My GMAT Journey ...

Day 17, 18, 19, 20 summary

2008-01-13T13:18:00.000Z

Over the past 4 days I have studied an average of 2 hours per day on GMAT Math.

On Day 20 (yesterday), I started the Verbal section. Basically, I did the diagnostic test from the PR book. This consisted of 20 questions in 30 minutes.
I scored 16/20 ... without even studying for the Verbal part. This was quite motivating, as I have totally been focussed on the Math section over the past 19 days or so, and havent touched Verbal until now !

Also, I have started to contemplate whether I need to supplement my self-study with a GMAT preparation course .... had a look at some of the options out there ... and ManhattanGMAT appear to be very good. Will see how my self study continues to progress over the course of next week, and will review accordingly.

Day 16: Maths Review and Practice Questions

2008-01-08T22:06:00.000Z

Today was a busy day at the office ! Exhausted, but still managed to get a couple of hours GMAT study into my day !

Today, I focussed on reviewing my notes, and answering some practice questions from the OG 11th Edition book.

Day 15: Statistics, Counting Methods, and Probability

2008-01-07T00:49:00.000Z

Today I covered Statistics, Permutations & Combinations, and Probability in detail. Made extensive notes and flash cards.
Also completed some practice questions to test my understanding of these topics.
Summary:
From what I have heard and read ... these questions tend to feature as part of the harder questions.
However, there are a number of folks who have scored over 700, but havent come across any of these questions in there GMAT exams. I suppose if you're lucky, then may manage to avoid them !

Day 14: More Arithmetic

2008-01-06T03:03:00.001Z

Went out shopping in London with the wife today, and also met up with an friend for lunch in the centre of London ! Good day out !

In the evening did a few hours of GMAT study. Focussed on reviewing some of yesterday's materials, answering some sample questions, as well as the following topics:

Statistics: Averages (arithmetic means), Modes, Medians, Standard Deviation
Sets

Day 13: Arithmetic

2008-01-05T00:49:00.000Z

Today, focus was on Arithmetic, after completing some more Geometry questions earlier in the day to review the Geometry topics I covered on Day 12.

Covered the Arithmetic topic in great detail today ... made comprehensive notes and flash cards.

Covered the following:
Properties of integers: (Quotients and Remainders -> y = xq + r ; where x and y are positive integers, q is the quotient, and r is the remainder, 0 ≤ r <>
Fractions: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, memorised main fractions, their decimal and percentage equivalents (for all fractions with denominators from 1 to 10) -> this should help speed up answering some questions !
Decimals: Scientific notation, addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.
Real numbers: Absolute value, and properties of real numbers (associative law, distributive law
Ratios/Proportions
Percents: percent increase and decrease calculations (Note: Percentages are a real favourite of the GMAT question writers. You must be comfortable with them if you are to do well in the test)

Exponents and Radicals: The OG 11th edition covers this topic in a under half a page ... doesnt really go into too much detail on exponents ! For example in the OG 11th guide it doesnt go into mutiplication, division of numbers with exponents. This was covered in the PR "Cracking the GMAT guide" as well as the following tutorial: http://www.prepfortests.com/gmat/tutorials/exponents/multiplication.
I also covered fractional exponents, as well as the rules involving (multiplying/dividing/distributing) exponents as well as radicals. THIS IS ONE AREA I REALLY NEED TO MASTER ... as it is one which will be heavily tested in the GMAT.

Summary/Insights:
The OG 11th Edition Quantitative Review doest go too much into the detail of the maths. It great for the practice questions though.
Key thing to doing well in the Math section of the GMAT is doing the minimum of work as possible. If there is a shortcut, then take it !

Days 9, 10, 11, and 12: Maths !

2008-01-05T00:29:00.000Z

Havent had a chance to update my blog over the past few days ... has been absolutely manic. Went back to work on the 2nd of Jan.
Here's a summary of the past few days:

Day 9: New Years Day - did some practice questions.

Day 10: back at work. Was a very busy first day back at work. Didnt really get a chance to do some real GMAT study, but still managed to logon to some forums and answer some practice questions. I think its incredibly important to at least do something related to the GMAT, even if you cant do a full 3 hour study session due to work committments. This keeps the momentum going.

Day 11: 2nd day back at work ... and it is certainly is a busy start to the new year. Reviewed some of the maths which I had completed in days 1-7.

Day 12 (Geometry Day): Today, I focussed wholly on Geometry. Used the PR Cracking the GMAT, OG 11th Edition Math, and completed the www.prepfortests.com/gmat/tutorials/geometry, making extensive notes as well as putting together my Geometry flash cards.
Looked into this topic (Geometry) in detail today. Wanted to ensure I understood everything in this area back to front, and also wanted to make sure I knew which formula to apply when.
Covered Polygons (Triangles (Equilaterals, Isoceles, Right Triangles (3:4:5; 1:1:sq2; 1:sq3:2), Pythagorean Theorem, calculating areas of triangles), Quadrilaterals (Parallelogram, Rhombus, Square, Rectangle), Pentagon, Hexagons), Circles, Solids/Volumes (Cuboids/Cylinders), and Coordinate Geometry.
Completed the practice questions from www.prepfortests.com/gmat/practicequestions/geometry and managed to correctly answer 13 out of 16. The 3 that I didnt answer correctly, was due to carelessness and loss of focus, after a full day of studying and working !
Also looked at some Geometry practice questions from the Kaplan Gmat 800 book for additional practice.

Summary:
Need to learn the topics inside out in order to be able to answer a lot of these questions quickly (under the 2 minutes per question limit).
Need to practice practice practice ... to be able to quickly identify which theorem/formula etc to apply to solve the problem.
The key to the tougher geometry questions ... is to just get started with breaking the problem down, and just start working from there.

To date, I havent been timing myself in answering questions. Need to start focussing more on timing.
Also havent yet touched any of the Verbal topics. Plan to start looking at the Verbal part next week.

Day 7 (Day Off) & Day 8: More Math Review ...

2007-12-31T12:50:00.000Z

Day 7: Day off (actually I did some small review reading on Geometry)

Day 8:
Reviewed the algebra section, making more flashcards.
Also practiced on some word problems ... not happy about making careless simple errors ... need to work on staying focussed and reading the questions thoroughly !
Completed the "word problems" section from the following site: http://www.prepfortests.com/gmat/tutorials/wordproblems

Day 6: Continue Review of Maths

2007-12-29T16:40:00.000Z

Today, I focussed on creating more flash cards and ensuring that I understood all the math basics.

I reviewed some of the stuff which I have covered in the PR book, on the following site: http://www.prepfortests.com/
It contains practice questions which are good to go through.

Memorised all the fractions and their decimal and percentage equivalents, for all fractions where the denominator is from 1 through to 10.
Memorised squares and cubes for numbers 1 through to 16.

After a few hours of studying ... went to the gym to freshen up. And come back for part 2 of my studying today. Glad I went to the gym. Need to start maintaining a regular gym schedule ... healthy body ... healthy mind !

Did some more practice questions from http://www.prepfortests.com from on "Exponents, ratios and percents".
Struggled on some of the exponent questions. Need to practice some of the harder exponent questions.
Need to look for common factors to simplify some of the expressions in the earlier steps, and setting up for the subsequent steps to the solution.

Summary of Day 6:
When tackling the tougher questions ... need to look to simplify the question ! Simplify simplify simplify !
Using the maths know-how, apply the various concepts to make the question easier to solve.

Day 5: Review Math

2007-12-28T18:12:00.000Z

Had some work to do today, which I had to complete by the end of the day. Took most of the day completing that piece of work.

Started on my GMAT study later than I had planned to.
Did a review of all the Maths which I have covered over the past few days. Started to make some notes on the flash cards which I bought yesterday.

Summary of Day 5:
Learn the math fundamentals inside out ... really want to master the basics, so it is like second nature to me. So taking more time on completing the Math, before moving onto the Verbal section.
Keen to focus my preparation on quality rather than quantity.

Day 4: Data Sufficiency

2007-12-27T21:28:00.000Z

Today I only tackled the Data Sufficiency section.

I also did a lot of looking through the various GMAT online forums and attempted to answer a few of the questions to test the arithmetic, algebra, and geography which I covered in the past few days.

I also bought some flash cards, and started to record all my key notes onto the flash cards.

Didnt get a chance to get started on the Verbal section ... so will start on Verbal section tomorrow.

Summary of Day 4:
- Like the Data Sufficiency strategy which the PR book illustrates. If you dont know how to solve a particular problem, then this strategy enables you to eliminate some of the choices, hence increasing your chances of guessing the right answer (e.g. instead of having a 1 in 5 chance, you can end up with a 1 in 2 chance).

Day 2 & Day 3: Geometry & Day off

2007-12-25T13:10:00.001Z

Happy Christmas everyone ... and yes ... I am still going to be studying today ! Have family coming over today ... but will try and get 2-3 hours of studying in there somewhere.

Went through a quick review of yesterday's material. In particular the Applied Arithmetic, focussing on Probabilities, and Permutations & Combinations.

Having some trouble with the Permutations & Combinations piece ... will have to focus more on this, and practice practice practice !

Enjoyed working through the Geometry section ... suprisingly enjoyed it ! :-)

Didnt get a chance to get onto the Data Sufficiency Section.
Also didnt get a chance to do any GMAT study on Day 3: 26th Dec.
I think it was wishful thinking to try and do some studying over Christmas and Boxing day with family and friends around !

Summary/Insights from Day2:
- need to memorise all the Geometry formulas, and be confident in knowing when to use each.
- The key to answering the tougher Geometry questions is to break down the question into several steps ... requiring knowledge of the different geometry areas. E.g. maybe required to work out the area of a circle, then the surface area of a cylinder etc to get to the final answer.
- Review the "drawn to scale" diagrams closely to eliminate crazy answers !
- Need to practice more with the Permutations and Combinations !

Look forward:
on Day 4 (27th Dec) Plan to study Data Sufficiency to complete the Math section. Get started on the verbal section, and cover Sentence Correction and Reading Comprehension.

Day 1: Arithmetic, Algebra, Applied Arithmetic

2007-12-24T12:39:00.000Z

Today .. my first real day of preparations ... The focus for today is on the Maths (pg 58 - 117 of "Cracking the GMAT" book)

The Princeton Review book specifies some test-taking tips, such as:

POE (Process of Elimination) - allows you to eliminate answer choices even when you dont know how to do a problem.
"Joe Bloggs" answers - these are the answers which would appeal to the "average Joe Bloggs" test taker. Joe is attracted to easy solutions that he can arrive at in 1 step and answers that repeat numbers from the problem.

For easy (1 step) questions, the Joe Bloggs answer will almost always be correct.
For medium (2 step) questions, the Joe Bloggs answer will be right 50% of the time.
For hard (3 step) questions, the Joe Bloggs answer will always be wrong.

Also read about the concepts of "pluggin in" values into equations instead of using algebra to solve them. This helps solve the question much quicker than using algebra (in Princeton's opinion !).

Summary of Day 1:
- Completed what I set out to do at the start of the day: Arithmetic, Algebra, Applied Arithmetic sections of the Princeton Review "Cracking the GMAT" book.

Insights/thoughts from Day 1:
- I can see how the "plugging-in" method will be helpful ... also helps verify if some of the answers are in fact correct ... I am wary of relying on this too much ... especially under the strict time conditions of the real GMAT exam.
- Need to become better at figuring out what math to use when solving problems. This should come with practice.
- Also need to become better using algebra to solve problems, as opposed to becoming too reliant on the plugging-in method
- Need to focus on the getting through the content in the PR book, and not get distracted by browsing through the GMAT online forums etc, and other books. I will be doing plenty of that later. This week, my objective is to complete the Cracking the GMAT book, and have my first PR CAT practice test.

Today has been a good review of some of the basic fundamental math which I havent touched since school !

Tomorrow, I plan to do a quick review of the main topics covered today, and then jump into Geometry and Data Sufficiency sections of the PR book.

GMAT Study Kick Off !

2007-12-23T23:56:00.000Z

Hoorah ! I have secured funding from my company to embark on an executive MBA programme ! I will be applying to some of Europe's top business schools. Now onto the next challenge ... putting together a first class EMBA application ! .... and the first major step of the application process ... the GMAT.

After doing some pre-work ... reading up on the GMAT and leveraging from others' learning experiences (by researching on the internet and visiting various forums) ... I decided to also contribute and put together a blog of my experiences and journey towards the GMAT (which I intend to take in late Feb/early March - depending on how my preparations are going !)

I have also purchased the following books:

The official guide for GMAT review (11th Edition)
The official guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
The official guide for GMAT Verbal Review

Books which I purchased in the past, and will be using throughout my studies:

Cracking the GMAT 2005 Edition (by the Princeton Review)
GMAT 800 (by Kaplan)

Today, I put together my study schedule for the upcoming week (7 days). Didnt want to plan too far down the line ... I think 1 week is a good period of time to plan for ... especially as this is my first week, and is a week in which I will be "finding my feet": Getting to know the basics, and understanding my strengths and weaknesses,which will then help me better plan for the subsequent weeks.

The objective for this week (Week 1) is to complete the "Cracking the GMAT - 2005 Edition" book, and take the Princeton Review GMAT Practice test on Sat 29th Dec, with a review session planned for Sun 30th Dec, where I intend to go through (in detail) my answers to the test questions, focussing in particular on the ones which were incorrectly answered.

I also would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Eric ... founder of beatthegmat.com ! A great forum and place to share experiences and lessons learned ! I am sure I will be using this forum a lot throughout the next 8 weeks or so of GMAT preparation.

One challenge I see over the upcoming 8 weeks is balancing study with work. I will be returning back to work on 2nd Jan. I suppose this is good practice for the Exec MBA programme where I will be mixing studies with a full-time hectic work schedule !