Friday, June 18, 2010

4 weeks progress

So the preparation came to almost halt in between as I had to shift my house. This was expected but took longer than I had anticipated for. There was gap of 10 days and another 4-5 days of slowdown. The good thing with my new apartment is its more comfortable airy which keeps me uplifted to focus on preparation. A few more personal not so nice things and office stress but am learning to deal with that and focussing on my preps.
Here is what I did after shifting... I picked up OG and went through their revision material which is not much. I've been exploring Beat the GMAT forums and articles to pick tips from there and to get inspired. The biggest is I booked GMAT date which is 14th July and I registered for the 6 Manhattan CAT's. Taking two of them has been eye opener of sorts. My scores -

13/ Jun -> Q45 V33 640
17/ Jun -> Q43 V30 600

Conclusions -

First, I took the second test too soon. I should've waited as there was no improvement in my preparation.
Second, I realised that no matter what there always are those careless mistakes in Quant which I have to get rid of to improve my score. I can easily get 10 more questions right in quant which will make me close to 50.
Third, in both the tests I fell short of time in quant and I had 10+ minutes to spare in verbal. The first test I finished verbal 15 minutes before time so in second I spent more time on questions because I thought I rush through some of them. Also, I never thought I would ever have trouble pacing in quant, this was a rude shock and an important one.
Fourth, while in quant I can be sure on most questions whether I got them right, I'm never sure of my answers in verbal. CR works better than the other two for me and RC is still the worst area. I have a mental blocks on passages that are on subjects I'm not so well read on.

After the review here are the steps -
1. I downloaded the beat the gmat flashcards, they're very comprehensive. Will add as I go.
2. I looked up some formulas that would come in handy - geometry, progressions etc.
3. I have to look for idioms to get my SC's right. This is pending
4. I have to start reading subjects I'm not comfortable with - biological and economical articles.

My plan is to stick to OG, GMATPrep, Manhattan CAT's, flashcards and forums for preparation. The important thing for me to do is to predict with a good accuracy when I get the answers right. This I feel is the key.
Like the Cheshire cat says in alice in wonderland you need to know where you're going to pick the road. So I've set my goal for 720 score, Q50 and V40, which is to up about 100 points. Its not easy but I think its doable if I practice and stay with my prep plans. I read this article which said that on an average people spent 114 hours of prep time to achieve 700+ which if a person spends 8 hours a day comes to a little over 14 days. I have more than that and I can put is 6-8 hours a day. By calculations I do have a chance.

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