Road to MBA ---> First Stop: CrackTheGMAT

Follow my journey as I prepare to Crack the GMAT and share useful resources/tools along the way.

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"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts…   DON'T GIVE UP!

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From 550 to 660

It might be a while before I get a chance to post all my daily updates but wanted to give an overview of what has helped me in the past few weeks in improving my overall score.

Before I get into it, I do want to mention couple of things -

1) All the practice exams I have taken so far, discuss the test scores of, and assess my performance through, have been KAPLAN CATs.

2) In the past month (especially around the time I felt lost and discouraged), I reached out to quite a few of my friends to get some guidance and better direction. This definitely helped! A consistent advice I received is pretty basic and simple yet key to achieving a high score - It goes something like this:

Step 1 - Assess your current knowledge/skill level (It is best to repeat this few times during the process)

Step 2 - Identify your weak/strong areas

Step 3 - Work on your weak areas more than strong ones but don't ignore what you are good at. Your strength areas are what will help boost your score in the exam.

Step 4 - Continued analysis of your strengths and weaknesses will help guide you, manage time effectively and hone your skills.

Although I was following the steps listed above to most extent, I had to change my plan from focusing on my weaknesses or concentrated areas to work on all the areas covered in GMAT. This helped me strengthen not only my weak areas but also improve scores in already strong areas.

I made an aggressive schedule - tackled the GMAT Official Guide (12th edition) first. Finished it in a week and half. Followed by completing the KAPLAN GMAT coursebook in the same duration.

Took the CAT and woilaa - 660 :) 97% percentile Verbal 59% Quant - Clearly we can tell what my overall weak area happens to be...

I was relieved to finally get a score that showed significant improvement and helped assure that I was on the right track. I felt better after I spoke to a friend who has been down the same path before and mentioned that KAPLAN tests are usually harder than the actual GMAT and getting in mid 600s in KAPLAN translated into score of 750 on GMAT for him. This was definitely encouraging :)

So, this is what I basically did for each of the guides I covered in the past 3-4 weeks - I took timed tests for all questions in all sections. After each test - I would review the wrong answers (jot down some notes) and move on to the next set of qs. During the process, I took two kinds of notes - One type included things I need to remember (which I plan to put on flashcards and review daily till exam date). Second type of notes were concepts/terms/areas I am struggling with, which will be my next focus. So, my action plan for the next week will be to do more practice problems specific to the weak areas, which I would like to accomplish primarily through KAPLAN quiz banks. Let's see how that goes.

Wish me luck!

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Guess Who's Back!

My apologies for the delayed updates on my journey to cracktheGMAT but you will be pleased to know that although I wasn't timely with my updates, I was able to manage time well enough to bounce back on track with the GMAT studying in the past month and make substantial amount of progress.

I will post daily overviews when I get some time but there were quite a few days I had to miss in the last month, primarily for two reasons. One being, as I had mentioned in one of my previous posts, that of discouragement and feeling at loss of how to proceed further. The second and the more frustrating reason has to do with fluctuations in my health.

Addressing the first reason was easy - I had to get myself motivated again, and make sure I don't lose sight of the end goal. I created an aggressive study plan, which I was able to follow and implement 80% of.

The second reason was a bit more challenging to work with/around. Whenever I got sick and the frequency of that wasn't low - I would say at least once or twice weekly, it would completely throw me off my study schedule. After I had few of these episodes, I realized all these unplanned gaps were really costing me, it was almost like starting all over again with the GMAT. I can't stress this enough - Try not to take any long breaks or have any gaps more than a day or two when you start studying for this. There is a mindset you need to get in, in order to be able to make progress. Your brain needs to be programmed in a certain way to the point that, by the time you sit for the test, this stuff comes second nature and the only way to do so is to Practice, Practice, Practice - Trust me, I tried my best (even with the health challenges I faced) in the past month to follow my own advice as much as possible and I have seen some favorable results since, which I will share in one of my later posts :)

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Pretty much sums up my current mindset and thoughts - I will succeed as long as I can stay on track!

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GMAT Update

I realize it's been about 15 days since I updated my blog.

Doesn't mean I stopped studying but after the last CAT, I did get a bit frustrated as I wasn't seeing any progress. So, I decided to take a mental break. I realized I needed to figure out a better strategy but didn't know what exactly would work.

I decided to attend the remaining KAPLAN classes while I still brainstorm. I took another CAT and was highly disappointed when I couldn't break 600.

Given I have less than a month left before my exam date, I have decided to approach things a little differently and with a bit more sense of urgency.

I have canceled all my social plans - no dates, no sports, no trips and no night outs :/ I will take a break once a week if I reach my daily goals throughout the week by doing something last minute but other than that, I will not be doing anything but studying 24/7 - with the exception of workout for an hour/day - Need that to keep my sanity and not blow up :)

It was challenging to apply with this past weekend being NBA All Star weekend and the Oscars but I managed to stay away from the distractions 85% of the time - so that's a good start :)

Over the weekend of Feb 24-26, I decided to start on the GMAT Official Guide (12th edition). I plan to finish this book in a week and then move on to completing the KAPLAN Practice book the following week.

I will provide a more detailed breakdown and progress report in a separate blog - This is just an overview of the past 2 weeks and where I currently stand.

Time to do another GMAT practice set before I call it a night.

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CAT Weekend (Day 26: Feb 11)

CAT Weekend (Feb 10 - Feb 12) You know they say - Doing your best means never stop trying…but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you keep trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results - I think ‘they’ say that’s foolish, to be exact the term I believe is ‘insanity’ I felt a little insane after having repeatedly tried but continuing to come up short - all based on review of my past horrid practice test performances. This sense of failure was reaffirmed by a live Practice test event I participated in on Saturday, Feb 11. We were able to skip through the essay part, so it was a 3 hr exam instead. I scored 540, No surprise there. I knew my performance would be lower than the last CAT but I was still expecting it to be in a ballpark of high 500s at least. Did you know, this is the average GMAT score - 540? Can you believe it - Sounds like such a low score but yes, apparently this is the average, which means anyone who scores above 540 is above average - Sounds hard to believe but I guess that’s true. Yes, this was my attempt to keep me from beating myself up over another poor score. Feeling of disappointment coupled with discouragement was enough for me not to revisit GMAT for the rest of the weekend. Started experiencing nausea (no joke!) but couldn’t tell if it was due to the constant reminder of my low test score or if I was starting to get sick again. Turned out to be the latter and I thought to myself - here we go again. While I am struggling to get back on track and add some consistency, discipline and adopt a better approach to my GMAT study routine, I could have definitely done without the health issues. This certainly poses a new kind of challenge to an already not so fun ride but that’s beyond my control, so I guess no point in stressing - I will work around it.

(Day 26: Feb 11, 2012)

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Based on the recent challenges I've faced and based on my performance (or lack thereof), this seems to be a fitting Motivational Quote for the week - Looking at the glass as half full :)

" I have NOT failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" - Edison

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Day 25

Today is what I call a make up session day. I knew I had to start catching up on all the slacking that had been going on plus it was also time to take another CAT, so I needed to refresh some of the concepts I had forgotten due to all the breaks.

Started off with an area that was covered in a session earlier in the week -  Sentence Correction Basics Workshop.

It covered the following areas:

- Structure of Sentence Correction Questions

- Kaplan Method for Sentence Correction (which is pretty consistent with their suggested method in other areas - Read, evaluate, scan the answer choices, eliminate until one remains)

- Six Classic Sentence Correction Errors - Subject-verb agreement, etc - I believe I already touched upon this under my notes on the day of the class.

- Quiz Score - 80% (Sigh and here I thought I had this section down).

I proceeded to completed the 3 Practice Tests which covered Reading Comprehension + Sentence Correction. My score ranged from 78-80%.

At this point, I took a break, watched some TV, did some Yoga.

Decided to finish up one of my areas of concern - Geometry before calling it a night.

Practice Test Score - 56% OUCH! I can't wait for the day I am finally able to master this!

Off to bed I went before I beat myself up over it too much! I thought to myself, hey at least I caught up on quite a few things today...

(Day 25: Feb 9, 2012)

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Day 24

Attended my favorite session today - Math Formulas and Geometry (hard to tell but that statement was full of sarcasm:)

Sharing some of the points I deemed valuable from the session:

Notes:

Formulas -  There's no easy way around these, so just try your best to memorize the basic ones, if possible. This includes Averages, Rate, Speed, Combined Work Formula, Overlapping Sets Formula, etc.

Geometry -  Same goes for Geometry as well. Familiarize yourself with properties of Lines, Angles, Triangles, Pythagorean Theorem. Also, memorize formulas for Area, Surface area, Volume for different shapes. Make sure you know how to calculate Slope given two points on a coordinate plane and can identify the parts in a straight line equation which takes the form y = mx+b

I mentally checked out shortly after the class ended and my brain needed a break, so there was no value in studying after class. Decided to make up some of the lost time the next day.

(Day 24: Feb 8, 2012)

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Day 23

Tried to apply some of the learning from the session attended night before by completing some online work.

Completed online KAPLAN Basic Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction Review.

Followed by the online Reading Comprehension Basics Workshop, which covered the following areas:

- Basics

- Attacking the Passage

- Getting the Gist - Topic, Scope and Purpose

- Mapping the Passage (This is highly suggested - I forgot to mention this under my notes yesterday but what they mean by mapping the passage is try to jot down the main ideas presented in a passage, short summary in your own words of what the author's high level message was)

- The Payoff - Reading Comp Question Types

- Wrong Answer Types

- Prediction - The art of foresight

- Quiz Score - 83% (No Bueno but I will get to a 90% by the time I am done prepping - and this holds true for all the areas :) Fingers crossed!

This was a short study session, did some Pilates to end the night.

(Day 23: Feb 7, 2012)

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Day 22

Wow and a hefty price I sure did pay!

Did a quick Critical Reasoning Practice test before heading to the class in the evening.

Given the fact that my weakness is more on the Math side than Verbal, this score was an extremely disturbing one for me.

I scored 40%… This was definitely a first and I WILL MAKE SURE a LAST for me!

Wow, What a Reality check!

Attended the KAPLAN session for Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction.

Below are some of my notes from the class, hope you find them helpful!

Notes:

Reading Comprehension:

- Try not to get bogged down in the wordiness of the long passages that will be presented to you.

- Read strategically, try to get the big picture of the Author’s main idea. Make sure you can identify the purpose and scope of the passage before proceeding on to the questions.

- The instructor said we have on average 4 minutes to read and understand the passage - I haven’t tested this out yet but will do in my Reading Comprehension quiz next week sometime (Yes, I plan to do Verbal all next week :)

Sentence Correction:

- Based on the discussion and some of the practice questions, I would say Subject-Verb agreement is the most common error, so that’s the first kind I would look for before any other kind.

- Some of the other kinds include Pronouns, Modifiers, Parallel Structure, Comparisons, Usage and Style. These are all pretty basic and straightforward but I do want to make a note for one in particular - Modifiers.

- For Modification, make sure the modifier is placed as close as possible to what it modifies. For example - In an effort to lower cholesterol levels, (and they say something about who made the efforts in the second half of the sentence, which is underlined) i.e. XYZ program - make sure that XYZ is in the beginning of the sentence when correcting the statement. Hope this makes sense to you. I will definitely try to make a mental note of this and apply it when I can.

Ended the night with the new workout - Yes, I am still trying to keep up with it, yet to see any results but, just like studying for GMAT, I am hoping the workout will pay off over time if I stick with it - Maybe I should start a separate blog for it :)

(Day 22: Feb 6, 2012)

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Motivational quote for the week …

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog that matters…

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Break (Feb 3 - Feb 5)

Between attending a workout/social event, family coming in town, attending an Indian wedding event, and the Superbowl, there wasn’t much time left to study over the weekend.

So, studying was put on hold, once again - I knew I would have to pay a hefty price once the break was over :/

But before I get back to GMAT, let's talk about SuperBowl Sunday.

If you have read some of my previous posts, you might be able to predict my pick for the SB was Patriots. I loved and believed in them so much so that I placed few bets on them winning. This was a risky move on my end - given their poor performance against the Ravens, Gronk being injured and possibly not playing, and history of the Pats vs Giants match up. With all this in mind, I was still backing up Brady and Patriots b/c that's what you do when you have faith in a team and are a true fan. Now let's fast forward to Sunday morning, when I find out that they released Tiquan Underwood, the night before Superbowl. OUCH! This was a cold and callous move on Belichick's end. I believe no matter how small or how big of a role it was, every player on that team had an important role to play to get them to this SB. So, if you plan to win the SB, you better win with the team that got you there. The lack of value that was placed on Underwood and how easily disposable he became to be replaced for another defensive lineman shows the caliber of New England organization. It was just too heartless of a move for me to continue supporting such an organization. Had it been a game changer due to injury or disciplinary action or something even remotely wrong on the player's end, I would understand but since that wasn't the case, this definitely turned me off and against the Patriots.

Going into the game, I cheered for New York. In short, I am happy that the Giants won, They truly deserved it :) Patriots lacked all the qualities that a champion ought to possess - Skills, Performance, Heart, Humility...

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Day 21

The review from the night before was still fresh in my mind, so decided to cover some more material.

Completed the Number Properties Basics Workshop

It covered the following areas:

- Basics/Definitions

- Fractions

- Order of Operations

- Quiz Score - 73% = Sigh, I have scored high % in this section on the Practice tests in the past as well as my CATs, so this was shocking!

Had to attend a workout/social event, so called it a night for studying.

Was a fun night - started off with some Zumba (That was my 2nd time trying it, probably my last - NOT a big fan!) It was ok but I don't like workout classes that barely get you warmed up - I guess that was a good thing, given I was still recovering and not completely healthy.

This was followed by some veggie sandwich samplers @ the gym and a chair massage (ahhh much needed) We were all hungry and there was some sort of social hour at this place called South in Birmingham - It's a nice, loungy type of bar. Been there few times but first time having dinner there - Loved my Veggie salad! Decided to celebrate my friend's bday, which I had missed the week before by ordering her the Chocolate cake (Im a big time Chocolate addict, so that worked out perfect :) It was sooo rich and amazing! Decided to continue bday celebration @ a bar that was around the corner where one of my DJ friends spins - good music, good times, the fact that Carlos Delfino and some other Bucks' players happen to be hanging out at the same spot didn't hurt either :)

(Day 21: Feb 2, 2012)

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Day 20

Decided to spend some time on the Critical Reasoning area since the material reviewed in class on Monday was still fresh in my mind.

Completed the online Critical Reasoning Basics Workshop.

This covered the following areas:

- Finding Conclusions and Evidence

- Assumptions

- KAPLAN 4 step Method

 Which basically states:

1) Read the question stem and determine the type of question

2) Read the stimulus

3) Think critically about your answer.

4) Evaluate the answer choices.

Quiz Score - 90% = Ok, I think I get it?

Will only find out once I complete all practice tests.

Attended the next KAPLAN Session - Arithmetic and Number Properties

This is all basic to me but I have also made some silly mistakes in the past in this area…So, you have to make sure you are detail oriented and double check some of the more tedious algebraic expression solutions before proceeding (if time allots)

(Day 20: Feb 1, 2012)

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Day 19

Decided to go back and visit Math.

Read the KAPLAN Pocket reference for Proportions and Statistics.

Completed the online practice set for it - Quiz score - 61%

Looks like the missed days and lack of aggressiveness in studying has halted the progress.

Not happy about this BUT health comes first - Still not feeling 100%, so easing into the studying.

(Day 19: Jan 31, 2012)

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Day 18

Slowly started to get back on track with GMAT.

Attended the KAPLAN Session for Basic Critical Reasoning and Argument Essays.

Having been focused on Math so much, this was a nice break.

One thing that I had learned earlier but forgotten was reminded to me during the class and I believe is a key for Critical Reasoning type of questions. This would be my Lesson of the Day:

Always read the question stem first!

This helps you read the statement with a purpose, instead of just skimming through it mindlessly the first time around. Saves time and helps you think critically.

Also, reviewed the Essays section and discussed the format:

Basically the following should be covered in your essay - rephrasing of the argument, followed by presenting the side you favor, citing examples and explaining a rebuttal, finally ending with a conclusion. If you find the writing section challenging, I think it would be a great idea to do one writing sample every week, just so you are more comfortable tackling it come exam day. I am not the best at writing, so maybe I should take my own advice, going forward :)

(Day 18, Jan 30, 2012)