Day 19 - DS Practice & Veritas Sample Test

Right. Now, first of all, I'm glad I managed to put in this post. [It's getting harder by the day :) ]

I started off the day (albeit late afternoon) with a sample online GMAT test that I had received as part of my Veritas course. Before I get into the details of the test, I want to mention that the Veritas test was the closest I've seen to the PowerPrep test from MBA.com. The difficulty level was quite similar, and the interface was far better than Princeton Review and far far better than 800score. But that doesn't matter.

Hardly an improvement from before, I scored a 620, with Q 40 and V 36. It may seem that I've got stuck at this score. But not to me. You see, I did take a few positives out of the test again. My number of errors in the first 10-15 questions had not only reduced, the first error was also pushed further behind compared to my previous tests. What I mean is, in Quant, I got questions 10, 14, 15 wrong out of a total 9 errors; verbal 7, 13, 16 out of a total 11 errors. So my performance in the first 15 questions, though still not close to ideal, has improved from my previous tests. That gives me confidence and hope that I'm doing certain things right, and I have to continue doing that.

I didn't take the AWA section since I feel quite comfortable with it, thanks to the Veritas lesson. Besides, the blog gives me sufficient typing practice :) Anyway, I've already practiced the AWA section on my previous 3 tests. I shall not, however, skip the section in my next test, which again would be Veritas.

In quant, I believe I could have done far better had I been in touch a little more with the section. The past few days I was concentrating solely on verbal, which compromised my basic quant concepts. What I mean is I got confused between the formulae for nCr and nPr (!?), and some simple geometry properties did not strike me. I'm sure a little more balance in my study schedule can eliminate that. My problem area in quant still remains DS of which I got 5 wrong on the test.

With that cue, I picked up the Official Guide to solve some DS problems. Since the first half of it is considerably easy, I did questions 1-20 and then 71-90. I noticed I made some errors in Yes/No problems there. So that's something I need to be more alert about.

Tomorrow some more quant, both DS and PS.

SUMMARY OF WORK
Veritas Sample Online Test
OG Data Sufficiency problems #1-20 & #71-90

LESSONS LEARNT
1. Take every sample test score with a pinch of salt, and find the positives in your performance
2. Balance your quant/verbal practice before a test.
3. Don't be satisfied/depressed with your score. You WILL do better. Practice harder.