Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ???

Today I was planning to take my GMAT Prep 1 and based on the result, decide on my D-Day. But somehow I wanted to postpone it by one more day. I have never practiced any of the Quant questions in almost 5 months other than the 3 MGMAT Cat tests. And I didn't even review my mistakes nor referreshed my basics. I definitely don't want to take a GMAT Prep with my unfinished preparation work and then shatter my confidence level, which is one of the crucial factors in GMAT success. So decided I will refresh my basics(notes that I already prepared during my first attempt) and do some OG questions - to have a feel of quant. Most likely I will be taking the GMAT Prep tomorrow.

I completed my OG 12 PS questions - 230 questions - and I can say there are only handful of them that are either tricky or hard. Rest all are less than 700 level. So if anyone is targetting for 49+ in quant, then we need to look for other sources. (Still my hit rate is only 86 % on PS. I am sure I might have made some silly mistakes - which are correctable. I will go thru all the wroung ans once I complete DS questions (170 in total) as well.)

OK....I was bit reluctant to take GMAT Prep exam this weekend. But I don't want to make the same mistake that I made during my first attempt preparation. so I finally made up my mind and took GMATPrep 1. The score is not so convincing. Here is my result -

Total - 690, 49 (Q - 88%) and 34(V - 72%)

PS - 13 correct & 6 wrong (68%)
DS - 13 correct & 4 wrong (76%)

SC - 12 correct & 5 wrong (70%)
CR - 7 correct & 4 wrong (63%)
RC - 9 correct & 4 wrong (69%)


Positives of the exam -

1.I am good with my timing. I have noted couple of checkpoints that states at the end of set of questions,what is the time that I should be left with. It is working perfect.
2. Happy with the Quant result. Even with very little practice, my score is competitive and I am still in the race. But I hope to have a 50.
3. From my last GMATPrep attempt and this GMATPrep attempt, my verbal score has increased from 23 to 34(This is quite a significant improvement). But I still wanted to have my verbal score to be atleast in upper 30's.
4. I am bit surprised with my CR and RC result in this exam. (Especially RC) Even though not much of the preparation has happened in these two areas,the result is quite encouraging. One thing that I learned is that - If we understand RC passage clearly, it is very easy to answer RC questions. If the passage is not clear, then we cannot ans RC questions with confidence. CR is much better than MGMATPrep.But there is still lot of scope for improvement.

Negative of the exam -

1.Very disappointed with my SC - infact there were couple of them which were repeats from OG 12. Inspite of that,my SC hit rate is ONLY 70%. If my hit rate is atleast 80% +, then there are good chances that I am above 700 limit.
2. Didn't get time to practice any of the CR /RC questions from OG nor did I spend any time in reviewing any of the mistakes that I have done from the past tests.

Now should I go for Oct 13 as my D-Day......I don't know? Reason - I didn't meet my min target ie 700 and also there were couple of repeats from both Quant and Verbal. So is my score of 690 really what I deserve or is it more than what I can score? So for now I am going to defer my decision by one more week.

In the forums I read that when you uninstall and reinstall GMATPrep, most likely the questions will be new. But I doubt it. Or is it that OG 12 contains lots of GMATPrep because of which I encountered couple of known questions?

Anyhow tough going.........For now the result is much closure to the expected one. Let me see how will my second GMATPrep1 going to be.

Good Showing!

Well, 700 is just a mark you have set for yourself in the gmat prep. Lets say, you had a target of 680, i m sure you would be pleased!

2 Questions here and there would have swung it either side of 700.

I would say, go for it. GMAT is a test where one can never feel a 100% prepared. After putting in your best efforts, one just has to take the leap of faith and give it their best shot.

Cheers

Today I have taken GMATPrep 1 again on a different machine......Isn't it an intelligent thought expecting to see a new set of questions (On my earlier machine, even though I uninstalled and installed the GMATPrep, I think there were quite a significant number of repeats from OG 12 or from my previous GMAT Prep Attempt). Luckily, this time around, I have seen many new SC and CR questions different from what I have attempted. Similarly quant also posed many different questions except for couple of them which fall under hard bin. So in a way I am happy with this attempt(GMAT Prep).

Guess what......I have scored 730 - Q(49) and V(40)......Hurry my verbal is finally in 40's. I definitely cannot expect more than this. Now I am pretty much decided on my D-Day - Deciding day. Oct13th,2009.

Here is the break down -

Total - 730, Q - 49 and V - 40

PS - 15 correct & 4 wrong (79%)
DS - 14 correct & 4 wrong (78%)

SC - 14 correct & 3 wrong (82%)
CR - 8 correct & 3 wrong (72%)
RC - 12 correct & 1 wrong (92%)

I really hope to see this score in my real GMAT. I would say my RC result is definitely exaggerated because all the 4 RC are repeats and this time around, I was able to under the passage very clearly. Now I have confidence I can win the real rematch. Let me refine my skills further. Next couple of day, I am going to take CAT exams probably every alternate day since I am left with 3 more MGMAT CATs, GMATClub tests and GMATPrep2. (Lot of CAT's pending)

This score is really inspiring me a lot to face the GMAT. Yeppie.......

Great score....so all set for the re-match! .

Ur SC skills have come a long way!

Awesome and inspiring ! Time to capitalize now !

Wow....what a relief......Finally today I booked my date for the rematch. It is 10-12-09 @ 11.00. Yesterday's score really boosted my confidence that made me book the date. Now the real count down begins.

Thank you Snipertrader & Economist for the encouraging words. Yes my SC skills improved a lot. Thanks to MGMAT SC,OG 12, and last but not the least, GMATClub Forums.

nice work. I am happy for you.

Is it mm-dd-yy OR dd-mm-yy ?

Ha ha ha.....Good Questions Economist. For now the date format is MM-DD-YY.

Awesome score! At this point you should go over sterny's gmatprep document if you haven't already. i thought that helped tremendously since they are all gmatprep questions (make sure you've completed the tests first).

The last stretch is the most stressful and boring but it's definitely looking like it'll be worth it for you!

Thanks Bipolarbear.......Yep now the real count down began. But I still wanted to do atleast all the questions for CR and RC from OG 12 to get good amount of practice. I haven't done any for the CR & RC in my previous attempt preparation and obviously that costed me a lot. And I don't want to repeat the same mistake this time(This is going to be my final attempt).

Here is the plan that I set for myself for the next couple of days -
1. Take at least one CAT exam - (MGMAT CATS or repeat GMATPrep1 till Oct 3rd) every 3 days.
2. Go thru the mistakes that I made in these CATs- This I will keep myself on track for the sections that I feel comfortable (ie PS, DS and SC).
3. Practice couple of OG questions from CR and RC(In fact I have OG 10,11,12,Review books with me. So this is more than enough for good Verbal exercises.)
4. Take GMATPrep 2 on Oct 3 to verify where I stand towards the end. And the rest of the days from Oct 3rd will be to go over the mistakes
5. Glance thru GMATPrep SC questions(I believe one of the GC forum members compiled the questions).
6. As time permits, take GMATClub tests(Currently I am pretty much freezed at Quant score 49 and these tests hope will improve it by atleast one more point. Isn't it too much to expect. )

From this preparation, I feel, we don't really need to go beyond OG 10,11,12, and OG Quant and Verbal review books for the practice questions. They are lot more than enough. In addition the ONLY two books that I recommend will be MGMAT SC and PowerScore CR Bible for those who are weak in Verbal.

18 days to go.............

Looks like a good plan .How is it going now?

13 days to go...

Hum......Only 13 days to go.......Time is short. Last couple of days didn't go as per the plan. A very unexpected distraction from my plan but that is fine. I still have 13 more days to go.

Started off with CR and RC passages in OG12. Planning to take GMATPrep2 on 3rd. And probably one more round of GMATPrep 2 again on 7th at the max. After that no more CAT exams. I don't want to shatter / fake my confidence level just before the real GMAT. Last week, I think I will be dedicating to doing around 20 questions each from each of the 5 sections and review my mistakes. This way, I can maintain my pace in all the 5 sections.

BTW, do any of you feel that doing OG12 before GMATPrep may boost your GMATPrep scores more than what should have been? I somehow feel so.

Going through OG before GMAT and GMAT Prep is likely to set you in harmony with the GMAT logic, question types, and terminology (something many third party practice tests do not have), so yes, but GMAT Prep is linked to GMAT, so increase in GMAT prep = increase in GMAT = GOOD.

There are no overlapping questions between GMATPrep and OG 12.

Thanks BB for responding. And I really hope what you said is true.

Unfortunately, I have seen couple of OG verbal questions that are in both GMATPrep and OG12. Cannot comment on Quant since I didn't do any Quant questions from OG12. So just wanted to make sure I am not acting (OVER)confident and that too just before couple of days from my final day.

I would suggest do not skip OG12 for quant .Go ahead review your error log from OG and OG quant.If you do this a week before D-day It will make you more comfortable with real Gmat .Good luck.