Starting my journey by posting on GC

Thanks Jallenmorris. Yes I plan to apply for one-year programs of Fall-09. I have "careless" undergrad grades so I need good score in GMAT to compensate. I don't know how much time I will need between my GMAT date and Application Deadlines in order to complete the other requirements in best possible way.

Thanks Lawrence, I may delay my GMAT by end of Sep. I want to go through the maths review section from PR because it seems to have some very basic information that I might have forgotten over the span of years. Hopfuly I will finish Algebra, Applied Arithmetic, Geometry and Data Sufficiency in next two days. I will then quit PR and start OG. How much time have you been studying for your test?

Summary of DAY-1
PR: Gmat Math and Arithmetic

Welcome on board!!! Let the battle begin...All the Best.

Cheers,
Tijji.

@ Tijji, Thanks.
Couldn't study much today because of some project. Just read the Algebra and Applied Arithmetic chapters from PR. Will try to finish Geometry and DS tomorrow.

Summary of DAY-2
PR: Algebra $ Applied Arithmetic

Read the Geometry and Data Sufficiency chapters of PR today and then took the PR GMAT warm-up test (Maths only) and got 15/20 right. All 5 mistakes made were careless mistakes.
Plan to spend Thursday through Sunday practicing maths from PR/Kaplan/OG10/OG11 and then turn to verbal. Any suggestions/tips for the Maths practice session ahead will be appreciated.

Summary of DAY-3
PR: Geometry $ Data sufficiency

Got busy with something which I could not avoid.

Summary of DAY-4
Nill

Good luck bro! I highly suggest reading all of the suggestions in the stickied posts on materials, strategies and prep. Most, if not all of the posters on here are quite successful and informative.

Thanks kilograms, I sure will do it. Today again I couldn't spend much time but managed to go through the bin3 and bin4 questions of PR. I intend to go through Q portion of Kaplan.

Summary of DAY-5
PR- Maths Bin3 & Bin4

Did Kaplan PS and DS. Facing a lot of problem while trying to do the questions quickly. I need to pace up some how

Summary of DAY-6
PR- Kaplan DS and PS

Even without going through the next week for verbal intro, I am convinced that I need more time to prepare for my GMAT. I could do 90% of the questions during my Q-warm up BUT NOT IN SHORT TIME

I want to have enough time to prepare for my applications (for fall 09) once I am done with my GMAT. I have no idea about how long should I postpone my test. I wanted to ask on GC before spending $50 ( )

Fellow GCians, please advise...

Summary of DAY-7 (10Aug08)
Analysis of situation and decision to postpone the G-date

I am feeling down, I need help...I got a little sick yesterday and could not convince myself to study.

Summary of DAY-8 (11Aug08)
Couldn't do anything about my prep...

Hey did you give a prep test.I would suggest you to give the test frst as it will help you to get your exact postion and it will provide you an IDEA where you are standing.
Like if your score is in the range 650 to 690 than i suppose you can make itin that time else you will need more time.So i would suggest you to give test then we can decide how much you need to postpone your test

Apurva..Actually i did not want to take Gmat Prep before getting a bit familiar with Q and V of Gmat (I thought of spending one week for each and then appearing for the prep test).

But I decided to take the Q-part of GMAT prep-1 today just to be able to get the feel about it. To be very honest the result was something which i did not expect at all. I started GMAT-Prep1 and skipped the AWA part. Started doing the Q section and was almost stunned at the first question. I am an engineer and I think I am good at maths but I was not able to make myself comfortable with the SCREEN. Somehow my ability to conceive the information from screen was nothing as compared to my ability to grasp the same from a written book.

This is the biggest learning of last whole week. One has to make one comfortable with the SCREEN THING to do well on GMAT.

I felt disturbed because of the screen thing to such an extent that I started to get disturbed because of very small noises coming from very far (although the door of my study room was closed). I literally left my laptop and test session running, went to close the doors of other rooms in my house. I returned and started doing the questions. I tried to get back my concentration and partially succeeded.

Second learning, GMAT is a tool to check your composure and integration. Which by the way, I lost at all.

While doing the Q for my first week, I hated DS. Guess what! GMAT found this weakness of mine somehow. Every other damn question was a DS. Honestly I felt like quitting the test many times but then somehow convinced myself to complete it. I frequently checked my time remaining by walker's method (any point of time multiply 2 with the number of question you are at and add the remaining minutes...for Q sum should be greater than 75) and always found the result positive. Mainly because I was taking the questions very lightly. Mostly I just did not double check my answer. I was already feeling down and was thinking that I need a hell lot of practice to beat this monster. Because of my non-serious attitude I had 11 minutes at hand when I finished the section.

My patience almost ran out when I reached question no. 28. I started making hasty decisions. Next questions were so easy that i knew i had spoiled my result.

Third lesson, you need stamina to do well in later stages of your test. I think I will start some aerobic activity from tomorrow to get the required fitness

I could not find a way to get my Q score without doing the V-section which I did not want to do (before getting to know it a bit) so I just started hitting E for every answer (without reading it obviously) and finished the section in record 40 seconds .

I just read my score for Q which said 42 (it was tagged unscaled I guess) and the field in percentile was blank. I even did not dare to see the questions that I flagged for review during my exam. Just closed the software and started writing this post.

Please tell me that escalating 42 to a 50 will not be so difficult...

I have decided to postpone my GMAT date anyways but I need motivation to be able to devise and follow a study plan and ultimately get 700+.

Thanks everyone for reading...

Summary of DAY-9 (12Aug08)
Couldn't do anything about my prep

Summary of DAY-10 (13Aug08)
GMAT Prep-1 (Q42)

Going from Q42 -> Q50 is very possible given that you're just beginning the preparation for the GMAT. Keep doing more practice questions so that you become familiar with the question types and tricks

How is your strength in verbal? That's what a lot people generally have difficulty with. If your verbal is weaker, I would focus more on that.

verbal is definitely the driver behind great scores. First time i took the GMAT, I got a 650, with 84% verbal an 82% overall. I retook it and got 95% verbal and 95% overall. Verbal is really what matters even though it seems like so many people are obsessed with quant.

Although in my changed plan I intended to start practicing Q from OG-11 starting from tomorrow. But after reading the comments of you two, I have decided to revert back to my original plan. I will now get familiar with the verbal portion for one week and then again take the complete GMAT-Prep-1.

Just the thought of completing the Q and V section in one stretch is making me shiver. I just remembered that I used to sit for shortest possible time even during my examinations in university (hence careless grades).

Thanks to both of you, I was desperately waiting for someone to give +ve feedback.

jallenmorris and others please comment,

I know that Manhattan is one stop solution for SC. I also know that Powerscore LSAT prep is a one stop solution for CR (I am only able to find the LSAT version on internet and not the GMAT version. Jallenmorris, which one did you use during your prep?)

What is the one stop solution for RC? I am sorry if the answer to these questions is already available on GC somewhere. Just collecting scattered pieces of information