Friday, November 28, 2008

D day is four day away... My last attempt at GMAT

Progress so far. Not very exciting. All I am doing is taking a test every morning at 10-2 which is my official timing this Wednesday for the test, and I am analyzing my results for the rest of the day. The only difference on Wednesday would be that I won't get to analyze. My feat so far? Not so great...

GMATPREP Test2_first attempt = 590 Q44 V28 ; Something terribly messed up.
GMATPREP Test1_first attempt = 690 Q48 V37 ; Things improved overall.

First test, weakest area was speed, I was not doing well on time, also, I was getting all worked up so making mistakes, second day it improved, and I was doing better in Math, firs time verbal messed up bad due to RC, my only problem seems to be I get a little emotional, and panicky. I think in reading comprehension and CR questions, you should not let your "ear" fool you, many a times the answers given by your gut feeling are in fact most of the times wrong!

Also, during the second test, something else that helped me was for RC questions checking if options I chose were out of scope. You won't believe I made only 1 mistake in RC in today's test. And only 3 in CR, all other 10 were in SC, that too probably because I did not realize most of them were parallelism errors.

I am not going to cram in these last 4 days, I am going to take it easy. Let whatever is going to happen, happen. I am prepared for it.

Wish me luck readers...

_Abhinandan_

Monday, November 24, 2008

Princeton CAT 3 Q44 V40 680

Finally, some action. Although it was a steal because I knew at least 3 sentence correction questions, I am a little relieved at my verbal score. I know the next step. In the quest of perfection for Verbal. I need to get every SC and CR right. If I manage to do that, my verbal score will breach 40, and If it does, my chances of reaching 700+ are closer.

So far I have taken the following tests. And the outputs have been as follows.
PCAT 1 = 620
PCAT 2 = 650
PCAT 3 = 680
PCAT 4 = 670
PCAT 5 = 610
MGMAT1 = 710
MGMAT2 = 680
MGMAT3 = 690

Next stop GMATPREP, alongwith killer SC and CR accuracy, and a bit of work on the Number properties, and inequalities. Let's see how it goes fellows. Will keep you posted.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Q43 V31 610 Princeton CAT 5

Dumb day, Dumb headache, and dumb performance. I wasn't too sad with the math part, although it could have been better. I am hurt with such a low verbal. The first time I ever took PCAT i had 600, which was better than this. Reasons are not many, in fact only one. 

(1) I did the first two questions wrong on the verbal.
(2) My sentence correction accuracy was a pain; about 60%. I don't know why that keeps happening.

Tomorrow 10AM another day, another time. Let's hope today was just an aberration.

I am not giving up.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Some of My SC Errors on the latest MGMAT : Could be an interesting read...

Sentence correction errors
==========================

1. The Daughters of the American Revolution, a volunteer service organization, admits as members only women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution.

I removed word only; which was wrong; because the result sentence is different in meaning than the original one.

Lesson learnt: Make sure meaning doesn't get changed when you choose an answer.


2. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

--> Here Agatha christie is a possessive noun, be alarmed when you see it, because only possessive pronouns can refer back to possessive nouns, object pronoun such as "inspired her to" may not refer to possessive nouns, hence this is incorrect.
Refer to MGMAT SC Page 55

3. The author Herman Melville and the poet Walt Whitman are icons of American literature, greatly beloved by generations past and present.

---> Restrictive and non restrictive modifiers --- the modifiers Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman are restrictive in nature, and they do not need to be set off by a pair of commas

I did a mistake when I instead of original structure, chose a structure as follows : Herman Melville the author and Walt whitman the poet, although this usage is correct, these are non restrictive modifiers and need to be separated with a proper comma in order to be grammatically correct. Need to better understand what the sentence correction question is testing.


Gyan: That Vs Which... That is logically inseparable from the sentence, Which is usually separable logically. Which is usually used for inanimate things. That, Who Whom, used for animate things.
e.g. The team that wins the game will take over first place.

4. The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite "it will try" to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

When the future is indicated from the point of view of the past, conditional is used. In above sentence, "Had implemented" indicates, comissioner is talking about an event which has already occured and ended in past. However, it will try is a simple future tense, which is incorrect. The more correct WOULD should be used. The correct usage will be "that it would try"

5.It was not long after the 1930s commenced that such baritone singers as Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo contributed to the popularization of a type of romantic, soothing singing that came to be called...

Like vs.such as - Like always used for comparisons on the GMAT, Such as always used for giving examples on the GMAT never choose the odd one for the sake of sounding right or wrong, never trust your ear at least for SC questions. The question is trying to test is Like vs. Such as alongwith other rules of grammar, let the 2/3rd split help ya.

6. One study found that although government policy and the industrial sector in which a company operates can influence its productivity and financial strength, management decisions have at least as great an impact on a company’s performance.

The original sentence can be right many times. Also, usage of although always indicates that there should be some part of sentence which should draw comparison. However, I chose, "Decisions by management have a great impact" Here, there is no comparison being drawn,the contrast is not exposed. Also, Decisions by Management instead of Management decisions is pretty wordy.

7. The administration has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their campaign to protect miners.

I chose Amount of fines instead of Number of fines... I Thought that how can one increase the number of fines, we can increase the amount charged for the fines right? But apparently, this was the silliest mistake, even though my choice was gramatically perfect, it was wrong because the choice clearly said "Amount of fines" whereas talking of fines, they are finite and countable, so it should have been "Number of fines" too bad... Need to spend more time on the Sentence correction questions to try to see what they are testing. But I am happy because all the mistakes I made were in the toughest range.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

MGMAT 3 690 Q48 V36

This was worse than I expected in Verbal. Somehow I couldn't keep my concentration levels high enough in Verbal, and I was rewarded with a low 36. I think I can improve on that one only if I take the test in an ideal setting, which well, doesn't happen at my place on a weekend. Is that too much to ask for? anyway... Frustrations aside, I am still happy to be close to 700. And will not give it too much weightage.

Will let you know how I fare. 3 More MGMAT Tests to go and I plan to finish them as soon as possible. I know what's wrong with verbal. Need to bump up my SC accuracy that too will happen soon. Secret's out. And it's now public. :)

Cheers
Abhinandan

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Current GMAT Weaknesses Identified

CR -
(1) Structure of the argument Questions.
(2) Conclusion/Evaluate the conclusion type of Questions.

RC -
(1) Specific Details Questions, Inference Questions, Passage Tone Questions

SC -
(1) Pronoun Questions
(2) Some unusual Idioms

PS /DS
(1) Inequalities. (Dealing with them currently)
(2) Co-ordinate Geometry Questions ( Mainly related to lines)
(3) Probability & Combinatorics (Will be ignored; as I will skip if I see very difficult question)
(4) Number Properties (Need to brush a lot)

Need to increase overall Math speed. Timed drill on OG would be a lot helpful.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

MGMAT2 - 680 Q47 V35

On a working day. Started at 9PM, and ended at 1AM. Took 30 minutes for Manhattan Math than the 75, because I wanted a good practice. Anyway, by the time I reached verbal, I was pretty exhausted. Just rushed through questions, without enough thought to it.

Q47, V35 ---- Scaled ---- 680 OR 90'th Percentile.

I felt bad considering I was able to break the 40 Mark in Verbal on last couple of tests. But given the verbal section was done from 11.55PM to 1.15 PM, I am not too much worried about the turnout. I am analyzing the test and the questions right now. Will try to give another shot tonight. Math timing revised from 100 Minutes to 85 Minutes. I am taking more time for Math because I feel MGMAT math is unusually tough for 75 Mins.
Wish me luck again!!
Cheers
Abhi

Friday, November 7, 2008

Manhattan GMAT CAT 1

Manhattan GMAT CAT 1 was a horrible experience. It had all the makings of a disaster. Math questions were so difficult I had to think twice whether I was giving GMAT or CAT. Verbal was not easy either. I am sure I did many of them wrong, but I guess that is the way Manhattan tests you. Following were my scores, which I am more than pleased with. Please note that I took more than normal time to complete the sections due to various interruptions that I had during my exams. I haven't prepared any grid as such, but will simply note down my weaknesses which are especially evident at some really hard questions.

I was pretty exhausted so took a brief break, now will merge back into studies. I will review this test tomorrow, for now I will review my SC Grid weaknesses, and then look back into math mistakes I did in OG quant, and also if time permits I will look into my MGMAT math wrongs, afterall I have to take another MGMAT test tomorrow ( Heaven forbid something wrong happens)

I am pretty happy to break 700 for the first time on any major test. Wish me luck folks. I am going to need all of it.

Cheers,
abhinandan

2 days off at work for studies... Progress so far...

Friends, I just read a post on BTG, and there is a guy who scored 710 in his fourth attempt, and last attempt. I am in a similar situation, this is my third attempt, and the last one and I just hope I be as lucky or even more luckier than him! :) 

Anyway, regarding the US presidential elections, I am really happy that a young leader has been chosen, and he is way closer to the ground realities than his competitor was... and an interesting trivia, the date of Birth of Mr Obama is incidentally same as mine! :) 

okay so today was the first day off from work, here is a debrief of today and the plan for next 3 days.

(1) Wanted to take a test today. Couldn't due to power situation in Pune.
(2) Completed the OG11 Sentence correction practise questions and recorded the complete results in the Grid. My hit rate in SC is about 80% and is surprisingly better with the level of concentration I put in.
(3) I am going to practise a little bit of math tomorrow morning, and then start a test at sharp 12 PM if all goes well. I will take MGMAT 1 test.
(4) During the weekend, I will take one of the princeton CATs and one more MGMAT. Rest all the time I will spend on practising OG11, and analyzing my mistakes.
(5) I have digested Manhattan SC completely, and I need to complete the OG10 questions it contains as part of my next level of preparations for SC.
(6) I am going to devise my RC strategy tomorrow based on Stacey Koprince's advise on BTG. 

Hope I wake up on time tomorrow and also hope that I get a good confidence boost in the Verbal tomorrow again! 

Cheers,
Abhinandan

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Unprecedented Princeton CAT

Guess what? today I gave a complete simulated princeton CAT 4. This was at my princeton review coaching center. Following are the details.



I digested almost 80% of manhattan SC after doing a few timed drills on OG yesterday. I did not do the OG 10 questions which manhattan SC asks us to do because I did not have that kind of time, however, was awake till almost 2AM last night taking notes, and going through my other GMAT notes, I have personally made on paper. After reading all the tips I went down to the center at 11 o clock today, and started with the test. I had an option of skipping the essays, but I decided that whatever I do, I have to build my stamina so I decided I will take every DT from now on with the essays. Math started well, I saw a few percents, fractions, percents, some tricky DS, but I was comfortably marching through them, and bang saw one probability question, stumbled on it for almost 5 mins, guessed and moved on, another one! straight 5 questions from Probabilty one after another. I was totally tense. After came another DS, and it started sailing smooth, I was keeping track of time and was making sure I solve the problems within 2 minutes. Finally Maths was over. I knew I did not do well on the probability questions which were probably all lined up from 12-17...

Verbal... My dear verbal was next. I was very much prepared for this one, my fresh Manhattan SC stint had given me enough courage to tackle the first SC, after which flashed a very scientific RC with 3 questions which I managed to digest, then a couple of tough arguments, which I sailed through smoothly and comfortably, I was keeping tab on time, as well as was writing the eliminations on paper, and striking ABCDE off except whichever I felt was the right answer. I did this only for tough questions later on in order to save time. I saw a few familar CRs and one familiar RC, however, the Arguments were surprisingly becoming difficult, and I had to think a lot more than I normally tend to think, but I kept my concentration levels, and decided to run through it.

I was done with the test finally at about 3, and did wait a moment before looking for the score. Flash came the 670. I was so happy to see the breakup more than the average. I knew I had done bad on the math, so Math was just 40, but believe my good stars I had scored 43 in verbal, which is steller as per my own standards, and I knew probability questions were not a big deal as there was no way I would have seen 5 straight probability questions on the actual GMAT. I was happy, and left the center with a little piece of advise from my verbal tutor. She advised me to go through the OG10 questions at least for the sections which I feel are difficult, she felt the verbal score was really good, and if I can improve even a little, I will comfortably sail past 700.

What a run-down. I was extremely happy, I am going to follow her and do the OG10 for the Sentence correction sections of the Manhattan SC. So far, I am just going to dream that I get at least close to 43 in my actual GMAT, I can't be complascent, as I have to go miles before I sleep.

Cheers to all those who are spending time reading my blog. Feel very free to comment and if you have any suggestions.

Cheers
Abhi