My GMAT journey

Question

Hi,

I am doing GMAT preparation since August of this year, and planning to take the test in December. I would like to document my GMAT journey here as I move forward towards the D-Day.

I am working in software industry and a non-native English speaker. I am in US for last four+ years now, and I feel my English is good when it comes to day to day conversations. However, when it comes to GMAT, I am still in the range of 30-35 in verbal, and wish to improve the score to get the dream score of 700+. I have never taken GMAT before, and hope to finish this journey on first attempt. I seek your help in terms of directions and guidance so I can balance family, work and GMAT all together and still achieve my goal.

I am not sure if I can edit this area later, but if I can, I will continue to edit this area and put more details, and summarize advices I have been given.

Thank you for your participation, and Best wishes to you in case you are planning to take GMAT.

My Preparation Material   
High School Books from library on Algebra, Arithmatic, Probability and Geometry
English Grammer books from library
The Official Guide, 12th Edition
OG Verbal, 2nd Edition
KAPLAN GMAT Verbal Foundations, 2009 
Kaplan GMAT 2011 Premier with CD-ROM
Manhattan Sentence Correction, 4th Edition 
Manhattan Reading Comprehension, 4th Edition (I do not recommend this book)

My CAT Practice Scores   
 Kaplan#3:  700   Q:  55   V:  29
 MGAT#1:  690   Q:  49   V:  35
 MGAT#2:  660   Q:  47   V:  33
 GMATPrep#1:   680   Q:  50   V:  31
 MGAT#3:  690   Q:  48   V:  36
 Kaplan#4:  720   Q:  53   V:  35 
 Kaplan#5:  690   Q:  47   V:  31
 MGAT#4:  680   Q:  47   V:  35
 Kaplan#6:  690   Q:  53  V:  28  (one week gap in practice) 
 GMATPrep#2  720   Q:  50   V:  38
 MGAT#5:  710   Q:48    V:  38
 MGAT#6:  710   Q:51    V:  36

Official GMAT:  700   Q:49    V:  35

whiplash2411 · Answer

Welcome to GMAT Club jb2010. You can certainly keep us posted about your progress, either by replying to this post or by editing your first post.

Good luck!

kissthegmat · Answer

jb2010 welcome to the gmatclub. It's good to see your post. Yes you can post here later on also about your progress, which books you are studying and your practice CATs etc. You can share your experience here, which will be helpful for everyone.

Keep all of us update about your progress on GMAT. Good luck mate!

Keep all of us update about your progress on GMAT. Good luck mate!

jb2010 · Answer

thank you! I have included some more details. I might add a section on tips or links later.

resh · Answer

Great going jb2010 ! You definitely seem to be on the right track.

About your verbal score, are you done with all the practice questions in MGMAT SC and OG?

I just noticed that you are not using any specific guide for Critical reasoning. You may want to consider the Powerscore CR bible.

jb2010 · Answer

Thank you resh. I have completed OG for SC and OG PS. I haven't started other sections yet.

I have gone through MGMAT SC book once, but haven't completed all exercises yet. Also, I am not getting enough motivation to go through OG SC again, and may be I need some more time before I do it again.

I am going through OG verbal review SC questions. When I went through OG SC questions, I just marked answers that I felt were correct. This time, I am marking correct answers, as well as noting down what is incorrect with other ones. It is taking little more time, but the web of wrong answers is not looking as complicated as it was looking earlier.

Also, thanks for your suggestion on using Powerscore bible. It's a good point. I need to determine if I will have enough time to go through it though. I haven't gone through OG CR, OG RC, OG DS yet, so that is my first priority.

resh · Answer

jb2010,

I am also in the process of studying MGMAT SC. I am done with Chapters 1 to 10 and am yet to start the last 3 "Advanced chapters". I am a non-native English speaker. Of the portions I have completed so far, I really feel the need to do more revision. So, I am reading thru the notes and flashcards for these portions as and when I get a chance.

Also, as I do the SC questions for each chapter in OG, I am noting down the explainations for every wrongly answered question. I am not getting detailed explainations of what went wrong in OG, so I usually do a search for the questions in GMAT Club and often I find multiple threads discussing the question and providing detailed explainations

. Yeah !! The whole process is pretty time consuming, but I am hoping that after couple of rounds of this "excercise", it will get better.

You are already very close to your target score of 700+. All the best with your preparations.

. Yeah !! The whole process is pretty time consuming, but I am hoping that after couple of rounds of this "excercise", it will get better. You are already very close to your target score of 700+. All the best with your preparations.

n2739178 · Answer

wow those are great initial CAT scores!

srivicool · Answer

hiii

welcome to gmat club n gr8 to see your progress... even am planning to do in Dec.

gud luck!!!

York101 · Answer

hi there, 
my 2 cents for the MGMT verbal guides, do the revision once you are done the initial reading of the book, 
I have done the mistake of reading the book/ doing questions jumping over to quant and now there is a huge break between my verbal prep and revision, I picked up MGMT SC the other day and it was ALL NEW:(
all the best with GMAT!

York101 · Answer

Hey,
Just noticed you have joined recently,
gmat-club-tests-free-open-access-88231.html
do check it out, you will be ready to tackle 'em as you mentioned you will be giving gmat sometime in dec.
I have heard their questions on quant/verbal are of 700+ level, its great you get to have access for free!
I will miss it unfortunately as I am traveling

but all the best, hopefully these will be the hard practice material you are looking for,
All the best,
Cheers,

but all the best, hopefully these will be the hard practice material you are looking for, All the best, Cheers,

jb2010 · Answer

added two more scores. Need some tips for RC as I don't have any confident strategy yet. For CR, need some guidance for tough problems because I get them wrong even when I take unlimited time.

qweert · Answer

Very Detailed and i'm in the same boat. But i found Kaplan scores as false hope.

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