-
abhishekdrolia
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:39 pm
- Thanked: 1 times
First I would like to extend my thanks to the BTG. I have been surfing this forum for the last 3 months. BTG is a great resource to get original questions and also to understand basics about verbal section for GMAT. I have been a regular visitor of BTG for last 3 months, sharpening my prep and solving more original question. No other source has been as useful as BTG.
Before providing a debrief of my study, I want to give some information about my background. I am an engineer by profession and have been trying to prepare for GMAT since 2008. I am a non-native english speaker and had very little interest in literature, english or anything verbal. When I started preparing for GMAT I was quiet intimidated by the tough verbal questions. I have always had a good track record in math and was confident about mathematics.
As I found Verbal difficult, I tried a few diagnostic test early in my prep. I found that my weakness was SC and RC. Having decided that I needed lot of work on the verbal section, I took a classroom course by MGMAT. Stacey was my classroom instructor. She did a tremendous job in providing me with all the basics about verbals. I took this course in Nov 2008. I had hoped that I would give my GMAT in Feb 2009, but due to personal reasons I could not take the GMAT then and then kept procrastinating. Between Feb 2009 and Feb 2010, I was on a slow preparation of GMAT. Like a part time job.
During this one year, I did several things to improve on SC and RC. I used the following resource to build basics for SC and RC.
1. Manhattan GMAT
2. Kaplan 800
3. OG 10, OG 11 and OG 12
4. Sentence Correction Guide from ETS (This must be an old resource, a friend gave me, I did not find it on the internet)
5. 1000 SC
6. 1000 RC
Apart from the above material, I started participating in a study group. The study group especially concentrated on SC. We used to solve SC as a mathematics problem. All rules that were developed were tested on new problem and all exceptions were noted, till the rule and its exceptions were completely understood in the context of GMAT. This was possible especially in a study group as an SC can be solved in several ways and only in a study group can make it possible to discuss all solutions. We also extensively used the Sentence Correction Guide from ETS to thrash out all the basic rules that are tested in GMAT. I personally think that the Sentence Correction Guide is a great resource for GMAT preparations. I thought that the OG is definitely a basis for understanding the question pattern in GMAT, but I did not find the OG very useful in developing the basics of SC or even RC. I needed to get beyond the OG to understand the basics.
Apart from the Study Group that concentrated on SC I did preparation on RC personally. I mostly completed the 1000 RC and also some LSAT questions. After completing most of these RC, I understood that RC is not much different from CR. The passage is much bigger and sometime difficult to understand. A CR has a premise and conclusion clearly identified and the structure of CR is mostly similar. An RC can have different patterns, but again an RC has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Again the questions are on inference or conclusion. So after understanding these similarities it became easier for me to tackle RC. Initially for me, RC seemed difficult as the passages had a lot of information and usually overwhelmed me, but once I understood that the only thing I need to understand in an RC is the structure of the passage, i.e. which paragraph is the introduction, which is the body and which is the conclusion. Further in an RC, if we understand the purpose of the passage and the author's tone that is enough during the initial reading of a passage. Any detail should be understood in the context of the passage. The reader should not sweat out over every detail in the passage. The another important thing that I did during RC was to read the entire passage without skimming the passage. For a difficult passage, I used to take more than 4 mins to read the passage. I never did SPEED READING for RC. I developed these basics after a lot of practice.
After having completed these preparation during Feb 2009 - Feb 2010 as a part-time preparation effort, I decided to give my GMAT in June. I started coming to BTG for additional questions and completed the OG once again. I used to study an hour everyday until about a month before exam when I increased my study during weekends. I have the following tests.
1. Princeton 1 - 680
2. Princeton 2 - 710
3. Princeton 3 - 730
4. Princeton 4 - 720
I found the princeton test very unforgiving. Indeed If I did one or two mistakes early on, my score would plummet. I did not particularly liked that princeton tests scored in such a manner, further the questions were relatively easy. Princeton tests does not prepare you well for tougher questions. If you aim is to score 750 or above, princeton tests maynot completely test you and also may not prepare you for the tougher questions that may come in the actual test.
After finishing Princeton, I have MGMAT test
1. MGMAT 1 - 700
2. MGMAT 2 - 720
3. MGMAT 3 - 750
4. MGMAT 4 - 780
MGMAT provides upto 6 unique tests, but I had already exhausted 2 tests earlier during my diagnostic tests in 2008, so I could only give 4 tests. I found MGMAT math tougher than the actual GMAT. I have a very good understanding of the math section so did not get overwhelmed by the math at MGMAT, but somebody who is struggling with math, MGMAT test may make the user solve more difficult problems than what comes in the actual test. Talking about the math section, I had taken the MGMAT math challenge question and solved more than 150 questions. Somebody who is good at math should do these questions. These questions challenges and prepares well for different questions that may come at the test. Indeed I remember that one question at my GMAT was very similar to one of the challenge question from MGMAT. So the challenge questions are good for somebody who is good at math and wants to score between 49-51 in the actual test.
Verbal sections were good for me, though I thought that the MGMAT pattern of question were different from the actual test, but the tests are good and I would say that these tests came closest to challenging me during the exam and helped me in preparing for the tough question on the actual test.
After giving these tests I gave the GMAT prep exam.
1. GMAT Prep 1 - 760
2. GMAT Prep 2 - 780
I was very happy with my results in these two tests. I also realized after these tests that GMAT maybe easier than what I had thought, but I was happy that I had completed my preparations and that I was ready for the exam.
I had also taken 800score tests. I scored between 700-750 in the five tests. I did not like these tests and did not do much analysis of these tests. These were just practice tests for me.
On the exam day, I reached the center early. During practice tests, I was having a bladder problem, so I had decided to take all the breaks and relieve myself completely and also drink some water during the breaks. The breaks at my center were for 8 mins and checking in and checking out takes some time so mostly you get just enough time to goto the restroom and drink some water.
The strategy for the test was simple. As I have said I had no problem for the math section, so I never did any time management for the math section. I had thought that I will be able to complete my math easily. In the end I was able to do math comfortably.
For the verbal section, I had decided to not stress out about time for each question. I had decided to divide the test in 3 section. I had decided to finish Q-14 by the 50 min mark, Q-28 by the 25 min mark and rest 14 question in the last 25 mins. I was mostly able to maintain this pace. It is very important to not be very fast or very slow during any section of the test. I did take advantage of the fact that I could solve SC question fast. Some of the SC questions I was able to solve within 30 secs, enabling me to put more time for RC. This is a strategy that I had learnt in MGMAT classroom course and it proved very useful for me during the exam. I had purposefully made it a point to not second guess myself in few SC questions once I had reached an answer to cover sometime in SC if I end up putting extra time for RC. Such a strategy ensured a steady pace of progress for me.
Finally I was able to finish the verbal section 3-4 mins before the allotted time. I am personally very happy with my score and I would like to thank BTG, MGMAT and Stacey for my success.
Before providing a debrief of my study, I want to give some information about my background. I am an engineer by profession and have been trying to prepare for GMAT since 2008. I am a non-native english speaker and had very little interest in literature, english or anything verbal. When I started preparing for GMAT I was quiet intimidated by the tough verbal questions. I have always had a good track record in math and was confident about mathematics.
As I found Verbal difficult, I tried a few diagnostic test early in my prep. I found that my weakness was SC and RC. Having decided that I needed lot of work on the verbal section, I took a classroom course by MGMAT. Stacey was my classroom instructor. She did a tremendous job in providing me with all the basics about verbals. I took this course in Nov 2008. I had hoped that I would give my GMAT in Feb 2009, but due to personal reasons I could not take the GMAT then and then kept procrastinating. Between Feb 2009 and Feb 2010, I was on a slow preparation of GMAT. Like a part time job.
During this one year, I did several things to improve on SC and RC. I used the following resource to build basics for SC and RC.
1. Manhattan GMAT
2. Kaplan 800
3. OG 10, OG 11 and OG 12
4. Sentence Correction Guide from ETS (This must be an old resource, a friend gave me, I did not find it on the internet)
5. 1000 SC
6. 1000 RC
Apart from the above material, I started participating in a study group. The study group especially concentrated on SC. We used to solve SC as a mathematics problem. All rules that were developed were tested on new problem and all exceptions were noted, till the rule and its exceptions were completely understood in the context of GMAT. This was possible especially in a study group as an SC can be solved in several ways and only in a study group can make it possible to discuss all solutions. We also extensively used the Sentence Correction Guide from ETS to thrash out all the basic rules that are tested in GMAT. I personally think that the Sentence Correction Guide is a great resource for GMAT preparations. I thought that the OG is definitely a basis for understanding the question pattern in GMAT, but I did not find the OG very useful in developing the basics of SC or even RC. I needed to get beyond the OG to understand the basics.
Apart from the Study Group that concentrated on SC I did preparation on RC personally. I mostly completed the 1000 RC and also some LSAT questions. After completing most of these RC, I understood that RC is not much different from CR. The passage is much bigger and sometime difficult to understand. A CR has a premise and conclusion clearly identified and the structure of CR is mostly similar. An RC can have different patterns, but again an RC has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Again the questions are on inference or conclusion. So after understanding these similarities it became easier for me to tackle RC. Initially for me, RC seemed difficult as the passages had a lot of information and usually overwhelmed me, but once I understood that the only thing I need to understand in an RC is the structure of the passage, i.e. which paragraph is the introduction, which is the body and which is the conclusion. Further in an RC, if we understand the purpose of the passage and the author's tone that is enough during the initial reading of a passage. Any detail should be understood in the context of the passage. The reader should not sweat out over every detail in the passage. The another important thing that I did during RC was to read the entire passage without skimming the passage. For a difficult passage, I used to take more than 4 mins to read the passage. I never did SPEED READING for RC. I developed these basics after a lot of practice.
After having completed these preparation during Feb 2009 - Feb 2010 as a part-time preparation effort, I decided to give my GMAT in June. I started coming to BTG for additional questions and completed the OG once again. I used to study an hour everyday until about a month before exam when I increased my study during weekends. I have the following tests.
1. Princeton 1 - 680
2. Princeton 2 - 710
3. Princeton 3 - 730
4. Princeton 4 - 720
I found the princeton test very unforgiving. Indeed If I did one or two mistakes early on, my score would plummet. I did not particularly liked that princeton tests scored in such a manner, further the questions were relatively easy. Princeton tests does not prepare you well for tougher questions. If you aim is to score 750 or above, princeton tests maynot completely test you and also may not prepare you for the tougher questions that may come in the actual test.
After finishing Princeton, I have MGMAT test
1. MGMAT 1 - 700
2. MGMAT 2 - 720
3. MGMAT 3 - 750
4. MGMAT 4 - 780
MGMAT provides upto 6 unique tests, but I had already exhausted 2 tests earlier during my diagnostic tests in 2008, so I could only give 4 tests. I found MGMAT math tougher than the actual GMAT. I have a very good understanding of the math section so did not get overwhelmed by the math at MGMAT, but somebody who is struggling with math, MGMAT test may make the user solve more difficult problems than what comes in the actual test. Talking about the math section, I had taken the MGMAT math challenge question and solved more than 150 questions. Somebody who is good at math should do these questions. These questions challenges and prepares well for different questions that may come at the test. Indeed I remember that one question at my GMAT was very similar to one of the challenge question from MGMAT. So the challenge questions are good for somebody who is good at math and wants to score between 49-51 in the actual test.
Verbal sections were good for me, though I thought that the MGMAT pattern of question were different from the actual test, but the tests are good and I would say that these tests came closest to challenging me during the exam and helped me in preparing for the tough question on the actual test.
After giving these tests I gave the GMAT prep exam.
1. GMAT Prep 1 - 760
2. GMAT Prep 2 - 780
I was very happy with my results in these two tests. I also realized after these tests that GMAT maybe easier than what I had thought, but I was happy that I had completed my preparations and that I was ready for the exam.
I had also taken 800score tests. I scored between 700-750 in the five tests. I did not like these tests and did not do much analysis of these tests. These were just practice tests for me.
On the exam day, I reached the center early. During practice tests, I was having a bladder problem, so I had decided to take all the breaks and relieve myself completely and also drink some water during the breaks. The breaks at my center were for 8 mins and checking in and checking out takes some time so mostly you get just enough time to goto the restroom and drink some water.
The strategy for the test was simple. As I have said I had no problem for the math section, so I never did any time management for the math section. I had thought that I will be able to complete my math easily. In the end I was able to do math comfortably.
For the verbal section, I had decided to not stress out about time for each question. I had decided to divide the test in 3 section. I had decided to finish Q-14 by the 50 min mark, Q-28 by the 25 min mark and rest 14 question in the last 25 mins. I was mostly able to maintain this pace. It is very important to not be very fast or very slow during any section of the test. I did take advantage of the fact that I could solve SC question fast. Some of the SC questions I was able to solve within 30 secs, enabling me to put more time for RC. This is a strategy that I had learnt in MGMAT classroom course and it proved very useful for me during the exam. I had purposefully made it a point to not second guess myself in few SC questions once I had reached an answer to cover sometime in SC if I end up putting extra time for RC. Such a strategy ensured a steady pace of progress for me.
Finally I was able to finish the verbal section 3-4 mins before the allotted time. I am personally very happy with my score and I would like to thank BTG, MGMAT and Stacey for my success.
