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.

Now, 2 important pieces of news in this period of absense -
a. I've taken a date for my GMAT - it's the 25th of August '07
b. Making my target looks extremely difficult to reach, given my past 2 performances on sample tests

Yes, after my first score of 600 (Q 44, V 28) on the PowerPrep, I scored a 610 (Q 28, V 36) on an 800score.com test on Day 14 and a 590 (Q 36, V 28) on a Princeton Review test on Day 16. More on that as soon as I have the time, including why I don't completely trust these results.

For now, I'm happy that despite my potentially depressing results, I'm optimistic, positive and confident that I can make the 120+ point climb in the next 10 days. I'm also going to try my very best to feed in my performance update every day. Even though it sometimes can take more time than I'd like to devote to non-GMAT stuff, more than anything else, it acts as a reality check every night, as to where exactly I stand as against where I need to be.

So I'm out for now. I'll be back soon with my current day-to-day prep status. Ciao!

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.

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.

Starting off, I continued with the Critical Reasoning practice questions from Kaplan today. Not too much to talk about - I got just over 70% of the answers correct. It was quite surprising to me though, since I've understood CR concepts quite well. Can't figure out as to why it did not show in the practice quiz/test. I guess it just requires some solid, intensive practice.

Now, before all of this, earlier in the day, I enrolled myself for a Veritas intensive GMAT prep course. I had attended a seminar on the same a couple of weeks back and was quite impressed with what the founders had to tell us. I wasn't sure though, that I'll take it up. You can say I decided just yesterday that I want to go ahead with this. It's a 9 day intensive in-class course, that's supposed to cover everything on the GMAT. Yup, 9 consecutive days, almost 9 hours daily. Quite honestly, my primary motivation for taking this up was the fact that it was falling perfectly in my schedule, and I don't have to go out of my way to do this. Besides, it's not for conceptual knowledge that I'm doing this, rather it's an attempt to look at different strategies to approach the GMAT. Also, not that self prep is not enough, I reasoned that if this can help me get even an etra 20 points over my own prep, it's money (and time) well spent. For sure, I believe external help is not at all necessary, but one has to weigh all pros and cons, and see if it can add any value at all. I'm hopeful Veritas does add value to my prep.

Anyway, we started off (co-incidentally enough) with some Critical Reasoning basics today. Being an intensive course, we're just understanding some strategies for problem solving, and practicing a few questions in class. They have provided a a good bunch of material to practice at home.

It's after today's class that I came home and solved the Critical Reasoning from Kaplan, which was even more reason to be disappointed with my performance there. Somehow, I still feel confident about CR. Confidence helps. :)

SUMMARY OF WORK
Veritas prep course - (Arguments &) Critical Reasoning
Kaplan GMAT - Critical Reasoning practice quiz, pages 47 - 94

LESSONS LEARNT

1. Prep courses (classes) may add value, but it's completely an individual decision, never to be generalized. Ultimately, if it can help you go from a 700 to a 720, I'd say it's worth it.
2. Confidence is everything.

I only ended up pushing back my start time and having to sleep early. A truncated study day, in effect.

I moved on to the Verbal section today. Started off with Kaplan GMAT 2007, and covered the introduction and Critical Reasoning sections. I personally found CR to be a little tricky - not difficult, not easy, tricky. I liked the strategies suggested in Kaplan, and think with a good amount of practice, tricky should not be a problem.

Anyway, thanks to my brilliant scheduling, I haven't solved the 50 practice questions in the section. I'll have to do a quick review of the basic concepts and then the questions tomorrow. Will keep you posted!

Short :) 'n Sweet (yeah, right.)

SUMMARY OF WORK
Kaplan GMAT - Introduction and Critical Reasoning, pages 1-46.

LESSONS LEARNT
1. Critical Reasoning needs practice for perfection.
2. Plan each study day well. And then stick to it.

Yeah, I did finish the book, but only 'technically'. I covered the remaining Geometry and Data Sufficiency sections. Geometry was alright. I figured this is one section, even though easy, most likely to make mistakes in. The problems (at least the ones in the practice tests of the book) weren't too difficult at all, but initial concentration lapses showed in my answers. The mistakes I was making were mostly in questions involving figures; primarily on (180-x) subtractions, etc. A shake of the head and a spurt of concentration later, these issues were sorted out.

Data Sufficiency was always intimidating for me. It's the question format I knew I had to work on most. That's why I guess it was a bad choice starting it late at night, after a tiring day. I lost so much concentration that I actually marked almost all answers wrong on the first of 2 practice tests on the section; not really solved them wrong, but marked the wrong option. I figured I'd have to take the test again some other time so I didn't check the solutions. Anyway, test 2 exposed my apprehensions about DS, and I scored only 19/25. Clearly, I need to work a lot more on this section in the coming weeks.

For the moment, I'm going to start with Verbal, and review it once, before I get back to attacking my math.

Over 'n out!

SUMMARY OF WORK
Kaplan Math - Geometry and Data Sufficiency, page 206 - 340 (excluding the GRE part)

LESSONS LEARNT
1. Geometry requires extra concentration - well for me atleast.
2. Data sufficiency is scary but doable, I'm sure - ditto

Today I covered the remaining Word Problems section (on Percent, Ratio & Rates) and Lines, Angles and Triangles from Geometry. In all, pages 138 - 206 of Kaplan Math. I suffered from tremendous concentration issues early on in the day, but it kept on improving since. I tried to give my best to the General Word Problems test, yet landed up getting 4 answers wrong out of a total 40. All errors were due to mistakes in interpreting the question. I did not read the questions as well as I should have. Clearly, one needs to concentrate much harder for Word Problems. I'd like to repeat myself here, the hardest part of Word Problems is understanding and interpreting the question stem. Do not take this lightly. I felt like cursing myself after I reviewed my errors.

The Geometry I covered was pretty basic; nothing much to talk about really. I could've done more of it though, but for one long, unexpected phone call late at night. That ruined the rest of my study day, and I decided to quit rather than study without giving it my all.

Stupid Phone.

SUMMARY OF WORK
Kaplan Math - Word Problems Level Two and Geometry (part), pages 138 - 205

LESSONS LEARNT
1. Word Problems need to be read reeealy well.
2. As far as possible, don't keep a cellphone near you while studying.
3. Make time estimates better than me.