Strategy for GMAT : study under a month.

The general answer for EVERYBODY :
PREPARATION of GMAT STRATEGY for 30 days schedule:

[Here's quick & dirty article about study under a month. Many people have aced at the test just by 3/4 weeks study. If you're in time crunch, dont worry by using right approach/ method you too can ace it.]

I presume you have sound knowledge of: all areas that GMAT tests; how GMAT works; what is its structure etc...
I assumed this because you generally register a date at least one month before. (if you've not, you should. ...at least this is what I recommend! The early you book a date, easier it will be for you to plan a killing strategy). Lastly of course, I assume you do get acquainted with GMAT before sending them your credit card number!

So you've thirty days. or let's say, just four weeks!
Since it is much short period than ideal period to study for the test, you might need to compromise on few study materials which are not significant to you.
e.g. If you're weak in verbal and Math is your strength you should devote more time for verbal (obviously! )


Coming to materials:
GMAT official guide 11th Edition is must:
Purchase the book immediately if you haven't already!
As they suggested in the OG (official guide), start with the diagnostic test. Know your weak areas and your strengths.
Repeat diagnostic test next day to see how awfully you score. Do meticulous analysis (let's call it MA here onwards ) about your test/answers.
OG 11 has labelled/classified each question (which is great!). Use these tags in the future prep too....know which question belong to which category.

My definition of MA (meticulous analysis) and when & how to apply it:
While practicing GMAT problems I advise to solve at least 35-60 questions in one stretch. GMAT is more about mental stamina and patience! The real test is FOUR hours long and it tests your endurance like no other online test. 40-60 questions assures that you sit at least for an hour at one go.
Make a table, on spreadsheet (on your computer) or on paper, of no. of rows you'll be taking questions. And write details about how you feel about each question. This should be done while you're doing the questions. So dont spend more than 2-3 seconds on filling the table (you can tick on pre-defined columns that will same your time). It can be used as a future reference for your study: the table should enable you to quickly realise your problem areas and which type of questions you require maximum amount of time. One session of this sitting should at least be of 35-40 questions; be it from any section: PS, SC, CR, RC or DS.
Same amount of time you should spend in reading explanation and analyzing each answers as the amount of time you spent in answering these questions. If you got many questions wrong, increase the analysing time.


Coming to the books and materials:
You can refer basic math books, college algebra or high school grammar books to brush up your verbal and quant skills if you really wanted. But with given time constrains like "GMAT in a month" I think I would instead stick to GMAT materials. If you study smart you'd know GMAT ask particular type of questions; and they just love to ask them that way ;) You'll be familiar with GMAT style if you solve more OG problems.
Refer to Official guide 11.
Check the math section of the book. Read it (~10 hours) and re-read all its theory to know the syllabus of GMAT right. Don't end up studying subjects that are not tested in GMAT.

Download GMAT Prep software for simulated CAT from mba.com. It's free!

There are many other sim CATs that you should purchase.

Check out my other article to know more about these sim C A Ts

You can finish OG11 in 5-6 days (Yes you can! but you shouldn't ) Many folks I know finished it in a week (I too did it once) But that is not the right strategy. Since the time is short you surely can compromise on other books but not on OG11.
The problems in OG 11 are arranged in ascending order of difficulty. That means, you get harder (/upper range) questions at the end of the problem sets in each section. However problem types (categories) are mixed throughout the sets. This makes many things easy in setting a study schedule. You know your level and can begin the OG accordingly ;)
They say OG11 is a bible of GMAT! Solve as many as problems you can; examine the answers carefully do the MA as suggested above. Make Analysis chart.

Try to go through OG 11 twice in the month. (Since I'm not suggesting any other book along with OG, I think its possible to do this.) Check your progress regularly. Once you finish OG for first time you'll get idea of how many day it'll take to you to study one more time! If you think you have more time time left you should check with other two official guides
OG Verbal guide
and the OG Quant guide.

These new two official guides, (also known as purple and green guides,) are
published when GMAC stopped the production of OG 10th edition. While new
problems are in OG 11; purple and green guides give you lot of repeats from OG
10th edition. Therefore it is wise not to buy these two books iff you already have OG 10.

Three official guides (along with the sim CATs ) are enough for a month study!

Ideally I suggest to take as many simulated C A Ts as possible. Practice them periodically. say one in three-four days.
Practice tests play very significant role in your preparation. You'll need four hours to solve each of them and two more hours to analyze them.
Since they are Computer Adaptive tests you get only one question at a time and at times, you become curious to know your score and you hurriedly complete the test. (just to know where you stand and see the answers) Needless to say: dont do that ;) While these CATs are especially created to gauge your performance for actual GMAT, I see practise tests purely for practice. These tests hone your endurance, mental stamina to face four hour long real GMAT test! The tests are time consuming and drains your energy and hence you should keep special period for these CATs in your schedule. Be ready to spend ~6 hours for a test. Keep your cell phone on silent mode( or better switch it off). Don't start the test at 10.30 in the night: I know most of you out their are owls ;) but it really not going to help in your real test. (You cant take the real McCoy in the night, right? ;) In fact, once you know your test times be sure to take these practice tests on the same time of the day... say: start your test everytime on 1.30 pm if your real test is scheduled on 1.30 pm of the G-Day!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think this much is enough!
If I receive any comment I might add something you wanted.

To sum up the article I can say:

• Eat OG 11.
• if time permits study OG verbal and quant
• Eat OG 11 one more time
• GMAT Prep : the official computer adaptive practise test for GMAT
• Plus other CATs

Note that I have not set any particular order in this you should all of it simultaneously.

Hope that helps everyone who is in time crunch.

1000 SC, CR are they worth your time?

They are very famous documents. Yes they are famous and there are lots of reasons for it.
But being famous doenst make them nice.
All right, so lets see whats these documents are upto!
If you are checking my blog regularly, you must be knowing that some months back I made an announcement that I’ll exhaust 1000 SC document & I’ll provide the explanation of their questions. Yes! I tried that but while I was in process of eating 1000 SC document I observed many things about the document that I’d like to share here.

But before that, what’s the fuss? What’s 1000 SC & 1000 CR all about?

1000 SC is a compilation of thousand sentence correction problems related to GMAT exam. Similarly 1000 CR is a word document of thousand critical reasoning problem related to GMAT and LSAT tests. They were produced by very renowned company called scoretop ( you can see the link of the scoretop forums on right hand column of my blog, )
They are easily on internet on sharing/ uploading sites such as esnip or megaupload or rapidshare well you might find some copyrighted documents on such sites but these documents are even available on various (almost every ) GMAT related forums the reason for this is they’re meant to share it across the world wide web.
I am sure you’ll find them anywhere.
So, they are popular. And have so many problems to practice, that GMAT aspirants download them and use them.

Well even I did the same.

[Now before I go ahead I must thank score top for compiling such huge documents. These documents, since available freely on internet, helped and are helping many people who cant affort to buy practise materical.]

But the problem with 1000 SC is that it doesn’t give you the explanations to the answers. That end us up in wondering why given particular answer is correct.
As I started solving 1000 SC problems more & more I realized that the problems are not that GMAT like.
If you compare the 1000SC problems with problems from Official guides or Power Prep or GMAT prep you’ll realize that they do not follow the same trend, or similar style or what they call GMAT like.
Many constructions are bad awkward and they simply arent worth your time studying.
Morever I started a special thread on one of the forum encouraging people to post the problems from 1000 SC that have wrong answers.

Take one, for example, Problem #985 discussed in one of the forums where I am active member
So there are some problems like these where the answer given in the document is actually wrong!
I am looking for some more such problems. but then I think is it worth the time?

The answer come : NO. You have other good materials that you can refer.

SO the bottomline is refer to OG 11th edition; exhaust it,  you have GMAT Prep, solve every problem also there are similar official materials such as Power Prep & other books Purple and green official guide (refer to How to Approach GMAT for more details )
& still if you think that you need some more material to practise then refer them back exhaust OG 11 twice.
& then
you'll be able to know which are GMAT like problem then you can safely start 1000 SC

PS I think special article for 1000 CR is not worth. one last tip go for LSAT problems for higher level :)
Thank you.

How to Approach the GMAT

The first thing any MBA aspirant should do is visit official MBA/GMAT site

spend some 2-3 hours there. (or even 2-3 days!)

read as much as you can. The information published there is genuine, authentic, eye-opener & myth breaker.

So you should do that first.

Then you should download a sim C A T GMAT test available there: name is GMAT Prep; it’s of ~25MB size.

The site mba.com will help you understand: whats GMAT in general terms, its significance, its structure and the way company conducts the test worldwide.

(I will not go into GMAT structure deeper since I am going to present only resources in this article)

Then you'll need some books to prepare for GMAT.

GMAC, the company that sets GMAT test, came up with three books recently, known as official guides.

They are: (Follow the link to read reviews about these books)

1. The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
2. The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
3. The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
   

they are nicknamed as orange, purple and green guides respectively.

Official guide 11th edition is THE book you should start with and end your preparation.

You should trust these guides along with GMATPrep software (~25 MB)

Although these guides and a simulation software for CAT are fantastic for the practice problems, they don't provide (/come up with) extra strategies...

In short: when it comes to problems solving in practice sessions, nothing beats above mentioned materials. But for strategies (read shortcuts ) you need to look for some extra materials.

Other books i would recommend:

• Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program (w/ CD-ROM) (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom)) (latest edition with CD : best buy /2006 edition will also do ( both are same) : comprehensive book, covers everything)
• Cracking the GMAT with DVD, 2008 Edition (Graduate Test Prep) or Click here for older and cheaper version by Princeton review (Caution: it doesn’t have C A T in its DVD; good strategies & comprehensive, covers everything though )
• Kaplan GRE & GMAT Exams Math Workbook: Fourth Edition (Kaplan Gmat Math Workbook) ( very elementary good for starters & weak at math : not recommended )
• Kaplan GMAT 800, 2007-2008 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800) (for advanced students who want to score higher I purchased it; caution: AWA essay section not included )
• Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (PURE GOLD I CANT WRITE MORE :A MUST HAVE BOOK FOR ‘weak in SC’ )
• All books from Manhattan GMAT store. Lately I have become a fan of Manhattan GMAT thanks to Stacey Koprince.
  

(I'll write an article exclusively for recommended books some time soon.) These books offer good strategies to attack GMAT, they’ll show you how to approach each section and each problem individually.

But then for taking the test in one go you need to have a patience, faith and stamina. & for that you need to take as many GMAT sim CATs as possible.

[Note: Do not rush and sign up for just any sim CATs available on would wide web.]

Following are the GMAT prep companies you should trust: Reason : they have done enough research to come near to the real GMAT test... (still they are not as near as GMAT Prep or POWER Prep)

[Note that I am not talking about GMAT coaching institutes but the online resources for practice tests ]

• mba.com (nearest possible)
• manhattangmat.com (?near? quant tough)
• 800score.com (easier)
• kaptest.com (tough)
• pricetonreview.com (neutral)

They offer good Sim GMAT tests.

Note that I have not mentioned about other books or other sites for practice tests which simplymeans they are NOT worth your time & money. Caution: This has exception of Veritas Prep. I haven't had chance to review their products.

Now lets have some non-brand materials,

Materials those are freely available on cyberspace and have no copyright issues.

BeattheGMAT’s flashcard (best flashcards you could get )

Grammar Notes:

Sahil’s Grammar Notes

Spidey's Sentence Correction Notes

Rajat-nda’s Sentence Correction Notes

You will get above documents anywhere, or for all lazy bumps click here

The reason why I am so selective in mentioning about the resources is, people just take any darn test or soft copies of books available on internet just to end up in pracitsing non-GMAT questions.

Therefore I am with trusted and reputable sources.

DONT WASTE YOUR TIME IN STUDYING AND PRACTISING WRONG SETS OF PROBLEMS.

...still if you want more practice problems then I would advise you to download thousand series by scoretop

• 1000 SC
• 1000 CR
• 3000 RC

These documents are available freely everywhere on internet. Note that documents do not have explanations to the problems. You will have to join some GMAT realated online forums to discuss those problems. I am not pro-1000 series doc as such but I feel these documents are one of a kind. You'll never get great no. of questions compilied in a single document.

[OK! after some time getting into GMAT prep environment), you should start realising the easy methods to solve the problems, you should discover some shortcuts; You should collect the strategies that are discussed in prep books and use them according to your needs.] If you see these signs you know that you're going in the right direction.

Post GMAT course for getting admission into MBA programs

While prepping for GMAT you should also be aware of the b-schools you want to apply. You must have a long term plan & You should do some research on the b-schools that suits your long term goal.

For such informations you have b-schools' own web-sites which give all information about MBA programs you desire

/along with plenty of other good sites:

Dave’s MBA Journey

Hjort’s b-school corner from GMAT Club Forums :

Then, you should also aware of admission process:

Accepted.com

ClearAdmit

Stacy Blackman Co. blog

Keep tab on all these site & be informed.

That's it! Thanks for reading till the last line. Do post a feedback, hope this helps.

Jack GMAT story compiled

Here's ready link for all posts of [Jack GMAT story: A case study]

Dont worry if you lose this page. I have made a quick link on right column of my blog in reference section, so that you dont have to hit back button.

• Preface
  
• 
  
• Jack's Story : Wrong approach
  
• 
  
• Solution to the dilemma
  
• 
  
• What went wrong
  
• 
  
• The right approach
  

I might add couple of more posts about the survey/poll i conducted on various GMAT related forums. And also add peoples responses.

Jack's GMAT story: [part- IV RIght Approach]

Case A: An undergrad student.

This is the best time to take the test. Although, average age of GMAT test taker is more than GRE-folks, it is still recommended to take it in early ages.

A college student can get good resources from the library, he has peers, friends who can study together & motivate.

The life after graduation is quite miserable, plane and lonely. (believe me!)

Jack could have decided to take GMAT on December, joined some quality forum boards- gained some mixed opinions and knowledge-networked with other fellow GMAT students & MBA aspirants. By Feb-March Jack could have taken the GMAT test successfully.

Case B: Person has all free time, nothing else to do but to study for GMAT.

Jack could have got max out of it (... out of this period). He really doesn’t have to join any tuition of preparation classes. As he could have done it all alone, with stable mind of course.

Jack has plenty of material and online resources such as forums and blogs. The key is to get to know what suits you out of the materials available.

Most of People (most of Jacks!) say that they need as much material as it is available on earth.
No!. It is a wrong approach. Yes, you should review every material available, but then you have to decide what suits you.

There are certainly loads of resources and hard/ soft material available. And each material has its own style; each tutor has her own style of approaching to the plan ( what it's called the strategy) or particular problem.

Each unit/ coaching class / tutor has his/her own strategy. You have to decide which strategy works for you.

It’s not about getting the maximum material available but about getting the maximum out of the material available.

Case C: Balancing work and study

This is very crucial!

We have loads of similar cases here.

Jack has full time job. He hardly finds time to check with his parents or his old friends. Jack lives comfortable life (read: earning money) and focus on GMAT in this case, goes fading.

In order to avoid this:

Jack should learn to love his GMAT journey first. May be he should keep a blog or do some other inspirational stuff.

He can join a preparation classes. Some reputed or may be third grade; it doesn’t matter as long as it is making Jack's GMAT journey stimulating. (Caution: the above statement is valid only if Jack has other wise materials available.)

It is very important for Jack to keep his GMAT interest alive. May be he should network with other GMAT aspirants and meet on weekends. Such tiny things can help Jack stay alive.

If Jack is successful in keeping his GMAT interest alive the rest things become "cake walk".

No matter how hectic your life is, you can always find some
time for your favorite activities.

Indulge in GMAT related forums- get addicted. No harm, if you find the zeal to study at age of 29. Being addicted is sometimes beneficial.

I think I have provided three vital scenarios ( cases I mean). However if you, readers find new case feel free to discuss it here or on some forums boards where I am available.

Thank you.

Jack's GMAT story: [part- III What Went Wrong]

Jack has been studying for GMAT since long. And during this period he missed quite a few opportunities to take this test.

Most of the time, what he missing was right approach, strategy to prepare for the GMAT and some good advice.

When Jack was completing his degree, it was ideally the best time for him to take the test. Honestly, it gets more difficult once you get a full time job. Jack had his classmates to take the test. It would have been definitely easier for him to take the test then.

But he missed the boat.

After finishing his education Jack had some free time that could have used wisely for GMAT preparation. He in fact did utilized that time but not so wisely. Too many cooks spoil the soup.
Yes! Same thing happened with Jack this time.

Unfortunately he couldn’t resist to apply for jobs simultaneously. Jack failed to realize the case if he gets a call from a prosperous company on the verge of taking the GMAT. Exactly same thing happened and Jack faced this dilemma. He had to drop the idea, one more time. But he wouldn't have gotten success in GMAT because the wrong approach he followed.

He had all free time available for preparation, Jack bought all material available on earth also he joined tuition/classes. Well in most of the cases it is recommended but Jack went to extreme and end up confusing himself for the right strategy that would work for him.
Yes! too many cooks spoil the soup. Oh! I forgot to mention about the forums and blog he used to indulge in!!

After resuming to his job, Jack hardly finds time for anything extra work like studying for GMAT. Though Jack turned wiser than before, he has time constrains, mental stress and job responsibilities. He's struggling to manage work-life balance forget about extra efforts for GMAT study.
He needed the force to go for GMAT study. He made up by his own... He could have done much better if he had joined some classes this time.

Above all things of Jacks story went wrong… Jack could have done better. To know the right approach read on.

Jack's GMAT story: [part- II Solution]

I must confess that, this dilemma of Jack is genuine and is tough to provide the correct solution. What makes this situation really tough is his GMAT-score 610.

Jack still has plenty of time (may be couple of more years) before he would apply to b-school.

610 is critical score, an ‘on-the-wall’ score you can say; which is not a good score but given a chance, with proper study strategy he can improve his score to a respected level

610+40=650! which is at least an average score for decent business schools.

But note that it could go really tough for Jack to improve his score by more than 40. therefore I call 610 as a critical score.

Anything less and I would not advice Jack to retake the test.

Remember, you can’t fool this test.
To be cont....what went wrong

Jack's GMAT story: [Part-I wrong approach]

-------------------------------

Year ONE: December.

Jack is a (senior) student in his final years. Like many of his classmates he wants to do an MBA. And as they say, the early you plan the better and easier your path will be.

So he plans:

-Bachelors degree

-3-4 years job.

-Applying for b-schools.

OK. that sounds good.

Jack knows that there’s a beast called GMAT, must be conquered first. His friends advise him to give GMAT a shot, now. He agrees, thinking that, it would be better if he takes the test during his education. He wouldn’t have to brush up the basics( /fundamental skills). He has the habit of studying hard; also he would have access to the college library. He has Christmas holidays to slog for GMAT. That’s perfect.

Jack starts preparing for GMAT. He goes to the Internet to read some reviews about the books related to GMAT exam. He does good research and starts preparing for GMAT. His first diagnostic test scores in five hundred something. 510 to be precise.

He was shocked by such a low score.

He does more research on GMAT; uses online resources; signs up for various online forums.

Later he realized two (?) facts (?):

*GMAT needs average of two months of preparation.

*And 650+ in GMAT is considered to be an average score for good b-schools..

Concluding this, he postpones his GMAT date to summer, thinking that it would be impossible for him to study for two months during his graduation classes.

----------------------------------

Year TWO: August

Jack completes his degree & now he has free time till he gets his first job.

He plots a plan.

Aug+ Sept =two months GMAT study.

He buys half dozen books, based on the online reviews.
He decides to do job search and GMAT preparation simultaneously.

He takes his diagnostic test again and finishes with the exact same figure he had eight months ago.
He already has joined GMAT forums. He also purchases some simulation CAT GMAT CDs. And yes! he signs up for a reputed GMAT coaching class too.

More-determined-Jack-this-time, thinks that he can improve his score by couple of hundreds…many people have done that. He read many peoples' GMAT war stories.
Loaded with full of material hard and soft he starts his GMAT preparation.
He finds GMAT forum addictive. He goes there often and grabs many interesting facts/myths about GMAT.

Jack couldn’t been able to excel his score though…
He had online forums that provide plenty of different solutions to a problem. He had plenty of books to get different strategies. He had classroom strategy too, to attack different problems. He had habit to study for long hours. Still he failed to excel.

He was thinking positive that his score would rise.
After two months of preparation he manages to get ~570-580 on his practice tests.
That’s an improvement of course! But not as much as he wanted.

Meanwhile he gets a job offer which he couldn't deny. Disappointed Jack, again postpones his GMAT.

----------------------------------

Year 3 November

Jack is way out of his studies. He’s working for full time for a year or more. GMAT is still in his mind. He has not quit from his favorite GMAT forum. He thinks it would be good to keep in touch.

This time he decides not to spend a single extra money for GMAT; had enough of it.

Jack starts preparing for GMAT with his coaching class material, the books he had purchased and online forums, of course.

He realized the fact that he couldn’t give more time than he used to give earlier due to his job responsibility; ...he sacrificed the night outs. Stopped meeting friends. And studied hard again.

He has grown wiser than earlier. He knows how to attack a problem now. Though he got 510 in diagnostic test. After two months of better preparation he managed to lift his score by hundred points to 610!. His real first GMAT score!

He was not at all satisfied with his score. He keeps on telling himself you can raise your score by more 100 points. com'on you can do it!

He’s angry with himself; not sure, what to do?

He’s in a dilemma.

-to retake the test again within a month?

-to again postpone it till more time space available?

-to drop the idea of GMAT./ let 610 be good.

-to abandon the thought of B-schools & MBA altogether.

He knows the options presented are negative in ascending order. At this moment Jack is not confident enough to take most positive option. & he is not so depressed to cut the thought of B-school entirely... after-all he spent more than two years of GMAT…

God bless him.

to be cont..... solution to the problem

Jack's GMAT story [part 0: Preface]

I am presenting you a story of Jack, a normal GMAT test taker.
Lately I observed, students’ negative drive towards taking the test; Jack is one of them. I can see many Jacks here n there. They usually postpone or retake the test because of low score they observe during their practise CAT tests.
As a result of it, I decided to write an article in my blog, based on how important it is to take GMAT once and for all.
Later I dropped the idea and thought to place it on GMAT forum... That way I would make it more interactive.
[Editor's note: I have published it in some GMAT related forums first for response & one month later I published compilied story on blog.]


I want your comments on the Jack’s story, folks.
I have my own opinion on this story (of course! I have written it. which you can read in the next episode/articles)

Before I write further, here’s my background:
You might wonder that why should you read the story of the fictional character and later hear the opinion of a person who has not taken the test?
I have been thinking of b-schools since last 5-6 years. And GMAT is in my mind all day all night for last two years. In a process, I read as much as I could get on the internet. I joined online forums, interacted with people, enough for now, to make a firm opinion on GMAT issues. On June end of this year I was fully prepared for GMAT. But due to my ignorance to the fact that I needed a passport on the test day, I dropped the plan. I do not have passport yet!

People,
Feel free to post the comments on the story. However, I am posting just first part of the series, Latter parts contain my opinions followed by right approach etc.

Check all series of articles the case study of Jack's GMAT.

Link to the relevant thread on forum will be available upon request.