What if it was Real GMAT Verbal Section :)

Yesterday was a good day, it did a lot to boost my confidence level. In the monring I read the Sentence Correction section from the Kaplan book.
It was good, but I would say the Princeton Review Verbal Workout was much better to get the basic right.
Kaplan did give a bit of information about the 8 different types of error GMAT tests you on and gave some examples about that too.

I did not attempt the sentence correction exercise at the end of Kaplan as I was expecting them to be a little tougher and want to keep them for a little later.

I had read the sentence correction from PR Verbal Workout and attempted the sample verbal section test give in it. The test had 41 questions and I timed myself to get a feel of the actual section test.
The questions werenot tough, but still some of them were a little tough and I had to choose between the two choices I was left with.

In the end I was surprised to see that I got 38 correct out of the 41 questions.
I treated myself with an ice cream :) and dint study after that :)

From today back to studying !!!

Being is almost always incorrect on GMATLAND

A good improvement from the previous score in Sentence Correction.

I was might disappointed with my performace in sentence correction of the crack gmat diagnostic test i took. I sat down with Princeton Review Verbal work out and read about the 8 different types of error which are usually tested on GMAT.

It had some exercises as well for each type of error, it really helped in improving my ability to identify that error.There was a test at the end of it with 22 questions and I got only 4 wrong out of them, which I am sure is a great improvement over my previous performance.

Being is never correct in GMATLand :)
intent on is correct idiom intend to is correct to
Always try to underline the subject and the verb in a sentence and then see if they agree in number.This can be made complex by adding a lot of additional info in between the sub and the verb.
so much ..as is correct idiom

Process of elimination is the best way of tackling the problem. Going forward I have planned to solve all the questions witha scratch paper in which I will have a square for each of the choices and would write the reason as to why this is incorrect.This I believe will help a lot in gettimg more conceptual clarity.

Would I get one too :)

Got this from http://bschoolorbust.blogspot.com/


HBS Admit letter from the BW forum
(if I am violating some copyright law, please inform me and I will take it off)

Dear Ms. xxx:

Congratulations!
On behalf of Harvard Business School, I am delighted to offer you
admission to the MBA Program. Your admission recognizes your outstanding
record of accomplishment and your potential for future success.
Each year, the MBA Admissions Board selects a class from among the
brightest and most accomplished young individuals in the world. We
aspire to find leaders like you who have the highest standards of
integrity and who understand that leading is a privilege.
The Harvard MBA Program offers more than just an academic degree; many
find it to be a transformational experience. By immersing yourself in
the case study method, and by working with distinguished faculty and
students, you will teach others as you learn. You will build deep,
practical knowledge while developing your leadership capabilities. In
joining our community, you will become part of an influential worldwide
network of alumni who will support you throughout your life.
We hope that you will accept our offer and want to make sure that you
have all the resources you need to make this important decision. Our
Prematriculation Web site will be your main source of information over
the next few months. It will direct you to key activities that will help
you learn more about HBS, such as Admitted Students' Weekend; in
addition, it highlights key requirements and logistics related to
joining HBS. You can immediately access the Prematriculation Web site by
using your username: xxx, email domain: mba2008.hbs.edu, and password:
xxx.
Your offer of admission is exclusively for the MBA Class of 2008,
entering in 2006, and it is contingent upon the verification of your
transcript(s), verification of your employment history, a signed copy of
"Joining the HBS Community" (a document that highlights our Community
Standards), and a tuition deposit.
We believe that you have the potential to make a real difference in the
world and hope that you will decide to become a part of the Harvard
Business School community.
Sincerely,

Brit K. Dewey
Managing Director, MBA Admissions & Financial Aid

CRaCk GMaT

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


http://www.crack-gmat.com/gmat.htm

I happened to visit some blog where I got this link to take a free online Diagnostic Test. I had been wanting to take one full length test for long time. As I took the first one a while ago and left my preparation in between after that.

So basically its a fresh start I am making and wanted to know where I stand before I formulate my strategies.

Todays morning I took this test and the result was not very encouraging. But it wasnt really abd either.

It started with the Quantitative section through which I was able to breeze through. I finished it much before time and got 34 right out of 37 and it showed me a scaled score of 50.

The second section was verbal and this was the one which gave me a shock. I managed to get only 22 right out of 41 and 19 mistakes.

The bad thing was I had mistakes in all parts of verbal test.

SC was the worst and i got 5 right out of 14 questions I attempted. CR was equally bad with 4 right out of 9. RC was relatively better 8 right out of 13 questions.

Now I think this is a real bad show in verbal and there is a lot of effort I need to put in before I even get close to my target score of 750.

But one thing I was surprised to see was that despite of it the test showed me a score of 610 and it saud the score of the actual test would be a 100 points more than your score here as this test is relatively tougher.

But I am not reading too much into this last statement and would make sure I improve on my overall verbal score.

I had been doing some work on this already and its not good news that it dint help me much. I had taken a few tests from LSAT critical reasoning, was reading some verbal notes and frequenting various gmat forums like testmagic and sentencecorrection.com

looks like it is a long road ahead, but then I love challenges and its going to make it more interesting.

Small Steps to begin with

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
--Robert Collier

I have spent my last few days trying to gather information on whats the best way to start my preparation and what should be my strategy to attack the test.

There is so much of information available out there and at times it got really confusing. I just wanted someone to come and tell me that do this and this and it would be done. But then it aint so simple, I finally tried to come up with my own plan of action and this is how it looks.

To start with I am going through some of the Verbal Notes complied by people who have done well at GMAT.
Sumeet Thakur's Verbal Notes

is a very good compilation and its helping a lot.
At the same time I have started visiting
testmagic.com
scoretop.com
pagalguy.com
sentencecorrection.com and they seem to be real good place to get your doubts clarified and learn new things.

Next I plan to start with Princeton Review Verbal owrkout and that should give me a good standing to get cracking on sentence correction.

Side by side everyday I plan to spend some half an hour on RC/CR form LSAT material I got from some forum. This would help me get in good shape for CR especially.

As of now this is what I have planned. Once I start implementing this I would have a fair idea of my strengths and weaknesses and I would be able to decide the future course of action.

I have plans to do Kaplan , Kaplan Verbal Workout and OG after this.

Missed by a whisker!!!!!

The sotry begins !!
So far i was a little lax with my prep as I was a last minute participant in the race for CAT, Commaon Aptitude Test conducted for selection to the Indian Institutes of Management (for those who dont know about it, i doubt it though)

Quantitative (% Score) 31.75
Quantitative (Percentile) 96.07
Verbal (% Score) 36.00
Verbal (Percentile) 96.05
Logic & Data Interpretation (% Score) 23.73
Logic & Data Interpretation (Percentile) 85.48
TOTAL (% Score) 30.96
TOTAL (Percentile) 97.58

This is how my final score card reads :)
Missed by a very small margin.. in DI I shuld have made may be one more mark and I wuld have got atleast one call.

Anyway its over and I want to move ahead and take my plunge for GMAT now, it gives me all the more reason to go all out and crack it and give it my best.

I have finally decided that i will take GMAT by March mid and have started my basic preparation and information gathering.

Hope I would be able to achieve my goals this year.