I've successfully completed 1 full week (or was that yesterday?) of my GMAT test prep :) Been away from work for a week now, and quite honestly, it doesn't feel that weird. I guess I'm now completely into GMAT mode, and gaining momentum every day. A couple of days that might be a little light, but it'll only lead to increased force and motivation.
At Veritas today, we started off with some Quant, basically to allow us to digest whatever we've done in Verbal till now. Covered the basics of Problem Solving in terms of Arithmetic and Algebra. Really nothing much to talk about. It's something I'm sure everyone would have covered in their prep. In fact I've already covered all this, as you may be aware by now. What I do like is the fact that we do practice drills and practice questions in class itself - the drills are designed to helps eliminate those frustrating 'careless errors', but these errors still manage to creep through.
Returning home, I had decided to take my first full length GMAT test today. I figured there's nothing better to start with than the official PowerPrep from mba.com. As everyone already knows, it gives the most accurate judgement as to where you stand in your preparation with respect to the actual GMAT. Taking the PowerPrep first, even though there's just two of these tests, should accurately tell me what areas of my overall prep I need to work on, and how much. Apart from that, it shall be my first experience of solving problems off the computer screen, as well as the AWA section (which I won't speak about today).
The test didn't really go too well, far below my expectations at least. The Quant section was not really too difficult, but I still made a hash of it to some extent. I believe what I suffered most from on this test was my concentration. That played it's part in this section as I was plagued with the same, pesky, careless errors, that too in the first few questions. I did find the questions a little harder than I expected, but I'm sure they were doable, given the right frame of mind. Also, I struggled for time in the end and had to scramble to get all 37 questions in. Quant score - 44 (18 incorrect). Verbal was crazy! Now, without trying to make excuses, I must say that through most of this section I was quite tired and sleepy, probably because of the heavy day I had had and that surely affected my score significantly. Anyway, I still found the Verbal section quite difficult overall, especially RC. The passages were all ridiculously complicated, and if the real GMAT is anything to go by, I'm gonna have to keep a lot of time to read and understand them well. CR and SC were moderate to difficult, but one should expect that. Verbal score - 28 (16 incorrect)
In the end, I scored only a 600 overall, but I've been trying to keep myself positive, telling myself that it's not too bad for a first attempt, and given my state. But I'm quite relieved that I was saved from a pathetically demoralizing 5xx score. It tells me I have to improve by a minimum of 120 points within about 2.5 weeks. Even though that's far from easy, it gives me a faint idea of how far the goal is.
No other study was possible in the day. And I think tomorrow's going to be relatively light as well. I'm planning a slight change in my study plan; will let you know more when I do.
Long post. Sorry. Thanks for reading :)
SUMMARY OF WORK
Veritas prep course - Quant (PS, Arithmetic, Algebra) & mba.com PowerPrep Test 1.
LESSONS LEARNT
1. Practice basic calculations to eliminate silly errors.
2. Let the PowerPrep be your first attempt at evaluating yourself, preferably after some basic preparation.
3. Be optimistic moving forward, whatever your PowerPrep score.
Day 8 - Quant & PowerPrep 1
Day 7 - Sentence Correction
Man, that was heavy! Suddenly, my 5-6 hour study day has doubled! I've never been this tired.
So I went for my prep class early morning today (had to get there at about 9:30 a.m.), returning only at 6:30 p.m. We covered a lot of grammar basics like modifiers, tenses, sentence structure, etc., which led to a Sentence Correction session. The good thing was, we got focused practice on all individual kinds of SC problems, however, you mix up all those questions and it's one hot soup. I realized it's extremely important to know the basic kind of SC problems that come up in the GMAT, and then do loads of practice on each of them. Even the most basic of SC problems can turn out to be daunting once you look at the answer choices - there are always 2-3 answer choices that eat your brains out. It's here that knowing the subtle nuances of grammar can make all the difference. Now before you try and recollect where you've kept that Wren & Martin, let me assure you that this is something you can get from Kaplan GMAT as well.
After returning home I continued with the Sentence Correction section of Kaplan, and went through the overview they had given as well. But a close friend's birthday dinner prevented me from touching the practice quiz after the section. (I have a feeling I should save it for later, not too sure though). At the end of the day I was exhausted like I've never been.
I'll be taking my first PowerPrep tomorrow. Hope for the best!
SUMMARY OF WORK
Veritas prep course - Basic Grammar & Sentence Correction
Kaplan GMAT - Sentence Correction overview, pages 95 - 114
LESSONS LEARNT
1. Knowledge of basic (GMAT related) grammar concepts is vital for Sentence Correction.
2. Intensive Prep courses leave you with little time to practice.