GMAT Rocked......it's my day....barrier broken :)

Finally, I am done with GMAT....

I scored 770 ( Q -50, V- 45)

This is exactly the score i scored in GMATPrep two days ago after re-installing it.
I was so happy when i saw the score that i didn't know how to react......months of hard work just splashed in front of my eyes.....i am so very happy that the hard work has finally paid off :):)

Believe me guys, the feeling has still not sunk in.....

I was a boy who used to read so many GMAT success stories and used to think if i will be able to get that kind of a score.......yup i did believe in myself all the time...
Just a month back, life seemed to be so dull, i felt like i was doing nothing and losing on my dreams.....but after this the whole world looks to be brighter...

Ive Leagues - here comes Achilles ;)

P.S. I really want to thank all of you fellow bloggers who were of so much support during my preps.
Also thanks to all my roommates Saurabh, Sachin and Sanket for supporting and helping me throughout my preps. You guys deserve a special mention here. Thanks

Righty - Thanks for all the support and thanks for always being there always.

4 days to go...

Now its just 4 days to go for my GMAT and i have started feeling bored with my preps. I have essentially slowed down this week and didn't study much.
Because of my bad SC performance in the last test i practiced SC from Kaplan 800. The reason i am getting low accuracy in SC is that i am trying to through them. I am marking SC questions very fast and many time i don't even go through all the choices, so that's one of the reasons that i am screwing up this section.
Didn't practice any other section much this week till now.

For the coming days, i will just revise my mistakes in various material i have done till now, give one full length test over the weekend, study AWA and go through Quant concepts. That's it.

Also one more imp thing i will start from tomorrow, waking up at 6 AM in the morning from tomorrow till the D-Day at least :) . I have my test appointment scheduled at 8:00 AM in the morning and haven't practiced a single test at that time. So for the coming days, i will at least try to wake up early and do some practice questions during the test time, just to get some confidence and practice. I usually sleep very late in the night and usually get up at 7:15 in the morning for office, but from today will try to sleep a little early and wake up at 6:00 AM in the morning. :)
I will be taking leave from office for Monday and Tuesday.
Just to reduce my anxiety levels and to relax i am also planning to go for a movie over the weekend.
Lets see, how i manage time during these 4 days.

The Penultimate test...

So finally i gave my penultimate test -- GMATPrep2 ,and its still 1 week left for my GMAT....but believe me i really need this remaining time.
Though i scored ok on this test, but i scored my worst accuracy in SC--> 53% and i m really worried about it now. While giving the test i didn't expect my SC accuracy to be so down. I scored a 100% accuracy in CR but they were not of GMAT level, they seemed to be below that.

Though i scored 750(Q-50, V-41) in the test, i got 11 questions wrong in Verbal.

Questions wrong:- 7, 15, 16, 18, 22, 26, 29, 33, 37, 38, 39

SC wrong :- 8/17


So after all the preps i got my lowest accuracy in SC till now :( ....i have to put a strategy in place for next 1 week to improve in SC and also i need some more practice in CR.

Maths:- Though i scored 50 today but i made 7 mistakes, which was very disappointing. Though many of them were foolish but committing foolish mistakes at this stage is the last thing i want.

I am planning to revise Kaplan 800 in the coming week and also revise some of my concepts from Manhattan. Also i will analyze all my mistakes done in Verbal.

AWA: Though i have prepared the format of the essays but i haven't done much practice here, so need to practice more to gain some confidence in this section.

Coming week is really going to be very long for me......

GMATPrep 1 - And I've hit the barrier again

Today was the day when i had planned to give my GMATprep1 practice test and i have been waiting for this day throughout this week.
I woke up at 9 AM and reached library at 10, the time when it opens on Saturday morning. I looked for a quiet place and soon started the test. Started with AWA for the first time, just though about a few points and wrote down but didn't actually write it the way i should write on the D day.
Started with the Quant section and encountered 8th question as a probability question which was kind of tough. I wasted some time on this one and then marked(guessed) it to proceed to the next question. Overall Maths section was of good difficulty level, with some very good questions coming in between and some of the questions really took time. Also i had to attend an imp phone call in between this section and thus ended up wasting 2-3 minutes of test time, the importance of which i realised in the last minutes of this section.
Now when i reached question 28 there were only 12 minutes left. God...i took so much time for the first time in this section. Also initially i was rechecking my answers for each question which again wasted some of the time.....this is somewhat similar to what happens with people on the actual test day. But then i speeded up and completed this section just on time. I had to guess 2 questions due to lack of time which ultimately went wrong.

Now started verbal and it started with an easy CR. But the second question was a SC which as kind of tough. And soon started RC's and all. I came across 4 RC's but one thing different was that most of the passages were small, they were not very large...was i lucky in this test??
Finally finished this section with 2 minutes to spare. Clicked on results. Somehow, I didn't have good feeling and expected the score to be around 700 only, but.....

750 ( Q- 49, V- 42) --- Godd i am so happy for today!!

Questions wrong:-

Q- 3, 8, 24, 28, 33, 36 ----6 questions wrong. But the 3 rd question is wrong in the test strangely ....i made all my friends solve this question and they found the same answer as i marked but GMATprep shows a different answer which certainly is wrong. Has anybody encountered such a situation?

V- 2,4,14, 18, 22, 24, 32, 33, 34, 36

But now the bad part---
I screwed quant badly - fell short of time for last 10 questions and also scored 49 :(:( .....i cannot afford to go below 50 in Maths on the D-Day ....now this test has made me believe that at least there is no chance for me to score 51 in Q on the D- Day. I have to practice this section more to have any chance of scoring 51 on D- Day assuming that the difficult level on the real test is same as that of GMATprep. What say people??

Verbal though the score seems good but i made 10 mistakes and out of those 5 were SC's.

Breakup of mistakes:-

SC- 5/16 ---- just 68.75% accuracy :(
RC - 2/14
CR- 3/11

So my SC accuracy in this test was really pathetic :( . I have to revise all my concepts again and practice more in this area.

Also one other thing i am worried about is i was not at all confident when i was clicking on results that i will be able to hit this much, that means i was not confident of questions i marked which is also true.

Anyways, the only thing i can do right now is to keep the focus and practice more. Also still AWA is pending...... Now i am just 2 weeks away from D-Day. And believe me if i am able hit this score in real, i will be so very happy!!

Will be giving my GMATprep2 test next week and keep you all updated about my prep. Also may be will need help of you people, as i approach near the real test.

Gmat < 3 weeks to go - Updates and Doubts

Due to the work pressure this week, i am unable to concentrate on my prep this week. I have been leaving for office at 7:30 in the morning this week and coming back late. So, when i sit to study in the late evening, i feel so sleepy that i am unable to concentrate :( :( . Its just 3 weeks left for my GMAT and this work pressure is killing me.

Anyways, i started with 1000 SC collection this week and complete dome 80 of them with just 80% accuracy. I have some serious doubts in some of the questions and some of the answers seems to be wrong. What's the opinion of other people who have tried their hands on 1000 SC collection? How can i can get their explanations or maybe the correct answers at least. If the authenticity of answers is not proven for these, i really don't want to waste my time on these questions.
Also the only other thing i have been doing this week is OG revision. Also completed reading AWA Analysis of Argument section from OG, but i haven't prepared the format of my response till now and i am yet to practice with any of the essays.

I know i am lagging behind in my preps and somehow i have to manage both my work( i have a project deadline on September 3) and my preps till August 28, though my personal life is already running out of my control. I have stopped responding to calls of so many people these days, i am sure they are going to kill me when they see me next time :(

I have to gather and focus all my energy on my preps and work for the coming weeks. Please God give me strength :)

Powerprep 2 - Broke the barrier :)

Today God really wanted me to give a bday gift and see he has given it :) , i just broke the barrier which i have been thinking to break for so long. Yup i have hit 750.

Scores in Powerprep2 :-

Overall - 750 ( Q-50, V-41)

It was a very nice feeling when i looked at the score.

Quant section:- ( 1 Question wrong) - completed with 10 minutes to spare

The section seemed very easy, i don't know why, though there were some tricky questions here and there. But overall the level was easy.
And i got just one question wrong here - Q27 :( and that too was a foolish mistake. Due to this i missed hitting 51 in Maths.

Verbal Section:- Completed with 14 minutes to spare.

It was of average difficulty level, but this time i saw some of the question which i had already seen somewhere :( . So that also questions the validity of these scores since i had already seen some of the questions. I think other people also experience the same with Powerprep.

Questions wrong :- ( 6 questions wrong - 1 less than the less time.)
2, 9, 12, 17, 21, 23

Breakup :-

1- SC :)
3- RC
2- CR

I am really happy that i decided top give the test today on my birthday :) and managed to hit a good score also. Though there were some seen questions but i am happy that atleast once i have broken the barrier.
The race has started and i have started running atleast :).
The next test is going to be GMAT Prep1

Happy Birthday to me!!

Today is my birthday and here i am giving the Powerprep2 GMAT :) . There is no time to party, i have very less time left for my GMAT and cannot waste a weekend, because its only on the weekends that i can give the mock tests....

Though i will party in the evening, if the test goes fine :)

Will post you guys after the test with scores.

Got the GMAT Scheduled

Finally, I have taken the plunge.
Today morning when i reached office, i checked mba.com and saw one slot available on August 28, the date which i had in the back of my mind. As soon as i saw the date , i took out my credit card and booked it. Well spent 250$ :).
The center is approx. 10 miles from my home, so its kind of near :). I will have to visit the center in advance to see for the parking arrangements, don't want to take any chances on the test day.

Now i am just praying that work pressure remains low for these 3 weeks somehow and i am able to complete all the things that i have planned before the test :).
Only major cause of worry right now is that i haven't started with the AWA section. From where are other bloggers preparing for this section?

So the clock has started ticking for me now. Its a race and i have to win it somehow.

GMAT Prep continues....

This week is going on well at least for my preps. I was able to complete the OG Verbal Review book today.
And my accuracy levels have improved in CR and RC from what they were in when i was doing OG.
In SC, though initially i was performing very well but towards the end i somehow managed to screw it up and ended up with less than 80% accuracy(78%) :( :( . Though one reason for this is that i was very tired up in SC towards the end but since I wanted to complete it so I stretched myself a bit. But whatever maybe the reason i have to concentrate on my SC again now.

I have started with OG second round now. Started with SC :) , I did first 100 questions and i had a very decent accuracy (89%) till now. I will start with CR and RC revision also by this weekend.

Now the missing parts, i haven't practiced Quant section since last 20 days, except the tests which i have been giving over the weekends. So i will have to gear myself up for quant right now.
I have to ensure that i hit 50 in Quant in the actual test. Though i have not been worrying about Quant till now, because on all the Kaplan tests i have been hitting 50 easily, though in the Powerprep 1 test my score fell down to 49. But in actual test i cannot afford that. Also i have heard that these days Quant section has some very tough questions coming up so have to gear for that.
Planning to revise the basics first from OG and then complete OG Maths again, i think that should give me the required practice.

Second thing which is missing in my prep now is the AWA section which i haven't started. Now i will have to start with this section tomorrow for sure. It's high time now. I have to practice at least some arguments before my actual test.

Though i haven't been able to take the date yet due to unavailability, i have thought of taking the test in August last week, also i am studying and making my schedule with August 28 as date in my mind. Lets see if i am able to take some date. But as other bloggers have pointed out, i should be able to get it because of cancellations happening at the last moment. I hope i am able to get it.