Days 2, 1 and 0

Got back from holiday late last week. In the interests of completeness, the following is an account of the last few days of my preparation.

3 days to go: Monday 18th April

• Finished about 100 of the last 120 questions in OG12 and inputted them into Beat The GMAT's error log.
• Went to Veritas Prep class on AWAs. This was a welcome break from the monotony of staying at home.
• All up: Approx 5 hours.

2 days to go: Tuesday 19th April

• Finished the last 20 outstanding questions in OG12 and inputted them into Beat The GMAT's error log.
• Having scored 760 on a practice GMAT CAT a few days earlier, I decided to try another MGMAT practice test. Found the questions so hard that it was a real confidence killer. Got 46 in Quant and decided not to go through with the whole practice test. It was probably a mistake to take a practice exam so close to the real thing, but it did "manage my expectations" and bring me back to reality.
• Went to final Veritas Prep class (advanced word problems and quant review).
• All up: Approx 2.5 hours (left class early).

1 day to go: Wednesday 20th April

• Could not sleep. Woke up at 2am. Then faced a DISASTER: Tried to open the Beat The GMAT error log but it was corrupted. I had read about the error log crashing on Apple Macs before, but couldn't believe that it would happen to me 1 day before the test! Tried to post for help on Beat the GMAT and Gmatclub, but to no avail. At this point, I was pretty devastated. I did receive one email from a user on Gmatclub who tried and failed to repair the error log. He was very encouraging and inspired me to move on. These last minute words of encouragement helped get me through what I considered a major setback.
• Thankfully, I had used MGMAT's Archer tool to input the questions that I got wrong. For those that I got wrong AND had video explanations, I watched those videos. At this point it was about 5am, so I went back to sleep. Very, very tired.
• I quickly skimmed over some flashcards that I had downloaded from Beat the GMAT. They were OK but not great.
• Approx 2.5 hours.
• When I got back up, I did a "dry run" to the Pearson Vue centre. Figured out that: (1) I couldn't walk to the centre the next morning because it was too far away; (2) I got off at the wrong train station. Very glad I did a "dry run" to the centre.
• I took it pretty easy for the rest of the day. Watched some TV, but that gave me a headache. Decided to go to bed pretty early. Read part of a book before I eventually fell asleep. Took a natural sleep supplement, Valerian Forte, in the hopes that I would get some solid sleep.

Test day: Thursday 21st April, 9am

• Again, I couldn't sleep and I woke up at 2am again. This was another major setback in my mind. Because I had taken Valerian Forte, I was also super drowsy. I knew I shouldn't have booked a 9am test (I'm a afternoon/night person), but didn't have a choice as I was leaving on a flight that afternoon.
• Finally got out of bed at 7am. Quickly ate breakfast (jam toast and tea) and took off. I had already prepared what I was going to take to the test centre (2 Red Bulls; fruit salad; choc/power bars; seedless grapes; banana). 

Actual exam experience

• Got to the test centre early. Had a smoke before I went into the centre. Tried to be as friendly as possible to the test centre staff as they were going to be crucial in attending to my queries throughout the exam. Told the staff that I was going to be asking for new scratch paper at each break. 
• Was given the opportunity to start straight away. I choose not to start too early, because I wanted to calm down a little. At this point I skulled about 3/4 can of Red Bull and had a couple of seedless grapes. After going to the bathroom and splashing water on my face, I went back into the exam room. Because I was the only one there, I chose to sit in the far corner booth. I should have taken my sweater off, because it was pretty hot inside once I got started.
• Pre-test
• Went through the initial screens. It came time to pick 5 schools to send my results to. Being ambitious and thinking that I had nothing to lose, I chose Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, LBS and INSEAD. At this point I had not done all that much research into those schools, but my general impression was that they were among the best in the world.
• AWA
• The first AWA was analysis of an argument. I tried to use as little brain power / energy as possible. Just took decent time (7 minutes) sketching out a plan on my scratch paper and then went on autopilot for the remaining 20 minutes. Finished with 3 minutes to go and I just sat there, taking deep breaths and having a last proof read.
• The second AWA was analysis of an issue. This one was quite tough and I took a while to even take a side. Took about 9 minutes sketching out a plan before I really got started. Finished with almost no time to spare.
• Break 1
• Finished off the rest of the first can of Red Bull. Grazed on the seedless grapes and choc/power bar. Had most of the fruit salad. Probably ate too much to be honest. 
• Went to bathroom again, splashed water on my face and tried to get back into the zone.
• Got back in the test room and started Quant. I had gone 1 minute over in terms of break time so I had 1 minute taken off my Quant time.
• Quant
• Could not think straight. Could not do simple calculations in my head. Too wired at this point. Took much care in the first 10 questions but was careful not to go over 2.5 minutes per question. I couldn't remember what was an appropriate split at the 50 minutes and 25 minutes to go marks, so I spent a good 2 minutes trying to work it out. 
• Someone else came into the test centre and I had to put the ear plugs on.
• Got a mix of questions (with about 40-50% DS) and in the second half of the test got some combinatorics / probability questions, which was a good sign that I was in a decent zone.
• Managed to finish all questions with about 30 seconds to go. At this point I was just relieved that Quant, traditionally my weak area, was done. I was expecting something around 46+.
• Break 2
• Opened second can of Red Bull, gulped about 3/4 of it again. Ate some more seedless grapes and half of a choc/power bar. 
• Went to the bathroom again and splashed water on my face. I knew the next 75 minutes would be the difference between getting an average score or a top score. 
• Verbal
• One of my weaknesses in verbal is pacing. I tend to finish the verbal sections with a good 20 to 25 minutes to go. So I tried to slow down my pace this time.
• I knew I was going well as I kept getting impossibly difficult verbal questions. I had to break the age old rule against the usage of "being" in SC a number of times because the other answers contained even more egregious errors.
• About half way through though, I was completely out of energy and focus. This was probably a combined result of waking up at 2am for two nights and having too much Red Bull and not enough wholesome food. 
• I took a voluntary break when I stumbled across a reading comprehension question that I could just NOT finish. All I did was splash water on my face and neck and think - you're too close to let this one go.
• The voluntary break took about 3 minutes in total but was worth it. I soon got back into the rhythm and finished with about 15 minutes to go. There were some super difficult questions in the end that I was fairly certain that I got wrong. It was my experience that if an answer didn't set off a "gotcha" moment in my head, and instead I used a process of elimination, I would get it wrong. 
• Final screens
• I then diligently went through the final screens, filling out certain information about my undergraduate studies and other survey type questions. I actually ran out of time and had to skip some non-essential questions. I feared that if I ran overtime, I would not be eligible to receive my scores.
• When I got to the end, and I knew that I was within a couple of clicks of receiving my unofficial score, I began to get pretty nervous. "Anything above 700" was in the front of my mind, whereas in the back of my mind I had hope for 730 or above. I knew that I had gone well in verbal, but I was not that confident about quant.
• I clicked on the next screen: 49 quantitative; 44 verbal; 760 overall. I took a double look at the screen and clenched my right fist; I also nearly jumped out of my chair. 
• I looked to my right and noticed, for the first time, that there was a third person in the test centre - I was so focused that I had not even noticed her when I had gone on the voluntary break. Either that or she came into only recently - but I had not noticed her!
• I clicked on the option to take a printout of my unofficial score and put up my hand. The test administrator logged me out, gave me my printout, and said congratulations. 

Final tally:

• Vital stats
• 192 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 11 weeks of preparation (17.5 hours per week for ~ 3.5 months).
• Month by month breakdowns
• Jan: ~53 hours
• Feb: ~42 hours
• Mar: ~40.5 hours
• Apr: ~56.5 hours
• Last 30 days breakdown
• 64.5 hours
• Essential prep
• Completed every question in OG12 once.
• Completed every question in Veritas Prep materials once, and every wrong question twice.
• Did every class in Veritas Prep (either in real life or using On Demand video) three times.
• Went through Manhattan GMAT Foundations of Math once and Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction once.

• 7.5 practice CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1] - 9 hours of prep work (went through maths essentials using Veritas Prep)
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1] - 25 hours of prep work
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1] - 53 hours of prep work
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1] - 95 hours of prep work
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2] - 127.5 hours of prep work
• 670 (46Q/35V), 03.04.11 [MGMAT1] - 138 hours of prep work
• 760 (48Q/47V), 17.04.11 [GMATPrep2] - 182 hours of prep work
• ? (46Q), 19.04.11 [MGMAT2] - 183.5 hours of prep work

• Actual GMAT
• 760 (49Q/44V), 21.04.11 - 192 hours of prep work

• Thank you
• My fiancee, for her never ending patience and support, for listening to my endless rambles about the GMAT and for taking the brunt of my nervousness/temper in the last couple of days before the exam.
• Family, especially my mum, for cooking and delivering enough food in the last week so that I didn't have to worry about it.
• Veritas Prep and Manhattan GMAT, for excellent prep materials.
• Work, for letting me study for an exam that will ultimately see me change my job.
• Various people in cyberspace that have supported me / followed my progress, in particular Karunya (http://mygmatdiary.blogspot.com/) for ongoing encouragement and mvanbusk (from Gmatclub) for last minute words of advice when my error log stopped working with 1 day to go!

Result: 760 (49Q/44V)

Since I'm packing for a holiday, I'll make it short (for now). Just came back from the test centre. I'm thrilled to say that I scored 760 (99th percentile)!

3 days to go

It was a bit ambitious of me to think that I could do a full practice CAT and 170 questions from the OG. I only got about 50 questions done (1.5 hours), so there's still another 120 to go.

Not long now!


Today

• Finish the 120 outstanding questions from the OG.
• Go to the Veritas Prep class on AWA (possibly - might skip this).
• Input all results into MGMAT Archer, and go through a few questions targeting weak areas only. Spend some time on the really tough ones.

2 days to go - Tuesday

• Visit Pearson Vue centre.
• Go to the Veritas Prep class on Advanced Word Problems and Quant Review (possibly - might skip this).
• Using MGMAT Archer, go through a few questions targeting weak areas only. Do about 100 questions max. Spend some time on the really tough ones.

1 day to go - Wednesday

• Possibly do one final test. Pack for holiday. Otherwise take it easy. Get sleep etc.

Running tally to date:

• 183.5 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 7 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2]
• 670 (46Q/35V), 03.04.11 [MGMAT1]
• 760 (48Q/47V), 17.04.11 [GMATPrep2].

4 days to go; 760(!!) in seventh practice CAT

I tried as hard as I could but I could not do more than about 145 questions from the OG yesterday. Knocked out Days 13-14 (Word Problems), 15-16 (Geometry), 17 (Statistics) and 35 (Critical Reasoning). Got to sleep at about 5am and woke up at 10am and then again at 12pm. Since my test is at 9am, I have to wake up at about 6.30am on test day, so I've got to shift my sleeping patterns. About 5.5 hours of productive work.

That leaves me about 170 questions to go on the OG (mostly verbal).

Sixth practice CAT - using GMAT Prep

Earlier today, I decided to go back to the 'real' GMAT Prep software because this might be my last practice CAT. The quant section seemed pretty challenging but I got through with about 4 minutes to spare. The verbal section was also challenging but I finished with about 20 minutes to spare (note to self: eat more during the second break).

I was expecting low 700s but was pretty ecstatic when I saw 760 (99th percentile) pop up on the screen. The reason: I absolutely killed the verbal section, scoring a 47 with 6 incorrect (anything from 46-51 is in the 99th percentile). I didn't actually do that well on the quant section, scoring a 48 with 12 incorrect (82nd percentile) - so there's still room for improvement there.

This is the best that I thought I would end up when I started my preparations - kill verbal, and score OK on quant - finally I've done it.

If only this were the real exam! With this practice score, I'm going to aim for 730 (ie, anything over 730 and I'll be extremely happy with; anything around mid 700s will depend on luck and the stars aligning for me).

Now the challenge is to keep it all together in the last 4 days, and stick with my plan:

Today

• Finish off the last 170 or so questions in the OG.

3 days to go - Monday

• Go to the Veritas Prep class on AWA (possibly - might skip this).
• Using MGMAT Archer, go through a few questions targeting weak areas only. Do about 100 questions max. Spend some time on the really tough ones.

2 days to go - Tuesday

• Visit Pearson Vue centre.
• Go to the Veritas Prep class on Advanced Word Problems and Quant Review (possibly - might skip this).
• Using MGMAT Archer, go through a few questions targeting weak areas only. Do about 100 questions max. Spend some time on the really tough ones.

1 day to go - Wednesday

• Pack for holiday. Otherwise take it easy. Get sleep etc.

Running tally to date:

• 182 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 7 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2]
• 670 (46Q/35V), 03.04.11 [MGMAT1]
• 760 (48Q/47V), 17.04.11 [GMATPrep2].

5 days to go

I had another fairly productive day yesterday. I managed to get through Days 33-34 and 37 (Critical Reasoning), 38-40 (Reading Comp) and part of Day 13 (Word Problems) of the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Guide - about 150 questions from the OG in total. About 5.5 hours of productive work, I reckon.

Taking stock of where I'm at, my preparation has comprised of the following:

January - February

• Attended all Veritas Prep classes and (eventually) did all the homework. Did all the Veritas Prep classes using the 'On Demand' videos too.
• Went through the MGMAT Foundations of Math book.
• Took four practice CATs, starting from low 600s and peaking two days after my last Veritas Prep Class at 700.

March - now

• Got really busy at work and dropped preparation pretty badly. Started scoring lower on practice CATs but still in the mid-high 600s.
• Re-did nearly every Veritas Prep class (other than the last 2 classes, which are set for next week) either through attending in person or using the 'On Demand' videos' and re-did all the homework questions that I got wrong the first time around. Got most, but not all, of these right the second time around.
• Currently going through the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Guide (for guidance on going through the OG only - I'm not using the Kaplan resources) as quickly as possible. So far I've done:
• Days 1-12 (Quant)
• Days 24-28 (Sentence Correction), 30-34 and 37 (Critical Reasoning) and 38-40 (Reading Comp)
• I'm not too worried about Days 42-60 as they are all about re-doing questions, attempting questions from Quant2 and Verbal2 and reviewing stuff. 
• Using the MGMAT Archer tool and the Beat The GMAT OG error log to track progress. According to the logs, I've done 493 questions from the OG with 314 questions to go. 

Last 5 days - plan of attack

5 days to go - Today (Saturday)

• Get another 200 or so questions done on the OG.

4 days to go - Sunday

• Do my last practice CAT using GMAT Prep's own program. 
• Finish off the last 110 or so questions in the OG.

3 days to go - Monday

• Go to the Veritas Prep class on AWA (possibly - might skip this).
• Using MGMAT Archer, go through a few questions targeting weak areas only. Do about 100 questions max. Spend some time on the really tough ones.

2 days to go - Tuesday

• Visit Pearson Vue centre.
• Go to the Veritas Prep class on Advanced Word Problems and Quant Review (possibly - might skip this).
• Using MGMAT Archer, go through a few questions targeting weak areas only. Do about 100 questions max. Spend some time on the really tough ones.

1 day to go - Wednesday

• Pack for holiday. Otherwise take it easy. Get sleep etc.

6 days to go

Yesterday was fairly productive.

I managed to go through Days 11-12 (Equations and Inequalities), 26-28 and 30 (Sentence Correction) and 31-32 (Critical Reasoning) of the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Guide. All up, I did almost 150 questions from the OG. I'd say I put in 5.5 hours of productive work.

Today, I want to step it up half a notch and do 200 questions.

I didn't get to go to the Pearson VUE centre, but instead asked them a few questions over the phone. What I learned was:
- The breaks are 8 minutes each;
- If you finish an essay in 20 minutes, and you choose to move on to the next question, you don't get that extra 10 minutes back in break time;
- Pearson VUE will provide a laminated board and those special pens. They will also provide ear plugs. You can't take anything in; and
- You can leave the building during the breaks but only for a cigarette break.

I forgot to ask them what I need to bring on my test day, but I said I would drop in on next Tuesday to check the place out, so I'll ask them then.

7 days to go

For once I actually (pretty much) got done what I wanted to do. Yesterday, I:

- Went through Days 10 (Algebra) and 24/25 (Sentence Correction 1,2) of the 60 Day Study Plan. 2.5 hours.
- Attended Class 12 (Combinatorics and Probability) and re-attempted the wrong/guessed questions. 4 hours.
- Went through the remainder of the Beat The GMAT Flashcards. 2 hours. I just realised that ManhattanGMAT's flashcards are probably better. Oh well...

Today, I didn't get to do the "run through" of the exam (couldn't wake up that early). Instead the aim is to finish off as many days of the 60 Day Study Plan as possible, and do about 150-200 questions from the OG.

Also, I discovered ManhattanGMAT's "OG Archer" tool, which is a cool and very detailed tool to track performance on the OG, Verbal2 and Quant2 books. It works sort of like an error log. Since I don't have a pre-made error log for Verbal2 and Quant2 (whereas I'm already using the Beat the GMAT error log for the OG), I'll probably use it for those books. However, I might not get on to the Verbal2/Quant2 books as time is running out and I don't want to be doing too many fresh questions after Monday of next week.

8 days to go

Yesterday, I finally finished the questions in Class 14 (Advanced Word Problems & Quant Review) (there were about 130 questions in all, and I started from about question 50). For good measure, I went through the class using the On Demand video, and I also went through the "last minute tips" On Demand video. All told, there was about 6 hours of work.

I didn't get to go through any of the 60 Day Study Plan. Today, I will:

- Go through as many days of the 60 Day Study Plan as possible in the next 2 hours. Realistically I'll only get through 1 or 2 days.
- Attend Class 12 (Combinatorics and Probability) and re-do the wrong/guessed questions again.
- Go through the remainder of the Beat The GMAT Flashcards.

Tomorrow, I'm going through a "run through" of the GMAT. This will include getting up at 6am, eating breakfast, and walking to the exam centre. I'll try to get a sneak peak into the exam centre, but who knows whether they'll actually let me in.


Running tally to date:

• 157 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 6 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2]
• 670 (46Q/35V), 03.04.11 [MGMAT1].

9 days to go - final countdown

I took this week and next week off work but I've come down with a cold. Although my preparation will be hampered, I won't / can't make this an excuse.

Progress

Since the last post I have:

- Re-taken Class 9 (Critical Reasoning 2) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 2 hours.
- Re-taken Class 10 (Statistics & Problem Solving) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 3 hours.
- Re-taken Class 11 (Sentence Correct 2) by attending class + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 3 hours.
- Completed Days 8 - 9 of the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Plan. 2 hours. As mentioned, I have only completed (for now) the "TO DO" sections, and not the "Additional Reinforcement" sections.
- Gone through the Beat The GMAT flashcards on Sentence Correction and Quant - General. 3 hours.

This isn't too much preparation for 3 days, but I've been sick and for the most part trying to put in 8-10 hours of sleep per night.

Today, I plan to finish (for the first time) Class 14 (Advanced Word Problems & Quant Review), and do a couple of more days of the 60 Day Study Plan.

Running tally to date:

• 151 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 6 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2]
• 670 (46Q/35V), 03.04.11 [MGMAT1].

18 days to go; 670 (46Q/35V) for 6th practice CAT - MUST IMPROVE!

Progress

Since the last post I have:

- Re-taken Class 7 (Reading Comprehension) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 2 hours.
- Re-taken Class 8 (Data Sufficiency) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 2.5 hours.
- Completed Days 3 - 7 of the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Plan. 6 hours. As mentioned, I have only completed (for now) the "TO DO" sections, and not the "Additional Reinforcement" sections.

Work is getting very busy so I am doing a lot of this prep on little sleep and my concentration is definitely waning.

6th practice CAT - MGMAT

I tried out the Manhattan GMAT practice CAT. It was pretty tough and I ended up on 670 (89th percentile) with 46Q (79th percentile) and 35V (77th percentile) splits.

My scores in quant and verbal seem to have been see-sawing since my first practice CAT. On one test I'll go pretty well on quant and poorly on verbal, only to switch around in the next test. At least my percentile ranges are stabilising now - I just need to kick both quant and verbal into the mid 80s to early 90s in terms of percentile and I should be sweet.

All of this sort of hits home one important message - I have to just put aside time every day to practice. I have surges over the weekend and it's not doing my preparation any favours. I have forgotten a lot of stuff that I learned weeks (even months) ago, although re-doing the lessons using On Demand has helped.

Let's see if I can get up to Day 15 on the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Plan by the end of the week. That would be ideal.

Running tally to date:

• 138 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 6 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2]
• 670 (46Q/35V), 03.04.11 [MGMAT1].

26 days to go

Since the last post I have:

- Re-taken Class 5 (Sentence Correction) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 2 hours.
- Re-taken Class 6 (Geometry) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 3 hours.
- Completed Days 1 and 2 of the Beat The GMAT 60 Day Study Plan. 3 hours. Although I have much less than 60 days to go, I am only going to complete those parts of the 60 Day Study Plan that I have materials for. For example, it plan requires a Kaplan GMAT 2010-2011 Premier with CD-ROM, which I don't have (and nor do I plan to get). Also, I am only going to complete (for now) the "TO DO" sections, and not the "Additional Reinforcement" sections.

Big day today - plan to get through as many more Days of the 60 Day Study Plan as possible, and finish (for the first time) Veritas Prep Class 14 Advanced Word Problems & Quant Review.

Running tally to date:

• 135.5 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 5 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2].

32 days to go; 650 (36Q/44V) for 5th practice CAT

Progress

Got most of what I wanted to do this weekend done.

Since the last post I have:

- Re-taken Class 3 (Critical Reasoning) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 2 hours.
- Re-taken Class 4 (Algebra) using On Demand + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. 3 hours.
- Progressed with Class 14 (Advanced Word Problems / Quant Review). 0.5 hours.

Maybe it is because I've done these questions before, but in both instances I managed to correctly answer most questions that I previously got wrong. Maybe I'm just improving.

5th practice CAT

After a full day of study, I decided to do a Practice GMAT CAT. A bit dubious after my score of Q51 from last time (using "GMAT Life", a Veritas-badged CAT), this time I tackled the 800score CAT which is apparently notorious for its difficult quant questions.

This time I didn't bother with the essays (mainly because it was late already).

I was brought back to reality - I scored 36Q (48th percentile), down from the lofty 98th percentile that I scored in the quant section in GMAT Life. I basically ran out of time with about 7 questions to go and had to make wild guesses on those last few questions.

On the other hand, I managed to score a 44V (97th percentile), up from the 81st percentile that I scored in the verbal section in GMAT Life. I also finished with about 30 minutes to spare (in a 75 minute section). So basically I'm now dubious about 800score's verbal section.

If I somehow manage to combine my best ever performance in the quant section (51Q) and verbal section (44V), I would score around the 770 mark, but my see-saw lack of consistency is instead keeping me between the mid-600s to 700. Given that my 51Q was a fluke (the CAT was too easy), and my 44V was also probably a fluke (I finished with 30 minutes to spare), I will have to work hard even to crack 700.

I have to re-double my efforts and make sure I'm not slipping in either section. I think it's easier for me to slip in quant since that's my weak area, so I will make it my focus from now.

Running tally to date:

• 127.5 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 5 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1]
• 650 (36Q/44V), 20.03.11 [800Score2].

33 days to go

Quick one before I keep going tonight.

Since the last post I have done the following:

- Class 8 (Data Sufficiency): On Demand video + homework. 6 hours.
- Class 14 (Advanced Word Problems and Quant review): On Demand video. Yet to finish the homework. 4 hours.

Also, I have:

- Re-taken Class 1 (Arguments) using On Demand. 1.5 hours.
- Re-taken Class 2 (Arithmetic) + re-attempted wrong/guessed questions from the first time around. I got about half of the wrong/guessed questions right, so I have moved the tags to the bottom of the page. The other half are still to be conquered. 2.5 hours.

Running tally to date:

• 122 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 4 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1].

GMAT booked after 100 hours of prep - the pressure's on

GMAT booked - 45 days to go

This week I got around to booking my GMAT exam. It's schedule for Thursday April 21 at 9.00am. Personally I would have preferred an afternoon or slightly later time but it was not possible with my schedule. I am flying out on Thursday afternoon for what will (by then) be a well deserved break.

Also spent time this week completing the Veritas Prep Class 6 (Geometry) homework (5 hours), as well as Class 5 (Sentence Correction 1) On Demand video + homework (5 hours) and Class 9 (Sentence Correction 2) On Demand video + homework (3 hours). All of this took approximately 13 hours. In real terms it took much longer but I'm not counting procrastinating etc. I am now fairly confident on Sentence Correction. This is a great achievement because it was previously my main area of weakness in Verbal.

My plan over the next week is to finish off the things on my to do list from my last post. In that post I estimated that it would take about 30 hours to finish what I wanted, and that the plan was to be done in 2 weeks, so I'm on schedule. Still remaining on my to do list from my last post are:

Quant:
- Class 8 (Data Sufficiency): On Demand video + homework.
- Class 14 (Advanced Word Problems and Quant Review): On Demand video + homework.

Verbal:
- Class 13 (AWA) On Demand video. There's no homework for this, but I want to, by the end, have a clear template in my head for both AWA essays.

Next steps

After finishing the above, I will move on to:
- Doing some diagnostic tests that come along with the Veritas Prep TrueTrack account to identify my areas of weakness
- Looking at the MGMAT books to build on my areas of weakness
- Re-doing all of the homework questions in Veritas Prep that I initially got wrong / guessed (I have tagged every question)
- Doing more GMAT tests
- Going through OG12 and OGVerbal2/OGQuant2 books in full - referring to Beat The GMAT's 60 day study plan to do it methodically by subject.

Running tally to date:

• 108 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 4 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1].

Final Veritas Prep classes; 700(51Q/37V) for 4th practice CAT

Past week

This past week I attended the final two Veritas Prep Classes - Class 13 (AWA) and 14 (Advanced Word Problems and Quant Review).

AWA was surprisingly useful. The AWA is more an opportunity to conserve energy than an opportunity to shine (since the scores don't really matter and since a good structure for both essays can basically be memorised).

Advanced Word Problems was a bit of a waste of time as we just sat around doing a few questions, and no new material was presented. No old concepts were really encapsulated, either.

These two classes took about 6 hours.

On top of this, in the past week, I completed the On Demand video and homework for Class 12 (Combinatorics & Prob). This was delightfully easier than anticipated. Took about 5 hours.

Weird (and wonderful) result for 4th practice CAT

Earlier today, I tried my 4th practice CAT. This time I used "GMATLife", which is apparently a test designed and written by Veritas. I noticed that a couple of the Verbal questions were from the Veritas Prep iPhone app.

Process and thinking

• Took pretty much the full 30 minutes for each of the AWAs. Although these aren't scored, I am trying to simulate the exam day environment / mental strain.
• Before the Quant section, I drank a glass of water, had a cigarette, and ate a piece of chocolate. I didn't face any Geometry questions or Combinatorics/Probability questions, which was worrying. I thought the questions were quite easy, and was getting dismayed that I was getting the "easy" questions because I wasn't doing well. I finished with about 5 minutes to spare. A lot of my methods to solve were quite crude - ie, I didn't solve the "pure" way but instead reasoned my way to the answer. Plenty of rate questions and a lot of DS where I had to conceptualise the "trick".
• Before the Verbal section, I pretty much repeated the same process as above. This section was difficult as I was again pretty tired by the time I got into it. Finished with about 20 minutes to spare - clearly I went too fast!

Results and reaction

• I was expecting high 600s but was blown away when the score returned "700". However, it was a very weird result - I scored 51Q and 37V. Weird because 51Q is well beyond my wildest dreams (it is the highest scaled score possible - 99th percentile) and 37V (81st percentile) is very disappointing.
• I am not a quantitatively minded person. I am much more comfortable doing verbal. However, I have been slightly more complacent with my verbal preparation.
• I only got 3 incorrect in the Quant section - the 2nd question (stupid mistake), the 6th question (calculation error) and the 12th question (which I'll outline below). I have a hard time accepting this 51Q, especially given that I didn't face any Geometry or Combinatorics/Probability.
• I have slipped in critical reasoning. I got 11 incorrect in Verbal (6CR and 5SC). I always knew that I had to work on SC - I haven't even done the On Demand videos or homework. However, in my last CAT, I got every CR question correct.

What do I take from all of this?

• I don't count this one as being representative - in a real GMAT CAT, I would have scored less in Quant and more in Verbal. 
• Still, there's now no need to fear quant - it is conquerable.
• Do not be complacent on perceived strengths - they can quickly become a crutch.
• I am ready to book the real CAT.

To do

Still remaining on my to do list are:

Quant:
- Class 6 (Geometry): Homework.
- Class 8 (Data Sufficiency): On Demand video + homework.
- Class 14 (Advanced Word Problems and Quant Review): On Demand video + homework.

Verbal:
- Class 5 (Sentence Correction 1): On Demand video + homework.
- Class 9 (Sentence Correction 2): On Demand video + homework.
- Class 13 (AWA) On Demand video. There's no homework for this.

I figure it will take about 30 hours to do all of the above. My plan is to do about 15 hours per week, so I should be done in 2 weeks.

Running tally to date:

• 95 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 4 CAT exams.
• 620 (40Q/35V), 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610 (33Q/41V), 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660 (42Q/40V), 29.01.11 [GMATPrep1]
• 700 (51Q/37V), 26.02.11 [GMATLife1].

The hard yards

It's very hard to catch up once you've fallen behind, and it's so easy to fall behind.

This past week I went to Veritas Prep Class 11 (Sentence Correction 2) and Class 12 (Combinatorics).

Combinatorics is quite difficult. I'm not sure how I'm going to get across it other than by slowly going through the concepts. But work is picking up and I'm finding less and less time to devote to this stuff.

Anyway, here's an update of what I've done in the last week:
- Finished Class 9 (Critical Reasoning 2) On Demand video and Homework. About 4 hours.
- Finished Class 10 (Stats and Problem Solving) On Demand videos and Homework. About 6 hours.
- Attended Veritas Prep Class 11 (Sentence Correction 2) and Class 12 (Combinatorics). About 6 hours.

So my to do list is still quite long.

In terms of quant:
- Class 6 (Geometry): Homework.
- Class 8 (Data Sufficiency): On Demand video + homework.
- Class 12 (Combinatorics): On Demand video + homework.

In terms of verbal:
- Class 5 (Sentence Correction 1) and Class 9 (Sentence Correction 2): On Demand videos + homework.

I also want to do another practice GMAT test this weekend.

Running tally to date:

• 84 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 3 CAT exams.
• 620/40Q/35V, 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610/33Q/41V, 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660/42Q/40V, 29.01.11 [GMATPrep].

Update and hiccups

A couple of hiccups to my preparation has seen me fall a little behind - I blame it mainly on work and a wedding that I had to go to.

All I've done since the last post is:

- Veritas Prep Class 6 (Geometry) using the On Demand video. Around 2 hours. STILL NEED TO DO: Homework.
- Veritas Prep Class 7 (Reading Comprehension) both live class and On Demand video + homework. Around 6 hours in total.
- Veritas Prep Class 8 (Data Sufficiency 1) live class. 3 hours. STILL NEED TO DO: On Demand video and Homework.
- Veritas Prep Class 9 (Critical Reasoning 2) live class. 2.5 hours. STILL NEED TO DO: On Demand video and Homework.
- Veritas Prep Class 10 (Stats & Problem Solving) live class. 2.5 hours. STILL NEED TO DO: On Demand video and Homework.

Falling this much behind is tough but I'm going to work overtime this week to get things done. Tomorrow is Valentine's day, so I don't expect to do much then.

Running tally to date:

• 68 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 3 CAT exams.
• 620/40Q/35V, 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610/33Q/41V, 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660/42Q/40V, 29.01.11 [GMATPrep].

Veritas Prep Class 6; Third practice CAT

Veritas Prep Class 6 (Geometry)

I never realised that Geometry could be challenging (all you need to do is know the formulae, right?), but it is. We'll see how I go with the homework. The class took 3 hours.

MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math

I finally finished going through the MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math book. As I said, it is SUPER basic, but I still found it a good refresh and, perhaps more importantly, a confidence booster (having only gotten 1 question wrong out of all the questions that I attempted). I didn't go through every drill, only those that I thought would actually be helpful in terms of practice. Finishing off the book took about 4 hours.

Third practice CAT: 660, but need to improve Quant and SC

Finally, I just sat my third practice CAT using the GMATPrep software from www.mba.com. I gave the two essays a proper go, spending about 20 minutes on each. During the Quant and Verbal, I was getting very bogged down and was expecting a very poor score. I actually took a break in the middle of Verbal to wash my face because I was mentally struggling to even process the SC and RC passages. This has been the most challenging test to date.

However, to my surprise, I scored 660 (42Q (61st percentile) / 40V (89th percentile)). In other words, I combined my best results individually on Quant and Verbal to date (as I scored 40Q on my last CAT and 41V in my first CAT).

It is a long road ahead to get from mid 600s to the 700s, and my effort will have to increase significantly. However, I am encouraged by my progress to date. Critically, I need to really push it on Quant (61st percentile is not going to get me anywhere) and sentence correction (8 of my 12 incorrect answers were from sentence correction).

I still have to do Veritas Prep Class 5 (SC1) and 6 (Geometry) using the On Demand videos, and complete the homework.

Running tally to date:

• 53 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 3 CAT exams.
• 620/40Q/35V, 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610/33Q/41V, 12.01.11 [800Score1]
• 660/42Q/40V, 29.01.11 [GMATPrep].

Veritas Prep Class 5 (Sentence Correction 1); MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math

Veritas Prep Class 5 (Sentence Correction 1)

Being a native speaker, it is actual quite foreign to "learn" about adverbs, gerunds, idioms and modifiers. I haven't received much formal instruction in English grammar (grammar is not really taught in school, not even in "English"), and so far I've been relying on how things sound in determining how to answer sentence correction questions.

I think that it'll be a challenge to go through the homework and I am really not keen on learning the formal rules of written English, especially as there are subtle differences between English English, American English and Australian English. I'll just have to focus on GMAT English (whatever that is).

I haven't done the class using On Demand, and I haven't done the homework - this will be my weekend homework.

MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math

I scored pretty poorly in my second practice CAT and said here that I'd go through the Manhattan GMAT Foundations of GMAT Math book.

I spent about 5 hours going through it today, and so far I'm up to Chapter 6 (Factions Strategy). Only a few chapters left.

So far, the concepts covered have been SUPER basic, but I guess that is the point of the book. It is a good refresher for those, like me, who are particularly rusty. Too bad MGMAT doesn't run courses in my city!!

Plan over coming days, hopefully by Monday 31 January

• Veritas Prep Class 6 (Geometry) is tomorrow.
• Take third practice CAT already!! I said last Sunday that I'd do it but have procrastinated.
• Veritas Prep Class 5 and 6 On Demand and homework.
• Finish going through MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math.

Running tally to date:

• 45 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 2 CAT exams.
• 620/40Q/35V, 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610/33Q/41V, 12.01.11 [800Score1].

Veritas Prep Classes 3 and 4

Sitting through class vs. On Demand videos

This past week I sat through Classes 3 (Critical Reasoning) and 4 (Algebra) of Veritas Prep without having first gone through the lessons using the On Demand recorded videos. Now that I have gone through the On Demand videos for both classes (after the physical classes), I feel much more comfortable about the content. It took about 6 hours to sit through both classes and 5 hours to go through both On Demand videos.

This is in contrast to my experience with Classes 1 (Arguments) and 2 (Arithmetic) where I went through the On Demand videos BEFORE attending the classes. In those instances, I tended to switch off during various parts of the class, in part because I had already heard the lesson.

Going forward, I will attend the class first and then go through the On Demand video for reinforcement.

By the way, I think the On Demand videos are fantastic in that they allow you to go entirely at your own pace. A 3 hour class after a day at work is very difficult to get through and I am often more focused on when the lesson will end because I am both tired and hungry between 7pm - 10pm.

One disappointing thing that happened this week was that, after I switched from the Essentials package (which comprises 2 full weekend days of instruction) to the full Veritas Prep course (which comprises 14 classes over 7 weeks, each lasting 3 hours), something went wrong with my On Demand account and it said that I had to renew my subscription for $99 (as it had apparently expired). This is now fixed up, and in any case turned out to be a blessing in disguise because, as mentioned above, I am finding it much more helpful to sit the class before turning to the On Demand video.

Problem Questions

I found the problem questions in Class 3 (Critical Reasoning) reasonably challenging but, thankfully, got most of them correct. There are a couple of questions I'd like to run through in class next week (the first half-hour of every class is dedicated to going through homework questions from the week before). It took about 1 hour to go through the problem questions.

I have found that the "SWIMMER" technique, which is a proprietary Veritas Prep technique to attack Critical Reasoning questions, is only mildly useful. Probably the most useful aspect of it is that, in "Inference" questions, it teaches you to select the answer which "MUST BE TRUE" from the inferences drawn in the body of the question.

As for the problem questions in Class 4 (Algebra), I'll do these tomorrow (and will also try to fit in a practice CAT) and update the blog in due course.

Running tally to date:

• 37 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 2 CAT exams.
• 620/40Q/35V, 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610/33Q/41V, 12.01.11 [800Score1].

Veritas Prep Class 2; Second practice CAT results

Veritas Prep Class 2

Earlier tonight, I attended Class 2: Arithmetic. I noticed that in the 3 hour class, we only got up to the start of the bulk of the problem questions. The On Demand video covered a lot (but not all) of the problem questions.

Again, I wasn't blown away but it was a useful lesson. I think I should get more sleep before the day of the relevant class and/or smash a Red Bull before class, because I am finding it difficult to stay awake.

Reminder to self: Always do the On Demand class as well as the real class in case one covers more than the other.

One of the benefits of Veritas Prep is that you can retake the course (or take another course of equal or lesser value) within 6 months of starting for any reason whatsoever.

Practice CAT results

I took another practice CAT tonight, this time using the 800score test.

I got 610 (after inputting my raw results into the 800score website), so there has been no appreciable change to my previous score from last week (620).

However, interestingly, my Quant went crashing down from 40 to 33 (39th percentile) and my Verbal went all the way up from 35 to 41 (93rd percentile).

Seems like I have one on, one off. If I could only combine them into one day's performance!

In Quant, I only got 5 out of the first 10 questions right - so I got off to a very bad start. I also noticed that I had an input error (right answer written down; wrong answer clicked). I must admit that I felt that the maths was easier on this CAT, but obviously that was because I didn't grasp the concepts being tested. I also nearly ran out of time and spent nearly 7 MINUTES on one question - I didn't even realise I spent that long until I reviewed the results.

In Verbal, I actually read the questions properly this time (last time I skimmed), and I finished with about 20 minutes to go. I am pretty happy with the Verbal since I have not done any more classes or practice or reading of any kind in Verbal since my first attempt.

Unfortunately, I accidentally moved on to the Verbal without printing out or saving my Quant results (and, critically, the explanations of the errors that I made on the Quant questions). Oh well, chalk it up to experience!

Lessons learned / to do:

• Go through maths fundamentals again - this time, use MGMAT Foundations. Clearly something is going wrong now. Perhaps 800score's tests are harder in Quant but they can't be that much harder. 
• After 4 minutes, cut the losses and move on.
• Do not start the practice CAT after an exhausting 3 hours of class, which came after an exhausting day at work. If I have to start it after work, do not start at midnight. 

Running tally to date:

• 25 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams) since 3 January 2011.
• 2 CAT exams:
• 620/40Q/35V, 05.01.11 [GMATSim1]
• 610/33Q/41V, 12.01.11 [800Score1].

Arithmetic - concepts are easy, questions are not so easy; How to track mistakes without wasting time on an error log

Arithmetic

My plan for today was to go through the rest of the Veritas Prep On Demand Lesson 2: Arithmetic today. I did so, but it took a LONG time to go through all 100+ problem questions, look through the answers and understand why and how I went wrong. I've got a LOT to learn. I didn't understand a lot of the questions (even when I read the answer), so it will be interesting whether, and to what extent, I improve on this front. I spent about 5 hours on this.

A somewhat useful "trick"that I have used in data sufficiency is to follow the old AD/BCE method. If you do not know what this is, drop a comment and I'll explain.

Error log - approach

Instead of using a tedious error log to record every single question right/wrong, categorise the question etc, I have devised a simple method to track my mistakes so that I can attempt them again at a later stage.

• Where I've answered the question incorrectly (or I was correct through dumb luck / a guess), I have tagged a post-it to the top of the page. It doesn't matter whether I got it wrong (or was lucky) because I was careless or miscalculated or did not understand the right approach to take. 
• I then circle the relevant question in pencil (but don't bother doing so if there's only one question on the page, which is very common in the Veritas Prep course materials - I think they did that so you can, if you wish, do your working on the same page). 
• If, after reading the answer, I still do not understand the methodology, I move the tag to the corner of the page. For these questions, I will try to bring it to the attention of my tutor in class.

For the OG questions, I'll use an OG error log that I downloaded from Beat The GMAT. Because the questions on this error log have already been categorised and subcategorised, and the official answers already recorded, it will be a very simple task for me of inputting my answers. This seems like an efficient use of my time, rather than laboriously inputting a whole bunch of data and making judgment calls about categorising questions myself. This will also be enough to give me an indication of what areas I should focus on in the later stages of my preparation. 

Next

Unfortunately I didn't get to sit another practice CAT, which I planned to do tonight. But it's 3am and there's no way I'm staying up for another 3 hours. I'll do this the next opportunity I get. 

I have decided to upgrade to the full course for Veritas Prep, and tomorrow's lesson will cover Lesson 2, which will be a useful refresh of what I have completed over the course of the last few days. My plan is to do the classes through the On Demand service before the actual classes - we'll see how this goes, as maybe it is better to do it the other way around.

Running tally to date:

• 22 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams).
• 1 CAT exam. (CAT 1: 620/40Q/35V).

Veritas Prep Class 1

Earlier tonight, I attended the first class of the Veritas Prep course as a trial student.

I have a mixed impression and I am not sure what to do next (whether to upgrade to the full package or whether to stay with the Essentials package).

• On the one hand, the lesson pace was quite slow (but apparently it speeds up rapidly over the next couple of classes) and I felt myself drifting off at times. After all, it was 2 hours 40 minutes long (we finished early) with only a 5 minute break. However, I had already sat this class using the On Demand service, so maybe that is why I was not following everything.
• On the other hand, I was struggling with some of the questions and I don't remember struggling with any of  them using the On Demand service. Maybe it was because I was paying 100% attention using the On Demand service, replaying those parts that I wanted to go over, and letting other parts play along where I was comfortable with the material. Maybe it was because I was tired from not enough sleep last night.
• As a general matter, I wasn't tremendously impressed with the lecturer. He was good, clearly very bright, but has not dropped any pearls of wisdom so far. At this stage, I think I prefer whoever does the On Demand lesson. That may change during the course of the next couple of weeks.

I think, at the end of the day, I have to go back to the fact that upgrading to the full package will serve a couple of purposes:

• It will create a definite time slot twice a week for me to prepare for GMAT.
• I will be that much more determined to succeed having shelled out the additional $. I risk slipping back or falling into bad habits if I don't have a driver.

In the next post, I'll give another update of my preparation.

My plan for next couple of days is to:

• Go through the rest of On Demand Lesson 2 ahead of Thursday's class.
• Sit another practice CAT exam on Wednesday night.

Running tally to date:

• 17 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes; does NOT include taking practice CAT exams).
• 1 CAT exam. (CAT 1: 620/40Q/35V).

So far, so good, but I need to pick it up

I signed up to the Veritas Prep "Essentials" course, which meets over two weekend days to cover the topics at a high level.

As mentioned here, in every package, you get access to the pre-recorded On Demand lessons that cover all of the material of the full blown course, as well as all of the course books. I am also locked in to go to the first in-class lesson of the full blown Veritas Prep course (consisiting of 42 hours of in-class instruction). I thought I would trial this out and, if I like it, will upgrade my course.

Anyway, here's what's been happening so far in terms of prep work:

• Monday, 3 January 2011 to Wednesday, 5 January 2011: Class 0: "Maths Essentials" On Demand. ~9 hours to go through the three part lesson which was split into arithmetic essentials, algebra essentials and geometry essentials. Blasts from the past included: prime numbers, LCMs, quadratic equations and trapezoids! Although the concepts were basic and probably first taught in junior high school, I haven't used them in years (maybe over a decade). I also haven't done any maths work without a calculator in well over a decade. 
• Wednesday, 5 January 2011: To establish my baseline and get a gauge of where I am at without preparation, I attempted the first of the 15 CAT exams that came with the Veritas Package (in this case, the GMAT Simulator). I took this test between 1am and 4am and scored 620 (40Q/35V). Clearly I am in need of practice. The big surprise was that I scored better in quant than verbal. ~3 hours to take the test, and ~1 hour to go through mistakes.
• Thursday, 6 January 2011: Class 1: "Arguments" On Demand. ~2 hours to go through the lesson.
• Friday, 7 January 2011: Class 2: Arithmetic On Demand. ~2 hours to go through most of the lesson but I have to do all of the problem questions.

Finally, I have sourced the Official Guide 12th Ed as well as the OG GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Ed, OG GMAT Quant Review 2nd Ed. These set of books are apparently essential to GMAT success as they cover actual questions that have been retired from previous exams. Apparently, the explanations in the Official Guide 12th Ed are a little light on so I have also sourced Manhattan GMAT's OG Companion. Rounding out the materials, I have also got a copy of Manhattan GMAT's Foundations of GMAT Math Supplement.

More on all of these materials as I progress through them.

In the next post, I'll review the Veritas Prep class that I will be attending this evening.

Running tally to date: 

• 14 hours of prep work (including going through materials, doing practice questions, attending class, and checking answers and mistakes - does NOT include taking practice CAT exams).
• 1 CAT exam. (CAT 1: 620/40Q/35V).

Why I chose Veritas Prep this time (but almost chose Manhattan GMAT last time)

While I was overseas during the holiday break, I signed up for a Veritas Prep course (I wanted to have the books at my door by the time I got back).

Making the decision between Veritas Prep and Manhattan GMAT (the two main companies in this space and, from all that I could tell, the two leaders in the industry by a long shot) was very difficult.

Both seemed to be established GMAT preparation services offering a very similar packages. As mentioned earlier, there aren't too many unbiased sources of information out there and, of course, even out of the "genuine" reviews, everyone has differences in opinion.

Two of the more useful forums, GMAT Club (stacked full of actual test takers and generally very useful) and Beat The GMAT (more of a commercial platform of some sort but offers discounts on the various preparation packages at no cost), have been somewhat infiltrated by fanboys and seeds (on the one hand) and haters and counterseeds (on the other hand).

This link provides a very good place to start for people's opinions of Veritas Prep, Manhattan GMAT and a host of other GMAT prep programs like Kaplan, Knewton and The Princeton Review.

In a nutshell, Veritas Prep and Manhattan GMAT both offer essentially two types of courses (I'm ignoring private tutoring - if you can afford that, you probably don't need to go to business school in the first place).

1. The first type is in-class training. There are various types of in-class training courses, from essentials courses (high level) to full blown courses (weekly or bi-weekly depending on which one) to "boot camps" (all classes crammed into a week) and the like. Veritas Prep also gives you access to the full set of pre-recorded classes (and I assume Manhattan GMAT does the same) in case you miss a class or in case you just want to go over a certain class again. Although Veritas Prep advertises that this access lasts for 6 months, it looks like I have access for something like 1 year and 3 months (hey, I'm not complaining).
2. The second type is online self-guided training. This is cheaper and you can either select "live" online classes where you log in at specified times (and, like a real class, these are live and interactive), or you can go for the pre-recorded classes only. The key difference in the pre-recorded classes is that the Veritas Prep classes are not technically classes since there is just an instructor going through the material and telling you to pause at certain times to answer questions in the workbook. The Manhattan GMAT classes are literally classes where you see people asking questions and instructors answering them. I don't think there's much difference. It might be useful to see what bothered other people and how those questions were answered. It might also be annoying though. In either type, you get the full set of written materials and access to practice exams.

Why did I ultimately sign up for Veritas Prep? At the end of the day, it came down to practicality - Veritas Prep offered in-class training in my city. I do not have enough self-discipline to learn the whole GMAT course by myself. Therefore, I knew that I had to enroll for some kind of class to force myself to get into gear. In other words, I didn't really have a choice. Having said that, the decision was only between Veritas Prep and Manhattan GMAT (having whittled it down to these two from the plethora of choices out there).

Manhattan GMAT reckons that Veritas Prep's rapid expansion (Veritas Prep started in 2002 out of Yale and already services 60 cities; Manhattan GMAT has been around for longer and does not service nearly as many) means one thing: it is either a "very impressive" feat or other things have been sacrificed, eg, quality of teaching and standards in hiring. I think that is Manhattan GMAT drinking too much hater-aide.

On a final note, a couple of years ago I signed up for free one hour lectures from both Vertias Prep and Manhattan GMAT. I think you can still do that now.

I also wasted a whole of time doing a meticulous comparison based on a thorough reading of their websites and any online review I could get a hold of.

The point of this story is that I remember coming out of that process thinking that Manhattan GMAT was slightly better and and more useful (especially after sitting both free classes), and proceeded to email them about their packages on offer. Also, there were no Veritas Prep classes in my city starting any time soon, so that may have factored into my thinking (ie, if there were no courses in my city, all I could compare were the materials on offer and what people said about the pre-recorded classes - on the basis of those alone, and my experience from the free lectures, I thought that Manhattan GMAT had the edge, but only slightly).

In the next post, I'll give a rundown of the preparation that I've done so far.

Introduction

For a couple of years now, I've been wanting to sit the GMAT exam as part of my medium term plan to transition out of my current job. Unfortunately, I have never got around to preparing for the exam. Now, I'm determined to make it work. In the past year, three people that I know left their jobs and each started at prestigious Ivy League business schools in the US. Their success has been an encouraging factor, and, although I don't expect to achieve the same sky high GMAT scores as they each did, I'm confident that I can at least give it a decent stab.

I have started this page for the following reasons:

• I want a record of what I have done, primarily for tracking purposes. I could log it all in a journal but then again I could lose the journal. I want to hold myself accountable for what I've done and for what I say I will do.
• I read here that it is a good strategy to "put it out there", tell people, and make it easy for other sticky beaks to follow your progress. It worked very well for a friend of mine who wanted to stick with a training regime and I hope that I will have similar results.
• In proscratinating and Googling various things about the GMAT exam and preparation courses, I couldn't find many unbiased sources of information. There are a lot of forums out there but they are full of, for lack of better phrases, fanboys and seeds (on the one hand) and haters and counterseeds (on the other hand). People seem to either love or hate the two main GMAT preparation companies out there, Veritas Prep or Manhattan GMAT, and there's a bunch of malicious rumours and gossip that goes back and forth. Hopefully my account will serve as both informative and unbiased.
• Sometimes I find stuff (resources or what not) that I want to have a look at later and I am finding that I am losing the links because I am doing some of the preparation work at home and some at the office. I intend to throw stuff on here to serve the above two purposes, but also so that I can come back here to one place and click through.

In the next post, I'll outline why I chose the preparation course that I chose.