July 31, 2012 – Review of the first mock test during this GMAT attempt

Before I move ahead, post introduction of the IR section, the official site now has the newer version of the GMATPrep tests. This version can co-exist with the older version (one having 2 essays). So effectively the students having both versions can avail of 4 mock tests.

I took the first mock test of the older GMAT Prep software yesterday. I did not attempt the essays and jumped straight away to the Quant section. The initial questions were a breeze and I was pretty much on time. However, around the 10 or 11^th question, I got stuck and took about 3.5 to 4 minutes for a question. This was still acceptable since I was ahead of time even at this point. Around the 18^th question and then the 22^nd question, I really got stuck up on a relatively easier problem. I say relatively because when I was reviewing the test questions, I was able to solve it within 2 minutes with a much better approach. Due to this I ended up having to really rush through the questions from 27^th to 31^st and missed all 5 of them. Yes, 5 in a row were wrong. L I just managed to finish off the quantitative section just in time but I have surely learnt my lesson. I have to take immense care that henceforth I do not get bogged down by the middle questions. It cost me time and indirectly my accuracy heavily. I am not revealing my overall score as yet since I intend to cover it later on when I mention my review analysis.

Moving on to the verbal, I felt I started strongly. The first 2 were sentence correction questions and I was able to narrow down to 2 choices and then went with my judgment to nail it down to one. The third question was a CR with the question type as a variant of strengthen the argument. I felt that I got this one correct as well. I then a RC passage at question 6 and then onwards more of SC. There were 3 more RC’s with the total RC’s encountered being 4. Since this is almost my 6 or 7^th attempt of this particular mock test, I had a feeling of having seen the questions. This mock was my first in over 8 months so chances of answering repeat questions based on my memory can be eliminated. I felt confident of my responses and that I had done well. So, with a calm mind I proceeded to the score. I felt I should be around 700 this time.

The overall score was 670 with Q 49 and V 32. Incidentally I had a total of 11 mistakes each on the quant and the verbal section. Disappointed a bit, I proceeded with the review of the performance.

1

          Quant Section --:

i. I started off really well. The first mistake was on the 9^th question and it was a DS. The next mistake was on the 13^th question. I had struggled on the 12^th question and fortunately it was correct. This might not necessarily happen always. The next time, I might get one wrong after spending 4 mins on it.

ii. I am not detailing my entire review (I already started with that, didn’t I?) considering it might be boring for the readers. I will just state the gist of my analysis.

iii. My mistakes were question numbers 9,13, 19,20, 25,26, 28,29,30,31 and 35. As mentioned before, I got stuck at the mid-level and that resulted in the mistakes onwards of 20. It really hurts badly if one makes consecutive mistakes as I have. I am actually surprised to see a score of Q 49 after seeing the layout of my mistakes.

iv. I can surely improve on this and try not to get stuck in my next mock test. I might have possibly got the question that I got stuck on wrong but then maybe I could have avoided 2-3 mistakes from question 25 to 31. When reviewing the solutions, I realized with another 30 seconds for each of those hurried questions I could have got them correct. Lesson learnt is “No matter how much you practice with moving on after 2 mins, on the test you tend to avoid guessing on time. This has hurt me and I will take a lot of care not to repeat this mistake.”

v. My biggest confidence booster is that despite making such consecutive mistakes I ended up with a score of Q 49. This does not prove nor disprove anything about the impact of getting the first questions right but I feel, personally, that the do matter. I say this because of my verbal performance review. If I avoid getting stuck, I might be possibly looking at Q 50 which will surely boost the chances of reaching the target score of 730+.

vi. I have improved leaps and bounds on my quant score and specifically D.S. I made 2 silly mistakes on the D.S. and I am pretty sure I need to avoid a recurrence of this theme.

2 

     Verbal Section --:

i. Contrary to my belief that I had started well, I started with a lot of mistakes. I missed the questions 1 and 2 which were both SC. The positive however is that I had correctly nailed down the actual correct OA and the one I chose. It was the final elimination that failed. I have not been working on SC so this is presently acceptable though not desirable. I firmly believe that with practice and SC review I will be able to improve my accuracy on SC.

ii. The third question was CR and this was correct. I missed the 4^th and the 6^th from the 4^th to the 6^th question which were all SC. So effectively I missed 4 of the first 6 questions.

iii. Hereafter I was pretty stable and my next mistakes were 19,20, 23,24, 29, 34 and 39. Getting consecutive questions wrong did not help my score in any way but I feel the damage was really done in those initial 4 questions.

iv. I am aiming for a score of V37+ and I need to work very hard on SC hendeforth. I missed 1 CR question and had 3 RC mistakes. I have been working on CR so I am pleased with my CR performance though I am sure my real test will come when I get the SC questions correct as well. The CR will then be of a level which tests my CR ability.

v. I have not started off with RC and I think I am taking RC lightly. I did this mistake in my previous 2 attempts and I intend to correct it this time.

Overall, the key learning’s are to start on SC now since my quant looks better. This does not mean that I overlook quant all together. There are 2-3 topics which seemed to appear as a pattern in my mistakes. I need to work on Simple Interest and Ratio & proportion word problems. The CR is looking better and I need to keep practicing to build on this. For RC I think it is time that I dedicated 3-4 days to learn the finer nuances and reduce the possibilities of any RC based mistakes. It is high time I took RC seriously.

I am planning of appearing for the GMAT in September first week. For that to happen I need to get my RC and SC sorted by the 10^th August. I will be taking my next mock on 12^th August and it will be with the IR one i.e the new mock test. I am thinking that I will then take the MGMAT on the 15^th Aug since the quant in MGMAT’s mock is slightly difficult than on the actual GMAT.

I am happy with my performance and my review makes me feel positive about being able to next leap and cross that 700 barrier which I have till now never crossed. If at all I can ever do it then it has to be in this attempt. I seriously dread the thought of having to go through this entire process of GMAT preparation again. L

July 04 , 2012 – Work & Data Sufficiency. The score booster / demolisher

While I have not taken a month to post again, it has been relatively late. 2 weeks is not something that I wanted to space out for. That said, I believe I have become a much wiser man in these 2 weeks. Work wise I have absolutely been killed. 24 hours seem less for the amount of work getting directed my way.

That said, I have realized over the last few days that there is no end to work as such. The more you slog and do, the more work you get. While this is really good normally and even I have enjoyed it in my career, this particular fact is detrimental when there are some other ambitions / tasks that get lined up. In this case it is specifically studying for my GMAT and preparing my application. I am not sure how many of the working people face this dilemma. It is tough to give one’s 200 % at both work and study at the same time.

My solution to this problem is resorting to the same logic as solving Data Sufficiency in a way. One has to prioritize at all stages of one’s life and career and my present stage is such that my priority has to be my study time and my application. I cannot stop working and stop putting in efforts at work, can I? So what do I then? The answer I realized is work for the stipulated time and as much as is sufficient. After all every one if happy if sufficient work and output is received. This way I am working well to complete my assigned tasks and also not burning out myself. I have done this for the past 2 days and I realize that I have done a good job so far. I am not exhausted when it is study time and am able to devote at least 1 session of 75 mins in solving problems. I need to now make another 30-45 minutes more daily to analyze my problems and mistakes.

I completed the OG12 problem solving section. There is considerable increase in my accuracy which has risen to 90%. Interestingly, the most mistakes that I have made are in the easy and the medium difficulty levels. A few of these were silly mistakes and I have to be careful in my attempts and maybe take another 10 seconds to verify if needed. I made only 6 mistakes from the 78 hard questions. This was encouraging. I am now scouring for some really good questions to take my score to the next level. I feel that the OG12 questions are good enough for around 650+. To achieve 720+, I need to start practicing some really tough and testing questions more regularly.

I then moved on to Data Sufficiency questions. I have completed 100 questions and I realized that I am doing well initially and then when it comes down to the final choice I am just going the wrong way. Normally when the question comes down to C or E then the mistakes I am making are where I am choosing the wrong one. So while strategy wise, when I am guessing between C and E there is a probability of getting the correct answer 50%, I am ending up getting the wrong answer. I have already mentioned in my previous post that I am making this mistake. I need to work more carefully on reducing such mistakes. Another observation is that I tend to get 2-3 mistakes on a stretch and then a real good run of correct answers. This will kill me in the actual GMAT. I am trying to analyze if there is something wrong in my approach to the Data Sufficiency questions. I feel when I guess the answers here in DS, I tend to linger on that question even when I have the next question. This can be fatal. I need to consciously avoid this. I have some way to go still with the official guide questions and then the quant guide questions. I hope I adapt and improve.

For someone interested, a basic step in DS that maybe everyone knows but does not use is AD or BCE. I am using this and this helps narrow down solving questions that absolutely stump the living lights out of you. So as a step, I am writing this down on my notepad and striking out when I have evaluated one of the answer choices. This is surely helping me. Another general tip is to not be fixated with trying the first answer choice for evaluation. If the second one is easier to understand then it needs to be chosen. There is a reason why the first statement is sometimes convoluted and hard on you. Don’t get caught up there and move to the second statement first. After all the GMAC is spending roughly $250 per question that is being put forth in the actual test’s question bank. It cannot be so easy and straight forward, is it?

I hope I get back to my next post soon with some further news on my preparation and hopefully lesser DS mistakes. J

June 21, 2012 – A few strategies that can be used for quick maths

This post is intended as a continuation of the previous dilemma. I have been traversing different sources of study materials recently and was lucky to have a chance to spend a week of trail with an online study portal. There were a few things that I understood there that were really good and are shaping my resolve to use the quick maths more regularly. I am only listing a few of them so that if someone is interested they can dive into the deeper depths of that specific analogy. Along with the names I am providing some simple explanations as reference for the usage / application.

i.                    Process of Elimination

This is undoubtedly one of the most widely known terms of usage. However I would think that in the pressures of the actual test environment this trick is under-utilized. Personally I find that I fail to apply it to the trickier problems. This process of elimination helps when one can arrive at some understanding of the possible answer.

ii.                  Substitution : Plugging in the value

I find this strategy is helpful when solving for the problems with ages, mixtures, percents and even more in Data Sufficiency questions. The skill or the trick here to be learnt is on the good numbers that can be plugged in. A specific piece of information that is helpful is that when dealing with fractions, multiply the unique denominators of all the fractions involved and use that number for the substitution.

iii.                Tables

This methodology is really helpful in all the cases where the solution is leaning towards a Venn Diagram. If there are two distinct choices then this solution should be applied more frequently. An example would be in a class of students 5 girls are tall and 4 boys are fair. Blah blah blah…no girl who is fair is short…blah blah blah…find the boys who are not fair. These are the typical examples of applying the tables setup.

iv.                Data Sufficiency (AD or BCE)

This is also another very popular trick when guessing on the DS questions. It is really helpful in eliminating the answer choices. The trick for me to work and learn on here is when it comes down to choosing between C and E. While the probality of choosing a the correct answer between C and E is 50%, somehow I am presently not making the correct choice and am hence working on this aspect.

I will edit and add on more such pieces of possible tricks as and when I come across them. Hope this post was helpful and informative to those new to quant or trying to find quick options.

June 20 , 2012 – The dilemma : Quick maths or the traditional quantitative approach?

Hello there, it has been a month since my last post. Somehow work always seems to increase when you least want it to grow on you. L These are the few petty matters in the life of an B-School applicant after all J

With respect to the quantitative problem solving questions, this dilemma has been testing my nerve for quite some time now. The basis of this issue rises from the way one’s approach is conditioned to approaching the problem solving quant problems. Being from an engineering background with plenty of exposure to mathematics, the natural approach for problem solving is to take the mathematical way. Believe me this approach will rarely fail. The trick however on the GMAT questions is most importantly there are only 2 minutes per problem and secondly that the questions are not actually meant to test the depth of the quant skills of the test-taker but instead the application of the basic math concepts. Following the natural mathematical approach gets really tough on the harder quant questions since the wording of the problem gets really tricky.

With this in mind, I have consciously decided to try the smarter way of solving the quant problems. This is a very demanding approach and needs immense practice. The end result should possibly result in relative improvement in time taken to solve the problems and also in making informed guesses on the harder problems. Now, a rather straight forward question is that why is this approach so demanding, if one decides on following this approach shouldn’t it be easy enough?

Let me try to explain this with a simple example. The below question is one of the easier questions in OG 12 problem solving quant section. Please take your time in trying to solve it.

A rainstorm increased the amount of water stored in State J reservoirs from 124 billion gallons to 138 billion gallons. If the storm increased the amount of water in the reservoirs to 82% of the total capacity, approximately how many billion gallons of water were the reservoirs short of total capacity prior to the storm? 

A. 9 
B. 14 
C. 25 
D. 30 
E. 44 

Ok, so since you now have attempted to solve this problem it is time to move on to checking the answer. But hold on for a second, the example was not for evaluating the answer but rather for evaluating the approach.

So, when I first looked at this problem, my natural instinct told me that form the equation and solve for the unknown variable. If (82/100) = 138 then x% = 124. Find the value of x and solve up for the total of 100% and subtract 124 from it to get the answer. Voila!

Some potential drawbacks here are that the calculations involved are slightly tedious and can take a significant amount of time. So then how can this be solved using another approach? The answer choices are close enough. So even though this is an easy question they answer choices do not scream out on the correct answer. Notice the word “approximately” in the question stem. So the approach that I now intend to take for such problems is as below.

138 billion = 82%

13.8 billion = 8.2% i.e. ~ 14 billion = 8%.

Now, remaining % in tank is 100 – 82 = 18%.

This can be loosely translated to ( 8% + 8% + 2% ) i.e. 14 + 14 + ~3.5 which gives us 31.5 billion. Now a very important point to take note of is that this is NOT our final answer. We want to find originally (before the rain) how much short of capacity was the reservoir? So we need to keep in mind that something (138-124 = 14 billion) needs to be added to 31.5 to get the desired answer. Now look at the answers, only 44 is greater than 31.5. Our answer is hence E.

To sum it up, as per my personal observation, very seldom will the test the core of your mathematical skills. The second approach, which I by now have thoroughly realized, is not straight forward to apply. It needs quite a lot of practice but the rewards will be good. So, I intend to work out on applying this approach more. Let us see how it goes.

But the bottom line is that one should take the approach one is most comfortable with. There are no extra points for the approach taken hence the approach which suits one best should be used. Hopefully this post has been of some help and has made you think again.

May 29, 2012 – Powers in the Quant Section in GMAT

While I have been working on the quant section, POWERS is one of the topics that is tested and on which questions can be expected. Below are a few pointers to keep in mind with regards to the Powers that I have been able to recollect and which I have read in a few quant related articles --:

1.                 Keep in mind the properties of Powers (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication)

2.         0 is an EVEN number

3.         An even power is always positive, whether the base is positive or negative. 

             Eg :-- 

                       (-2)^2 = 4 and (2)^2 = 4

4.         An odd power retains the base's original sign.

             Eg :-- 

                       (-2)^3 = -8 and (2)^3 = 8

5.                 Adding and subtracting powers with the same base:

               

                        DON'T: add or subtract the exponents

                        Example: x³ + x⁵ ≠ x⁸

                        Do: extract the highest common factor.

                        Example: x³ + x⁵ = x³(1+x²)

6.        If you're not sure that you factored the expression correctly, check that re-expanding the brackets does return to the original expression. This is a method to cross-check and should be used if you have time and are unsure of your answer

7.       Like terms (same base and same exponent) can always be added/subtracted:

6a² + 3a² = 9a²

8.        Whenever one encounters an even root in the GMAT, it only represents the positive solution. Which is why x in the quadratic equation x^2-4=0 will equal ±2, but if it is stated as only √4 then it will equal 2 alone. By EVEN Root, the statement refers to square root or 4^th root, 6^th root and so on.

9.       In other words, both positive and negative roots must be considered if we placed the square root ourselves, as part of solving an equation, for example.

10.      If the root sign is already there to begin with, it signifies only the positive root (This is a mathematical convention).