Saga of my GMAT preparation ...continues

Question

Back again. I was not an active memeber for quite some time. After winning MGMAT prep course (Thanks to GC) I was so excited that I did not study for GMAT in hopes of starting the study when prep course starts (Nov 1). But then once it started, I became lazy and did only the homeworks and nothing much. Yesterday was the day I realized I should do lot more than just completing the hw for each week. I came up with a schedule from yesterday till Jan 5th. Yes...Jan 5th 2011 is my DDAY.

A little background:
I joined GC back in oct 2009 when I first thought of GMAT. I had no idea what it is that time. When through many Gmat club posts to understand the exam structure and experiances from members. I studied for 3 months on and off with no consistent preparation, but used to solve mostly CR questions in GC. Gave the GMAT exam on May 15th. My score was 620 (Q44, V 35..or something like that). I was really disappointed though I know I did not do well in my preparation. I am no exception to people who think there will be some miracle that happens in test that will boost my points to get high score. I was getting 670/680 in prep exams. But to be honest I never really worked on reviewing all the questions properly. That disappointment and probably inferiority (everyday I used to read posts of 700 and above score) made me not to write my experiance in GC and made me stop thinking about GMAT. I still have the fear of verbal (SC/RC) in me.
On the back of my mind, I was thinking I should give one more try and see what score I will get. I was not ready to accept that score. Believe me I haven't seen the score card report from that day and do not want to touch it again.

How I started thinking of GMAT again:
4 months passed by....Suddenly one day I thought I will check GC. So when I opened, there was this "Win a School Visit of Your Dreams - Register Here " post from BB. That just made me think about GMAT again and I registered in there. I used to see only that thread everyday and did not do anything else. I was thinking I will enroll to Knewton online course because of my budget to prep course. But then the day came when my name flashed in winners list for MGMAT course (after couple of kind hearted members rejected it). I couldn't believe my eyes. Because this prep course was one of the best prep course I thought.

At present:
I mustered all my courage to write this thread disclosing my first attempt score :-(

which I was not willing to share. Now I have to keep myself pushing to give my best in preparation and in the exam.
The main aim of this thread is to keep me on my toes with respect to my schedule and progress of preparation. I will update this thread as often as possible.

Sorry for the long post. I thought if I let myself write down all these then I am realy for next battle.

Thanks to GMAT CLUB.

As of Nov 15th:
-Completed NOVA Math Prep by Jeff Sackman - Maintained an error log
-Completed MGMAT Number properties (General section) including all OG 12 problems
- Completed MGMAT Equations, Inequalities and VICs(General section) - OG problems are pending
- MGMAT CAT#5 - 650
- GMAT club Math test#1 - 66%
- Reading SC Grails (I still have SC fear)

Will update this thread by end of the week...

which I was not willing to share. Now I have to keep myself pushing to give my best in preparation and in the exam. The main aim of this thread is to keep me on my toes with respect to my schedule and progress of preparation. I will update this thread as often as possible. Sorry for the long post. I thought if I let myself write down all these then I am realy for next battle. Thanks to GMAT CLUB. As of Nov 15th: -Completed NOVA Math Prep by Jeff Sackman - Maintained an error log -Completed MGMAT Number properties (General section) including all OG 12 problems - Completed MGMAT Equations, Inequalities and VICs(General section) - OG problems are pending - MGMAT CAT#5 - 650 - GMAT club Math test#1 - 66% - Reading SC Grails (I still have SC fear) Will update this thread by end of the week...

rg1 · Answer

Good luck for your preparation. I couldn't enroll in any preparation course due to work schedule, and I started myself. I finished MGMAT books but I still feel that there is so much to be done. I'll start some gmat CATs after sometime. How did you find Nova GMAT prep and Jeff Sackmann's Total GMAT? 
Good luck once again.

mattapraveen · Answer

I did the Quant part of Nova. It gives questions topic wise and within each topic, difficulty wise. It was good. Few of the difficult category questions are stimulating.Not great, but good enough. A good book for Non engg back ground folks and not soo good one for engg back ground folks.

mads · Answer

Thanks rg1. I felt NOVA math prep course is a very good one. I started with it got comfortable with lot of math rules that I should remember. I will recommend that book for having a strong base, the book also has some hard questions topic wise which are again good ones. I finished that book in a week or so.
Good luck for your preparation.

rg1 · Answer

After finishing up MGMAT + OG quant questions, I felt that I'm good with basics but still need to spend a lot of time in practicing and reducing time for DS questions. I ordered NOVA GMAT Prep from Amazon few days ago and should be outside my door any day:). I get distracted with loads of work that makes me feel rustic every time even though I was doing good at solving questions. 
Do you have a daily routine of solving 10PS+ 10DS+20 SC+10CR+2 RC? I don't know how to make a schedule/test with a variety of questions in it apart from Full length tests. If you have any idea, please post.

mads · Answer

I have not started daily routine of solving 10PS+ 10DS+20 SC+10CR+2 RC. But I am planning to do from next week once I finish reading MGMAT books. Somewhere in GC forums I read that you can list out all the problems from OG and assign numbers from 1 to 10 sequentially. First 10 questions will have numbers from 1 to 10 and 11-20 questions will have numbers from 1 to 10...like that. And now if you select all 1 numbered questions, you can have mix of all difficulties from easy to hard. You can try this approach to pick the problems without redundancy and with mixed difficulties for every day.
I will be covering most of OG12 problems with MGMAT books. So I am planning to follow the above approach on OG10 when I start doing that.

mads · Answer

Just finished Gmat Club test #2 -----27/37 -----20% Identified 5 careless mistakes which would have got correct if I was careful :-(

. Missed question on combinations which I need to improve a lot.

mads · Answer

Pretty bad day

MGMAT CAT#1 - 590 (Q47, V24). I have 15 questions out of 37 wrong in quantitative. (6 of them are careless mistakes) I have not started CR and RC preparation. Most of the CR questions were wrong and RC, I just skipped them by blindly selecting some answer. I have finished 3 chapters in MGMAT SC, and out of 15 SC questions 2 were wrong...not bad huh. I couldn't concentrate on the exam as I was thinking not to work on RC and CR. So I will stop taking CAT now until I prepare for those sections. It does not make sense to just waste the CATs. Btw in this week, -completed MGMAT Word Translations (one of the scariest books because of combination/ permutations and probability). I still need to work on more Com/Perm problems to get comfortable with them. -Did all OG12 problems from MGMAT Equations, Inequalities and VICs(General section)

kyro · Answer

good luck <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" />

mads · Answer

ok. Here I am after a long break. I did not keep up with the regular study during thanksgiving week. Meeting friends, cooking, shopping..etc. Then after 4 days break I resumed my study.

Last week:
Gmat Club test #4 -----32/37 -----76%
MGMAT CAT#2 - 640 (Q47, V31)

My capacity with Quantitative always seems to be 47 in MGMAT. I was not able to improve it.
I am thinking on what else can I do to improve it atleast 2 points more.
Any suggestions here are most welcome.

Then comes by enemy - Verbal. I had same percentages of mistakes in CR,RC adn SC.
I was thinking CR was my strngth. But apparently it is not. All verbal is my weakness. I will concentrate on verbal this week and see how I can improve it.

May be read MGMAT SC again???

USCTrojan2006 · Answer

Just keep focusing on your weak areas, and practice, practice, practice.

mads · Answer

Days are just flying away.
It is really not a good idea to take a exam like GMAT during holidays. Too many distractions because of holidays and some family commitments. But anyways once I have started preparing, do not want to stop it and start after a long break. So planning to postpone my exam date from Jan 5th to Jan 17th. That gives me 10 more days where there are no holidays( Only work and GMAT). Hopefully that might work.
Planning to take one practice exam this weekend.

Saga of my GMAT preparation ...continues

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