My GMAT journey begins

Thanks mates. helpful tips. I am dying to get a break from seeing English language....may be I should opt for Quant next before moving onto CR and RC. BTW any tips on IR, please share

Week ahead (3) I will continue MGMAT SC revision. Completed revising SC MGMAT twice, will review online contents and Ron's study halls - helpful. I am still absorbing rules, applying and solving randomly. Will need to get into structured solving of questions timing the same. Will take a free mock (only SC - any advice on this) this week. Lets see where I stand.

You should give 1 sectional test in Quant every week just to keep your Quant muscle flexing. Including review it shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours.
For IR, the best tip is to not worry about IR till 2-3 weeks before GMAT. At that point just practice all OG13 IR problems twice.

This week was a little screwed up, with personal tie ups. Will catch up coming week (4). Starting with Quant this week. SC will continue. Mostly covered all rules. Now is brush ups and practice full fledged. That is the week ahead of me....

I have a phobia to do the CAT's...it scares me, I dont know what is the remedy to it. With all nerves did the MGMAT foundation diagnostics, went well. 4 errors - 2 with comparison and 2 with idioms all 300-500 levels...

I post an update every weekend. I did not last weekend. I believe I am almost done with my GMAT and MBA dreams. Had a tough past, personal obligations, accidents, physically handicapped, still never let my dream fade off. But now, with an update from Richard Ivey, that my 12 years of WE is just what they might not like, rather I should go for EMBA, something that I dont want to do myself, seems the end of my dream. Its so strange, we still live in a world where true efforts to academics and growth and survival are not recognized.

All I can say is I am shattered with this revert from Ivey.....guess that is the end of my dream run

Thanks Abhi. I am re considering list of schools. Insead and Queen's in the list, more cause they have intensive 1 year program. But Queen's in Canada is good, but not comparable to Ivey's placement and alumni networking success. I did not quite research on UBC yet, but will like to gather some info on it as well. UTO again 2 years program, not what I am looking for.

Re started my preps. At least for the sake of GMAT. Ron gave a useful tip of practicing OG problems, error wise, dont go on to solve complete question, since each question has more than one type of error, so simply make sure you are able to identify the named errors with correct reasoning and leave it at that. I did so last 2 days. Good tactic. I realize modifiers and parallelism are still weak for me, I need more efforts there.SC is just not stopping to chase me.


Can anyone count and tell how many finite rules of grammar are there?

SC bug did not stop chasing me yet. I dont know why I am loosing it. just not able to focus, after a month of research with SC. This is affecting my Quant. Coming week Number properties my focus, SC more of practice and brushing up and then get into simulated practice....
Going through a personal breakdown, just trying to keep my nerves going till I crash

Well, a slight change of POA. I am starting RC vigorously this week to club with SC (still not in excellent shape, dont know where I am going wrong). Quant I will hold for a while. Wish to shape up Verbal completely by this month. Damn English is tough

Taking 2, 3 day break and relaxing can help prevent burnout.

thanks Abhi for your motivation, you have been extremely supportive. It is beyond extending my gratitude to you. BTW can you pls share some tips on improving SC. I know concepts. But at a glance I am unable to recognize errors in sentences. I jump into finding errors in answer choices. Meaning I am clueless of what I am looking for in answer choices. But one thing, after EGmat course, i am extremely clear on meaning, which has helped me fairly well. But I think I am still far behind in application.

SDas,

Have seen a burning desire in you to achieve your goals. Maintaining motivation during a solitary task like GMAT is tough, with work and family commitments its pretty natural to get derailed. Its all about getting back though.
Coming to SC what I did was basically make short notes for first 7 chapters of Manhattan SC in a small notebook. I used to read Manhattan SC several times(the first 7-8 chapters are the key). The rules should be on your finger tips. If someone asks you to summarize a chapter say S-V agreement you should be able to list 90% of rules without looking inside the book. Once you have this level of mastery its all about practice from reputed sources and making notes whenever you see a new rule in the same notebook. The reputed sources are - OG12, OG 10, OG V2, GMAT Prep Question Pack 1. Do the above twice and you should be able to get to V35.
As far as recognizing errors are concerned you should look for 4, 5 major types of errors - S/V, pronoun, parallelism, tense. These errors are tested most frequently. The problem is each of the topics have 10-20 rules which you should be totally confident of as described above.

Great thanks Abhi. I am glad I am on right track then. Have noted all of MGMAT and EGMAT in my notebook. Including Ron's session tips. Excluding MGMAT Advanced section. I will read and re read and re read the book and my notes to ingrain them in my head. Also, partially cause of over stress may be I am not able to recently do much on the problems, unlike what I did initially. Will have to catch up on the speed. Next is RC, lets see wts that all about

SC is shaping up. Still more to go....who says SC has finite rules.....Quant just started, brushing up NP. Lets see how it goes. Practicing forum questions of SC. coming week focus is revise GC grammar book, MGMAT online content and NP complete (by 17th Apr and review). Got behind on RC, will stall it for a while.

Done with MGMAT Number Properties. OG on going. Made a long post of valuable forum Quant resources, very very helpful. Will need to revise SC EGMAT and GC book this week. Its long over due. I am happy with SC improvement. But seems it is stagnating now...have to review and brush up.

I would also recommend to spend about last 2 weeks for CAT tests to improve the timing skills, crucial factor. I used Manhattan 6 online CATs and found it really helpful.