Phase 1 Summary : Day 0 to G-Day

I took GMAT on 28th March, 2006: Over All 710 a 94th Percentile, With Q49(90th Percentile) and V38 (85th Percentile). This is a rather long post and I am leaving it that way. It mostly is chronicle of events. I am trying not to put unnecessary conclusions. The purpose of my post, and the blog in general is to provide as much information on my methods. It’s up to the reader to draw conclusions, generalizations etc if required. In the grand scheme of things this may help a few in making minor course corrections to his or her benefits.

December:

---

I started the GMAT preparation in December. I read through many of the blogged experiences of GMAT high scorers. My hypothesis is that in the US if you follow the similar methods you can expect similar results. So if a high scorer has sincerely chronicled his or her study efforts, I could follow the method to get similar results. My starting point was Beat the GMAT Blog, www.beatthegmat.com. From there I spent few hours understanding famous study techniques of Erin, Ursula, TwinSplitter etc. You know what I am refering to. At the end of two days I had a clear idea of which all study materials I should buy. Also I got a good picture of sequence of using these materials, and how much time it is going to take. This estimate was very important to me. That gave a clear idea that I will be able to take GMAT only around February end. Around the same time I took a diagnostic test on Princeton Review website. I got a dismal 570 in that.

Study Material and General Strategy:

I ordered all the study material from Amazon. Amazon took around 2 weeks to deliver those. There were some problems in delivery, but Amazon customer support was excellent. Very much understandably so, since their 1-800 numbers is not advertised. Hence they must be getting very few phone calls. While waiting for the Amazon shipments I started practicing with the practice questions on GMATPrep software. Those Questions, if you have ever attempted them you will know, are simple sets. After I received my Amazon shipments, I started with Princeton Review. I read through Princeton Review completely to get the over all idea of the test and types of questions. Princeton Review - Cracking the GMAT book is a very simple book. It covers subjects in a very superfluous manner. Frankly after the first 1 week I did not even open the Princeton Review book. On an average my weekly schedule was, 2 hours daily in the morning and 6-8 hours in the weekend. I cannot emphasize how much of family support is required to follow such a schedule if you are married. I am very lucky to have a very understanding wife.My Plan for each section was to first study the techniques in Kaplan, then move on to the techniques in Manhattan GMAT. I bought the verbal books of Manhattan GMAT also. After these two are over, I intended to work out the complete OG Section. Also I wanted to keep track of the practice using an Excel Grid I got from one of the GMAT Forums. I did some customization on it to keep track of the time, etc.

Critical Reasoning:

I started with the Critical Reasoning Section. Soon enough found that I had a knack for that section. So was genuinely interested in the subject. First two days I finished the Kaplan chapter, made a set of notes, and moved on to the Manhattan GMAT CR. I did not find the Manhattan GMAT techniques very useful. So decided to stick to the Kaplan way of doing things. CR is very simple in that, once you dissect the argument into Premises and Conclusion and do not lose sight of the scope and the question stem, you can never go wrong. So after the first two days I moved on to OG. Daily load was 40 question sets. Which was not strenuous at all? I could finish 40 questions and its analysis in the morning itself each day. In the worst case, I may finish the analysis part later in the evening. This was my regular schedule. I kept a separate Excel grid for each of my practice sessions. I think it took 4 days for me to finish the CR part of OG. If I am not mistaken I had around 90% accuracy at that time.After this, I moved to the Kaplan 800 , CR Questions. They were really tough. I think I attempted around 10 or so, and decided to go back to it later.

Reading Comprehension:

The next section was RC. Here also I learnt the basic strategy from Kaplan. The strategy is very good and simple. You read and make notes, giving a lot of importance to thinking, why the Author wrote this passage. Also I developed a habit of paraphrasing and summarizing as I was reading. I kept writing notes on the scrap paper for each paragraph. Once the basic strategy was in place, I tried to see what was the strategy advocated by Manhattan GMAT. Their’s was radically different from Kaplan. I do not want to confuse any by going through the nitty grities. I did not find Manhattan GMAT RC technique useful. So for RC also I decided to stick with Kaplan techniques. I first finished the RC passages, which may have taken 2 days or so. Later I moved on to OG passages. I continued to complete around 40 questions a day from OG. I believe I finished the OG, RC section in 4 days or so. A point to note is that, various GMAT Old question papers sold separately by GMAC, carries the same RC passages as the ones in Og 11th edition. This proved a little bit of a dampener later when I started taking old GMAT question papers. So if you have plans of taking the Old question papers later, keep in mind that you may be seeing some repeat questions from OG. No other section seems to be so adversely affected. Once OG was completed, I moved on to Kaplan 800. The passages were visibly tougher. But not as tough as some of the RC passages in the Kaplan CD, practice tests.Around this time, I started practicing with the practice sections of Kaplan CD. Kaplan CD has around 5 , 25mnts crash tests on each of the sections. Apart from those Kaplan has 4 full length tests. The Verbal sections of these Kaplan full length tests are insanely difficult. At least I found those insanely difficult. The quant sections from these practice tests are good. Keep in mind that Kaplan questions are the farthest away from the real GMAT questions. So, you need to analyze and understand what you take away from each of the questions you answer with Kaplan CD. My method was to reduce each question to the barebones fundamental concept being tested, and understand how to solve it. This approach works in any section.

January:

---

Sentence Correction Round 1

Next I started with the Sentence Correction section (SC). I first read through Kaplan and made notes. Later graduated over to the Manhattan GMAT SC book. This book is the best GMAT literature on GMAT grammar. It is not about the tricks, but all about the fundamental grammar and sentence construction those are tested in GMAT. It has organized the sections into different areas tested in GMAT. Also it has indexed each Chapter with a number of OG Questions. So, as you learn one particular SC area, you have the opportunity to practice real GMAT questions, that test that particular skill. In my first round of study I read through the Manhattan GMAT book, but did not execute the OG questions chapter wise. Soon after I finished the Manhattan GMAT, I attempter to do Kaplan Questions. I came out with around 75% accuracy. This in GMAT world is equivalent to pathetic. The fears were re-confirmed when I started taking OG. In short I sucked in SC. Hacking at it for next few days did not provide any considerable improvements. So I decided to visit SC once I am done with the Quant section.

A Short Break

At this point, My wife and I left for a 10 day trip to Puerto Rico; letting go off all GMAT preparation for a whole 10 days. When I came back after the vacation, recharged as I was, I found myself getting up late, not concentrating much on GMAT etc. Basically there was tremendous resistance to get back to the preparation process. So, if you are weak at heart please do not take a long break from your GMAT preparations. It is best done in one shot. I would attribute a 20 day over all delay caused by my 10 day vacation. Needless to say, we enjoyed the vacation very much.

Problem Solving:

I did not spend any time studying for Quant. Right away I started solving the problems. I started with OG, first 50 questions. All the wrong answers stemmed from silly mistakes. So I decided to be more careful with PS. Data sufficiency was visibly lagging behind PS efficiency. As I was practicing certain areas were identified for intensive revision. In my case they were, o-ordinate geometry, Inequalities, Geometric theorems , Statistics, Probability and Combinations. I learnt that I am very good at number theory, fractions, and different word problems involving speed, work and mixtures. So I spent some time reading through online resources to clear the fundamentals on the first mentioned areas. Those readings were mostly to jog some forgotten areas of high school math. I mostly used resources from some High School Math help websites. Each time I googled on the subject and picked the articles I wanted to read. They were very helpful.With the fundamentals I wanted to clear clear, I started with OG PS. 40 questions a morning, and after working through to Qn 100, I decided to skip over to Question 150 to end. This I did, since the tougher questions in OG are always at the end. To be honest, OG 11th Edition Quant is not tough at all. So if you are aiming for 50 in Quant you will need a lot more practice than what OG provides. Once again, The GMATPrep software has significantly more challenging problems than what OG has. Also, Kaplan 800 has a few tough problems. Kaplan CD practice tests have even tougher ones. But the toughest problems in the block I found in Manhattan GMAT practice tests. I owe it to Manhattan GMAT and GMAT Yahoo Group for my 49 in Quant.Once I was done with OG Practice I finished Kaplan Question in one sitting with around 98% accuracy. So of all the questions available to me for practice, the only ones I missed out would be question 100 to 150 on PS in OG.

February:

---

Data Sufficiency:

With One section of Quant completed, I started with Data Sufficiency practice. First I finished the Kaplan Questions. The initial accuracy levels were at around 90%. As I did with each of the other sections, I did a thorough analysis with the ones I got wrong. This analysis parts sometimes reveals subtle logical flaws in your reasoning. If you could address it properly the scores go up. I cannot stress on this wrong answer analysis part more. This part of the practice, done properly could contribute the most to a high score in GMAT.I methodically worked through the practice questions in DS from OG. It took 4 days or so to complete OG data sufficiency with all questions answered and all wrong answers analyzed. Over all by the end of it I had a good approach toward Data Sufficiency. Good enough to get 99% correct. Data sufficiency is a tricky area. You need to keep each of the facts separate. Then if required combine the facts and look back at the problem. My Data sufficiency skills were most honed by the barrage of tough questions I got from various discussion groups. The One group I was very active in, was 'GMAT' in Yahoo Groups. There were many clear, bright minds there that helped me correct some of my DS flaws. It is imperative that you at least do all the questions from Official Guide.

Sentence Correction Round 2:

Now with Quant section also completed, I had only my Achilles’ heel to attend to. The Sentence Correction section. I made a detailed plan as to how to about it. I decided to discount out everything except for Manhattan GMAT technique. I followed Manhattan GMAT as a lesson plan. As I worked through each of the sections there, I also completed the practice questions from OG as indexed at the end of each chapter. Manhattan GMAT has the most exquisite method for teaching GMAT grammar. With properly following their techniques, I improved my correct answer rate from 75% to 95%. Also I read a technique mentioned by cali_boy. He suggested writing why each choice is wrong for an SC question. This was a simple but immensely powerful technique. So with one question, you get to practice to identify lot many different wrong answer reasons. In GMAT there is only finite number of ways with which the test writer makes a choice wrong. If you know how a test writers mind works you are almost there in getting everything correct in SC. This technique also helped a lot. So for example when answering a SC question, I may write (A) Wrong Subject-Verb agreement, (B) Wrong , Subject - Verb, Wrong idiom, (C) Correct (D) Wrong idiom, (E) Modifier Problem, Awkward Construction. Another point to remember in all Verbal sections is to read through the Official Guide explanation. It does not matter whether you got a question right or wrong. The Official Guide explanation tells you clearly what reasoning is used by the Question writer in choosing a particular choice as correct. You must develop a skill in thinking like that. I did not develop a good enough skill in this department. I plan to correct it when I retake the GMAT. Mostly this will be my only preparation for GMAT retaking.

The End Game:

In February, before I started the SC, I took two full length practice tests. First I took Power Prep and got a score of 740, and next I took the Paper Test at the end of Kaplan, to get a score of 660. I did not take any more tests till my SC preparations were over.Towards the end of February I decided that it is time for me to lay out the plan for full length tests. At that point I had a number of options for full length tests left. 3 From Manhattan GMAT, 4 from Kaplan, 4 From Princeton Review, 2 From GMAT Prep and 1 From Power Prep. So over all I had a choice of 14 tests. First I fixed my GMAT appointment and time. I wanted a morning section, and I exactly had 4 weekends ahead of me. So I made a clean plan to take 3 full length tests on each of the weekend from then to the test day weekend. Test was on a Tuesday. So on the last weekend I planned to take 1 GMAT Prep, 1 PowerPrep and 1 Kaplan. This plans changed slightly over the course of time. But this was the general idea.

March:

---

Full Length Tests:

I tried to take at least 1 test each on Saturday and Sunday on each weekend that followed. I stuck to it every weekend. My initials scores were around 720. During the other days I spent learning time by analyzing what I got wrong and why I got wrong. Also I spent time re doing the last 50 questions from each OG section. In addition to this a friend of mine gave my the Verbal Review book for one weekend. I practiced with those as well. This book is also published by GMAC, and carries retired questions. Another opportunity to practice with real GMAT questions I got, when another friend forwarded to me a set of retired question papers. These items formed the basis for my March Practice. The philosophy at this point was to, Eat, Drink and Sleep Official GMAT Questions so that, my approach will be very much aligned to those. I found the Manhattan GMAT full length tests toughest. So spaced them out in such a way that I could complete all three with a week to spare. These tests gave me enough information to understand my weak areas and improve on those. There was a single area in data sufficiency , with absolute values and inequality that I found I could go wrong. So I practiced as much as possible on that. It is very important to know your odds in each of the types of questions. That was you will know how much time you could spend on getting an answer correct. The verbal scores kind of settled around a constant 42 in most of the tests. The Quant scores moved from 45 upward to a maximum of 50. Around this time I was settling down for a score of 720. The Lokesh Khanna , from Yahoo Groups scored a 750 with Q50 and V41. This made me realize that 750 is within reach. So I attempted the last weekend tests with extra energy. In the last 5 full length tests I took I scored, 690, 720, 740, 740 and 750. Last 3 were Paper Test, PowerPrep and GMATPrep. At the end of each test I spent time to understand why I got some wrong. This, I repeat, was the most important exercise in getting my score higher each time. By the end my best performing question types were; PS,RC,CR,DS,SC Listed in the descending order. In the last week I started with Kaplan 800 Quant part. I finished every question in the Quant section. They were pretty good. I got almost all of them correct. I got 2 wrong in the Data Sufficiency section.

General AWA Strategy

I started practice on AWA to wards the middle of March. I must have written 3 Argument analysis and 3 Issue analysis before the final test. I kind of felt that is all that is required. I am not bad in argueing, and I am very good at writing articles. So I did not anticipate any problems in writing 2 very specific issue oriented essays in half an hour. I did not work with any templates for this. I still have not got my AWA score. So will report back later whether this strategy worked.

The Penultimate Day

I took the day off before the test day. I planned to read through OG verbal explanations. That really did not happen. I made a document with details of what to note before going into each section. I practiced some more tough Quant questions, mainly by retaking the GMATPrep. You may want to note that retaking GMATPrep gives you newer questions. The catch is that you should be pushing harder each time. As your score level is elevating the software gives out very varied set of questions.Going into the test, I had a few jitters about the erasable notepad, and making some stupid mistakes in Quant. But that was all I was worried about. I watched some TV in the evening and went to bed early. My test day details are covered in the post below and it is very detailed indeed. So I will not repeat those.