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].