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25 Mar 2006, 15:47
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Hi Everyone,
Firstly, amazing forum and amazing people I just wish I was told about this 4 weeks ago! Anyhow here is my deal. I have been studying for the GMAT for about 3 to 4 weeks now and planning to take the real deal on April 12 2006. However as the day approaches im getting a bit more nervous (although this is good bcs its forcing me to do an average of 3-4 hrs of work a day ). I’m looking for any last minute advice to improve my studying strategy for the next 2.5 weeks.
Here is a brief run down of what I did and what im doing now.
First GMAT material I picked up was the KAPLAN book. Read that, did most of the examples and became rather familiar with the exam itself. At the beginning saw major problems with data sufficiency and CR as well as SC.
Next I decided to shell out the cash and enrolled myself in the Kaplan course. Scored a 570 on their diagnostic test and began my studying. Some comments on this. Retrospectively I don’t think the class itself is worth 1300 $ ( this is partly because the class is geared towards the average gmat student and im shooting for a 700+. Thus im a bit more motivated and willing to put in more effort compared to my classmates. Sitting there listening how to multiply fractions by their reciprocals is a waste of time ) however the volume of online material Kaplan provides is very impressive. For the next few weeks I started going through all the Kaplan material online, took multiple quizzes and answered hundreds of questions from every section. I did not concentrate on one part of the test more than the others however I did do more quant questions than verbal ( that’s how the course is structured it leans heavy towards math in the first half and verbal in the second ) My quant skills were fairly good to begin with ( I am an electrical engineering major at stony brook university NY ) but I definitely took some hits from the familiar Gmat tricks. I sped up my studying and finished up the Kaplan course ahead of schedule ( at least ahead of the class, this way I could get more practice in with the online material ) from then on I did about 3 hrs a day of timed Kaplan quizzes ( I did 37 quant and 42 verbal questions in timed mode ). As far as Kaplan goes my percent correct of basic and intermediate quant questions is 90+, percent correct of high difficulty questions hovers around 85 ( mostly due to the hard hard Kaplan data sufficiency questions, they really drill you on every single little detail ) for the Kaplan data sufficiency questions im getting about 82 % right. My verbal scores range anywhere from 80 to 92 % correct ( SC being the area that’s killing me )
2 days ago I decided to switch gears and purchased the new 11th edition OG. Was pretty excited to see what its like compared to Kaplan and took the diagnostic test that same day. On Quant I placed in the Excellent column for both types of questions. I should mention that I found the PS question in the OG to be harder than the Kaplan ones( I made three stupid mistakes even while taking my time with the ps diagnostic) . Not in the sense that they required more complex calculations ( most of the time it’s the opposite ) but in the sense that they took a bit more brainpower to grasp before starting to calculate … the tricks were far more advanced in the diagnostic section of the OG than in Kaplan. However the OG DS questions were a joke compared to Kaplan … at first I was wondering if im doing something wrong as I kept looking for the same sneaky Kaplan tricks but wasn’t finding too many. I ended up getting one DS question wrong in that section ( and even that was because I misread the question ) Now im about 140 questions into the OG PS question set. So far the questions are simple im averaging 2 wrong for each set of 37 ( most ly silly mistakes nothing core related, meaning not conceptual mistakes just calculation or reading ). But as I understand, the questions will get harder towards the end of the set. And really this is what im looking for because its unlikely that I will see the easy questions on the actual GMAT.
As far as the verbal diagnostic section of the OG. I found the CR to be far easier than Kaplan’s CR the RC about the same maybe a bit harder than Kaplan and SC are definitely a bit trickier. I placed in excellent column for CR and above avg for RC and SC.
My plans for the next 2 weeks.
Im planning to work my way through the OG within the next week going over all the questions and redoing the ones I got wrong. After that I was thinking about taking the first PP test ( I haven’t taken either one yet, only some of the Kaplan CAT tests online). I did find that im very pressed for time in the quant section of the Kaplan CAT. In all honesty I think its because of my stubborn behavior and ego. What I mean is that if I cant see the solution right away im not willing to take an educated guess il sit there until I solve the stupid problem ( bcs I know that probability of me finding what im doing wrong is high thus I sit there like a moron working out the 3rd question for 7 minutes ). I think I need to change this for the PP tests and the real deal GMAT I think its better to take a guess but finish with time on your hands rather than guessing on the last 5 haha.
After the first PP test im planning to take 1 Kaplan Cat a day ( yes I have more than enough from the course ) Hopefully I wont do too bad on the PP … but im a bit nervous about that lol. Also after the first PP im planning to intensify my verbal studying specifically SC. Then the Sunday before my exam im planning to take my second PP test and be done with studying … go to the park on Monday and relax … which brings me to April 12 G day.
Which brings me to my next thought…. HELP!!!
If anyone has any ideas on how I can use the next 18 days in the most efficient way I would love to hear them. Or in fact any ideas on how I can improve my studying. Also I would be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has about my study plan Kaplan or anything else.
Thank you in advance! You guys are more than a resource you are a motivation to us all … no course or book can substitute this site. I’m very happy to see such a community form out of desire to do good and the desire to do well.
Firstly, amazing forum and amazing people I just wish I was told about this 4 weeks ago! Anyhow here is my deal. I have been studying for the GMAT for about 3 to 4 weeks now and planning to take the real deal on April 12 2006. However as the day approaches im getting a bit more nervous (although this is good bcs its forcing me to do an average of 3-4 hrs of work a day ). I’m looking for any last minute advice to improve my studying strategy for the next 2.5 weeks.
Here is a brief run down of what I did and what im doing now.
First GMAT material I picked up was the KAPLAN book. Read that, did most of the examples and became rather familiar with the exam itself. At the beginning saw major problems with data sufficiency and CR as well as SC.
Next I decided to shell out the cash and enrolled myself in the Kaplan course. Scored a 570 on their diagnostic test and began my studying. Some comments on this. Retrospectively I don’t think the class itself is worth 1300 $ ( this is partly because the class is geared towards the average gmat student and im shooting for a 700+. Thus im a bit more motivated and willing to put in more effort compared to my classmates. Sitting there listening how to multiply fractions by their reciprocals is a waste of time ) however the volume of online material Kaplan provides is very impressive. For the next few weeks I started going through all the Kaplan material online, took multiple quizzes and answered hundreds of questions from every section. I did not concentrate on one part of the test more than the others however I did do more quant questions than verbal ( that’s how the course is structured it leans heavy towards math in the first half and verbal in the second ) My quant skills were fairly good to begin with ( I am an electrical engineering major at stony brook university NY ) but I definitely took some hits from the familiar Gmat tricks. I sped up my studying and finished up the Kaplan course ahead of schedule ( at least ahead of the class, this way I could get more practice in with the online material ) from then on I did about 3 hrs a day of timed Kaplan quizzes ( I did 37 quant and 42 verbal questions in timed mode ). As far as Kaplan goes my percent correct of basic and intermediate quant questions is 90+, percent correct of high difficulty questions hovers around 85 ( mostly due to the hard hard Kaplan data sufficiency questions, they really drill you on every single little detail ) for the Kaplan data sufficiency questions im getting about 82 % right. My verbal scores range anywhere from 80 to 92 % correct ( SC being the area that’s killing me )
2 days ago I decided to switch gears and purchased the new 11th edition OG. Was pretty excited to see what its like compared to Kaplan and took the diagnostic test that same day. On Quant I placed in the Excellent column for both types of questions. I should mention that I found the PS question in the OG to be harder than the Kaplan ones( I made three stupid mistakes even while taking my time with the ps diagnostic) . Not in the sense that they required more complex calculations ( most of the time it’s the opposite ) but in the sense that they took a bit more brainpower to grasp before starting to calculate … the tricks were far more advanced in the diagnostic section of the OG than in Kaplan. However the OG DS questions were a joke compared to Kaplan … at first I was wondering if im doing something wrong as I kept looking for the same sneaky Kaplan tricks but wasn’t finding too many. I ended up getting one DS question wrong in that section ( and even that was because I misread the question ) Now im about 140 questions into the OG PS question set. So far the questions are simple im averaging 2 wrong for each set of 37 ( most ly silly mistakes nothing core related, meaning not conceptual mistakes just calculation or reading ). But as I understand, the questions will get harder towards the end of the set. And really this is what im looking for because its unlikely that I will see the easy questions on the actual GMAT.
As far as the verbal diagnostic section of the OG. I found the CR to be far easier than Kaplan’s CR the RC about the same maybe a bit harder than Kaplan and SC are definitely a bit trickier. I placed in excellent column for CR and above avg for RC and SC.
My plans for the next 2 weeks.
Im planning to work my way through the OG within the next week going over all the questions and redoing the ones I got wrong. After that I was thinking about taking the first PP test ( I haven’t taken either one yet, only some of the Kaplan CAT tests online). I did find that im very pressed for time in the quant section of the Kaplan CAT. In all honesty I think its because of my stubborn behavior and ego. What I mean is that if I cant see the solution right away im not willing to take an educated guess il sit there until I solve the stupid problem ( bcs I know that probability of me finding what im doing wrong is high thus I sit there like a moron working out the 3rd question for 7 minutes ). I think I need to change this for the PP tests and the real deal GMAT I think its better to take a guess but finish with time on your hands rather than guessing on the last 5 haha.
After the first PP test im planning to take 1 Kaplan Cat a day ( yes I have more than enough from the course ) Hopefully I wont do too bad on the PP … but im a bit nervous about that lol. Also after the first PP im planning to intensify my verbal studying specifically SC. Then the Sunday before my exam im planning to take my second PP test and be done with studying … go to the park on Monday and relax … which brings me to April 12 G day.
Which brings me to my next thought…. HELP!!!
If anyone has any ideas on how I can use the next 18 days in the most efficient way I would love to hear them. Or in fact any ideas on how I can improve my studying. Also I would be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has about my study plan Kaplan or anything else.
Thank you in advance! You guys are more than a resource you are a motivation to us all … no course or book can substitute this site. I’m very happy to see such a community form out of desire to do good and the desire to do well.
Updated on: 26 Mar 2006, 14:53
Originally posted by Praetorian on 25 Mar 2006, 23:18.
Last edited by Praetorian on 26 Mar 2006, 14:53, edited 1 time in total.
Last edited by Praetorian on 26 Mar 2006, 14:53, edited 1 time in total.
Kudos
Bookmarks
NTLancer
There are several posts out there that can help you.
1. Try to do a quick inventory of what mistakes you consistently make. Look at that list everyday until test day. Try to avoid those mistakes.
2. Build up a pattern leading to test day. Sleep early and wake up early. Go to the gym and exercise very regularly. Eat healthy. All of this will keep you positive. Having good concentration is very important.
3. Pick up a set of easy to medium difficulty level problems and work through them. Its important to understand that getting the easy/medium problems correct is the way to reach the difficult problems. Avoiding errors is key.
4. Trust yourself to not spend more than 5 minutes on a DIFFICULT question. I call it "letting go". Remember that getting a difficult question incorrect does not hurt you as much as getting an easy question incorrect. So apply that 5 minute rule to difficult questions.
5. Do not trust your instinct TOO MUCH on the test. Keep your faith in procedure. If this fails, sure, eliminate as many choices as possible and go with the answer you think is best.
6. Use a grid, especially in verbal, where you can easily eliminate answer choices as you read them on the screen.
7. In your practise tests and on the real thing, try to avoid think 700+ or any number+. Look at the question on the screen and devote everything you've got to getting it right.
thats all i can think of right now.
thanks
Praetorian
There are several posts out there that can help you.
1. Try to do a quick inventory of what mistakes you consistently make. Look at that list everyday until test day. Try to avoid those mistakes.
2. Build up a pattern leading to test day. Sleep early and wake up early. Go to the gym and exercise very regularly. Eat healthy. All of this will keep you positive. Having good concentration is very important.
3. Pick up a set of easy to medium difficulty level problems and work through them. Its important to understand that getting the easy/medium problems correct is the way to reach the difficult problems. Avoiding errors is key.
4. Trust yourself to not spend more than 5 minutes on a DIFFICULT question. I call it "letting go". Remember that getting a difficult question incorrect does not hurt you as much as getting an easy question incorrect. So apply that 5 minute rule to difficult questions.
5. Do not trust your instinct TOO MUCH on the test. Keep your faith in procedure. If this fails, sure, eliminate as many choices as possible and go with the answer you think is best.
6. Use a grid, especially in verbal, where you can easily eliminate answer choices as you read them on the screen.
7. In your practise tests and on the real thing, try to avoid think 700+ or any number+. Look at the question on the screen and devote everything you've got to getting it right.
thats all i can think of right now.
thanks
Praetorian
