My debrief..
I am an Indian female with an engineering
background.Although my studies have always been related to
mathematics,I have never considered myself exceptional at
it,not even good but average.Even during my engineering days
trusses and structures were a horror to me but I could glide
through management subjects.
I decided to take GMAT somewhere near 1st June and gave
myself 2 and a half months to prepare.I would have studies
around 4 hours everyday and 6 hours over the weekends .
Reviews on the materials used(In chronological order from first
used):
1.
Princeton Review:Cracking the GMAT:Take this book as the
first step to your preparation.
Do the questions but dont believe in Joe Bloggs
method.According to me me this method is stupid.Except that
this method,this book introduces to gmat pretty well.
2
Official guides: .As everyone says its is Gita Quaran Bible.Do it and redo it and redo it again.All the other sections werestill fine but
sentence correction gave a lot of trouble.When I did OG
sentence correction for the first time I noted the questions
which I did wrong.When I did it second time some of those
questions were wrong again and some questions which I did
correctly the first time were getting wrong now.So after
relearning from OG I did the whole sentence correction for the
third time after a week.I casually went through all sentence corrections questions a day before test and still got two wrong !!
If you dont have much time just go through Official books.
3.
Manhattan :-
These are very good books.I loved the sentence correction
guide.It is a must have .It introduces the concepts and then gives to do
excercises instead of choices.Its great practice.
.Get manhattan books for problem areas.Word problems and Inequalities are good as well.
5.Kaplan Premiere [/i]
Kaplan Premiere is an ok book but I will not say that it is
necessary.Its just for practice and dont add anything
strategy or knowledge on any subject(If OG id done
thourougly).I will not suggest going through Kaplan premiere if
you are using manhattann guide and do not have long
time to prepare.Good for practice though.
6.Kaplan 800:Dont miss math section of this book.Its very
good.If you are planning to get manhattan guides I suggest
you to go through Kaplan 800 math after manhattan guides.
But I didn't like the verbal section of Kaplan800.Its thought
provoking but doesn't represent gmat pattern at all.You can
miss the verbal section ,it doesn't add much in terms of gmat
preparation.
Tests used:
1. GMATPrep:Invaluable for two reasons:
a) Software is exactly the one that you see in the
exam.Familiarity to the screens puts pressure off during real thing.
b)You can take it upto 6 times,though results will be inflated
maybe by around 30 points after it has been taken for first 4
times.
This availablility of taking tests multiple times is an invaluable
information I got from this forum.
For taking test multiple times reinstall the software and also
remove the data from C:/ProgramFiles/GMATPrep
Dont forget to solve questions you get wrong.You can google
and find solutions to most of them and on this forum
2.PR Tests:Good for practice and difficulty level is near to
actual GMAT.Scores are representative
3.Manhattan tests:These are way tougher than actual gmat.
Under timed conditions I didnt score more than 650.
I wont suggest doing all the six tests ,if your prep time is 2 to
2:5 months.Do 2 3 tests for practice,but dont get bogged
down by the results.
I got a 690 on a untimed test
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/smile.png)
The techniques learned from tests are helpful.
4.I didnt do Kaplan tests.
Suggestions:
1.Learn every concept of princeton,OG ,purple and green
before moving to other materials.
2.Note the questions which you got wrong ,took long time to
solve or were confused about while solving.Solve these again
and again.
3.In last week of test work with Official materials and
GMATprep tests only.
4.Do everything to make yourself comfortable on the test day.I
am not an early riser,but my test was at 8 am(no other time
was available).For 15 days I practiced getting up early and
studing in mornings.
A day before the test dont study anything or only a little.Enjoy
yourself.
Imagine yourself in the test centre and being very comfortable
there.Imagine you are doing very well.Also,remind yourself its
not the end of life and you can always try it again if needed.
Be confident.
Get very good sleep before the test day.
On test day
Take food ,that you enjoy, to the centre.Enjoy it during breaks.
During breaks remind yourself what you need to remember.
Before Quant I reminded myself to
a)Put values(found as solutions) in inqequalities before marking answers.
b)Reread the question to see specific information about the solution...such as x is positive number,or an even number.
I was missing these two things in my practice tests.
c)Let go of questions you cant solve.Guess and move forward.
Note on AWA:
Argument section:
Prepare a pamplet.As far as matter is concerned,preparing critical reasoning section of GMAT puts your mind in questioning mode.
Read the solutions for CR provided by OG and you can know what is expected in argument section.
Practice 2 3 essays in prep tests.
Issue section
The essays have certain commonly appearing topics.
Best way to prepare this section is discussing some of topics from the official list of topics with friends.In this way you can get other point of view also.This will help you in writing "Some may argure X ,but I think Y" lines in your pamplet.I got ideas from my husband
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/smile.png)
Practice 2-3 essays.
I hope it helps but we all are different,so,concentate on your weakness and beat the gmat.
Are you still reading ????
Good luck and wish me for awa results.