Past few days have been quite exhausting.
I'm done with the big 5 topics in Math - Time/distance, Work, Ratio & Averages, Exponents, Surds & Logarithms. I've gotten most of the commonly tested concepts down the nerves of my brain. I have few more big topics to cover( Geometry, Mensuration, Probability/combinations....etc) before I touch DS. This math journey doesn't seem to get over, but I've broadly laid out my plans for the G-day
After getting down all the basics and a bit of practice, I plan to write
1) All the 25 GMAT Club Tests
2) All the 6 Manhattan GMAT Tests
I know about the MGMAT tests. They suck you dry, but the questions in 700-800 range are too good to let go. Infact, I attribute a fair number of points to MGMAT for my OK performance in the last actual GMAT math. I'm a bit excited about the GMAT club tests as I've read quite a few good reviews, and I certainly look forward to solving them. Doing all these Math tests, while keeping the Verbal tempo high is going to be a daunting task, which I really don't know how to manage
Oh! BTW, the OG12 I ordered arrived yesterday. I bought that book solely on a impulse as I was pissed the other day for not getting a few simple CRs correct. Neverthelss, 50 new CRs and as many SCs have been added to the OG11 edition. So, 100 retired questions will be a good practice.
Strategy in Verbal seems to be solve the new CRs from OG, solve the retired paper ETS tests and keep visitng the forums.
Ciao,
Unplugged
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Burn out.....?
I think I'm losing it - whatever Verbal fundamentals I've learned over this period of time are beginning to evade me. This has happened before and there is a possibility that it will happen again. I'll try to describe what exactly is happening with me
As per plan, I needed to write a GMAT paper test( only verbal) over this weekend but I was unable to. Why? On Friday, I tried to solve a few CRs in the night and did not get even a single one correct. My mind was going numb whenever I looked a CR. Even the simplest of the problems was looking damn tough.
The reason, is that my brain cells are probably fried having solved some 500CRs( I'm midway through the 1000CR document). I decided to take a conscious decision of taking a break for a couple of days. So, I took the weekend off(from Verbal) to rest my mind. I'll try to solve about 10CRs and 10SCs today and see how things go. I'm sure I'll get back what I learnt. I think I'll solve about 10 questions apiece from the 3 sections of verbal on alternate days or every third day rather than on a everyday basis, until I completely review Math
The reason for my verbal debacle, the first time around, can be attributed to the burn out factor. This time around, I think, I did not the pace the preparation properly. I left Math completely untouched for a long period of time and this is partly causing the burn-out with verbal. I have to step up the Math prep, while keeping the verbal afresh and also ensuring that my verbal performance is not affected
I was so upset on Saturday and Sunday that I partially broke down a few times and began to doubt my reasons/convictions to do an MBA. But, I managed to recover and finish some chapters in Math.
Passing through a very rough patch - God, I need you to help me
Ciao,
Unplugged
As per plan, I needed to write a GMAT paper test( only verbal) over this weekend but I was unable to. Why? On Friday, I tried to solve a few CRs in the night and did not get even a single one correct. My mind was going numb whenever I looked a CR. Even the simplest of the problems was looking damn tough.
The reason, is that my brain cells are probably fried having solved some 500CRs( I'm midway through the 1000CR document). I decided to take a conscious decision of taking a break for a couple of days. So, I took the weekend off(from Verbal) to rest my mind. I'll try to solve about 10CRs and 10SCs today and see how things go. I'm sure I'll get back what I learnt. I think I'll solve about 10 questions apiece from the 3 sections of verbal on alternate days or every third day rather than on a everyday basis, until I completely review Math
The reason for my verbal debacle, the first time around, can be attributed to the burn out factor. This time around, I think, I did not the pace the preparation properly. I left Math completely untouched for a long period of time and this is partly causing the burn-out with verbal. I have to step up the Math prep, while keeping the verbal afresh and also ensuring that my verbal performance is not affected
I was so upset on Saturday and Sunday that I partially broke down a few times and began to doubt my reasons/convictions to do an MBA. But, I managed to recover and finish some chapters in Math.
Passing through a very rough patch - God, I need you to help me
Ciao,
Unplugged
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Random musings
Many times, I am amazed at myself when I find myself thinking about 100 differnt issues. These thoughts vary from 'how would moon feel like' to 'the latest ad that appeared in todays newspaper' to 'what could be the best strategy for General motors to make a comeback'. Then, I conclude that it's best not to dwell too much on the issues the world is faced with because there are able people at the right positions to take care of such stuff and that I'm better off thinking about stuff I'd have to live with.
Last few days have been damn good physically and emtionally( both being interrelated in many ways than one). Physically, because I've added the long ignored cardio to my weight regimen. I'm running close to 3kms every day after doing weights. It is kind of a nice feeling to have when that average pulse rate on the treadmill reads 160, when every muscle in the body screams because of the lactic acid built up, when you can't take your eyes of the digital clock on the air bike, when you feel as if your viens are pumping battery acid. while, one part of my mind wants me to throw away the dumbells to the farthest corner possible, the other part wants me to continue pumping and push through the reps. This part wants me to punish my muscles; it also wants me not to quit even if loud screams out of intense pain come out from my mouth. The sense of tranquility that comes about after these episodes of intense pain/fight is worth experiencing and it is something that cannot be explained in words but has to be experienced. In the crux of such serenity, you will feel that the issues that you face on a everyday basis, the problems that forced your mind to contemplate quitting, are very small.These things teach more about yourself than any other course ever can.
As promised with myself, I did write a GMAT paper test( only verbal) and scored only 40. The key take aways are
1) I was able to sit for the entire 75 mins without getting disillusioned. Although there were moments where there was a lapse of concentration I think I managed to sit through
2) Because of the over confidence, I was rushing through the questions and as a result I was unable to reduce my 'unforced errors'
3) I had 1min for 1 problem. So the problem of pacing through the test was not a issue
4) Among the 20 odd SC and CR questions, I got 3 wrong in SC and as many in CR. But, when I went through the questions once again, I was able to spot the correct answer without any difficulty. RC was a killer though - I got 7 wrong. The errors are partially due to the format of the pdf version of the test paper - For every passage, I had to scroll 3 pages and look for the answer. This continued back and forth and I lost time
RC shouldn't be a problem because I'm solving 2-3 passages from LSAT papers and scoring at a fairly good rate. GMAT passages are relatively easier compared to the LSAT ones. I'm solving around 10SCs from my error log, 10 - 15 CRS from 1000CR every day in addition to the RC passages. I just hope that I don't lose touch with these 3 sections
Math is underway in full swing. I've made a mental road map of how I want my prep to progress. I'll keep pumping 50 questions from math every day and I hope to get better by 2 weeks. After I'm fairly comfortable with the concepts, I'll have to solve the 25 GMAT club tests, which should see me through in the actual GMAT. As with the workout at the gym, I'll keep solving/pumping questions every day until I feel comfortable to give the full length tests
Oh yeah! If you haven't read about how Gerald Butler trained for 300, look out for the videos on youtube now. You'll be amazed at the dedication and commitement with which these guys put in work to get that look they got. No wonder, Mark Twight is a real bad ass when it comes to workout, dedication et al....
Will be back with the scores from another GMAT verbal paper test
Ciao,
Unplugged
Last few days have been damn good physically and emtionally( both being interrelated in many ways than one). Physically, because I've added the long ignored cardio to my weight regimen. I'm running close to 3kms every day after doing weights. It is kind of a nice feeling to have when that average pulse rate on the treadmill reads 160, when every muscle in the body screams because of the lactic acid built up, when you can't take your eyes of the digital clock on the air bike, when you feel as if your viens are pumping battery acid. while, one part of my mind wants me to throw away the dumbells to the farthest corner possible, the other part wants me to continue pumping and push through the reps. This part wants me to punish my muscles; it also wants me not to quit even if loud screams out of intense pain come out from my mouth. The sense of tranquility that comes about after these episodes of intense pain/fight is worth experiencing and it is something that cannot be explained in words but has to be experienced. In the crux of such serenity, you will feel that the issues that you face on a everyday basis, the problems that forced your mind to contemplate quitting, are very small.These things teach more about yourself than any other course ever can.
As promised with myself, I did write a GMAT paper test( only verbal) and scored only 40. The key take aways are
1) I was able to sit for the entire 75 mins without getting disillusioned. Although there were moments where there was a lapse of concentration I think I managed to sit through
2) Because of the over confidence, I was rushing through the questions and as a result I was unable to reduce my 'unforced errors'
3) I had 1min for 1 problem. So the problem of pacing through the test was not a issue
4) Among the 20 odd SC and CR questions, I got 3 wrong in SC and as many in CR. But, when I went through the questions once again, I was able to spot the correct answer without any difficulty. RC was a killer though - I got 7 wrong. The errors are partially due to the format of the pdf version of the test paper - For every passage, I had to scroll 3 pages and look for the answer. This continued back and forth and I lost time
RC shouldn't be a problem because I'm solving 2-3 passages from LSAT papers and scoring at a fairly good rate. GMAT passages are relatively easier compared to the LSAT ones. I'm solving around 10SCs from my error log, 10 - 15 CRS from 1000CR every day in addition to the RC passages. I just hope that I don't lose touch with these 3 sections
Math is underway in full swing. I've made a mental road map of how I want my prep to progress. I'll keep pumping 50 questions from math every day and I hope to get better by 2 weeks. After I'm fairly comfortable with the concepts, I'll have to solve the 25 GMAT club tests, which should see me through in the actual GMAT. As with the workout at the gym, I'll keep solving/pumping questions every day until I feel comfortable to give the full length tests
Oh yeah! If you haven't read about how Gerald Butler trained for 300, look out for the videos on youtube now. You'll be amazed at the dedication and commitement with which these guys put in work to get that look they got. No wonder, Mark Twight is a real bad ass when it comes to workout, dedication et al....
Will be back with the scores from another GMAT verbal paper test
Ciao,
Unplugged
Thursday, June 11, 2009
And the prep continues........
As I already told, I've shifted( sort of) the focus to RC and Math.
Below, in short, is a short overview of my preps
SCs - I'm solving around 10 questions every day so that I do not become completely unfamiliar with them. I think I'm becoming fairly proficient in these as I'm able to solve any SC I look at in under a minute. But, of late, I've been reading in the debriefs that SC is getting tough in the actual GMAT and that 1000SC is no longer representative of the questions one would encounter in the actual GMAT. I'm getting a bit concerned with this but have finally decided not to bother too much. The only reliable sources now are OG and the GMAT prep. I'll also lay my hands on the retired ETS papers this week end and see how things turnout
CR- A point of concern because out of the 20 questions I solve every day, I'm still getting around 3 wrongs. These wrongs are pretty silly. I get them right as soon as I have a second look at the question. I guess this has to do with the concentration levels. If I cannot fix this problem, I'll never be able to sit through the gruelling 4 hrs. The best thing is to treat every question as a bullet directed towards the GMAT beast. The better you concentrate, the greater the damage you can inflict upon it. In short, I have to think as if my whole life depends on the question shown on the screen
RC - I'm currently solving RCs from LSAT, usually 2 passages with 15 questions. I'm getting around 2 to 3 wrongs, which I think is a fairly bad hit rate considering the fact that I'm spending around 2 mins/question.I'm not too much concerned because GMAT passages are a lot easier than the LSAT ones and because since this is the only second day with the RC, my mind is still getting in the groove. I'll solve around 2 to 3 passages every day until this weekend
Math - Still a spoilsport because of many reasons
1) Even though I scored around 48 or 49 in my first attempt, I fear math because I'm simply not good at it. Since childhood, especially with Math, the correlation has been simple - the harder I prepare the more I score and the more confident I get. I know I'd put in insane practice in my first attempt and was confident of scoring atleast above 48 even at the mid-way of my preps. All that is forgotten now; I have to start afresh( lesser mortals you know!)
2) Math is getting the last slot in my days time table. As a result, the pace of progress has been slow
I'll try sticking to this schedule for atleast some weeks to come so that my mind gets conditioned to the GMAT mindset and I develop some stamina
Will solve an old ETS paper( only verbal) on Saturday and will post the results. I think it, to a fair extent, will show my progress
Below, in short, is a short overview of my preps
SCs - I'm solving around 10 questions every day so that I do not become completely unfamiliar with them. I think I'm becoming fairly proficient in these as I'm able to solve any SC I look at in under a minute. But, of late, I've been reading in the debriefs that SC is getting tough in the actual GMAT and that 1000SC is no longer representative of the questions one would encounter in the actual GMAT. I'm getting a bit concerned with this but have finally decided not to bother too much. The only reliable sources now are OG and the GMAT prep. I'll also lay my hands on the retired ETS papers this week end and see how things turnout
CR- A point of concern because out of the 20 questions I solve every day, I'm still getting around 3 wrongs. These wrongs are pretty silly. I get them right as soon as I have a second look at the question. I guess this has to do with the concentration levels. If I cannot fix this problem, I'll never be able to sit through the gruelling 4 hrs. The best thing is to treat every question as a bullet directed towards the GMAT beast. The better you concentrate, the greater the damage you can inflict upon it. In short, I have to think as if my whole life depends on the question shown on the screen
RC - I'm currently solving RCs from LSAT, usually 2 passages with 15 questions. I'm getting around 2 to 3 wrongs, which I think is a fairly bad hit rate considering the fact that I'm spending around 2 mins/question.I'm not too much concerned because GMAT passages are a lot easier than the LSAT ones and because since this is the only second day with the RC, my mind is still getting in the groove. I'll solve around 2 to 3 passages every day until this weekend
Math - Still a spoilsport because of many reasons
1) Even though I scored around 48 or 49 in my first attempt, I fear math because I'm simply not good at it. Since childhood, especially with Math, the correlation has been simple - the harder I prepare the more I score and the more confident I get. I know I'd put in insane practice in my first attempt and was confident of scoring atleast above 48 even at the mid-way of my preps. All that is forgotten now; I have to start afresh( lesser mortals you know!)
2) Math is getting the last slot in my days time table. As a result, the pace of progress has been slow
I'll try sticking to this schedule for atleast some weeks to come so that my mind gets conditioned to the GMAT mindset and I develop some stamina
Will solve an old ETS paper( only verbal) on Saturday and will post the results. I think it, to a fair extent, will show my progress
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Only reliable sources
Oh man! I got hold of a document, which had some ultra tough SC questions and there were a few explanations I was unable to understand. First of all, the questions do not represent those from OG or GMAT by any strech of imagination( of course this comes from the realm of my limited exploitations with GMAT). There were many questions for which I could not get the right answer and got disillusioned as a result. After scanning through few pages from this dcoument, I happened to attempt a few simple SCs and was unable to work my way through them because the explanations provided in that document disturbed my 'way of working'. However, I learnt a lot of new things, which will eventually go in my error log.
Lesson I learnt today is 'not to get disillusioned and trust your instincts' Any new points learnt along the way can go in the error log but you have to back 'your own way' of solving the questions
This week will see the shifting of focus from SC and CR to RC and math. I'll still keep doing about 10-15 questions from SC and CR while concentrating more on RC and math
God be with me....
Unplugged
Lesson I learnt today is 'not to get disillusioned and trust your instincts' Any new points learnt along the way can go in the error log but you have to back 'your own way' of solving the questions
This week will see the shifting of focus from SC and CR to RC and math. I'll still keep doing about 10-15 questions from SC and CR while concentrating more on RC and math
God be with me....
Unplugged
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Ouch......
Yeah, the title of the post aptly describes my body condition today.
On Friday, at the gym, I was working my chest out. I was all the more pumped up because there was this drop dead gorgeous lady who had joined on Friday( What a day to join!). One of the last set of exercises was the DB flys on an inclined bench. By the time I got down to doing this, I had completely exhausted myself with 5 more sets of exercises with ultra heavy weights. So, I was sitting on the inclined bench facing the mirror with the DBs and this bomb was at my back working on her thighs. Considering the fact that she was a rookie( rookies are given fly weights to start with; they normally spend more time on the machine than an average Joe does because of this reason) and me a seasoned person and considering the fact that the time of performing reps was the only time I could get a proper view of her, I kept on pushing my self so that I could match her time on the machine. The result was fulfilling mentally and hurting physically. I am unable to sleep because of the intense pain and am barely able to lift my right hand.
I had to miss my work out yesterday because of the pain. I'm treating it with ice every 2 hrs. But that's ok. Sometimes you have to live with the the pain to be able to feel that you are alive. I'll start kicking butt again from tomorrow
I had purposefully skipped the preps the last 2 days because my mind was going numb again at the sight of a GMAT question. I needed something to keep my mind afresh. I think it also has got to do with the work I guess. I'm having a real hard time at work. The hours that I spend at work are so intense that I barely get to stop thinking about these issues even at my home. You need something to change over, some kind of switch that takes you from one field to the other. A work out at the gym comes in very handy to do just this. But then again, some things are out of your control( I think you know what I'm sayin here......the bomb at the gym of course!)
I did around 20CRs from the 1000series and got a fairly good hit rate - 2 mistakes that I could've completely avoided; they were very silly indeed
As far as SC is concerned, I think I'm getting a good grip at these. I'm able to solve most of them within a minute. I almost managed to complete the 1000SCs( there are around 30 of them still remaining). The error log in SC says the number of questions for review i.e, the number of questions I got wrong has not yet touched 100. Boy, am I happy. 1 wrong in 10 is fairly good. The goal now is to keep on revewing the ones I got wrong and keep solving some random SCs every day from the forums. This is to ensure that I consolidate what I've learnt and start shifting the focus towards RCs and math
RCs are a big pain. Indeed they are. I started solving 2 RCs every day from LSAT prep book untimed just to get into the groove. I need to take this number up by 2 more by this weekend. From next Monday onwards, I plan to solve the complete verbal section in one sitting. That is, 41 questions in 75 minutes on a regular basis to increase the stamina
Math is killer; It is a completely untouched topic. I'll have to start work immediately else whatever effort I've put in Verbal will go down the drain. Damn, too many ball to juggle and too many of them have to be kept in air
Let's see how things work out. Wait for my next post
Cheers,
Unplugged
On Friday, at the gym, I was working my chest out. I was all the more pumped up because there was this drop dead gorgeous lady who had joined on Friday( What a day to join!). One of the last set of exercises was the DB flys on an inclined bench. By the time I got down to doing this, I had completely exhausted myself with 5 more sets of exercises with ultra heavy weights. So, I was sitting on the inclined bench facing the mirror with the DBs and this bomb was at my back working on her thighs. Considering the fact that she was a rookie( rookies are given fly weights to start with; they normally spend more time on the machine than an average Joe does because of this reason) and me a seasoned person and considering the fact that the time of performing reps was the only time I could get a proper view of her, I kept on pushing my self so that I could match her time on the machine. The result was fulfilling mentally and hurting physically. I am unable to sleep because of the intense pain and am barely able to lift my right hand.
I had to miss my work out yesterday because of the pain. I'm treating it with ice every 2 hrs. But that's ok. Sometimes you have to live with the the pain to be able to feel that you are alive. I'll start kicking butt again from tomorrow
I had purposefully skipped the preps the last 2 days because my mind was going numb again at the sight of a GMAT question. I needed something to keep my mind afresh. I think it also has got to do with the work I guess. I'm having a real hard time at work. The hours that I spend at work are so intense that I barely get to stop thinking about these issues even at my home. You need something to change over, some kind of switch that takes you from one field to the other. A work out at the gym comes in very handy to do just this. But then again, some things are out of your control( I think you know what I'm sayin here......the bomb at the gym of course!)
I did around 20CRs from the 1000series and got a fairly good hit rate - 2 mistakes that I could've completely avoided; they were very silly indeed
As far as SC is concerned, I think I'm getting a good grip at these. I'm able to solve most of them within a minute. I almost managed to complete the 1000SCs( there are around 30 of them still remaining). The error log in SC says the number of questions for review i.e, the number of questions I got wrong has not yet touched 100. Boy, am I happy. 1 wrong in 10 is fairly good. The goal now is to keep on revewing the ones I got wrong and keep solving some random SCs every day from the forums. This is to ensure that I consolidate what I've learnt and start shifting the focus towards RCs and math
RCs are a big pain. Indeed they are. I started solving 2 RCs every day from LSAT prep book untimed just to get into the groove. I need to take this number up by 2 more by this weekend. From next Monday onwards, I plan to solve the complete verbal section in one sitting. That is, 41 questions in 75 minutes on a regular basis to increase the stamina
Math is killer; It is a completely untouched topic. I'll have to start work immediately else whatever effort I've put in Verbal will go down the drain. Damn, too many ball to juggle and too many of them have to be kept in air
Let's see how things work out. Wait for my next post
Cheers,
Unplugged
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