700 (+100) :p

Got a 700 on GMATPrep #2 on Saturday afteroon. Q47 V38. Will try not spending over 2 minutes on any question which is leaving me feel blurry in my head... :) whatever that means!
All that's left to do now is revise my SC notes - mainly the 2 chapters I didn't get to revise before the test. Might flip through the condensed Math notes I made. That's about it.

Ready to hit it, and smash it :) on Tuesday morning. Can't wait!

Final Stretch

Hey...so I'll fill you in real quick. I gave an MGMAT test on Sunday morning and scored a crappy 670 (Q45 V36). Felt really crummy post that, obviously. And then I fell sick on Monday, and have had fever since. I've tried studying a little from OG. Finished reviewing my Math FCs today. Now I need to buckle up and really revise my SC notes from MGMAT's guide, and probably practice a few questions from OG to reinforce those rules. Other than that, today's the first day I've not had fever. So I guess I'm getting better. Feeling a little tired though - I guess it's just a little weakness.
I know I wanted to do a whole lot more of fine-tuning before my actual exam, and obviously the falling test scores weren't helping my confidence either. But, you know what, I think I've put in a lot of effort over the past few weeks, and hopefully I shall be fully fit to give my exam on the 1st. I don't feel like giving up just yet. The only change in plan is that I will give my final practice test - GMATPrep #2 on Sunday instead - so that I can review/practice a little bit more before the test. I'm sure the practice test will go well, and I'll be on my way to scoring well on the GMAT.

Parting words for today...

"I promise myself...
To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.
To think only of the best... and to expect only the best.
To be too large for worry, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side..."

710...

710 (Q49 V37) on GMATPrep v1 #1 - DO NOT USE THIS TEST. It has repeats from the OGs and from GMATPrep v.2 (more than I would've liked).
Argh! Q49 can be partly attributed to repeat questions, although I had to redo them. Still, it means I might have known how to solve them.
And V37 to overconfidence? Yes, I thought I was having trouble with the questions because they were "too difficult". Haha, no. I was just being lazy/tensed. I don't know. 7 SC mistakes - why is this on the rise? I need to review my MGMAT SC notes - maybe I'm forgetting things? :( 5 CR mistakes - some were confusing, in some I didn't feel like thinking. :( Was very tired after AWA and Quant.

I'm getting a little frustrated. Today's practice test might as well have been a waste of my time, since Quant had so many repeats, and I got complacent in Verbal. Hmmm...or maybe it wasn't. Now I know NOT to use GMATPrep v1 ever again, and also to NOT be complacent during Verbal. Oh, and I finished Quant on time. Other than seeing repeats, I realised one thing. If I'm calm, my accuracy increases in Quant. Or I don't let anything I can't solve get in the way of trying my best to solve the next question. Useful to give this test then? Yes, maybe.

I don't think I'm going to study today. Feeling like, well, to put it straight, crap. I'll moan over this for a while more and then move on.

Thanks for listening! Keep up the good work with your padhai!

Practice Test - GMATPrep - 720

GMATPrep #1.
720 (Q47 V42) - with AWA (most of my practice tests are with AWA - FYI).
Ummm...so...good to know that the 740 on MGMAT last time was not a fluke. I guess I did get better over the last 1 month.

Q47 - 13 incorrect (9 DS, 4 PS - obv DS seems to be the problem.)
V42 - 6 incorrect (1 CR, 5 SC!!! Hmmm...SC needs a lot more work.)

Now, my problem is Q47. I thought us Indians were supposed to find this section easy? Hmmm...
Plan of attack:
1. Review Math section of last 2 tests and see which category of Math questions need to be handled. Do questions from these categories from OG12 and OGQ (using MGMAT's OG Tracker excel sheet).
2. Finish all Quant questions from OGQ, going through answer explanations for EACH AND EVERY question, even if you got it right (need to figure out quicker ways to solve questions, especially DS - where I end up plugging in too many numbers and am confused by the end of it). - THIS REALLY NEEDS TO BE DONE!

3. Review which SC category questions I got wrong in last 2 tests. See what kind of mistakes I made.
4. Revise SC chapters from MGMAT guide, and also continue going through it like I have been in the last few days.
5. Continue to do CR & RC questions, and understanding why you're getting it wrong from OGV (and some RCs in OG12).

Phew.

Good luck to the rest of you...
And 800, here I commmmmeeeeee! :)

Practice Test #6 (#4 in second round)

MGMAT CAT#2.
740 (Q47 V44)
Had some issues with my connection during quant, so I ended up getting more time than is given. Probably 10 minutes extra. Got 17 questions incorrect, so that could've been atleast 20 incorrect.

Pleasantly surprised with Verbal. Found it a little too easy - during the exam I thought I was doing terribly because the answers seemed to come so easily. However, not sure how much weightage I can give to a MGMAT CAT Verbal score. Got 9 incorrect. Thoughts anyone? Does a V44 in an MGMAT practice test mean you're good to go for the actual GMAT????

Practice Test - Kaplan - 620

620 on Kaplan test.
Q - 40 (12 incorrect)
V - 35 (16 incorrect)

I had a massive pacing problem on Quant.
I got frustrated with confusing questions, in which I couldn't figure out what the hell they were saying!
I got further frustrated with my slow pace.
This further affected my ability to answer questions I could've answered otherwise.
By the end of it, I guessed on the last 5 questions. Yes, I did that.

I ended up starting the Verbal section without taking a break, by mistake. I did not know how to pause the test, so continued anyway.
I underestimated the amount of time left, so I rushed through 2 RC passages (yes, literally glanced through them).
At question 31, I realised I have 20+ minutes remaining. For some reason, I thought to myself - hey! I have DOUBLE the time left (for some reason, I thought 1 minute per question is what I needed!). So I went slow with the next few questions, and...........you guessed it! I had to guess on the last question.


Damn it!

This is a Kaplan 2007 CD with 4 tests on it. I took CAT #2. I am never touching another test from this CD again. There are spelling mistakes, confusssssssing questions. Argh! I know that's not the only thing that harmed my score today, and that keeping my cool in such a situation is what'll get me through on test day. But today, I just wanted to kill someone! I hated going through the test. And I usually quite enjoy it.

I want more official tests. None of this crap. :(
Can't I give ONLY official adaptive tests for the next 3 weeks? :(

Ok ok...on a more serious & calmer note - I really need to be able to pace better on the WHOLE test. I feel like I know so much, and with careful deliberation I will be able to get most of my answers right. I need to feel the way I felt when I was giving those practice questions from OG12 these last few days. So calm, methodical...yes, that's the way I need to feel.

On my next practice exam, I think I should try answering questions in a quick yet calm manner, and probably every 7th or 8th question, take a random guess if I see that the amount of time remaining is lesser than according to plan. That way, I keep my cool, and also answer all the questions I try solving. Down side is obviously that I may guess on questions I could've gotten right in under 2 minutes, but I really think I should try this out and see if it can help on my test. What do you guys think? Any other strategies to pace better?

PS. My accuracy in RC was terrible (as was expected), and was quite good in CR (getting better at taking apart the argument). In Math, Word Problems had the lowest accuracy, and Geometry the highest! But, co-ordinate plane DS questions really get to me, because all that I know are the formulas. I need to get some insight into this.

Practice Test #5 (#3 in second round)

Got a 670 (Q47 V35) score on PowerPrep#1. Had a major pacing problem on verbal, had to guess atleast 4-5 questions randomly in the end. No repeats on Quant. but did encounter around 1 CR, 1-2 RC from OG12. But had to rework these questions cos they were difficult/long ones anyway, so don't think it skewed my score. Normally I finish Verbal with time left on my hands, but I think i got really tired - did AWA sections also.
I plan on completing leftover OG12 questions by 31st Dec and give 2 more GMATClub Math tests on 1st Jan. I am NOT doing any more questions from Grockit, because I felt I had seen similar questions on Grockit that I saw on PowerPrep today, or questions that just really helped me figure out the answer quickly.

Anyone think I should buy PowerScore CR bible? Yet to look at my accuracy on PowerPrep so I'll update in the evening once i'm through putting in everything in my error log.
Feeling good with the Q47 though...looks like practice really helps. And I'm confident that i have a large potential to increase my verbal score...so i'm hoping for the best!

Practice Test #4 (#2 in second round)

Just gave MGMAT CAT #1.

Scored a 660 (Q45, V35).

How's that for a first score? Anyone?

Edit: Finished reviewing Quant section. Most of them were careless mistakes, or a result of feeling pressurized due to timing and therefore not going through the question properly (not thoroughly thinking about it). Most of the questions were doable. Learnt some new concepts - hexagons and a little more about probability and combinatorics.

Practice Test #3...or #1? Last one was in Dec '09.

Have reviewed my diagnostic test, have some verbal doubts which I will put up on BTG or GMATClub forums to get clarity on.

Gave the free Kaplan test this morning on the net. Got a 610 (Q39 V37). Not paying too much attention to the score. Actually found the PS questions very easy, had forgotten how to solve some "types" of questions, which is why I got a few wrong. Not a big deal, will be able to solve those easily by the time the real test arrives. Finished the section with 5 minutes to spare - timing was an issue. There were 2-3 questions of the type where I know how to solve them, just couldn't recall during the test, so I spent too much time on those questions. Finally, I guessed on those questions (which ultimately meant a massive waste of time), and got tensed so I ended up doing the next few questions super fast. But, this test is not typical of the actual test at all. I'm sure of it. A million reasons why. More on that in some other post.
During Verbal, I had to guess on last 2 questions as I ran out of time. Was slow on the section as I was getting easily distracted with the extremely boring content on all the questions. What a lame excuse! :-p A more probable reason is the lack of stamina at the moment, or the fact that I just didn't want to give  a test this morning.

Just putting in my answers in the error log now...later.

Practice test #2 (PR #1)

Hi!!!
My best friend is in town so I spent the better half of my weekend with her. There was no time to study yesterday (Saturday), but I woke up at 6 am today and wrote my second practice test.
Princeton Review's CAT #1: 650 (Q-44, V-37).
Yes, I hadn't studied much as it is in the past few weeks, but I still took it, cos it's time I start taking practice tests every Sunday now.
Yes, my quant score remains the same as the last test. Though I did pace much better and finished the section comfortably. Accuracy was 84%.
Verbal was higher from earlier, which is a good sign. This time I tried to slow down (last time I went too fast), but at some point in the middle I felt like I had lost some time, so did a couple of questions quickly to make up for it. Got 2 wrong in this duration. Eventually, had more than 2 minutes remaining on the last question, an SC. Accuracy was 80%. But, I think I can do so much better in Verbal. This time, there was once again a damned RC in which I got 3/4 questions wrong! And this time I thought I got it, but I actually hadn't got it. Damn it!!! I'm beginning to think now that the RC strategy taught to me by PR may not be working out best for me. Maybe I am the sort of person who will read the passage carefully, and then get all RC questions right. Out of the 8 questions I got wrong on this section, FIVE were RC questions!!! 2 SC (one idiom), and 1 CR. This is so different from my GMATPrep test! CR was my weakness there. Hmmm...!

Anyway, I'll go through the wrong & guessed questions tomorrow. For today, I'm satisfied. I got better, and I'm confident I'm already capable of scoring much more in Verbal. I just need to fine tune my skills. Quant, however, needs a lot more practice. But I'll get there too. I'm confident. :-)

Practice Test #1 (GMATPrep #1)

 Two things I'm very proud of completing:
1. Finished CR review from PR yesterday. Finally! :)
2. Gave GMATPrep 1 a couple of hours back.
Also went through Math review from GMATPrep software and no, there was nothing new on it, which was disappointing.
Anyway, so got a 620. Which I guess isn't that bad with this amount of prep.

Verbal - 31.
Was kind of expecting more here, cos I'm usually good at verbal. And while I was doing this section, I actually felt like I was doing well. Which is why the score surprised me even more. I was afraid I won't get to finish the section, but I actually had almost 7 minutes for the last 3 questions.
Incorrect questions:
CR: 6/11...really, really bad.
RC: 3/13...but I consider it pretty damn good. 2 reasons: firstly, I'm usually scared of RC cos of my slow reading speed. But I guess it isn't that slow, and what I read from PR really helped me. Secondly, the 3 questions I got wrong were from the same RC - cos I didn't GET it! Was a science passage, but got a lil too complicated to get while trying to speed read I guess.
SC: 5/17. That's over 70% accuracy. I think it's alright.

Quant - 44.
Man, this section really sucked. I was so bloody slow. I actually ended up randomly clicking options from question number 26, all the way to question number 32. I think in about a minute or so. Seriously, I was so slow. Even out of the 25 I did answer, I got only 15 right. That's terrible. I ended up guessing on some of those 25 too! Sheesh. I need to study so much more here. Need to do lots of practice questions. Do some of my CAT stuff from last year. Some topics I def need to cover - Geometry (co-ordinate plane!), AP/GP, number properties (can try doing it from that CAT aptitude book I have, or my sister's IMS BRM, or TIME material), time,speed&distance, averages! Once I'm thorough with different types of questions, I'll have to do OG and Kaplan questions under timed conditions. Tenaday might help in this. I got pretty confused in DS questions. Wow, basically, a lot to work on.

Tomorrow morning I'm not waking up early to study. And I'm meeting a friend for dinner to help him with his CAT verbal. Hopefully I can be of some real help!

Happy studying!

PS. Just posted on PagalGuy.com's thread...gives a short recap of what I've done till now, and about my areas of concern wrt first GMATPrep test. Find it here. ankurgupt was very sweet to post a quick reply to my queries, and you can find his post here. I'm definitely going to use his advice. Trying to get a hold on MGMAT CR Guide.


Day 14: MGMAT's Geometry Guide - Chapter 1 (Polygons)
Day 15: PR CR theory
Day 16: Revise RC notes from PR & give GMATPrep #1