Schawjibb's GMAT Journey [ In pursuit of GMAT score 700+ ]

Great to know your thoughts Schwajibb.

Funding is in fact one of the components we need to figure before hand. Can you let us know about the list of schools that you've initially compiled for you ?

Actually, the preliminary list is a bit big.


Fuqua, Duke University, USA
HKUST, Hong Kong
McDonough, Goergetown University, USA
Ross, University of Michigan, USA
Darden, University of Virginia, USA
McCombs, University of Texas, USA
University of Illinois, USA
Carlson, University of Minnesota, UA
Indian School of Business, India
Owen, Vanderbilt University, USA
Goizueta, Emory University, USA
School of Management, Boston University, USA
Sauder, University of British Columbia
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands
Imperial, Imperial College, UK

I hope (and am sure), the number will be decreased from 15 to 5 soon after I get my GMAT score.

IN SEARCH OF GMAT RESOURCES (MOSTLY BOOK)

The first decision I took was "I am gonna sit for GMAT in October this year (2011). Within week, I started researching which GMAT resource would be best fit for me as well as highly recommended by the experts. Needless to say, GMATClub.com helped me once again. After reading the post best-gmat-books-77703.html and the reviews of the experts (both in GMATClub.com and Amazon.com), I decided to order

1. The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition
2. The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition
3. The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition
4. Manhattan GMAT Set of 8 Strategy Guides, 4th Edition
5. Kaplan GMAT 2011 Premier with CD-ROM
6. Total GMAT Math (By: Jeff Sackmann)
7. 1,012 GMAT Practice Questions By: Princeton Review)
8. Doing Grammar (By: Max Morenberg)
9. Great Applications for Business School, Second Edition (By: Paul Bodine)
10. The Best Business Schools' Admissions Secrets (By: Chioma Isiadinso)

from Amazon.com. I ordered these in February, 2011 and the delivery was expected to be in March, 2011. Before the books were delivered, I was searching for other GMAT materials (mostly online based) as well. I downloaded some free materials, watched few GMAT related videos in YouTube.com, and of course collected GMAT Prep 2. I also used to visit, that time, GMATClub.com forums' discussions to get motivated. On March 23rd, 2011 the books I ordered arrived my home. Now, the time for making a concrete plan for next 6 months came. To me, THAT'S A REAL HARD ONE TO START WITH.

The list of books seems to be fine. One valuable addition to this list would be PowerScore's CR Bible.
A lot many aspirants have found this book helpful while preparing for CR.

Though I didn't purchase that, I also have that book. Yep! That's really a helpful book to build expertise in CR.

Hey, did you take the GMATPrep 1 test ? So that you know where you stand right now and how much of work needs to be done...

did you even go to Nilkhet before ordering everything online?!

@ sharshar84

I work outside Bangladesh. I understand your concern of buying books from Nilkhet. Yep! We can buy books from there at a very low price. However, paying less costs you more. I ordered the books from Amazon.com because of 3 concrete reasons:

1. I would have never got the opportunity of using 11 CATs (5 from Kaplan + 6 from MGMAT) if I were
to buy those from Nilkhet.
2. New (and non-pirated) books are good to read. I think, it always has a and positive impact on my
study-time.
3. The print of Nilkhet really sucks. Most of the time, the writings in those books are not legible. The
books printed there becomes tiny in size.
4. Most of the books listed above are not available in Nilkhet. Amazon.com is the best (sometimes the
only) source to buy these books from.

Thank you!

Hey, How's the study plan coming ?

@ vikashjha

Will come up with bunch of writings soon!

IDK, I don't condone the purchase + usage of pirated books but I don't really understand how new and non-pirated books can have a positive impact on your study time, esp. when they seem to be taking forever to get to their destination. The two things aren't related?

Anyway, I just got my math books from Nilkhet and had bought the MGMAT series during a trip to the States. A lot of my friends found original copies of the MGMAT series (with valid access codes) in Nilkhet along with a lot of other GMAT prep materials (with lovely print).

One question: What made you decide to get Kaplan?

Maybe I am going to fail to explain what you have asked in the same way I did while replying to my varsity-friends' question, "How come original, big-size, and bulky books keep you motivated to study?" OK! Let me give a try.

To some extent I am visually impaired as long as the font size is concerned with legibility. It gives me real hard times whenever I happen to read any book/text smaller than 10 pt. On top of that, where I live and work, Kabul, a 125-watt CFL bulb gives a light comparable to no-more than 2 candles even if you sit just under the bulb. This is a big issue why good quality white-paper books are needed to be read in here. These two vital aspects ( more than 10 pt font size + print on quality white-paper ), I perceive, are not found in books printed in Nilkhet ( I am experienced with a few books purchased from there, though ). Add to these, good-to-look books are comparatively worth more motivation ( donno know why but it happens to me ). Hence, I ordered those books to be shipped to my home in Dhaka weeks before my home-leave started so that I receive them soon after I reach home.

As you mentioned, some of your friends purchased the MGMAT Books with codes of 6 CATs from Nilkhet is really a heart-breaking info for me . Because, I phoned few book shops of Dhaka New Market before I ordered these books online just to find out whether they have any Indian Reprint of these books or the originals from USA. They all ( 4 if I don't forget ) replied they don't have any books with these names in their catalogue. Moreover, few of my close-mates were searching for MGMAT 4th Edition books in different book shops of Dhaka city including PBS, Book Worm, Karim's, and few well-known shops of Nilkhet. They all informed me they did not find the books from serial 4 to serial 10 of my book-list in any of those shops ( including MGMAT 4th edition books ). However, they told me that they found copies ( actually, xeroxed copy ) of 3 OGs but their dimension is 40% less than the original which is no good for my "weak" vision.

After spending around USD 320 behind the books, I was not prepared to hear this news at all! MY BAD!

About choosing Kaplan's Premier 2011: As you know, MGMAT series consists of 2000+ pages which will take, with the best effort, 2 months to read ( at the least by ME ). Therefore, I was searching for a book which will help me grasp/understand the contents of GMAT in one week or two. Having this is mind, I was searching the GMATClub.com for recommended books ( source: best-gmat-books-77703.html ) and I found Kaplan Premier was named as a general strategy book. I have completed around 70% of the book by now. And I can tell you, it is worth every cent I spent behind it!



PS: I learnt the word CONDONE, which I never knew before, from your message. Thanks!

BEFORE I KICKED-OFF THE JOURNEY

Several important decisions I took and tasks I did before I actually kicked the journey off.

Decisions:
1. Will sit for GMAT in late October, '11 or early November '11.
2. Will apply for business schools mainly in 2013. However, will give a few tries in 2012.
3. If for any reason, I miss to break the 700-barrier first time, will purchase a course from Knewton and will retake GMAT in 3 months after the maiden hit. ( many said I should not plan for the second before I sit for the first time; but, I have my own reasons for that )
4. Will use the first hours, before my office hour begins, of day for study/prep ( my study hours will be: before office 2 hours, and after office 2 hours daily; 6/7 hours on weekends/holidays ).
5. Will prepare a kind-of Gantt Chart before June, '11 for my GMAT study plan for next 4 months. Will follow that ABSO-flipping-LUTELY!
6. Will maintain an error-log for next 4 months ( regularly ).

Tasks:
1. Gathered a collection of 20 CATs.
2. Got acquainted with the books I purchased ( just flipping over the pages of each book for 10 minutes ).
3. Collected some free-downloadable questions' documents that are highly appreciated by the members of GMATClub.com.
4. Downloaded the flashcards from GMATClub.com.
5. Prepared my own study plan.


Went through the check-list? YEP! FLIGHT IS GOOD TO GO!

PILOT STILL UNFIT!

So................ "targeting 700+" has collapsed upon me!

I appeared in my maiden practice test of GMAT using the GMAT Prep V2. And, scored 490! Whhhoooopppps! I was shocked but not broken. Score breakdown is as follows:


GMAT Score: 490 | Quant: 40 | Verbal: 19


Performance details:
(Section Name) PS: (Correct/Total) 12/18; DS: 13/19 [4 consecutive wrong answers]; SC: 10/16; CR: 4/11 [5 consecutive wrong answers]; RC: 5/14 [3 and 4 consecutive answers]

Learnings from Quant Section Performance:
1. Weakness in INEQUALITY
2. Weakness in DS (really had tough time answering these Qs)
3. Section was completed 3 minutes EARLIER
4. SILLY MISTAKES were frequent
5. Weakness in ABSTRACT PROBLEMS
6. A bit weakness in GEOMETRY
7. DS answer options are found CONFUSING
8. Less confident in PERMUTATION & COMBINATION problems
9. ONLY 1 out of first 5 questions and 3 out of first 10 questions were correct

Learnings from Verbal Section Performance:
1. ABSOLUTE weakness in CR and RC questions
2. RC passage reading experience is HORRIBLE
3. ONLY 5 out of first 10 questions were correct
4. Least confident while answering CR questions
5. RANDOM guesses instead of strategic guess
6. 12 out of last 21 questions were INCORRECT


In conclusion, all I learnt from my maiden attempt to GMAT practice test is I HAVE TO WORK REALLY HARD for achieving my dream score!



[April 22nd, 2011]

Suggestion: You've listed a LONG list of Quant and Verbal books. Hope you can complete all of them:).
Since I'm two weeks away from my GMAT, I've realized how important correct study plan is. Mine was not that great so I thought of letting you know my opinion as you've just started.

Quant: As soon as you finish MGMAT Quant books +OG, start using GMATClub Quant tests and review them again and again. You won't need anything else in the world to get Q51.

Verbal: Complete OG Verbal with reading ALL the explanations, even if you get the questions right. Review them again and again and again...till you master the book. When you re do the OG questions, don't simple choose correct answers instead go through the question with REAL thought process as you do for any NEW question.


Check this one out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html

Good luck.

Thanks, rg1, for your valuable suggestion! Actually, I am going to appear in GMAT in mid-October, 2011. Though I don't have plenty of time, I hope I can complete reading first 8 by August, 2011 (1 is already done - KAPLAN PREMIER). I am hopeful, I can complete all of them.


I, completely, agree with you regarding STUDY PLAN. I am still working on it before I fully dive in. Everyday I go through it, I find some areas to improve it. I am sure, it will settle by the end of May i.e. giving me full 3 months to follow it.


I loved your this concept. I will, surely, look forward to implementing it in my prep.


I will "stay hungry,' and will "stay foolish."


I have arranged a total of 20 practice CATs which I hope will help me as this article suggests. I will spread the CATs over the period of my GMAT prep, though they will concentrate more in the month before I take GMAT.


In the end, thanks again for coming up with some ideas I didn't consider before.

THE DIAGNOSIS

After having a shocking-score, 490, I started going through KAPLAN PREMIER 2011 with a hope that in two weeks or three it would give me an overall understanding of GMAT - the strategies, tips, concepts etc.

I took the diagnostic test of KAPLAN just after reading the basic GMAT strategies, and I found my result as:

Total 38 questions: Correct 22, Incorrect 16. (Success Rate 58%)
DS (Section Name): 2/7 (Correct/Total) (SR 29%) [still my biggest weakness]
PS: 7/11 (SR 64%) [made few silly mistakes]
CR: 5/6 (SR 83%) [the result was not representing my concepts; most of the time I just followed my intuition; I took 2-3 minutes to answer each question]
RC: 5/7 (SR 71%) [took 17 minutes to complete 2 passages and questions related to those]
SC: 3/7 (S 43%) [I completely screwed up and got confused with every answer option]

So, more or less, the diagnostic test, represented the performance in my maiden GMAT practice CAT.

One more thing is worth mentioning here - THE ERROR LOG. I was puzzled looking at its structure and its make. However, I hope by next day it would be decoded and well comprehended.



[April 23rd, 2011]