It all started since last year, when I were in Muscat, Oman. I didnt have any clue about GMAT those days, in fact I didnt know what is
OG 
before taking my first attempt. All I knew was that I have to score 700 to get into good college. I scored 640 in Gmatprep before taking my first real test in November 2007, and scored 640. Such a raw.
As expected I havnt done anything for a month, except browsing through various sites, finding more about GMAT.
My life changed after I registered to this GMATclub. What a place to be. I must say in my 680, the last 80 is because of Gmatclub. Its a true encyclopedia of GMAT.
I actively participated in the club from Jan to March 2007, before I got this offer of shifting to Jakarta, Indonesia. As it was a new job and new place, I lost my momentum and have not studied till October 2007. For the first month I studied @ 8- 10 hours a week, setting my basic right. The real focus came in the mid of november and I took appointment for the test on December 1, 2007.
Following was my strategy:
Resources:
Quant:
1. GMAT winner guide - availabe for USD 10, good insight on P&C, Probability, statstics, and number theory
2. standard X and XI maths book for basics
3. GMAT challenges: I will rate it highly. One should go through them before taking the real GMAT.
4. Vedic mathmatics
Verbal:
1.
OG: One should go through the explantion of each and every question, even if you got it correct.
2.
OG verbal review: Same as above, although I couldnt do, due to time constraint.
3.
MGMAT SC : Best book available on store for basics. Must read book. To understand in a better way I did book review on this book.
4. GMAT winner guide - availabe for USD 10
5. Sahil's notes - you may search for the same in GMATclub
6. Rythm strategy for RC- I read very late, couldnt get enough time to implement, but its very effective. You may get it in GMATclub
7. GMAT challenges- you may access to these 5 challenges after posting more than 250 messages
Tests:
Kaplan : I havent seen anything worse than this so far. Though I couldnt score more than 620 in any of those 4 tests, I have scored 50 in quant in one of the tests
. I dont know what rule they follow. Take these tests to get more practice.
Princeton: Took three test, easier then Kaplan but tougher than real GMAT.
MGMAT: After Gmatprep, this is the best source. I got the access to one adaptive and 3 non adaptive tests, because I bought
MGmat SC book. Now I feel I would have enrolled.
Gmatprep: Its as good as taking the real test. Its the perfect indicator of your GMAT score. This happened twice with me. I was consistently scoring between 700 to 720, Q- 49 - 50 and V 34- 38. Unfortunately due to over excitement I lost focus and scored poorly in Verbal section of real GMAT.
Scoring:
Gmat challenges maths: 78 - 97 percentile. 78 is an exception and I dont count that
Gmat prep - 1 at the begining of last round of studies- 700
Gmat prep- 2 - 700
Downloaded from the site
Gmat prep -1 : 710
Gmat prep- 2: 720
MGMAT: 670 and 680
Kaplan : 570 - 620
Strategy:
Verbal: My focus area was on my weekest link, i.e. SC. As I were able to do well on CR in
OG (95% correct) and RC (earlier after finishing the book " How to read faster and better" by norman lewis) I stopped focusing on them. My SC skills have definitely ameliorated. I religiously used to solve every question in the GMATClub. I used to write every question, which I get wrong and then review it later so that I can understand my mistakes and improve. I have done the book reveiw on
MGmat SC to have better understanding on the subject.
a week before the exam, I realized though my SC skills have drastically improved I lost on RC. Scores were not consistent. I like rythm notes on RC, but it was too late to implement. I managed to improve on both RC and CR skills before the exam, but I were not too sure about RC till the last day.
(take away- Consider SC, RC, and CR, as equally important and dont loose track)
Quant: I worked on the base before solving the problems with pace. Gone through the basic books and learn few of the important theorem's commonly tested in GMAT. Having done so, I focused on solving the problems with speed. I threw my calculator and adopted the multipication-division fundamentals of vedic mathmatics for calculation- Irrespective of whether I am solving GMAT problems. This really worked in my favor. Secondly, I prefer mental calculation over using pen and paper for calculation; this drastically increased my speed. As a result, I finished my test with 5 minutes to go.
Do's: Solve GMAT challenges, concentrate on you week areas more than other areas, make notes- specially for SC and review them later, at the begining make your basics right and then go for the speed. Actively participate in GMATclub forum and dont be passive observer. Also, give explanations in your own words rather than just writing Ans A....
Dont's: Dont worry for Kaplan scores, don't do the mistake of neglecting your strong areas and only conentrating on weeker areas. Remember your strong areas will lift your score, as it was quant in my case. Dont spend too much in one particular subject, for e.g. probability in quant, I came across only one question, though I solved it correctly, I am sure my marks wouldnt have changed if I had missed that one. So if you think P&C or probability is too complex, as it is for many, dont go too deep in it, better concentrate in other areas and make your quant stronger. Finally dont get too nervous or too excited- as I got during my exam.
My future startegy:
I shall apply for 2-3 schools in Jan and then give another month to GMAT for my another attempt.
Amar
close
13 Dec 2007, 02:18
