Practice Test Marathon...

I am down with fever. So I went crazy and took three practice tests back to back yesterday - GMAT Prep 2, GMAT Life by CATPREP, and Manhattan CAT2.

Quant scores: 47, 51, and 47.
Verbal scores: 35, 42, and 40.

The above scores just show how different various tests are. Though I got a disappointing score in GMAT prep2, I identified my weak areas in quant. Verbal, I am unable to focus - could be because of my fever. I just hope I will be able to concentrate in the real GMAT, which is less than a week away.

Taking off till I get rid of the fever. I just hope I have enough time to brush up my weak areas, and to solidify my strong areas... 

OG Math Marathon...

I fully leveraged today's Diwali holiday by solving ALL the problem solving questions from the Official Guide under timed conditions. Yes, I did all 230 of them. And I feel like starting the DS part now, but I think it's better to leave it for tomorrow :)

Stats

1. 219 questions out of 230 were correct
2. Average time per question: 86 sec
3. Goofed up questions: 46, 69, 84, 112, 124, 152, 163, 197, 198,  221, 223

It was a cake walk except for the last 30 questions. I think the key to conquer quant section is the ability to realize when to move on from a difficult question.

Will conquer Data Sufficiency tomorrow. On that note, Happy Diwali.

Critical Reasoning in my pocket too?

At least, I would like to think so :) I consider CR as one of my strengths. So didn't allocate much time for its preparation. I hope this won't turn out to be a mistake. 

Materials used

1. GMAT Official Guide 12th edition
2. Powerscore CR Bible
3. Veritas Prep CR booklet I

Preparation

1. Skimmed through the first few chapters of PowerScore CR bible. Few important takeaways: conclusion is the key, understand the stimulus clearly before jumping into the answer choices, treat answer choices/stimulus differently based on the question type etc.
2. Solved the Veritas Prep CR booklet - though some of its questions are not very convincing, it opened my eyes in that CR questions can be tricky and time consuming
3. Solved the OG 12 questions in timed conditions.

Stats

1. OG questions: 113/124 - 11 wrong
2. Average time per question: 1:41sec (I timed only last 80 questions)
3. Questions I goofed up: 33, 47, 57, 70, 74, 82, 89, 99, 102, 110, 114
4. Veritas Prep CR questions: 9 wrong

I don't think I have the time or energy to do anything else for CR; however, if I get time, I will solve the CR questions from Official Verbal Review.

Sentence Correction in my pocket...

Sentence Correction was the apparent problem area for me when I started my preparation. I am done with the preparation part of it finally. I think I am pretty comfortable at it now. Though my speed in solving SC questions leaves something to be desired, I don't have the bandwidth to work on it. But, no complaints whatsoever. I am pretty happy with my progress :)

Materials used:

1. Manhattan SC guide.
2. Aristotle SC guide.
3. Total GMAT verbal.
4. GMAT Official Guide 12th edition(OG).
5. Aristotle's one minute explanation to the OG SC questions - very useful.

What have I done:

1. First I went through the Basic part of the Manhattan SC guide. At the end of every chapter, I solved the corresponding questions from OG. 
2. Then I read Aristotle SC guide cover to cover - except the chapter on idioms. Solved 100 questions given at the end of the book.
3. Then I read Sentence Correction part of Total GMAT verbal. Solved 60 odd questions from it.
4. Read the advanced part of the Manhattan SC guide.
5. Solved all the OG questions in untimed conditions.
6. Took the SC portion of the OG diagnostic test under timed conditions.

SC Scores

1. SC OG score: 128 correct out of 140.
2. SC OG diagnostic score: 15 correct out of 18.

A word on Idioms:

I skipped idioms chapters in both Manhattan and Aristotle guides. I think I already know the most tested idioms anyway as I have seen quite a few in the OG questions. I Hope not memorizing idioms won't come back to haunt me in the exam.

PS: I know, I know; the heading of the blog is a run-on sentence :)

Life takes over GMAT...

Attending weddings, receptions; Work-related late night problem solving; Playing Table Tennis, Lawn Tennis; Roaming around Passport office; Catching up(read: night outs) with old friends who are in town... you get the essence - life takes over GMAT :)

Irony is that when I had lot of time, I didn't utilize it properly. Now when I actually need time, I just can't have it :) There's got to be a name for this phenomena. 

A genius scored only 710 in GMAT...

Today, my dear friend took GMAT without much preparation and scored (only)710. This is the guy whose intellect inspires me. He didn't do justice to himself with that score; he is definitely 800 material. This is the guy who cracked IIT entrance without preparation. This is the guy who got 750 in GMAT prep without preparation. But then everyone has his or her own priorities. In my book, a score of 710 for a doting husband and father is equivalent to 750. All the best mate. You truly amaze me.