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parag_bhadra
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 04 Sep 2005, 14:10
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Hi Paul,


You strat mail is worth its bytes in gold. I have been looking for something like this for some time (made couple of posts too) but happened to stumble upon it only today.

Coming down to specifics. I have been almost following your given pattern for some time now. Will just describe it a bit.

1. 1st gave Kaplan Diagnostic from CD - Got 660.

2. Went thru book and gave Paper test - Got 650

3. Went thru all learning sessions and section practice tests in Kaplan CD.

4. Gave Kaplan CAT 1 and got 550. (see the Irony)

5. Started on OG 11 now. - Giving the Diagnostics

6. Intend to do (as in solve and then go thru all expln) OG 11 - twice. You mentioned that we should be doing only thhe last 100 qs - was this meant for the OG 10 or OG 11. Are the Qs in OG 11 ordered as per Toughness?

7. Intend to do 12-14 CATs (2PP+2GmatPrep+4Kaplan+4PR+2-3 others) Between now and 18th Oct (G-Day).

What more do you suggest I should do. Few threads are
a. Do Kaplan 800
b. Do OG 10 too.
c. Do LSAT Material

Please advise if I am on track and what should be done for further preparation.


Best Regards

Parag Bhadra

Paul
Hi Chris and welcome aboard. Among the given books, I would suggest you have Kaplan800, Kaplan 2005+CD and PR 2005+CD. You might also want to purchase ETS Paper Tests which you can find on GMAC.com.
Start with the fundamentals. Depending on your background, you may either need more verbal or quant tune ups. Here would be the order in which I would go about studying
1- PR 2005 will give you good tips and insights into the GMAT. It will also teach you the basics. Do not do the CAT yet.
2- Kaplan 2005 will be pretty much of a repeat. I would skip the Q+V learning sessions of this book as only its CD will be very useful. However, you ought to do the paper test provided at the end of the book as a gauge of your current skill level.
3- Go through Kaplan800 IN DETAIL. Understand how each problem is done and do not worry too much about the timing at this time. You will see that as you get better, each of those problems can definitely be done under 2 min. This is one of the best books as it will teach you how to do the toughest Q and V questions. Do not skip the explanations to a problem simply because you got it right. Go through every question to make sure that you got the most efficient way to approach it. You should go through the question banks and analyze them in excruciating detail
4- By this time, you should be fairly comfortable with GMAT fundamentals. Take your some PR CAT tests. Maybe 2 of them. Save 2 for later on. Also, do 2 Kaplan tests. Do not worry for you Kaplan scores as it is normal it will be lower than your real potential score :)
5- Take your first PP CD test 1 and some paper tests. This will show you where you really stand after all that studying
6- Now it is time to open up the OG. You should not do this before the previous tests because it will contaminate your PP score as you may recognize many problems. Do every single question in the verbal section and know why you got each one right and wrong. I would suggest you also go through "the best of verbal" as there are quite good discussions on how to approach the toughest verbal problems. As for math, I would suggest you to focus only on the last 100 PS questions and last 100 DS questions of the OG. The rest is really too easy. Do not worry if you miss like 8-9 DS in a row in the last 100 ones. Those are really tough and even many 750+ scorers get 8-9 of those wrong in a row.
7- It is now time to do the 2 Kaplan CD and PR CD tests remaining. Remember that the Kaplan test scores will be low. This is why you should avoid doing these within 2 weeks of your exam date because it will destroy your confidence.
8- Do the last PP test and ETS Paper tests.
9- Get a good day of rest and sleep before the exam.

I did not mention the MGMAT tests because I never really used them. What you can do is split them b/w step 4 and 7. It is important that you take as many tests as possible to get the "feel" of the real exam and the time pressure involved. Also, participate in the GMAT challenges of GMATclub given every 2 weeks. It will gauge your math skills vis-a-vis that of other test takers. Last but not least, throughout all these steps, you should try to participate as much as possible in the club :) This is because if you can explain things in your own words and "teach" those concepts to other fellow GMATers, it will mean that you really mastered those concepts.

Good luck,

Paul
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mbaprep
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 08 Sep 2005, 11:39
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can anyone please let me know that whay is the difference between these two books, Kaplan800, Kaplan 2005+CD,material wise.i mean if i ahve to buy any one of these that which one is the best.
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Paul
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 09 Sep 2005, 01:08
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Hi parag, glad the post was helpful to you. To answer your queries:

1- I was indeed talking about the OG 10th edition. From previous discussions, it seems like the 11th edition of the OG is better although I have not seen it myself. Unless you have extra time, do not bother with 10th edition of the OG as there could be some repeat questions. I would rather focus on other type of material instead such as doing quant problems from gmatclub (if Q is your weakness) or LSAT questions (if V is your weakness).
2- No matter how much material you went through, I would still recommend you to do Kaplan800 as its problems are very challenging. You will also get some decent explanations for its verbal and quant questions. Make sure you understand the processes that lead you to answers as it is what will make you reason with the shortest path in mind for the exam.
3- I would recommend LSAT material if you have extra time but especially if you are weak in verbal. Do skip the irrelevant CR questions with diagram reasonings which you will spot right away anyways.

The way you are going now, the 700+ club is within your reach. I had the same score pattern when I first started studying. Good luck.
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Paul
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mbaprep, to answer your queries, I would buy the regular Kaplan with CD in that it has the CD to prepare you for CAT style tests. If I had to give a 10 score to Kaplan+CD, I would give an 8 or 9 to Kaplan800. It is ultimately best to have both of them.
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sushom101
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 28 Sep 2005, 16:47
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Dear Paul,

I have the following books with me but nothing of latest.
Princeton - 2003
Kaplan - 2004
OG - 10th Edition
Also I find the SC 1000 + CR + RC attachments very useful.

Considering the above & also that I need more practise in maths. I may go in for one additional book that's OG Maths workout.

Do you think buying the latest editions for the above will be any different from what I have. Also I dont want to get into this mess of buying heaps & heaps of books ...unnecessarily.

pls suggest.

Thks
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dexterslab
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 05 Oct 2005, 16:45
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I have been preparinf for this exam for three weeks now.

It's 2005, Borders is still selling Barons books that have the old gmat tests. Spent $30 on it and was pissed off to find that all i had was the old style.

So went to the store again yesterday and bought Arco's. Seems to be much better. But then today i see this site and this forum does not mention Arco's at all.

Am i following a book that is in some way completely off? Do i need to go and get some of the other books that are mentioned in this forum?
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Ellenb
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 10 Oct 2005, 03:05
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Hello,

I'm taking the GMAT test within less than 4 weeks from today. I bought the book "Kaplan GMAT 800 2005-2006 edition".

Will this book, together with the free GMAT Preptest software on the mba.com website be sufficient?

I live in the Netherlands and the only book available in the bookstore, next to the Kaplan GMAT 800 was the "Princeton review". Online I'm able to buy "Kaplan GMAT 2004", but this will probably take 5 days to deliver the book and I want to start learning ASAP.
Because this will take a while and because it's an older version of the book I'm not sure wether buying this is worhtwhile (the books are quite expensive over here!).

Can anybody tell me wether the book I bought (Kaplan GMAT 800) is sufficient or that I really need the Kaplan GMAT 2004 next to it?

Thanks in advance,
a rather desperate GMAT-taker Ellen
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Paul
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 10 Oct 2005, 04:37
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Hi ellenb, the book you have is a good one but the idea of buying Kaplan 2004, or whichever edition for that matter, is that you will be provided with a CD to practice under a simulated environment. It is crucial that you do practice with CATs and ideally, you should even order the 2005 PR+CD. For PR, get the 2005 version and not any earlier version because the latter has many computer glitches.
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 25 Oct 2005, 21:10
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Hi paul,
Can you tell me where can i find LSAT questions.I think i am very weak in Verbal.Despite going through the concepts i am not htting an accuracy rate of more than 60%.Every question poses something new.
Do you have any suggestions as to how to counter this "Verbal Beast"
Thanks
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Paul
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 26 Oct 2005, 03:44
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There are no specific LSAT archives; you will have to buy them either at your local book store or on amazon.com. As for verbal advice, you can read them here:
https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=11569
For more advice on other verbal aspects, read all the stickies in the "verbal forum".
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 26 Oct 2005, 14:15
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Thanks , Paul , for the advice (in the beginning of the thread) on the GMAT-study-strategy ... I know I will be relying on it heavily :)
I don't have a lot of time available , so was wondering how much time does this strategy assume ? in terms of hrs/week or a flat weeks/mths duration .

Also, is the Verbal review published by mba.com any good or will I be better of in using the Kaplan Verbal workout itself ?

Thanks.
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 23 Nov 2005, 14:48
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Hi,
I am new to this forum, and this write up has been a great help.Thanks everyone for contributing.
R
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franiu
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 28 Nov 2005, 07:11
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Hello GMAT people,

I would like to thank particularly Paul for his preparation strategy :cool , which proved amazing. Because I have a job and I was late in my MBA prep, I had to prepare from scratch within a (hard-working) month, and I followed the scheme. I was really weak in verbal (English is not my mother tongue), but quickly found it out (not the hardest part!). I focused on it, but didn't forget to keep up with quantitative (which corresponds to my core education) by doing practice tests, and achieved a 760 this morning. I'm sure I wouldn't have reached that score without your advice. My conclusion is that practice makes a lot of it. Remember that.
Actually before reading the advice I had started with "Ace the GMAT", which helped me too but, I found, was not as serious and worth-the-money material as Kaplan or PR.
As the test ended 3 hours ago, I'm still "sentence correction"-minded, and can't help thinking about my writing. This GMAT experience really has some influence! Hope I won't start finding the bogus in any friend's statements, as I'd like to keep them.
Thanks again!
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 24 Dec 2005, 00:05
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I wanted to know what is a good time frame for the GMAT prep that includes PP and Kaplan Books.
How well would you rate the GMAX online as compared to other coaching out there.
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Ansilver
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 04 Feb 2006, 07:27
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Can anyone recommend a book(s) to use as a math refresher? Its been a while since I have seen a polynomial, quadratic equation, or square root. Any info is helpful as I am sure I am not the only one w/ this question.
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Chapman
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 06 Feb 2006, 07:41
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Kaplan GMAT & GRE Math Workbook is pretty good for a refresher on math basics. I recommend it.
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 11 Feb 2006, 12:02
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Hi all particularly Paul


Last year I started to prepare for GMAT. I bought the following books:
1- OG 10th edition
2- Kaplan 2005+CD
3-Kaplan Verbal
4-Princeton 2005+CD
5-Princeton Verbal
I studied them twice and I took the exam but a series of unfortunate events made me very tired so the result was not very good. Here is the result:
Total: 650 84%
Q: 51, 99%
V: 25, 38%
AWA: 5, 75%

This year I am just about to start to study for GMAT again and I do not know if I need to buy new materials for preparation and I am not sure about the preparation strategy. I remember the answers of many of the questions in the 5 above books so they may not help me anymore. I think OG 11th Ed Or Verbal prep may help .Or I may need to buy kaplan800 or something else!!
Kindly advise your comments on books or preparation strategy and thank you in advance.
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sas757
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 05 Apr 2006, 10:53
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I am a newbie here and planning for the preperation.
From the thread here I have put together a list of books and materials that I have to buy.
I couldn't find Princeton Review 2005 + cd , Could somebody please post the ISBN for this , is this the same as Cracking the GMAT with CD-ROM, 2006?

There was another forum stating that Cracking the GMAT series is not highly recommended.

Anybody??
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Paul
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 06 Apr 2006, 00:42
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cracking the GMAT 2006+CD PR version is recommended, at least I do since I used it. IMO, you can't go wrong with that.
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Need help creating my GMAT study materials shopping list 06 Apr 2006, 14:09
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Hi Guyz...

Not sure if I am posting on the right thread :? .I am new to this site and giving my GMAT in July.I wanted to know whether it would be a good idea to correspond with the B - schools I want to apply before giving GMAT.Also,can anyone help me how to correspond with the adcom of the schools.One more favour...is there a single site which contains links to B schools so that I can request their brochures.

Thanks
Naresh.
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