Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Question

First of All, I am not a very good writer.

Lets start with a short history why I thought about GMAT.Thanks to One of my old friend (enemy actually). 
We have cracked MAT on the same day where I beat his score with casual preparation. Then we separated. After 2 years we met & the first sentence he told "You beat me in MAT by luck,but finally I beat u in profession as always.". By the way, he is working for a Consultancy Firm in UK.

Challenge!!!! One thing always pump up my blood. The very next day, I started to gather some info's regarding GMAT & CAT. With the international exposure, GMAT attracted me well. Another reason for choosing GMAT over CAT is Yale, One of my dream colleges.

One of my senior in professional field suggested me GMATClub. Kudos to him for giving me right start.
I was always confused about which material to start with. After reading the GMAT Material review, finally I bought all MGMAT study guides & OG12. 
One of my friend, who cracked GMAT with 690 score a month ago, provided me his access in Kaplan web materials. But I am using Kaplan only for practice exams.

My diagnostic Test was shocking.... 310   . Quant score hit my confidence too bad. But still I took a chance & completed the Quant books of MGMAT. Also practiced all of OG12 questions. 
 Now 1st MGMAT Test: 570   ..... Hoooooooo... At least my quant area is back in track.

Time to build my worst nightmare, Verbal. Frankly speaking, Verbal books make me bored. I fought to complete them & also the OG questions.

Then first Kaplan CAT: 610    
The score surprised me, as per score calculator it can lead me to 680 in real GMAT.
To check the validity, I took
 MGMAT CAT 2: 650   
 GMAT Prep 1: 660

After a complete analysis, I found I need to brush CR & RC, as they seems easier for me than SC.
Thats what My Plan now..... I will go thru Singlefox & Bang Bang's Guide in CR.

My Final Target is to give a call to my friend the day I'll pass out from a Top B School to thank him to get a chance to challenge myself.

My Kudo's goes to GMATClub for guiding me till date. Hopefully I can be part of 700 Club also....

I will keep updated...

rockzom · Answer

How you guys do so well in quant is amazing to me...

subhabrata1986 · Answer

Unfortunately, I have similar question... How you guys do so well in verbal!!!

May b I can unleash the answer soon

rockzom · Answer

As a native speaker, I would be seriously ashamed if I get less than a 44/43 verbal score. (These are my two highest scores so far in practice.) For some reason the quant section is very hit or miss with me. I've scored as low as a 31 and as high as a 43 in practice. Sometimes the questions "speak" to me, and sometimes they don't.

I'm going to be taking a few days off from studying this weekend. After that, I am going to go through all of the problems where I made mistakes or guessed, figure out what I did wrong, and create an entirely new test containing at least 37 quant questions that I missed and at least 41 verbal questions that I missed. If I think that they will seem too familiar, then I will create an entirely new problem. I truly believe that this is the only way to conquer your weaknesses.

gmat700hope · Answer

I find it really amazing that people do so well in quant too! I am not a native speaker and I still get a 42-44 in verbal but can't seem to break the 42+ barrier in quant. And I come here and read all these stories of people getting seemingly easy 49/50. Man, a 45 would make me reach my target of a 700+. I only want a 44/45 and everyone seems to get a 47-50. Makes me really feel stupid in math.

rockzom · Answer

I'm probably one of the worst data sufficiency responders in all of GMATClub.

subhabrata1986 · Answer

I am not an expert of Quant, But I am trying to state my way to solve it. 8-)

Assign values in variables at the same time of reading the question. Using Real Number instead of Variables in Percentage & Number System. By the way, 100 is not always correct to use real number in percentage problems. In case of Geometry, try to get pictorial view.

subhabrata1986 · Answer

Unfortuantely, after a bad Verbal score, I realized I need to take more time for Verbal preparation. :oops:

I am planning to postpone my GMAT date till Jan'11

gmatdelhi · Answer

Hey subhabrata1986,

Good going on such a large increase in your practice tests! Do let me know how you managed to reach a 50 in quant...I'm still hovering around 44-45, and I used to be good at math in school and college!

As for your Verbal, I want to give you my 2 cents...don't let go of SC and focus solely on RC and CR. I've heard improving on SC is a crucial way to improve your verbal score. This is because SC has a set of rules you should remember (although I guess u can't remember ALL the rules!). Once you know these rules, an SC question takes you 45-60 seconds to solve, giving you ample time to dedicate your effort on CR and esp RC questions.

Btw, I'm also giving my GMAT in Jan '11.

All the best to you!

subhabrata1986 · Answer

Thanks gmatdelhi for your suggestion.
I have PM'ed experts of GMATclub already for suggestion. May be I am too frustrated on SC to rule it out. I'll nail it down with a bit more comprehensive study once I'll get 75% success rate in RC & CR.

Regarding Quant, my general technique is:
1. Use Real Numbers More. Whenever I get Odd, even or Prime number question, I try to solve them with real numbers. Till date it didn't cost me more than 3 min per question.
2. Never tried to judge any questions difficulty. Because I am too bad in that.
3. Pictorial presentation of Geometry. With 0% success rate in initial Geometry question, I turned to 75% success rate with this technique.
4. Even when I am busy in Verbal [now a days], I try to get 1 hr practice of any type of questions of Quant. Just to keep the brain aware about quant.

But, these all techniques I created for my own convenience. It's possible that these will not help much others. But you can give these a try.

Best of luck to you too for your GMAT.

gmatdelhi · Answer

Thanks for the help!

rockzom · Answer

subhabrata1986,

Mind explaining what you mean by a pictorial representation for Geometry? I always felt that was implicit. Sometimes, even if you can convert something to an image, you will still not be able to solve it if you do not have knowledge of all of the formulas.

subhabrata1986 · Answer

Hey rockzom,
I completely agree with you. Formula's are indeed necessary to remember for solving the problems of Geometry. But you have to remember them, its commonly known. Pictorial representation can help sometime to find the solution easily. Afterall Time is the most important thing of GMAT

bblast · Answer

subrata, do u have any idea about kolkata test center ? I see ur location as Kolkata

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