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sameerballani: Legendary Member; Posts: 544; Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:10 am; Thanked: 45 times; Followed by:2 members

Last Month Strategy

by sameerballani » Tue May 24, 2011 9:27 am

I am looking for some Good GMAT practice material that is true representative of the GMAT.
I will probably complete done with OG-12,Verbal Review(1st edition), Kaplan Premier(2009), and Quantitative Review(1st Edition). I also plan to do Kaplan Advanced and to Revisit all the questions that i marked wrong during my practice.

Also i need some inputs from experts reg the strategy-

Since starting i knew that SC is my weakest part followed by RC. As far SC is concerned, I have covered all the basics from Manhattan and I do feel confident now, But the problem is that I see my performance on SC is fluctuating. I will sometime get good accuracy and some time not. This thing makes me feel low.

And RC, i am following the strategy of doing 4-5 RC daily until the test day. In RC i get good accuracy but i see i consume lot of time per RC. The reason for the same can be my obsession to take down lot of notes during 1st read. I am trying to improve on this.

I am yet to start Practice Tests.

I will take the GMAT in july !!

And yes also help me with AWA. I have not worked on that till now.

So basically what should be my strategy for last month before GMAT(June)

Thanks

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Tue May 24, 2011 9:27 am

rohu27: Legendary Member; Posts: 586; Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:38 am; Thanked: 31 times; Followed by:5 members; GMAT Score:730

by rohu27 » Tue May 24, 2011 5:31 pm

Cant advice you on the strategy parts (im looking for some actually

)
but i feel u shud start taking FULL length practice tests. dnt cram all your practice tests into your last month of prep. just not advisable. im sure u have access to MGMAT CATs , no better way to start off. start taking takign them, may be on in 2 weeks or so, and review them thorougly.

i would be watching this space for any advise you may get, so that i can use it too

all the best

cheers,

Have time? https://www.beatthegmat.com/730-q-50-v40 ... 88058.html

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VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 am; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times; Followed by:365 members

by VivianKerr » Wed May 25, 2011 8:52 am

For RC, I suggest you get more specific with the notes you are taking. Don't write down anything stated in the passage, and avoid mere summary. You're mainly looking for the function of each paragraph, the author's opinion and how it changes, and the overall scope.

These link will help explain:

https://grockit.com/blog/gre/2010/12/16/ ... -passages/

Here's how I put it into action:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/aristotle-rc ... 72984.html

https://www.beatthegmat.com/rc-99-passage-39-t81093.html

For study materials, if you're already done the recommended books (MGMAT SC, Powerscore CR, etc.) and the GMATPrep, I highly recommend Grockit (of course

). Our questions are modeled on the OG and GMATPrep. You'll also find that other companies like MGMAT, Kaplan and Knewton offer solid materials.

Vivian Kerr
GMAT Rockstar, Tutor
https://www.GMATrockstar.com
https://www.yelp.com/biz/gmat-rockstar-los-angeles

Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"!

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am; Thanked: 2256 times; Followed by:1535 members; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Fri May 27, 2011 12:12 am

received a pm...

vivian's advice is good.

before you leave the OG's behind, though, make sure you've done the following with them:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/550-to-720-i ... tml#330724

many people on here seem to think that all they have to do is just solve the problems in the og to consider it "done" -- that is far from true. as you can see in the post linked above, there's a lot more that you can do with those questions before you start going to third-party sources.

Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

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On peut poser des questions Ã Ron en franÃ§ais
Voit esittÃ¤Ã¤ kysymyksiÃ¤ Ron:lle myÃ¶s suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vÃªtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vÃªtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

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Learn more about ron

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sameerballani: Legendary Member; Posts: 544; Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:10 am; Thanked: 45 times; Followed by:2 members

by sameerballani » Fri May 27, 2011 1:31 am

lunarpower wrote:received a pm...

vivian's advice is good.

before you leave the OG's behind, though, make sure you've done the following with them:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/550-to-720-i ... tml#330724

many people on here seem to think that all they have to do is just solve the problems in the og to consider it "done" -- that is far from true. as you can see in the post linked above, there's a lot more that you can do with those questions before you start going to third-party sources.

Very helpful Ron, Thanks !!
I try to make sure that i spend good time on analyzing each question(even if it takes more than what it took me in doing them). Also any tips about AWA. I heard there is some video of yours, which is very helpful for AWA. Please share.

Today i attempted my first test(Kaplan-without AWA) and i was shocked. I scored 560, which is really very low than my expectation and desired score. I noticed that i had extra time in quant(big thing i did 11 Q wrong, this indicates i didnt utilize time properly), but i ran out of time in verbal. Major reason i feel is lot of time in RC. Also my accuracy in RC and CR was low. But what i have noticed is that I do well on individual tests(rc/sc/cr.etc). I don't know i am too confused and depressed. Please help

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pranaygupta86: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Sat May 28, 2011 10:45 am; GMAT Score:780

by pranaygupta86 » Sat May 28, 2011 11:34 am

Hi everyone

First of all, thanks for all the time and effort you guys put in. It's a huge help to say the least.

I have been preparing for the GMAT for around a month and will the taking the test in the first week of July. I needed some advice on my preparation in the coming month. First, some background on my prep so far.

I am an engineer with decent math skills and I don't think I have verbal impediment. I started my prep by going through information about the test and types of questions, strategies etc. I then moved on to reading through (and taking notes from) Manhattan SC, RC and CR guides. I then moved on to questions from the OG and Kaplan Verbal Workbook (interspersed with my reading). I did the questions untimed and here is how I fared:

OG:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 95% correct
CR - 95% correct

Kaplan VWB:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 85% correct
CR - 95% correct

I have also taken two MGMAT CAT tests in the past two weeks. The details:

CAT 1: 720 (Q-45, V-42) was very rusty on the quant section
CAT 2: 770 (Q-50, V-45)

On the verbal section in both tests, I got around 8-9 questions wrong and they were evenly distributed among the 3 types of questions.

I would like to know what I should plan to do to maximize my score. I have been analyzing all the questions that I get wrong or am not sure about. I have also ordered the Verbal Review by GMAC for further practice.

It would be awesome of someone could give me pointers on the following:
1. Study plan and material I should cover
2. A good source of practice material (verbal) where I can practice questions of a higher difficulty level
3. Tests I should take other than MGMAT and GMAT Prep
4. Methods for improving individual skills for particular question types (SC,CR,RC)

I'd really appreciate any advice and sorry if I've bored you to death by now.

Thanks again.

Regards
Pranay

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sameerballani: Legendary Member; Posts: 544; Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:10 am; Thanked: 45 times; Followed by:2 members

by sameerballani » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:19 am

Update: Today i took a GMATPrep-1(without AWA) and scored 720 with raw score of 50 in quant and 37 in verbal.
Few questions in verbal section were repeat as i did them recently in verbal review/OG. But i didnt remember the answers. Although I knew i have attempted this question before.
In quant, All the questions were new for me. I got 8 incorrect in quant and 9 incorrect in verbal.
Why there is so much difference between two scores?
Also could someone refer me some good AWA material. I need to take the following tests with AWA section.
And i plan to work on more on quant in the last month(as its my strong point). Some guidance please
Thanks

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am; Thanked: 2256 times; Followed by:1535 members; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:28 am

sameerballani wrote:Update: Today i took a GMATPrep-1(without AWA)

ALWAYS do the AWA.
ALWAYS.

remember, you don't even have to be that good at the AWA -- you just have two goals:
* you need to make the AWA as routine and effortless as possible;
* you need to get used to a test that takes almost 4 hours.

if you practice the test without the essays, you will not accomplish either of these goals -- and you may well get destroyed buy fatigue when the test is suddenly an hour longer than what you've become accustomed to.

In quant, All the questions were new for me. I got 8 incorrect in quant and 9 incorrect in verbal.
Why there is so much difference between two scores?

which other score?

Also could someone refer me some good AWA material. I need to take the following tests with AWA section.

watch the DECEMBER 2, 2010 lecture here:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

remember -- do not put too much effort into the AWA.
the reason that the AWA is scored separately is that it is nowhere near as important as the rest of the test. basically, as long as you score at least decently well (say, 3-3.5 or higher), further increments in your score are more or less irrelevant.
keep this in mind when you prepare. if you are already scoring 4.5 or higher, then the amount of preparation that you need for the AWA is zero -- you just need to keep practicing until it becomes routine.

And i plan to work on more on quant in the last month(as its my strong point). Some guidance please
Thanks

if you have a Q50, then you should probably just leave that alone. the highest possible quant score is Q51, which is statistically indistinguishable from your current score.

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GMAT/MBA Expert

lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am; Thanked: 2256 times; Followed by:1535 members; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:51 am

Pranay --

pranaygupta86 wrote:I did the questions untimed and here is how I fared:

OG:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 95% correct
CR - 95% correct

Kaplan VWB:
SC - 90% correct
RC - 85% correct
CR - 95% correct

untimed questions are useless, so, unfortunately, these percentages (albeit impressive) are essentially meaningless.

why were you doing questions untimed?
especially in RC and CR -- in those two genres of problems, time management presents the majority of the difficulty that students encounter.

hopefully, you still have some OG questions remaining that you can do with timing, so as to collect some statistics that are actually meaningful.

I have also taken two MGMAT CAT tests in the past two weeks. The details:

CAT 1: 720 (Q-45, V-42) was very rusty on the quant section
CAT 2: 770 (Q-50, V-45)

did you time these?

if so, these are excellent scores.
if not, they basically don't count.

I would like to know what I should plan to do to maximize my score. I have been analyzing all the questions that I get wrong or am not sure about. I have also ordered the Verbal Review by GMAC for further practice.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/550-to-720-i ... tml#330724

It would be awesome of someone could give me pointers on the following:
1. Study plan and material I should cover
2. A good source of practice material (verbal) where I can practice questions of a higher difficulty level

you should NEVER think about "difficulty level" on verbal questions -- that will just get in your way. (you should also not think about "difficulty level" on quant problems, unless you are a low-scoring student.)
you should be thinking only about the following:
* the problem itself
* timing
* the considerations outlined in the post linked above.

difficulty level is basically just a distraction, especially on verbal; the only people who should be worrying about it are those of us who write tests.

3. Tests I should take other than MGMAT and GMAT Prep

how long is your study plan?

together, that's eight practice tests, which should be enough for at least 3-4 months.

4. Methods for improving individual skills for particular question types (SC,CR,RC)

unfortunately, you're going to have to get more specific than that -- these problems are 100% of the entire verbal section, so this is clearly not something that can be addressed in a single post.

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sameerballani: Legendary Member; Posts: 544; Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:10 am; Thanked: 45 times; Followed by:2 members

by sameerballani » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:59 am

lunarpower wrote:
sameerballani wrote:Update: Today i took a GMATPrep-1(without AWA)
ALWAYS do the AWA.
ALWAYS.

remember, you don't even have to be that good at the AWA -- you just have two goals:
* you need to make the AWA as routine and effortless as possible;
* you need to get used to a test that takes almost 4 hours.

if you practice the test without the essays, you will not accomplish either of these goals -- and you may well get destroyed buy fatigue when the test is suddenly an hour longer than what you've become accustomed to.

I will make sure of this thing now onwards. Thanks!!
In quant, All the questions were new for me. I got 8 incorrect in quant and 9 incorrect in verbal.
Why there is so much difference between two scores?
which other score?

Earlier i took a Kaplan test-1. Please refer to 5th post from the top. Thanks

Also could someone refer me some good AWA material. I need to take the following tests with AWA section.
watch the DECEMBER 2, 2010 lecture here:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

remember -- do not put too much effort into the AWA.
the reason that the AWA is scored separately is that it is nowhere near as important as the rest of the test. basically, as long as you score at least decently well (say, 3-3.5 or higher), further increments in your score are more or less irrelevant.
keep this in mind when you prepare. if you are already scoring 4.5 or higher, then the amount of preparation that you need for the AWA is zero -- you just need to keep practicing until it becomes routine.

Thanks alot. will work on AWA. But the point is how will i get to know what score i am getting in AWA?

And i plan to work on more on quant in the last month(as its my strong point). Some guidance please
Thanks
if you have a Q50, then you should probably just leave that alone. the highest possible quant score is Q51, which is statistically indistinguishable from your current score.

Ron, But i had a question- whether the questions i saw on GMATPrep-1 similar to what comes in GMAT?
Also how many test questions,which won't be marked, are there on the GMAT. Are there any on GMATPrep.
The reason i wanted to emphasize on quant is because doing good in quant is very.very imp for me. Because, i feel it is the one that would give me a good score. On verbal, I have really worked alot. And even i will do all the OG questions before test. What are your views??

Also one more thing, How much emphaisize you would give to the following topics- Geometry(Advanced), Statistics(range/mean/median/Std. Dev) and Perm&Com+Probability. I am yet to do these chapters
I feel confident in number system+algebra as compared to geometry

Also I need some good material for quant esp for Data Sufficiency. Just to brush up the concepts and get more into flow. What would you suggest?

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pranaygupta86: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Sat May 28, 2011 10:45 am; GMAT Score:780

by pranaygupta86 » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:05 pm

Hey Ron

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

I agree with your observation on untimed questions and will make sure to time them henceforth. I have given the tests with timing.

I'll start with questions from the Verbal Review book and Kaplan 800 and do them with timing. Will keep you posted.

Thanks for your time.

Regards
Pranay

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GMAT/MBA Expert

lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am; Thanked: 2256 times; Followed by:1535 members; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:30 am

pranaygupta86 wrote:Hey Ron

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

I agree with your observation on untimed questions and will make sure to time them henceforth. I have given the tests with timing.

I'll start with questions from the Verbal Review book and Kaplan 800 and do them with timing. Will keep you posted.

Thanks for your time.

Regards
Pranay

ok, good luck.

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GMAT/MBA Expert

lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am; Thanked: 2256 times; Followed by:1535 members; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:40 am

sameerballani wrote:
Ron, But i had a question- whether the questions i saw on GMATPrep-1 similar to what comes in GMAT?

this really depends on what you mean by "similar".

* if you mean "essentially the same question, with the numbers or words changed a little bit" -- then, well, no, you will NEVER see questions like that.
the entire purpose of the gmat is to be inaccessible to pure memorization, so they will make sure that the test does not include problems that are too similar, on a surface level, to the problems that you have seen in your practice tests.

* on the other hand, if you mean "testing the same concepts that the official exam will test, albeit in different forms", then, yes, the official gmatprep software is about as authentic as you're going to get.

Also how many test questions,which won't be marked, are there on the GMAT.

i don't know an exact figure; usually around 8-12 per section.
(note that an exact answer to this problem will not help you in any way, so it's really not worth worrying about.)

Are there any on GMATPrep.

i don't know whether the software models such questions. whether it does or not, your score is extremely unlikely to be affected more than negligibly.

The reason i wanted to emphasize on quant is because doing good in quant is very.very imp for me. Because, i feel it is the one that would give me a good score. On verbal, I have really worked alot. And even i will do all the OG questions before test. What are your views??

my view is that you should not spend too much more time studying for quant, because you already have a Q50. the highest possible quant score is Q51!
the difference between Q50 and Q51 is probably more a result of the randomness you'll encounter on test day than anything else.

Also one more thing, How much emphaisize you would give to the following topics- Geometry(Advanced), Statistics(range/mean/median/Std. Dev) and Perm&Com+Probability. I am yet to do these chapters
I feel confident in number system+algebra as compared to geometry

again, you have a Q50. you should probably just lay off the quant altogether so that you can focus on verbal -- it's not worth your time just for a *possible* increase of, at the very most, 1 point in quant.

when's the last time you took more than one consecutive day OFF studying?
if the answer is "more than a month ago", then the first thing that you need to do is take at least a few days off, so that your brain can start building the neural connections that are required for lateral thinking (a topic on which i've posted in other places on this forum).

Also I need some good material for quant esp for Data Sufficiency. Just to brush up the concepts and get more into flow. What would you suggest?

i would suggest switching your focus to verbal, because you are already within 1 point (a statistically insignificant difference) of the maximum quant score.

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pranaygupta86: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Sat May 28, 2011 10:45 am; GMAT Score:780

by pranaygupta86 » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:03 am

Hey guys

I gave my 1st GMAT Prep test yesterday. The details:

Overall: 770
Quant: 51 (0 incorrect)
Verbal: 42 (5 incorrect - Qs 2,3,9,10,18)

In the verbal section, I got 2 sentence correction and 3 critical reasoning questions wrong. The SC errors were pretty much blunders on my part, but the CR errors were a different story. In all 3 cases, I was able to narrow it down to 2 choices and ended up picking the incorrect one. It was like I was unable to get the line of thought the question wanted me to. What can I do to avoid such mistakes?

Also, I now have around 30 days till my GMAT appointment. I plan to take around 2 test a week till then and continue practicing questions everyday. I will step up my efforts in the last 7-10 days to revise the concepts I have learned and take test more frequently. Any advice around my plan would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your time.

Regards
Pranay

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sameerballani: Legendary Member; Posts: 544; Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:10 am; Thanked: 45 times; Followed by:2 members

by sameerballani » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:13 am

Ron,
You are emphasizing on switching on to verbal than working more on quant. But the point i was trying to make(which was not clear) is that i feel that my level in quant is not of 50. I know i am degrading myself, but i do feel so. So i need to take few more test to be sure that i am probably wrong and i am under-estimating myself.

But there's one more thing i have noticed that i usually finish quant section early, say atleast 10min. This is a very tricky situation. I really want to utilize this in improving my quant score. But the point is that when i am stuck on a question for a longer time, i feel i need to make an educated guess and move on and i do the same. But the questions that i can do,i do them fast and mostly right and end up saving time on them.

And by "similar", I mean that they will be more or less same level and testing the same concepts in whichever they form they want to.