GMAT Strategy

i received a private message regarding this thread.

rishijhawar wrote:Self evaluation: I believe the dive in the test is primarily due to lack of concentration and nervousness but don't rule out lack subject matter expertise.

as far as this whole matter of "subject matter expertise", that depends on which area of the test you're talking about.

on quant, you have a 45. therefore, it's essentially certain that the subject matter is a non-issue on that section of the test. (the objective material tested in the quant section is quite basic; the challenge of the problems comes from the rather ingenious ways in which that material is twisted into clever problems.)

in reading comprehension and critical reasoning, by definition, there is no such thing as "subject matter expertise" -- because there is no objective, and learned knowledge required in those two sections.
those two sections are entirely a matter of understanding the right mentality for approaching the problems, and, once you have that mentality, just thinking in "normal" (i.e., NOT logically rigorous/"classroom") ways.

therefore, the only section of the test on which "subject matter expertise" may be an actual issue is sentence correction. in particular, you should make sure you have a thorough knowledge of the following fundamental error types:
agreement
parallelism
modifiers
general issues of meaning
if you understand these concepts, then you have most of the knowledge that you need to do well on the sentence correction part. there are a thousand zillion other small things that are tested, but most errors in the sentences fall into the above-mentioned types.

So, I am little clueless how to resume preparation as I plan to retake by end of May-12 (approx 2 months time in hand) coz most of the materials I have referred (listed below) would be repetitive.
Books: GMAT OG (10th, 11th, and 12th Editions), Verbal Review (both editions), Quants Review (1st edition), Manhattan SC Guide, Manhattan complete guide for Quants (4th edition, I guess it's the latest one, solved each problem in the exercise of each chapter).

the official guides, taken together, should provide enough in the way of actual gmat-like practice problems.
this is especially true on the verbal section, for which most third-party preparation materials are, frankly, pretty bad. the style and conventions of the official verbal problems are difficult to replicate, especially on sentence correction, so it's essential to get most, or all, of your practice on the official problems.
the manhattan sc guide is good for cementing your knowledge of the fundamental rules.
however, when you go through that guide, don't make the mistake of thinking that everything in the guide is as important as everything else in the guide. remember that there are a few areas that are genuinely major -- the ones i mentioned above -- and everything else is minor by comparison.

Method of preparation: Of all my attempts, I believe I was best prepared in my last attempt which I took a week back. During the last three months of preparation before the test, especially for verbal, I tried to get to the right answer by POE, had proper reasoning/logic before choosing the right answer, noted down the errors and areas of improvements, prepared own flashcards and referred them regularly, and extensively used the Error logs (thanks to the BTG resources). But, admittedly, also guessed answers many times and gave up at times to move on.

i appreciate that you've tried to narrate the methods that you have used, but i note that you haven't really given any specifics here. for instance, you wrote "i tried to get the right answer by process of elimination", but you are missing the important thing -- HOW did you eliminate? ("process of elimination" by itself doesn't really mean anything; that term could apply to any method of elimination of all, including divination based on animal omens.)
also, you wrote "i had proper reasoning/logic before choosing the right answer", but you haven't elaborated on what that reasoning/logic actually was.
remember that there are plenty of forms of "proper reasoning/logic" that are completely inappropriate on this test! for instance, if you approach the critical reasoning section with formal logic -- the kind of logic that you would use in programming, or in legal arguments -- then you are going to come up empty-handed pretty much every time.

same goes for the other things you've written here -- they lack the specifics that truly make them meaningful. you wrote that you made flashcards, but didn't write what you put on the flashcards; etc. etc.

set of materials (text books, practice materials),

for verbal, stick with the official guides. end of story.

if you have already solved all the problems in those guides, do the following:

SENTENCE CORRECTION:
* insert the correct answer choice into the sentence (thereby creating a totally correct sentence).
* take a look at EVERY modifier in the sentence. make sure that you can explain what EVERY modifier modifies.
* take a look at EVERY verb in the sentence. justify to yourself (a) the tense in which the verb appears, and (b) the subject of the verb.
* if there is any parallelism anywhere in the sentence, point it out.
etc.
you should do these things both inside and outside the underline. since under half of the sentence is usually underlined, these kinds of exercises should essentially more than double your learning.

CRITICAL REASONING:
try to make your own analogies for the problems. in other words, try to create novel situations that use similar logic, but have completely different topic material.
for instance, consider critical reasoning problem 101 in the 12th edition official guide (i'm not allowed to reproduce the problem here). here's an analogy for that problem:
my sister says that she wants to date a guy who has a good job and lots of free time to spend with her. however, very few men with good jobs have much free time.
you can put these statements together to reach the conclusion that "very few men will be able to satisfy my sister's requirements" or "my sister will have a hard time finding a man". this conclusion works in the same way as the correct answer to #101.
if you can make such analogies, then your brain is working in the right way. if you are fundamentally dependent on being handed passages by someone else, and can't create any of your own, then you have the wrong mentality.

(ii) FULL LENGTH TESTs (which one and how many are ideal for me),

you don't need a lot of full-length tests, unless timing is a problem.
the primary reason to take full-length tests -- really the only reason, if you have already scheduled a test date -- is to practice the overall timing and rhythm of the test; everything else is encapsulated in individual practice problems as well.

so, if timing is a minor issue, or a non-issue, then just stick with GMAT PREP and call it a day. if timing is a larger issue, then you can incorporate other practice tests as well.

(iii) strategies to enhance the quality of my preparation

see above.
also, don't forget one of the most important aspects of preparation -- TIME OFF.
if you study seven days a week -- or if you study for weeks and weeks and weeks straight with little or no time off -- then your brain will be literally, physiologically, unable to manufacture the neuronal connections that you need to actually learn.
if you have been studying for seven days a week (or close), or if you have been at it for a couple of months or longer with negligible time off, the first thing you need to do is walk away from the books for a couple of weeks -- regardless of any approaching test dates that you might have.

and (iv) any other stuff you think is relevant for me. I deeply appreciate your inputs as I believe an MBA will go a long way in shaping my career and helping me achieve lots of financial goals.
Wish me luck:)

i hope that "an mba will go a long way in shaping my career and help me achieve lots of financial goals" is not the best you can do in answering the question of WHY you want to do this. if it is, then you are not giving business schools any compelling reason to accept you as a candidate.
the one ingredient that's essential here is plans. an mba is not a license to enter any profession, so schools are going to want to make sure that you actually have specific plans for what you want to do with the degree. if the best you can muster is "um, i can further my career and make more money with it", then you will not be accepted into a first-tier school.

skm wrote:That was simply AWESOME ;

In my quest to find n zone in on the right strategy wrt Retake, have essentially devoured almost all posts in all forums......BUT even without batting my eyelid, I can vouch that this is THE BEST n should be made a Sticky One.

Ron, U Rock, U are magical, U are a philanthrope ..... How patiently u hear to the groans of test buddies n share ur insights, which are so specific to the core.

Thats the reason , Ron unanimously is being referred as " THE LEGEND "

thanks.