my tryst with GMAT

GMAT - at first I was overawed and totally scared about the beast... I presumed that taming this beast was by far the most important achievement in the entire journey of an MBA application... I could not be more mistaken...While GMAT score is important, it is definitely not a deciding factor and does not deserve the attention it receives. A 700+ is a good score. A 780 cannot guarantee an admit to top 10 and a 690 may be just fine a score to get you into a top 5...

With that disclaimer...I must add that GMAT did scare the hell out of me... But in the end I received a decent score which made me calm and relaxed during the essay writing phase... So my advice will be to target a 700+ score and focus all the remaining energy on essays which by far is the most important part of your application...it can make or break your dream of entering those hallowed portals of the B-school you always wanted to....

I will talk about my preparation strategy...And hope it gives the flavor of preparation one needs to put in for the exam...

I took a month and a half to prepare.. My office timings were pretty screwed up..12pm-9pm...so I conditioned myself to study at night...i used to come back from office and sleep for 2 hours and then study for some 2 hours... This schedule helped me build up my concentration levels well.. I started with OG, which is the only book one should refer to and did the entire book once... I figured out that my weakness area was SC and perhaps I needed to spend more time on it. To that end I did Manhattan SC guide and clarified all the concepts. After that I again solved the SC section of OG and read the solutions clearly...My accuracy rate had shot up... I did OG once again for all the sections and paid heed to the solutions... While doing OG, one should focus on "how the answers are derived" rather than "what the answer is"... This helps in maximizing accuracy...

Once I finished OG in some 10 days...I took my first GMAT prep test... it went okayish for me and I screwed up a little on timing myself...I tend to panic easily and needless to say...i got mini panic attacks some 4-5 times during the course of that test.. :D The test had many questions from OG and having dont OG twice, I remembered the answers...so doing not so well in the test made me realize that in the coming month, I need to spend most of my time practicing computer based tests..to acclimatize myself with the pressure and build up accuracy... A computer based test is a very different ball game and tests your mental strength more than knowledge level... I spent the remaining month doing computer based tests (Princeton, 800 score.com) and 1000CR and 1000SC for practice...The 1000 series is an excellent practice material...I made ti a point to do atleast 50 questions each day in SC and atleast 30 for CR every day...This gave me a very good practice and kept me mentally stimulated...

Finally the exam date was just a week away...I took 4 days off from work before my exam and practiced OG once again and at the same time continued practicing the 1000 CR and SC series...My exam timing was 5:30pm...So during these 4 days, I practiced a mock test (GMAT prep which I reinstalled and retook again and again)at 5:30pm.... Retaking the GMAT prep tests made me very comfortable with the actual exam pattern and interface....

Finally on the D DAY...I went...took the exam...got a major panic attack in the quants section...felt like I screwed the exam...proceeded to the verbal section..for some reason I found the verbal section super easy...In disbelief of my good luck I proceeded... i was disappointed with my performance..with a heavy heart click on calculate the score...and when I saw a 7**.. I was relieved and yeahh thrilled !!!!! I thanked GOD and took a deep breath of relief saying to myself that this is finally over" :)

So that was my story and just a quick fact...both the contributors of the blog have same score :P

To summarize...GMAT IS NOT THE END OF IT ALL..IT IS NOT "THE" ONLY FACTOR THAT GETS YOU IN....

The materials I referred for GMAT are as follows:

1) gmat Official guide 11 the edition also called OG - the main book which shud be referred (i think the 12th edition is already in the market)
2) 1000 cr and 1000sc for practice once I was done with OG times
3)Practice tests: Princeton, Gmatprep(can be dwnloaded from MBA.COM), and 5 tests from 800 score.com (NO KAPLAN PLEASE)
4) For Sentence correction I used "Manhattan SC guide"

Hope this helps!

The GMAT

Hi Guys,

Apologies for not updating it regularly. Have been quite busy with packing and other mundane stuffs. Also, the other contributer to this blog is putting up pretty well with her laziness.

Anyways, July-Aug are the gmat months. For Indians to crack gmat should be easy. The Indian engineers find the verbal tough though. For me, the verbal part was a bit of a nut to crack. Some pointers for those who are trying.

For SC, practice is the key. I did as many 1000 SC i could. It is not just about the number of questions you practise but the strike rate as well. Make sure that with passage of time, your strike rate increases otherwise we are back to square 1. There could be two approaches to get on top of this section.. one is the rigorous rule policy- this is where you start for scratch. get hold of all the SC rules etc. Basically mug Wren & Martin again. This could be uselful for guys with not-so-great english foundation. It is a great way to be sure of your answers and your concepts. Will defintely help you in future. Or....Second- is to go by instincts. This is the route I followed as I belive my english is okay and that it just required some tuning. Now...I don't know the concepts very well but I get to know when something is wrong. I feel what is correct. The problem with this methodology is you cant be sure of things but based on your experience, you would mostly be correct. It is a high risk high gain scenario.

As far as CRs go, again...I think it is just a matter of practice. Practise so hard that a time would come when you would just simply know what the answer is..not because you solved it well..but because you have cracked the gmat pattern. After a certain amount of practice, you would instinctly know what the correct answer would be.

RCs are tough/easy depending on the type of RC one gets. If it is a factual RC, it is pretty easy for us engineers. Some of the RCs are a real bouncer. Remember that these RCs are quite different from the ones we get in CAT and quite often make a lot of sense. RCs in gmat test a lot of the applicants reading ability compared to that in CAT. the CAT RCs are more based on luck. I would wanna share my strategy for handling RCs. A cursory read at first. Goto the questions. and then look for the answer. This works for the factual RCs. For the inferential ones, it is more about the 'feel' of the passage than anything else. This, I feel, requires practice. Maybe, start reading the newspaper editorials or any other thing that is substantially heavy on your brain.

At the end of the day, the total score is what would matter. We must decide which part we are gonna score. I was confident with my CR and SC bit. Thus, could manage a 40 on verbal. So, look for your strangths and score on them.

FYI- The Yale SOM essays for 2009-10 are out!

The ISB deadline is nearing. Just a suggestion for those thinking of applying to ISB. Don't waste a lot of time on its essays. It is not worth it.

I will try and awaken the other contributer of this blog from her hibernation mode so that she is able to pitch in her inputs to you guys. However, I would continue to do so..!!

Cheers.!

The Kick-Start!

Okay guys.
We have finally secured our MBA admission! The MBA journey had started around the same time last year. As we enter into our MBA programs, we thought it would be a good idea to share our experiences on the huge, terrifying, exhausting MBA Process.! (Kidding!)

A quick introduction of the contributers to this blog.
1. Ecolectric, Tuck School of Business, Class of 2011- 3 yrs of work experience in the Retail industry. DU, JNU grad. Admits from ISB & Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
2. Powerpunch, Yale School of Management, Class of 2011- 3 yrs of work experience in the Telecom Industry. IIT grad. Admits from Yale School of Management & Fuqua School of Business.

We plan to start with what most MBA aspirants are presently doing- the GMAT! I do believe that the gmat score saves and applicant from elimination without guaranteeing selection. And on top of it, if one is competing within the Indian pool, a high GMAT Score is a must. The Indian pool as far as I know is by far competitive and anything less than 700 might be frowned upon. It is surprising how the GMAT is so crucial and how it loses it's significance gradually as we move further in the application process.

This colleague in my office screwed up his gmat with a 680. Have strongly recommended him rewriting the gmat in Early August with a full on power punch preparation.!

Cheers!

The contributors

powerpunch - Yale School of Management, MBA class of 2011
ecolectrik - Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, MBA class of 2011