750 (Q50, V41) -- Giving back to the forum

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750 (Q50, V41) -- Giving back to the forum

by 4nilesh » Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:30 pm
I got some very good tips from this forum so I am attaching my notes to this forum and giving my 2 cents. Sahil's and Spidey notes are really good. They have a lot of idioms in them, but, they are not interactive. Manhattan GMAT also has idiom list on page 111. I found interactive way to do idioms much better than just starring at the them. I created the attached spread sheet to be more interactive. I hope you find the spreadsheet useful.

Some other observations, tips and useless thoughts -
Practice Tests

- MGMAT Quant sections are really long and questions are too wordy. Don't get used to guessing a lot though. The concepts tested in the test are decent.
- MGMAT verbal section is much better. I especially like explanation for SC.
- Kaplan Quat is good, though ignore the score COMPLETELY. I never got good score in Kaplan. Even the scaled score for Quat is wrong!!
- Kaplan verbal is really bad. The explanations are useless. I decided not to do those after the first one. I will start both MGMAT and Kaplan at the same time, do Quant in Kaplan and move to Verbal in MGMAT.
- The one free Kaplan online test is good though (still ignore the score)
- GMATPrep is the best. Do this like 6 times. I did this 4 times. I should have done more.
- My earlier scores on practice tests were really bad, so I did improve my scores through practice and TIME MANAGEMENT. As I say latter in this post, don't get attached to any problem even during the practice test. Also, you should practice enough so that you sub consciously know that you are crossing your time limit on a particular problem.


Actual Test

- Be ready to skip questions in GMAT (one of the good thing doing MGMAT Quant is that it teaches you to skip hard questions). I guessed the 2nd question on my actual test because that required a 10 step solution (that I knew) and I really thought that GMAT cannot throw a 800 level question at me this early (experimental question?). I could have solved it, but decided to guess instead.
- Know your limitations. I had decided that I want to do the first 10 Quant sections in no more than 18 minutes. My reason was simple, if the first 10 questions are supposed to be easy, I should be able to do them faster. I would freak out if I see 10 question remaining at the end and only 18 minutes left. I will start making guesses unnecessarily. I would do much better if I see 10 questions remaining and 22 minutes left. I knew I had a buffer. Again, know your time management strategy and follow it during the test.
- Don't get attached to any problem. I saw a very challenging problem towards the end of my actual test and I immediately decided to guess, but then spent 2-3 minutes trying to solve it anyway. Lost all my buffer there. If you know you cannot solve a problem, guess right away and move.
- I saw somewhere that "E" for Quant DS is not very normal towards the end, so don't guess "E" towards the end. DON'T follow such advices.
- Don't look into ANY new material 2-3 days before the actual test.
- I decided to hang my coat outside and put water and banana in the coat (no need to open and close the locker). I saved some time there. I really wanted to get back to my seat 2-3 minutes before the start so that I can catch my breath.

Preparation Material

- Official guide is REALLY the key. I did most of the questions at least twice.
- Sahil's and Spidey's notes are really good. Use them. Manhattan SC guide is awesome. Use it. I took the printout of brutal SC and decided not to pursue it after 10 questions. DO NOT look into any SC that doesn't have answer explanation.
- Conversely, if SC answer explanation is given (as in OG), please read through EACH and EVERY explanation, even for the wrong choices.
- I found Kaplan 800 useful for Critical reasoning and Quant. I really like the categorization of Critical reasoning questions types in the book.
- MGMAT forum is REALLY good. I would go to that forum and just browse questions and try to answer those.


FINALLY, if you do use material from this forum, please give something back to this forum :) Also, if you use my excel spread sheet and add more idioms or examples to it, please post it back so we continue improve on the list. I might even come once in a while and take update from your sheet and incorporate in my sheet so there is one master sheet. Also, if you suggestions to make this tool better, let me know. It only takes me few minutes to make updates. I will be more than happy to make updates and post the new tool back.


All the best to you all . ...
Attachments
Infinitives Gerunds and Idioms.xls
Use this spreadsheet to practice Infinitives, Gerunds and Idioms interactively.
(68 KiB) Downloaded 4505 times
Last edited by 4nilesh on Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:57 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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by beatthegmat » Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:44 pm
Hi 4nilesh:

Thanks so much for your insights as well as the amazing practice spreadsheet you put together! This tool will help generations of GMAT test takers!

Congrats on the fantastic score and best of luck!
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by samirpandeyit62 » Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:09 pm
Hi 4nilesh,
Congratulations for the fantastic score, I went through the idioms list I think it is meticulously organised, thanks for sharing & best of luck for your apps.
Regards
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by gmatrant » Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:47 am
Nilesh,
Congrats on your awesome score. The excel sheet is going to really helpful.
Best of luck for your applications.

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by parore26 » Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:46 am
Congratulations! A brilliant tool. It's in Excel too! seems like I'm doing work what with all the red and black. appreciate your effort.

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Thanks a Ton

by wizardofwashington » Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:46 pm
Can't tell you how helpful your tool is.. Simply marvellous.. Good luck with your applications..
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by tejalvsanghvi » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:30 pm
congrats on your great score. Thanks for the great compilation. I've just abt started and am on a collecting material to study spree.
Im sure this will be super helpful.

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by 4nilesh » Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:05 pm
parore26 wrote:Congratulations! A brilliant tool. It's in Excel too! seems like I'm doing work what with all the red and black. appreciate your effort.

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by audi19 » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:23 pm
Congratulations with a wonderful score and thank you so much for creating such an awesome spreadsheet!! :)

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Very Useful

by vishu » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:36 pm
Thanks!... It will come in handy

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by pepeprepa » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:32 pm
Thanks you for this excel, it is excellent.

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by dilipbobby » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:35 am
HI nilesh can u please tell me wht book should i use for Quant as i got just 37 is real test, i have one OG qunat review with me it has 170 proble solving questions and around 120 data sufficiency questions. , is it the same quant book from which u studied, i jst wrote the taste 2 days back so i realy want to improve in quant within 30 days please help me , and if the quant book is differen thhen how much does it cost, please reply ASAP

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test scores

by MTRH » Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:33 pm
hi, thanks for all the advice and for posting the spreadsheet! do you happen to remember your practice test scores?

thnks again!

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by emrahercan » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:32 pm
wonderful tool. Thanks for making everybody's life easier. Watch out idioms! Here we come!
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by aj5105 » Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:21 pm
awesome post !