Preparing for GMAT – IV

Please note: This article is however by no means exclusive and is intended for basic introduction to GMAT and no way unquestionable. These is my understanding and my view alone.

Introduction: GMAT is a computer-based adaptive comprising verbal, quantitative and writing assessment sections. The verbal and quant sections are objective and are rated together on a total of 800 and the Analytical and Writing Assessment Section on a scale of 0-6. The duration of the test is around 3 ½ hours (AWA 2 essays– ½ hr each, Quant 37 questions - 75 mins and finally Verbal – 41 questions - 75 mins in the same order with 10 mins break between sections). ( Need to check this up.. ).

With good quantitative abilities and good English skills (for an average Indian), securing average scores of the top schools (ranges from 690-700) is quite easy. For those with very strong English skills, securing 750+ should be a cakewalk. This has a caveat in too. High scores of Indians being so common, the admission committee expect Indians (specifically Indian engineers) to have at least 700+. 700-740 range is “just good”. So target 740+.

As I have said earlier, the test is an adaptive test. The better you do initially, the tougher the questions you get and the higher your score. Your answers to initial questions carry a lot of weightage and this adaptive ness eliminates the chance to revisit your questions. Once answers are confirmed, you cannot come back to the question. This adaptive ness is also the reason why your mood on the D-day matters a lot. If you are those kinds who need time to get into the grove, be careful. In addition to having a good mood and concentration on the D-day, it pays well to improve your ability to concentrate for a long time. This is particularly important, as verbal, being the final section with inadequate time needs a lot of concentration.

Sections in Detail:

1. Analytical and Writing Assessment: You have to compose and type two essays (half hour each). One on an issue – you need to either support or argue against the argument and the other one is to analyze a given argument thoroughly. You need to find assumptions made, evidences that could support or weaken the argument, basically evaluate the conclusion based on the evidences and logic given in the argument.
   The score range is from 0-6 although the worst case is 2. So cheer up :). There are two evaluators - a human and a computer! Yes, right. One of the evaluators is a computer-based program. That implies that your organization of the essay and the connecting words (conjunctions, hmm never knew my grammar was so good to recollect at least one of the seven parts of speech!) are highly important. Content and points are important, but improper organization – you are doomed! So when you prepare make sure you have a well-organized template and a set of key words that you can use in the exam. Of course, use as many key words as possible.
   Having said all these, I should also mention that the AWA section is given the least importance by the adcom members. The computer-based evaluation probably explains the reason for this! They expect you to get above 4.5. If you get lesser than that, they might check your essays and if they are well written wonder who wrote them! Since the schools abroad are also bothered about English written skills, they might want to check your essays (Yes, they do get the essays you write in the test). By doing this, you are forcing them to spend more time on your application, which is a big risk.
2. Verbal Section: This comprises three topics – Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. SC: – 12 – 14 questions. CR – 12- 14 questions RC – 3-5 passages each with 3-4 questions totally 41 questions.
   SC: Here, you are given a sentence, part of which or the entire sentence is underlined. You need to choose one among four (or five, not sure) alternatives without changing the meaning. SC is thought to be toughest, but I would say its not if you can spend a lot of time. You make a resource investment on it and you have fixed and assured returns :) (Too much of stocks you see!) There are 7-8 grammar rules, which are basic enough, a thorough understanding of which will ensure that you get above average scores. If you need to move to higher ranges, you need to master a number of other rules, which can come up in the exam. In the last section, I will mention the books that are available, the difficulty ranges of each book and the time at which each book needs to be used etc…
   Master all these rules and you are safe even during your exam. Very less dependence on mood and presence of brain in the exam. Also, this is very important because the verbal section generally (there might be exceptions however) starts with 3-4 SCs. So, you could say that this being a computer adaptive test, a lot of the score depends on SCs.
   CR: Here you will be given a logical argument. You can be asked different kinds of questions – you might have to choose an assumption for an argument, evidences that will strengthen or weaken the argument, conclusion of the argument etc… With good quantitative skills, you would think it would be nuts not to crack them! You are mistaken. Some of them are quite tough and take a good deal of time to go through them, sort out the flow and finally solve the problem. CRs generally take 2.5 minutes and in an exam where you have 2- mins for each question, you have to pace up. Practicing and getting good accuracy in CR is the main trick.
   Practice many, get good speed and maintain good accuracy – you can get good score in this.
   RC: RCs unlike those in GRE and CAT are not simple. One, they take more time than we have on the exam. Two, they are tougher. They generally hover around – what would be a good topic of the passage, what is the inference etc…
   Many people, as I did, would believe RCs are easier and would tend to ignore them. But they are not! If there was anything that spoiled my exam (oops, forgot to mention my score – 710 – 95% in quant, 83% in verbal and 5 in AWA), it is my neglect of RCs. Another mistake generally done out of overconfidence is practicing without any time limits. Another one is practicing RCs of either too small or too long passages. Obtaining those of suitable length is very important from the beginning.
   If practice is important for any topic, it would be for this. And not just practice, but perfect practice :)
3. Quantitative Section: Quant is pretty easy. You just have to brush up your basics and if you have given CAT recently, it’s a cakewalk. But just one caution: guard against silly mistakes. In the final exam, you will have enough time for each question. So you could cross check your answers.
   Ensure that you get at least 90% (that almost means not more than 2 mistakes at the end and no mistakes in the beginning), otherwise, adcom members would doubt your quantitative skills. Being an Indian, this would be disastrous!
   
   
   Books, Links, Test CDs and Other materials:
   There are several books that are available. The ones that I know are
   1. Official Guide (I think the latest edition is 11th edition) - This is the bible for GMAT. ETS or Pearson publishes this book. So, if you are lucky a couple of questions could pop up. Even otherwise, you can gauge the standards of questions, what kind of questions after going through this book.
   2. Princeton – The easiest of all the books – the best one to start with – to become aware of the kinds of questions and learn the basic stuff required.
   3. Kaplan – The toughest of all – read it after OG. – the final one.
   4. Apart from it there are several others, I have not used them. So cant comment on those. However, I have heard that Barons is one that’s not good. I ended up wasting money.
   
   Test CDs:
   1. You can take several sample tests. Ensure that you take at least 6-7 tests. It is very important.
   2. Princeton is supposedly the easiest and there are several contradictions about correlations of the score in Princeton with the actual score. So, I cant comment on that as well.
   3. Kaplan in the toughest one. You could add 50-60 points on the Kaplan score to arrive at your final score on powerprep test.
   4. Power prep – the most important – is a set of 2 tests released by ETS. You could download it on net. This provides a reasonable estimate of the actual score. But the caveat is that most of the questions are from the OG. So, if you take this at the end, you would probably remember the answers and would not solve them instead just go on marking them.
   5. Though not CDs, http://www.scoretop.com is a good site that contains several sets of questions that appeared in actual tests. You take up a VIP membership and you can access a few such sets. They are at the correct level of the exam.
   
   Other materials: RC, CR need a lot of practice and practicing questions of the same level is very important, specifically in RCs. For these (and SC as well) for more practice, you could use soft copies of collection of 1000 questions each. Practice these (1000 questions in each) you can be rest assured to crack GMAT. I have temporarily uploaded soft-copies of materials that I have in a Gmail account. I intend to start a group too, but looks like its going to be postponed further. So meanwhile, in case you need materials, mail back for the account name and password. Also, if you could create a group, move these materials, cheers :)
   
   Links:
   There are a few groups in yahoo that would be useful – future_mba, gmattutor,
   www.scoretop.com
   http://dave.blogspot.com
   General preparation strategy:

1. Book your exam date - You could take a test and decide. Typically it takes 5 days for brushing quantitative section ( 10 hours each day ) and 1.5 months ( 10 hours each for English ) This is my average - do remember I do not have very good english skills. So modify this accordingly or better try to check this with others... Estimate how much time you require and book the date before preparation.
2. Take an exam before starting out – One, you will understand where you stand. Two, you can determine your strengths and weaknesses. Three, it would give you a lot of familiarity with the type of questions. Four, you can evaluate what other things are important such as concentrating for a long time etc. You could take the power prep here. (Just remember, power prep is of no use taking after you have done OG especially if you are one of those with good memory)
   2. Start out with Princeton – complete basics of all the verbal section. Quant could be managed at the end. Practice questions.
   3. Take a test again
   4. Complete OG – for SC – OG is the best – Solve the question – assimilate the explanation – the explanation is succinct but very good. Believe me, you would take a lot of time understanding the explanation itself. CR and RC you can guage the standards from OG.
   5. Take a test again
   6. Go for Kaplan.
   7. Take a test, see your weaknesses. Use 1000 SCs, 1000CRs, and 1000 RCs for practice to overcome them.
   8. Take tests in the final week.
   9. Appear for the exam
   
   Score well :)
   Finally, give me a treat :D