60 Day Journal - MathSmack

[mathsmack]

I'm going to update this thread each day as a way to track my progress:

Day 1 - Math Diagnostic OG - 17/24 PS || 9/24 DS
(It's safe to say I have a long way to go with PS. Also 5 out of my 7 wrong on PS were geometry...)
Day 2 - Verbal Diagnostic OG - 16/17 Reading Comp || 24/24 Critical Reasoning || SC - Almost all wrong
(I did very well on the LSAT so RC and CR are areas that I've had the time to practice quite a bit. SC is a worry, but like geometry and DS, a known area for improvement)

[mathsmack]

Day 3 - Baseline GMAT

I will be moving a bit away from the exact 60 day plan in two aspects:

My first test will be on day 23. Not today. I did not take a practice LSAT until I was comfortable that I had at least a grasp on all of the concepts, and I will be doing the same here. I did well on the LSAT and I think part of that was a low un-representative score didn't throw me off (it would not motivate me).

My second deviation is that I will be doubling up on some days. I am almost exactly 60 days out, but I have a week of vacation and will not be working on weekends. That said, I have a few days off during the week that I can attack multiple 'days' without a problem.


So what will I be doing today? Reviewing Data Sufficiency, Sentence Correction, and Number Properties from a high level approach. Geometry is another weakness that must be addressed, but these will be sufficient for today.

[beatthegmat]

This is such an awesome initiative, thanks for sharing!

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Great idea Mathsmack! I'm sure others will benefit from your experiences.

I thought I should mention that, for those students who sign up for the Study Guide after June 14, 2012, your days might not match up 100% with Mathsmack's days. As of June 15, the Study Guide has been updated to include preparation for the new Integrated Reasoning (IR) Section.

Best of luck in your studies, mathsmack!

Cheers,
Brent

[mathsmack]

I will be posting my results in a post tomorrow. For anyone following...how am I practicing for IR? Short answer is...I'm not !

[beatthegmat]

Can't wait to see the results!

[mathsmack]

Day 4 - This was a math review day for me. I spent much time on the specified math topics and left feeling like I needed to have words with my old math teachers I really have no clue on geometry and am looking forward to the days that are spent on that topic.

I have also purchased the book 'Math Tricks' which talks about doing math in your head and I will be reading this leisurely with my studies.

Day 5/6/7 updates coming soon.

[mathsmack]

In an earlier thread I mentioned that I would be doubling up some days. This entry is an example of one such day.

[Day 5 & 6] - Isn't it amazing how some things never change? I have always struggled with fractions and today is no different. I think number properties are very interesting and it really does take me back to 8th grade...I can still remember my teacher, Mr. Dennis, scrawling quadratic equations on the white board (at the time whiteboards were the latest rage in teaching).

I've noticed I have been very careful with my remembering little things (like sign changes) which is a positive thing (pun intended!). Normally little mistakes killed me in the past, and I saw this happen again on my quant diagnostic.

I'm not sure I'm approaching the problems in the OG correctly (I have OG 13, the guide is made for OG 12) but I am picking around the same number of overall questions and just plugging away. I am also doing the quantitative review 2nd edition problems for reinforcement.

Tomorrow is a busy day for work so I'm happy to see that Ratios won't be taking up a large portion of my free time!

Until next time.

- Math Smack

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

I'm not sure I'm approaching the problems in the OG correctly (I have OG 13, the guide is made for OG 12) but I am picking around the same number of overall questions and just plugging away. I am also doing the quantitative review 2nd edition problems for reinforcement.
- Math Smack

Hi Math Smack,

To give you an idea of what questions to answer from the OG12 each day, you can download the categorized Improvement Chart for OG12 at the top of this page: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/resources

Aside: The BTG 60-Day Study Guide has now been updated to follow the OG13 ... but you need to re-sign up to get the updated version.

Cheers,
Brent

[mathsmack]

I'm taking a hiatus until I catch up on the new guide. Using OG13 is just too tempting

I did schedule my GMAT. At the end of August...we do battle!