Princeton Review - CAT I - 620 (37Q, 39V)

I took the Princeton Review Practice CAT I today. Scored 620 (37Q, 39V). I was happy with the slight improvement in scores. Made a total of 8 mistakes on quant and 9 mistakes on verbal.

Quant Total: 37 Q - 29 correct, 8 wrong, 0 unanswered - 78%

One thing I'm happy to say is that I've eliminated the timing problem altogether. I finished on time and there was not a single question where I had to guess. So these mistakes are sure to be careless ones.

Verbal Total: 41 Q - 32 correct, 9 wrong, 0 unanswered - 78%
On verbal, I finished ahead of time as usual.

Got to get back to analysis now. I will take a short break of 2-3 hours and work on this. I'm sure that I can take my score to the 700+ level, provided I continue at the same pace of preparation.

Knewton Free Course!

I'm a big fan of Knewton and think that they have enthusiastic, lively, knowledgeable and entertaining instructors.

Knewton is giving away a free GMAT prep course in their Back-to-School Facebook Giveaway sweepstakes. If you are interested, visit http://knewt.ly/fbgiveaway. The contest ends September 10, 2010.

Here's a little more background on what winning their course would mean:

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Change in Plans!

Adekku and other fellow bloggers and friends, thanks for enquiring about my disappearance :-). I'm not dead studying, though there have been changes in plans.

I've decided to apply in Round 2 and rescheduled my GMAT date to the second week of November. I was getting too stressed about the unfinished chapters in GMAT, work deadlines and dismal test performances that I figured that it is better to reschedule. I'm taking Knewton classes too and find that they're fun! My time these days is mostly spent on Grockit. I've completed the easier questions on PS and DS in all areas in Quant and I'm moving on to the moderate section. Grockit has Quant and Verbal challenges (10 questions in each) which give you the percentile ranking based on your recent performance, performance in the challenges and the performance of other GMAT students. Each challenge is unlocked when you solve 20 group questions. I find that the challenges are a pretty good indicator of my performance so far. Since my Veritas prep test, I haven't taken any other test in a couple of  weeks. Was out of town last week and back after a refreshing vacation time with family. I will get  to the Princeton review test this weekend.

Veritas Prep Free Test (580, 36Q, 33V)

In this test, I didn't have any issues with timing. Made a couple of guesses on quant, especially in probability and mixture problems. In both quant and verbal, I made 13 mistakes. In quant, I got a bunch of questions wrong, in a row. Noticed that a lot of questions were similar to OG, only they had been slightly re-worded. Will analyze the mistakes tomorrow. Off to bed now.

GMAT Study Status

There seem to be a million things to be done.

• Kaplan - Math Work Book - 4 Chapters 
• Kaplan - Verbal Work Book - 4 Chapters
• Kaplan Premier Program - 6 Chapters
• Kaplan 800 - 13 Chapters
• Manhattan Advanced Chapters - 22 Chapters

1. Equations, Inequalities Guide 3 - Chapters 8 through 14 - 7 chapters
2. Manhattan Word Translations Guide 4 - Chapters 9 through 13 - 5 chapters
3. Manhattan Geometry Guide 5 - Chapters 6 through 9 - 4 chapters
4. Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide 8 - Chapters 9 through 14 - 6 Chapters

• OG - 12 - 10 Chapters
• OG - Math Work Book - 7 Chapters
• OG - Verbal Work Book - 7 Chapters
• Powerscore CR Bible - 14 Chapters
• Peterson ARCO - 14 Chapters

Total -  102 chapters

The easiest way to blog?

I love stuff that inspires. Sometimes, I find a quote that is so inspiring, funny or downright true, that I'm compelled to note it down. I've made a note of these in my mini blog. Check it out!

Progress in week 5

I haven't been keeping well and progress had slowed down last week. I couldn't muster enough energy to give a full length test, so decided to focus on error analysis instead.

Looking back at the consistent, dismal performance over the last three tests I've decided to spend more time on reviewing the basics. I've entered all the incorrect answer choices, answer choices that were correct but consumed too much time into an error log and am revising the error log. Back to the basics!

A deal at Knewton!

Hey everyone! I got this information from a blogger friend Shilpa. Thanks, Shilpa! 

If you're looking for more quality GMAT practice, Knewton has a great offer. This offer is for Indian Residents only and Indian students can get a three month access to Knewton for just $300. As you may have known, their online classroom with one year access is $690. Here's the link to this offer.

Manhattan GMAT - Free Test (600, 39Q, 34V)

I took my Manhattan GMAT practice test yesterday and here's my score. There's no improvement over last week and something seems to be seriously wrong. Any suggestions to improve my score?

Verbal Total: 41 Q - 22 correct, 19 wrong, 0 unanswered - 53%

I made so many mistakes in RC, and in CR, even in the 600-700 range. RC was my worst performance. I scored only 33% in RC, 57% in CR and 67% in SC.

Quant Total: 37 Q - 18 correct, 19 wrong, 0 unanswered - 48%

 In  Quant, I performed the worst on Number Properties. I scored only 17% in Number Properties, 40% in Word Translations, 50% in Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, 60% in Geometry and 75% in Algebra.

Progress in week 6

Well, well, well. I'm still buried under Kaplan 800. Great book. I'm hoping to complete it this weekend. Also, I'll be giving the Knewton and Manhattan free tests this week, so stay tuned!

Some disturbing statistics

A week ago, Adekku sent me this link on Evaluating Practice Tests. Thanks Adekku!
I found some disturbing statistics from my last test.

1. Correct plus timing within the expected timeframe (otherwise known as strengths) - 16 Qns
2. Wrong plus timing in the expected timeframe (possible weaknesses) - 0 Qns
3. Wrong plus timing way too fast (an average more than 30 seconds faster than it should be) - 3 Qns
4. Correct plus timing way too slow (an average more than 30 seconds slower than it should be) - 7 Qns
5. Wrong plus timing way too slow (an average more than 30 seconds slower than it should be) - 6 Qns
6. Unanswered questions

My analysis is as follows:

• Category 1 - On 16 Qns, I spent a total of 21 minutes - 28% of my time on 43% Qns
• Category 2 - no questions that fall in this category
• Category 3 - On 3 Qns, I spent a total of 3 minutes 40 secs - About 5% of my time on 8% Qns
• Category 4 - On 7 Qns, I spent a total of 27 minutes 10 secs - About 36% of my time on 19% Qns
• Category 5 - On 6 Qns, I spent a total of  23 minutes 27 secs - About 30% of my time on 16% Qns
• Category 6 - 4 Questions unattempted - 10% unattempted.

Princeton Review - Free Test (600, 36Q, 37V)

I took the Princeton Review free practice test today. Scored only 600 (36Q, 37V). I completed verbal 30 minutes ahead of time. Speed doesn't pay, does it? Unfortunately, I made 7 mistakes on verbal. Didn't help that I was taking the test at 1:00 am in the morning. Here's the break-up for verbal:

Verbal Total: 41 Q - 34 correct, 7 wrong, 0 unanswered - 83%

As for Quant, I ran out of time, as usual. This time, by 4 questions. I also made a couple of guesses on questions that I had no clue about.

Quant Total: 37 Q - 23 correct, 10 wrong, 4 unanswered - 64%

 If you're wondering how I completed the verbal section 30 minutes ahead of time, I've been practicing like mad on Grockit Verbal games. I've decided to put in that effort towards Quant. Though I'm disappointed with 600, it sure looks like an improvement over last week's 590.

Progress in week 7

Completed the Kaplan Premier Program, except for the test. I've also taken a standard membership for Grockit, which is fun! Well spent eighty dollars!

I have to start with Kaplan 800 from tomorrow. I've also put all the topics and the number of questions Grockit has in an excel sheet and plan to systematically work out on every area. Those who are interested, can download from this link

Break-up of Grockit Topics

Grouped the questions by topics and divided them into:
Easy, Easy Completed, Mistake Level
Moderate, Moderate Completed, Mistake Level
Difficult, Difficult Completed, Mistake Level.
Total, Total Completed, Mistake Level, Percentage and Total Remaining

Who has time for this?

Dear readers and fellow bloggers who are bored to death by reading mundane details of my GMAT preparation, read on for entertainment...

Phone Call From the Census

Relax, people, it's Friday!