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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
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Ha ha ha.....Good Questions Economist. For now the date format is MM-DD-YY.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
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OK, time to think about your next steps now. Since you have scored less than 700 you are demotivated, but this is marginally short of your 700 target so if you take it positively you can still score 700+ in the real test, lot of people have done it. I know, since it is your repeat, you are skeptical, happens :)

At the same time, your verbal score looks a bit on the lower side. So there is definitely a chance for a drastic improvement there. To be frank, it would be a bit difficult to get 40+ in one week. However you can aim for something around 35 if you still want to go for the test but that requires a very very positive and confident frame of mind on the real test. Its not impossible :)

There are two ways to handle this: Just go for the test and hope for the best, give your 100%
OR
Make up your mind and concentrate on your verbal skills and practice like a crazy fellow until you get a consistent 40.

Since this is your repeat, I am just a touch concerned that you wont be very confident about yourself on the real test with your gprep scores hovering around the 700 mark. So I would suggest that until you 'feel' confident about the real thing don't go for it.

Having said that, I feel anything is possible and getting a good score is much more important then just taking the test due to time constraints :) We can discuss other strategies here, let everyone pool in with their thoughts.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
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Good luck on your second attempt. Do you know when your date will be yet?
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
mrsmarthi

you make a lot of valid points. Have game plan for verbal as that seems to be an area of concern.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
mrsmarthi


I would suggest to do the SC questions in OG 11 in conjunction with the chapters. This helped a lot in putting the theory into practice.
Also, i would urge you to start making your own notes or add on to notes found online

I found that the OG12 SC questions were much tougher than OG11 or OG verbal. Well atleast for me.
My 2 cents... cheers!
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
BB,

I never looked at OG10th edition. Probably I will see whether I can practice my verbal from this book. Thank you for letting me know.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
bb wrote:
mrsmarthi wrote:
snipertrader,

Thank you for the suggestion. I already did OG 11 during my first attempt. So I am afraid I might pick answers correctly probably because I remeber the correct ans choice(yes I believe I have good remembrance power :) ) rather than by knowing the concepts correctly. This way I feel, I will not be able to find my real weakness.

OG 12 is new to me(I assume there are lot many repeats from OG 11) but still, it might judge me where I am. Once I am done with OG12, I might go back to referring OG 11 questions(provided I have that much time)


OG 12 has only 30% of new questions. Some but they are sprinkled all over and hard to pick out. Manhattan has a list of all new questions on their site (link from this post: the-official-guide-for-gmat-12-merged-76806.html.

Here is a secret - OG 10 has the least repeats between all of the OG's. You can pick it up pretty cheaply (if you have access to Amazon or similar)

The only weakness of OG 10 is that it has overlaps with PowerPrep (previous version of GMATPrep).


I used the OG10 and found that I liked it much more than the OG11. mrsmarthi, if you decide to get a copy there is a spreadsheet floating around that sorts the questions in to categories of easy, medium and hard. I focused solely on the hard questions. In addition, I think the OG10 has better explanations.

I have attached the spreadsheet just in case you decide to get the OG10.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
I got the same score during Aug 2008 :oops: when I was dreaming for PGPX

Never Mind!I am coming back stronger.

try the following(if you need more advice) for Verbal

also take as many FLTs as possible (I have nt taken one since Feb 2009..)

MGMAT SC book--hard copy-read and revise yr own notes-3rd edn onwards the book is having 200+ pages
If SC is not the weakness then go for PowerScore Bible(CR)
MGMAT CAT 1-6-->take all the Tests and Analyse each Qs(Its Must for Verbal)

I am also thinking of ending my long GMAT saga by Nov/Dec(Hopefully!)


Ya Quants, even i can get 49,easily :wink:

I feel V34/V36 can be scored if one can hold his/her nerves! thats 690-710!
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
Nitya34,

When I was planning my GMAT(first attempt), I was targetting in in one of IIM's or ISB starting april 2010. But after the score, all my dreams were shattered......(I know that I was weak in verbal. But was hoping for some luck on the D-Day. Isn't it the foolish act on a person to think so? )

Then I lost my interest in GMAT Preparation.To add to that, it is even more challenge for a a working mother with a 2 year old. Hardly can concentrate on my preparation until very late in the night. (Thinking that GMAT is not my cup of tea.) If I have to do MBA, with a 590 score also I can do. But that's not what I wanted. So almost dropped my idea of retaking the exam.

After April, very rarely I was peeking thru GMAT Forums.....But to be frank after reading Bipolarbear debrief and his continuous improvement led me to think, why not I also start a topic of my preparation and religiously layout a plan and record the actuals and see how the ending is going to be. (Thank you BipolarBear for providing the inspiration). I just started my preparation only from last weekend. I am targetting to take the exam in Oct or at the max November. Definitely not beyond that.

So let me see how the ride will be for this time.....

BTW, what are FLTs? I never heard of them.....
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
mrsmarthi, i definitely encourage you to retake the gmat especially since you know that you can do much better than 590. I too found it very difficult to study and thus I procrastinated for a good two months before I really started focusing and I definitely think that keeping an online log, blog, or simply sharing your study journal is tremendously helpful. Not only will it keep you motivated and allow you to record your goals but the community support is great and it's a lot easier to know that you're not the only one going through it.

in regards to your materials, sterny's gmatprep document has official questions and explanations taken from gmatprep and can be found here:
750-q49-v44-68657.html . going through that will definitely teach you to narrow down your SCs in a methodological way. remember to avoid shaky materials like kaplan 800 (honestly the first page of its SC section contained errors of SANAM (some any all none most) pronouns...

a helpful method for me was to colloborate with a couple of gmatclub members who were taking the test around the same time as myself. In my case, I monitored the progress of avenusaur and gmanjesh closely and they also provided me with many helpful tips. avenusaur ended up taking his test two weeks before me and got a 770 which really inspired me to crank it up. gmanjesh is taking the test soon and i wish him all the best. studying for the gmat isn't the most interesting experience but at least it doesn't have to be lonely.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
Hi mrsmarthi,
welcome back to the forum..The best part is not letting go and coming back with a bang ! If GMAT is a deadly beast one has to kill it so that it doesn't haunt you...there is no way out...:) Take your time and get back to basics. Since it is your second time, I don't think you will take much time on basics except refreshing the concepts....

Good luck. Keep the spirit going..
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
Thankyou Economist.

Now coming back to my preparation, today I have completed one unfinished MGAMT CAT Free exam. I started this off on 4/19/2009(couple of days after my failed attempt) to start afresh. But unfortunately never was able to complete it. So I picked some random ans for Quant to start on Verbal. But never came to the point where I could complet the exam.

Again today is my day for that unfinished exam. Fortunately when I resumed the exam, I am pointed to the first question in the Verbal. This is exactly what I wanted. I did complete my exam. I am least bothered about my quant score. Reason - I picked random ans just to get thru to the Verbal. So here is breakup.

8/26/2009 - Total 420 (Q - 17, V - 30)...... :wink: 420

The good thing about this exercise, is that my verbal score's tens digit is in 3's. Hurray..... :banana

At a high level, here is my breakdown in verbal -

SC - 8(wrong) - 7(Correct) = 50 %
CR - 7(wrong) - 7(Correct) = 50 %
RC - 6(wrong) - 6(Correct) = 50 %

So as of today, my stand on Verbal is around 50%. I need to bring this to atleast 90% + in SC and CR, and close to 80% in RC.

Categories where there are most incorrect answers are -

SC - Verbs, parallelism, pronouns and Modifiers. (Hum I thought I was strong in Parllels but obviusly not. )
RC - Specific detail, Inferrence and Main Idea
CR - Weaken, Assumption, Boldface.

Let me see how many of them are careless mistakes once I complete my self review. I cannot afford to have careless mistakes in Verbal because it costs me a lot. (Oh I forgot to mention - this test was not under a timined condition. But still my verbal shows an upward trend - self boosting factor.)
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
Can anyone suggest me a god book(s) / link(s)for RC for Tips / Strategies / different types of RC questions ? RC really is killing my verbal score - in one way I am only 50% correct and in another way it is consuming too much of my time that is impacting my SC and CR. :wall
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
Today not much of the studying happened. So far, completed Concise, Subject-Verb Agreement, and Parallelism chapters of MGMAT SC. I am yet to do the exercises. Intial plan was to complete Pronouns strategy also. But lagging behind.

I definitely want to dedicate one complete day each for going thru the chapters on Modifiers, Verbs, Comparisions. These are my weakest topics in SC. So this time I don't want to brush thru the pages but rather understand the concept behind them. Hopefully I will complete going thru these chapters by end of this month. So that I can plan for taking up the exercises from all chapters whole of next week. Even these contain lot more valuable information. They do not merely test what you learnt.

Oh, planning to take my first MGMAT CAT # 1 this weekend. Before that I need to atleast understand how to tackle RC's.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
mrsmarthi wrote:
Can anyone suggest me a god book(s) / link(s)for RC for Tips / Strategies / different types of RC questions ? RC really is killing my verbal score - in one way I am only 50% correct and in another way it is consuming too much of my time that is impacting my SC and CR. :wall



I am by no means an expert in RC...but i generally do the following -

1. Read the question first before reading the para (applies to the 1st RC question)
2. While reading, anticipate what the writer would write next. This will help you "engage" with the writer
3. Create timelines if the para has dates/years
4. Read the last few lines of the para VERY carefully. Sometimes, those lines give a definitive shape to the structure of the para.
5. Look for key words / idioms (this comes with practice). These tend to be the basis of certain questions.
6. Do not assume anything....look for answers within the para itself. If you dont find it, try to look for similar sentences/meanings
7. Last but not least - try to read fast (easier said than done - comes with practice)

Most of the RC para's are dry and hence one's interest level drops. I generally look forward to reading dry para's now as i always feel, i learn something new. Once you feel interested, you will see a dramatic increase in the accuracy in RC

I am sure others can contribute much more valuable tips on RC

Hope this helps
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
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For RC, there are not a whole lot of resources available. Here is a quick overview from an old-timer:

1. Manhattan GMAT RC (the only dedicated book) - in contrast to other MGMAT Guides, it does not rely solely on OG 12, but has its own questions/passages. It does include a recommended practice list from OG.
2. PowerScore Verbal Bible - contains a section on RC
3. Kaplan Premiere - contains a section on RC (I used this approach)
4. LSAT RC - this is really HARD and is used very rarely, but I thought I'd give you a full picture
5. GMAT Fiction

There were a couple of other less known sources, which I have omitted.
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Re: Warmup before second Attempt From a 590 to ??? [#permalink]
Snipertrader and BB,

Thankyou for providing some inputs of the RC preparation. One thing that I noticed is that when you read the passage understanding it clearly, it is easy to do the questions with confident(ofcourse there are possibilites that I am picking the wrong choice but still picking up the ans coice with confidence) . I tried skimming thru the passage, and when I start working on the questions, I still have to spend time reading the passage and this is consuming hell lot of a time. So I decided I will go for concept of "Active reading of the passage" rather than "skimming thru the passage".

Yesterday, I didn't do any preparation......Not good. At this stage, I cannot afford to wast my days not preparing for the exam. Last couple of days were bit if tiring days both at work and at home, that showed the impact yesterday. I will have make sure I don't get into this situation until I fight my GMAT.

This weekend is going to way too busy....Need to complete atlesat 4 chapters in MGMAT - SC and then take up one MGMAT Cat 1/6 exams. Let me see how things go.......
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