mock test to judge my performance.
I got 540(Q44,V20). Please find the attached excel for more info.

I was already aware that in verbal my weak area is RC but while doing Verbal section in first 13 questions I got 3 RCs.

Before starting my CAT I created my strategy to solve first 10 questions efficiently in allocated time, but 3 RC in my first 13 questions took most of my time because of which I had to spend very less time for SC and CR. My performance was good in SC even though I spent very less time on each question, sometimes even less than 30 secs. For CR I could not read the paragraph efficiently because of less time.

I think I could have got more score in Verbal if I had not 3 RC in first 15 questions.

For Quant, timing is also major issue. For last 10 question I had very less time and I got 9 question wrong in sequence.

Please note that I have not yet worked on my timings. So from this full length test I can conclude that my accuracy is not that great but above average. My timing is major issue and have to start working on it. I will solve all the questions with timings and with efficient strategy.

I am planning to overcome RC and timing issues in this week, and I will work on some other areas such as Quant and CR. I will not work much on SC but review the concepts again so I do not feel disconnected with SC.

Major learning : I can get 3-4 RC for first 15 questions in actual GMAT. :shock:

Please let me know your suggestions so I can achieve my target.

Regards,
Chetan
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GMATPrep1-540(Q44,V20).xlsx
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Last edited by chetan86 on Mon Mar 31, 2014 3:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by [email protected] » Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:00 am
Hi chetan86,

Your first CAT score isn't that bad. Most Test Takers score far worse on their first practice CATs and most also have pacing problems. My advice is to NOT focus too hard on your pacing in the beginning. Instead, focus on learning the content and tactics. Your pacing will improve over time.

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by chetan86 » Mon Mar 31, 2014 3:07 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi chetan86,

Your first CAT score isn't that bad. Most Test Takers score far worse on their first practice CATs and most also have pacing problems. My advice is to NOT focus too hard on your pacing in the beginning. Instead, focus on learning the content and tactics. Your pacing will improve over time.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Thank Rich for your advice.
I'll do as suggested.

Thanks,
chetan
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by [email protected] » Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:26 pm
Hi chetan86,

After every CAT, you should plan to do a question-by-question review of the entire exam. Make note of HOW/WHY you got questions corrects and WHY you got questions incorrect. In real basic terms, the reasons for getting a question wrong fall into 3 categories: silly mistakes, content issues (you didn't know a rule that was necessary to solving the problem) or the question was too hard. Plan to redo questions (don't just look at the question, physically redo it) and fix the silly mistakes. By doing those steps now, the process should help your performance on your next CAT.

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Rich
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by chetan86 » Mon Mar 31, 2014 10:45 pm
[email protected] wrote:Hi chetan86,

After every CAT, you should plan to do a question-by-question review of the entire exam. Make note of HOW/WHY you got questions corrects and WHY you got questions incorrect. In real basic terms, the reasons for getting a question wrong fall into 3 categories: silly mistakes, content issues (you didn't know a rule that was necessary to solving the problem) or the question was too hard. Plan to redo questions (don't just look at the question, physically redo it) and fix the silly mistakes. By doing those steps now, the process should help your performance on your next CAT.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hi Rich,

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.
I will review my exams as you mentioned, and also here in beatthegmat I have gone through many articles, which suggest how to review mock CATs.
It will definitely help me to boost my score. :)

Regards,
Chetan
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