My Log - Will I Get My Life Back?

Question

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you for creating this wonderful forum and I would like to talk a little bit about myself, I'm 25, Engineer and from India. Thank God, not an IT engineer!

I have been preparing for this beast since April 2010 and have already taken GMAT once in July 2010 and I score 540!! I performed badly on Verbal section.Got only 17!! And I think I'm comfortable with Quant section, I got 48 on 1st attempt.

Since Aug 2010, for few months, I couldn't digest my score and felt like I should give up my dream of getting into good B-school, but then at the back of mind I couldn't make myself comfortable. GMAT, GMAT, GMAT is there on my mind always.

Then from Aug-Oct 2010, I got busy with job, which sucks, seniors at job are %^$#@ and I hardly could keep in touch with books! But I managed to go through MGMAT SC and PowerScore CR bible during this time. It's so frustrating to see dream going away from me, all that I can say is I'm really upset and always felt like crying at the end of the day.

I can't give up this dream, which I have nourished since long time. So, here I'm to start to work on my dream once again. The big question is this would be my 2nd and last attempt. I will start preparing from today and will be taking this beast in January2011 end. (I have to remind myself time and again F*** this job and F*** these seniors! You have bigger dreams to follow.)  I have no life these days, no party, nothing but all the time thinking and wondering over GMAT, is it within my reach? Can I get my dream school, what will I do if not GMAT, etc etc.

I have following material with me, please help me figure out how should I go through each of these material?  From where I should start, keeping in mind that I need most help on Verbal section?

OG 10, 11 and 12
OG Quant and Verbal guide 
Veritas 15 guides   
Kaplan 800  
Kaplan Verbal Workbook 
MGMAT SC and RC guide  
PowerScore CR bible  
ETS paper tests  
 updated  on 15/01/2011 ]

Few more pdf books and notes downloaded from this site.

I have access to following:

Veritas Online course
Grockit

Here, I ask for any kind of help you guys can give me on Verbal section, mainly RC.

I'm starting from today with the hope to get my life back. I will back soon with some updates on my progress.

Will I Get My Life Back?  Let's see...

PTK · Answer

Hi!

Welcome to the club!

your score is not so bad. Believe me or not, but you may meet here people who scored below 500 and after 3 month They have got 700. Look here for inspiring success stories share-your-gmat-experience-8/ . Here is the summary of best stories best-gmat-stories-period-98512.html
Never give up!

Knewton is very good resource, you will find their lectures useful and will learn a lot of strategies and tricks. I do not know how, but gmat-guys after learning/listening all Knewton's online lessons and doing all excercices improve their score by more than 50.

I must connfess that my Verbal score was about 19 when I have started my preparation.

Look here for study plan gmat-study-plan-for-gmat-novices-start-your-gmat-journey-80727.html?highlight=ml301

Good luck!

rishiraj · Answer

Cheer up,mate! You'll definitely get your life back.
However, I don't think that giving up on partying,enjoyment while you prepare for the GMAT is going to help. That is only going to have repercussions on your performance .Remember that phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".For the GMAT ,that phrase would be "All prep and no relaxation, makes you a dull boy to ace the GMAT". And frankly speaking you cannot study for more than a certain number of hours a day ,else your brain is going to get overwhelmed after some weeks. Secondly, I sincerely empathize with the fact that you are quite annoyed with your seniors, work . I have been in the same situation and would like to advise you to just stopping thinking about thing and not to harbor any bad feelings because again it is going to affect your performance as you'll feel pressurized that "you will prove yourself to these people" etc.

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Thank you Pkit and rishiraj.

I will not lose heart and fight on. Thank you for your advice and helping hand.

willigetmylifeback · Answer

So, I'm back full time.

I've taken leave from office and have started preparing for full time. I've updated the material I've finished and material left with me.

I've decided to take GMAT in the 3rd week of Feb, most probably on 15th Feb. So, I've one month left, let's see what I can pull out of myself.

Today, I took the full CAT from POWERPREP and scored
690 (Q46 and V38).

All questions on quant were new, i.e. I haven't seen them anywhere. ON verbal I saw few questions, which I had seen earlier. I made 8 questions wrong on quant and 12 questions wrong on verbal. Most of the verbal questions which I made wrong were from RC section. I made 8/14 RC questions wrong!! Quant is not a problem for me as I think 10 days back I've scored 48 on Manhattan free CAT so for the next month I'll concentrating on verbal and will keep updating everyone here.

Plan for 16/01/2011:

To Finish

SC Grail - I've read this book 2 times already but always find new things!
50 SC and 50 CR questions from GMATTER
4 RC passages from Veritas RC guide
Revise my notes.

Note: Hussian15's last month journey has inspired me always. You can read that here eight-nine-ten-the-countdown-begins-96780.html

PTK · Answer

Hey ! Welcome back. do you see how you have progressed over the time?!

:D gooooooood job mate! Push your math and RC and you will break the 700+ barier.

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Thank you bro!

I did the work assigned for 16/01/2011. How to avoid glazed eyes on RC? I lose conc. for long passage mainly and make all answers wrong on that passage.

Also, one thing more on Manhattan RC guide, my accuracy was about 80% also whenever I read on paper and reply answers on RC passages, my accuracy is much better than the accuracy when I attempt on computer (~ 50%!!). What to do??

Okay, today's agenda

17/01/2011

PowerScore CR bible
Revise One quant book of Veritas
50 SC and 50 CR questions from GMATTER
4 RC passages from Veritas RC guide

PTK · Answer

You must read on computer every single RC passage.

hhow to avoid glazed eyes, just take off your view out of the text for 3-5 seconds breath deeply and imagine that you are on the sky and everything is beatiful and you are looking down to earth. relax. and then come back to text.

M23A · Answer

Good advice, I'm going to try that when my eyes get tired.

https://gmatclub.com/static/posted_from.png     Posted from    GMAT ToolKit

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Thanks Pkit. I'm practicing on GMATTER and other sources. I took two paper tests by GMAC and got 33 and 37 on Verbal. Again most of the wrong answers were from RC! By the way I'm losing confidence on Quant also

so I started practicing from Official Quant review book. Also going to take 2nd PowerPrep CAT tonight. Will update everyone soon!

willigetmylifeback · Answer

I couldn't take PowerPrep CAT 2 as planned as my laptop was giving me headache, I'll take full CAT tonight.

Attempted another paper test code no 28 and scored 35 on verbal. I'm not improving on RC and sometimes feels like crying

I made 11 mistakes on RC out of 23 questions

sucks! Why the hell, I can't concentrate, focus

I made 11 mistakes on RC out of 23 questions

sucks! Why the hell, I can't concentrate, focus

johnnyGMAT2k10 · Answer

Are you taking notes as you read the passages? I have found this to help me out a lot. I have terrible handwriting and cant even re-read most of the notes i take on RC, but the actual practice of writing the notes gives you a much better and more thorough understanding of the passage.

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Yes, I also try to take notes but then stop inb/w, most of the times my heart beat becomes fast when I see RC passage, and most of the time I keep on praying no no not RC passage at the starting of the verbal section! I think Manhattan RC book passages were easy than OG passages, what you guys say?

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Okay, I took the Veritas CAT-1 few hours back and scored 570 (Q42, V24). I made 8 mistakes on Quant section and got score 42 only! On PowerPrep CAT, I made 8 mistakes and my score was 46. On Manhattan CAT where I made 11 mistakes and my score was 50! What's wrong with Veritas algorithm??

On Verbal I made 17 mistakes and most of my mistakes were from RC (8 mistakes), SC (5 mistakes) and then CR (4 mistakes). Veritas gave me score 24, which is must lower than the score I got on Manhattan CAT, though I made fewer mistakes on Veritas CAT, on Manhattan CAT I made 20 mistakes and got score 32.

Veritas CAT sucks!

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Just finished the verbal section of 800Score CAT1 and scored 37! I was not digesting the Veritas verbal score of 24 on last day's CAT, so I attempted the 800Score's verbal section and got score as 37. I made only 12 mistakes and out of these 12 mistakes 5 were from RC. I took the notes during the test and finished the test 10 minutes before..

Veritas made me upset for last night but I'm feeling bit good now.

Back to studies again..

Love you guys, who are following my journey to get life back.

willigetmylifeback · Answer

In last few days I have worked through the OG Quant Review and CR section of OG review.

Today, I've planned to take CAT from the GMATPrep. I'll be taking it within few hours. Let's see what I can make out of it. I'll be booking the date after today's CAT.

My scores till now are as follows

08/01/11……..Manhattan CAT1 …….660 (Q50, V32)
16/01/11……..PowerPrep CAT1……..690 (Q46 and V38). 
Paper tests (Verbal section only) ……. 33, 35, and 37
20/01/11.........Veritas CAT1 ..........570 (Q42, V24)
21/01/11…….... 800Score (Verbal section only) …….37

willigetmylifeback · Answer

I took the CAT 1 from GMATPrep and scored 640 (Q47, V32)

I'm bit disappointed as I was expecting it around 670. I made 8 mistakes on quant, 3 of which were due to laziness! I completed the quant section 20 mins remaining! On Verbal section I made 14 mistakes and finished the section on time. Now almost 2 weeks have left for the test. Let's see, how I perform... My scores till now are as follows 08/01/11……..Manhattan CAT1 …….660 (Q50, V32) 16/01/11……..PowerPrep CAT1……..690 (Q46 and V38). Paper tests (Verbal section only) ……. 33, 35, and 37 20/01/11.........Veritas CAT1 ..........570 (Q42, V24) 21/01/11…….... 800Score (Verbal section only) …….37 24/01/11......... GMATPrep v2 CAT1........640 (Q47, V32)

johnnyGMAT2k10 · Answer

How are you performing on SC? When i was studying for my test the first time i found that SC was the key to success on the verbal section at least in my opinion. If you can complete SC questions in ~1 min or less that leaves you more time for CR and RC both of which are sections where the more time you spend on them the better your chance of finding the correct answer. In the two weeks leading up to the test i would do 40 SCs from the OG a day after my other studying and I saw my hit rate improve.

willigetmylifeback · Answer

Thanks johnnyGMAT2k10. After analyzing my problem areas I've found that SC is as much responsible as RC is for my low score in Verbal. Thank you for your tips. I'm practicing SC from GMATTER and I'll be starting OG12 today. Last day, I took another test from 800score CAT (only Verbal section) and scored 37 again. I made 5 mistakes on SC, why mistakes on SC are on rising trend?

I made 6 mistakes on RC and 3 mistakes on CR. Are 800Score tests good representative of real test?

johnnyGMAT2k10 · Answer

I dont have any experience with 800score or theyre CATs so i cant speak on that ive only used Manhattan CATs and GMAT Prep. GMATPrep is the closest indicator, and Manhattan's quant section is harder than the real thing.

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