OG completed in 14 days....wat next.....??

[rathi.prabhat]

Hello everyone! I am starting my prep for GMAT from coming thursday( its just lucky for me thats y).. and have some knowledge about the test ...lik about what is the course ,the books ,the strategies...but all the knowledge i have, is taken from some forums/blogs or have got from some friends...so everything is very mixed and you can say confusing....I was looking around in this forum and felt that it could be beneficial for me to take advice from the exp people in this forum.

Presently I am employed in a software mnc and will complete two yrs of exp in june next yr. I am planning to give my gmat in august this year.I am aiming to get 720+ in any case as my aim is London business School

As i am working so i have less time to study in weekdays but this is not the case in weekends...i m free on sat n sunday and can devote as much time as it would take to get above 720 mark...and i suppose august is very far... so i can get across he 720 barrier with the thorough prep...

I am good in quant and a lil below avg in verbal...

this is all about me...now i want you people to tell me wat are the books to follow...in wat order...any other material and the strategy for cracking the test.

I have following books -

OG 11
PR 2008 with DVD
Kaplan verbal workbook - fourh edition!

Will be very thankfull for the time and advice i recv from all of you...!!![/b]

[beatthegmat]

I'd start with two resources:

The Beat The GMAT Study Blog - https://beatthegmat.blocked
The Beat The GMAT Resources Page - https://www.beatthegmat.com/resources.html

Take some time to browse through these resources. The first thing I recommend your doing is designing a solid study schedule/strategy that emphasizes identifying your weaknesses and adapting your prep to improve them.

Good luck!

[rathi.prabhat]

Thanx Eric. Will have a look at them and will b rite back!!!

[rathi.prabhat]

i have done all of the OG problems...wat should i do next????

[aim-wsc]

i have done all of the OG problems...wat should i do next????

Beat The GMAT has provided lots of free material check it out @ resources section.

Also check out my articles :
https://jc-gmat.blocked/2007/08/str ... month.html
https://jc-gmat.blocked/2007/01/how ... -gmat.html

[Stacey Koprince]

It's highly unlikely that you're actually done studying the OG. OG11 contains 800 questions. If you study the way you should be studying, you should be averaging 10 to 15 minutes per question. That would be about 130 to 200 hours of study, or about 9 to 14 hours of study every day for 14 days. I'm guessing that's not what you did.

Remember that just doing the questions is not the same thing as studying the questions. The first 2 minutes you spend doing the question is just the beginning. Study the question structure; pick it apart; figure out what it is really asking / telling you, even when the language is confusing or seemingly ambiguous; spot the traps and figure out how to avoid them; spot the shortcuts; figure out multiple ways to approach the problem and decide which way is best for you (combining both effectiveness AND efficiency); learn how to make educated guesses; figure out what you want to remember from the problem for future and figure out how to recognize whatever that is when you see it on a different problem with different words and maybe even a different setup - even though the problems may look very different, they could be testing the same thing. Etc. And you do this on every problem, not just the ones you got wrong. (Also, for the ones you got wrong, don't forget to think about WHY you got them wrong and what you can do to avoid repeating those same mistakes in future.)

[netigen]

Try to do the OG questions again and this time within the time limit for each question and see how well you can do.

You can also try GMAT800 next.

[rathi.prabhat]

I have really done all the problems of official guide...and i took so less time because i did PS n DS problems very fast ...i just used the bottom-top approach i.e solving thru the options ...i did less problems with the method n step by step approach.I just took time for solvin RC as i m weak in reading and answering RC questions...The only problem i am facing is in vocab and RC section.thanx for everyones help

[frantastic]

Have you started taking practice tests yet? I would take one of your PR tests to see where you stand. How long is it taking you to do your practice questions?

btw I would NOT use Kaplan's verbal workbook. Kaplan is not particularly good for verbal. PR is better.

[rathi.prabhat]

No i have not started taking the tests....actually i am a bit busy with my office work...so not finding time for the test...but with surely fight with one in this week. Which test should i take first... PR or GMATprep???

[Stacey Koprince]

Save GMATPrep - don't take one till after you've done some good study (including taking some other tests).

[rathi.prabhat]

Thanx for ur valuable suggestion.Should i do all the OG quant q's again...with the method...and wat test should i take up..???

[vgmat2]

Hi Stacy,

When do you recommand taking gmat prep tests ? Lets say one has completed OG and OG review. Do you recommend taking

PR tests or MGMAT tests or power prep tests or Paper GMAT tests ? I am
also planning to take tests but not sure which are good.

I have limited time due to my work schedule. I want to make every test worth the time. I am not planning to take Kaplan test, since I have heard it is tough and makes no sense. I somehow feel MGMAT tests are on the same lines, again heard from others on the forum, But again this is my situation I don't have lot of time for tests, others donot need to generalize. I want to give may be 6-7 tests.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts.

thanks
V-

[Stacey Koprince]

You don't necessarily need to do every last OG question again, but you will probably do a lot of them. Figure out what to do based upon the strengths and weaknesses you identify from your practice tests.

Our company lets you take one free test and I'm sure the other companies do as well. For our company, you can also buy access just to the tests, or you can get access to the tests for a year if you buy one of our strategy guides - see our web site for details. Check out what your options are from other companies and ask around the forums to see what tests people like best. (Obviously, I like ours... but I'm biased )

[Stacey Koprince]

Don't do old paper tests - paper tests in general are nothing like the real thing; the CAT is a completely different beast. PowerPrep was not truly adaptive, so those also aren't great. I would go with either ours or TPR.

I have had students tell me they think our tests are harder than the real thing (and, as such, that our tests really prepared them well for the pressures of the real test)... but I have also had just as many students tell me that the real test felt harder. So take that however you will - basically, people feel both ways; it's tough to generalize from what just a few people say, and your individual experience may not match what some other person experiences.

I will say that I think a small number of our math problems are too computation-intensive for a 2-min-per-question test. But that also teaches you to move on when necessary, and you will definitely have to do that on the real test, so it's good to get the practice ahead of time or you will spend too much time on problems you really can't do (and then get other questions wrong, too, as a result of not having enough time).