Kaplan, Hamare Kabze mein Hai...

Just finished Kaplan practice test from the book. 50 Questions, 49 correct at the first go. Fell to the classic trap of, miss-direction on the stem for 1 question. Of course, got it right on the second look.

More Problems Solved

On Sunday, I decided it is time to take on the toughies from OG. Going by my experience with other sections, last 30% of every section in OG are tougher. I decided to do, 201-249 this time. They were moderately tough. At the end of it, I got 43/49 correct. as usual, I attempted the wrong ones once again and got 5/6 correct. One question really stumped me. I failed to understand all the facts stated in the question stem. It was a permutation problem clevaerly mixed with Coordinate Geometry. It did stump me. Over all if I take the complete set of 150 PS problems I did from OG, I got 10 wrong. That is a correct answer rate of, 93%. Of the questions I got wrong, I got all but three correct on the second attempt. The other ones which bowled me were,
1. Which used a geometry theorem. 'The minor arc always measurs half the major arc angle'. I know that now.
2. Used the fact that Only numbers which are squares of prime numbers will have exactly 3 factors.

Lessons Learnt at the and of 150 Qn PS Practice

• Brush up Summation of Series, Arithmetic progression and Geometric progression. This will buy you precious minutes.
• Brush up co-ordinate geometry. Practice more of it.
• Every question could get solved with what I know, in less that 90 seconds. If it takes more than that, and I am not sure of the direction, the direction I am on is the wrong one.
• Probability, Permutation and combination problems are best tackled using simple logic.
• I need to learn how to use Venn Diagrams fast.
• I need to speed up.

Quantitavely speaking

Today I started practicing PS questions from the official guide. First I did 1-50. I got 48 correct. But those questions were very easy. So I decided to jump to 150-200. That set also I score 96%. Need to catch up on the speed. Technique seems to be working fine. By tomorrow I should be in a good shape to start the data sufficiency in parallel. Problem Solving and data Sufficiency are going to be my race horses. I am depending on them a lot. Sentence correction is still lagging behind. CR and RC at 85% is good enough to go into GMAT, If I could score full on PS and DS. Tough, but doable.

I, at least got my Grove back

Last two days I am getting up at 4:30am to do OG Questions. In the last two days I finished the First 100 Questions put under the section, Diagnostic Test. 85% is still my correct answer rate. I need to improve that. Reading Comprehension and Problem solving I did very well. Data Sufficiency I have some rough edges to smooth out. Sentence correction is at a paltry 75% correct. What could I do to improve that?. May be more practice is the solutions, and that is what I am going to stick to.

Officially I have not started 'studying' for my Quant section yet. I have to. I know that I need to brush up the statistics and Co-ordinate Geometry. Also, summation of series. A little brushing up in those areas will buy me a few more precious minutes during test taking.

I am happy that I am back on the GMAT trail. Always remember GMAT is the beginning, MBA is the aim.

Back to the thick of it all

I am back. The trip was very good. Puerto Rico is a diverse country. Geography changes mile to mile from side to side. If you ever be in Puerto Rico do not miss two things, One is the Flamenco beach on Culebra Island. This island is one hours boat ride into the Caribbean Sea from Fahardo. Flamenco is picture perfect with emerald green, slow swaying waves, Green carpeted mountain sides, White soft beach and Coral reefs just a stone throw away into the beach. The second item is the 'Nosh-Pits of Puerto Rico'. They are the road side eateries. In India they may best be called as Tapri, or Dhaba. Those snacks they sell are mind blowing. Delicious all the way. Also I meant the most hospitable hostess ever. Her name is Jasmine. We met her at a small Pardor near the mountainous region of Utuado. The Pardor's name is Casa Grande. She was amazing. The service we received every day at her small restaurant was top class. I will not be surprised at all if we see her next as the Maitre de in a NYC restaurant.

Well travel apart, I am slowly easing into the studies. I could feel the inertia. First excuse was, having lots of work to catch up. Next the golden one, My PC Crashed. Well, I have solutions for both. So back to sentence correction. Way to go baby..

Off to Puerto Rico

Flying off to Puerto Rico for 10 Full days. That is going tobe FUN. Just checked the Weather. 80F.

It is Official Now : I Suck at Correcting Sentences !!

My Technique is slow, Error Prone and In-Effective.
Time to buckle up and re-think the SC strategy.

Sentence Correction: The Fundamentals

According to GMAT, the right answer in sentence will be, Grammatically Correct, Concise in its presentation, Clear in the meaning of the sentence. Hence the 3C’s of correct answers.

So if you are ever tied between two possible right answers look for More Correctness, More Concision and More Clarity.

Concision examples:

Good
The division of work at the factory is a point difference between John and Tom.

Better
John and Tom differ on the work division at the factory.

Good

In the past one year alone price of Gas has increased by 40% upward

Better
Last year alone gas prices increased 40%.

Clarity could be a good yard stick to eliminate wrong answers. If the answer choices alters the original meaning of the sentence even slightly they are wrong.

Example:

All the roses are red.
Vs.
Roses are all red

Even though each of them is grammatically correct the meaning is totally different. Answer choices should not be distorting the original idea of the sentence.

John will come
Vs.
John may come


Grammatical correctness will be discussed in more detail.

Verbal Review RC - First Set.

I just turned in Questions 1 to 51 from the Verbal review. Quiet satisfied with the results. 48 correct, Above 94% accuracy. That is very comforting. The three wrong answers were primarily due to I, letting the guard down a little. Focus, Critical reading, do not forget these fundamentals when you read a passage. The last set is going to be tougher. I may take it later in the day.

Yesterday I sterted with the Manhattan GMAT Sentence correction. Excellent approach. I will be publishng my notes on sentence correction. So stay tuned.

Wish you a Great 2006

A friend of mine sent a thought provoking writing on New Years Eve. He characterized the journey of the universe through the new year as another moment in distinguishable from any other moment in the Grand Scheme of things. Well, Thinking from theory of ralativity everything depends on the frame you are on. So agree with him from certain frames. There are minor details likes, the taxes are due etc. to worry about when New Year arrives.

Wish you, your family and friends a Wonderful New Year, Let all your dreams come true.