Finally took the GMAT on 7/4. Took an auto to the center to avoid parking issues and gobbled down a red bull to get over my lack of sleep over the last couple of weeks before the test which had thrown my prep schedule completely off track.
Got the formalities done. Felt relaxed. Wished I had known I could take something to eat and keep it in a locker. I was already feeling hungry before i went in for the test.
Test was okay.
AWA: First one - ran out of time but managed to finish on a coherent note. Second one - felt more confident about managing time but ran out of time at the end. Could not write my finishing para.
Quant - Kinda okay. Started getting some real tough questinos pretty early and then it eased out. Did not feel it was going well but surprisingly I did not feel stressed. finished about 5 min earlier than planned.
Verbal - Went quite smooth. Finished much earlier than planned. Think I had about 10 min left when I finished.
Moment of truth? Score the test? What if its a screw-up. We'll see...
Voila! 770. V47, Q50.
Much higher in verbal than expected (about 41-42). One point lower in Quant than expected.
Unexpected. I pumped my fists quietly and got out asap.
Called Suresh to thank him for pushing me into taking the GMAT and then called the wifey. One step done.
Received AWA score a few weeks later. 6.0. Neat.Never knew I was good at this stuff - but hey, so presumably are 13% other test takers.
Well - done and dusted. Now off to planning for app-ing to schools. Let's see if I'm as lucky there.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
11 May
Took a Princeton practice test - my first real computer based test. Late in the day when I was a bit tired. Score: 700. (Verbal 37, Math 50). Not very encouraging.
Math: 4 answers wrong (89%).
A couple in the first 30 questions, and a couple of the last 5 questions.
Q A man chooses an outfit from 3 different shirts, 2 different pairs of shoes, and 3 different pants. If he randomly selects 1 shirt, 1 pair of shoes, and 1 pair of pants each morning for 3 days, what is the probability that he wears the same pair of shoes each day, but that no other piece of clothing is repeated?
Q If (x-4y)/(x+y)=4/5, what is the ratio of y to x?
a) -4/5
b) -1/24
c) 1/24
d) 4/11
e) 24/1
Q The area of a square rug with a diagonal of 17 feet is how much greater, in square feet, than the area of a square rug with a diagonal of 13 feet?
a) 240
b) 120
c) 100
d) 80
e) 60
I should have solved this one.
Q What is the area of the parallelogram above? Note: AC, BD are the diagonals of the parallelogram.
(1) AC = BD + 4 = 12
(2) (AC)(BD) = 96
Go with what you know - don't assume like Joe Blogg.
Verbal : Got 6 answer wrong (85%).
Some of them were early questions - 3rd, 5th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 22nd. Could have done better. Four wrong answers in RC, one wrong answer each in SC and CR. Need to focus on RC. Take next test a bit early in day when not so tired.
Also - I had a lot of time left at the end of both the verbal and math sections. 10 min Math, 15 min in Verbal (surprising). Need to spread time more evenly. Spend more on RC.
Q Contestants entering the competition for the third or fourth time are likely to be at a significant advantage and are frequently able to outperform their less-seasoned rivals.
a) likely to be at a significant advantage and are frequently able to
b) likely significantly advantaged and frequently able to
c) liable to be significantly advantaged and can frequently
d) liable that they are at a significant advantage and can frequently
e) at a significant advantage, frequently likely to be able that they can
B is wrong. Parallel construction. “Advantaged” is a noun, and “able” is a verb.
Q
In 1987, an environmental action group reported a 65-percent response rate to a questionnaire sent to all of its members. The subject of the questionnaire was ocean dumping. On the basis of these results, the group expects a 65-to-70 percent response rate to its upcoming questionnaire on air pollution.
The environmental group’s expectation is based on which of the following assumptions?
a) The group’s membership has not declined by more than 5 percent since 1987.
b) The same number of surveys will be distributed as were distributed in 1987.
c) People who are concerned about ocean dumping are even more concerned about air pollution.
d) The response rate of one questionnaire can be predicted from that of another.
e) The total amount of pollution today is the same as it was in 1987.
Obvious answer is E. Don't know why I did not choose that. C is out of scope, since the concerns of people in general may not be those of the members of the environmental action group.
Math: 4 answers wrong (89%).
A couple in the first 30 questions, and a couple of the last 5 questions.
Q A man chooses an outfit from 3 different shirts, 2 different pairs of shoes, and 3 different pants. If he randomly selects 1 shirt, 1 pair of shoes, and 1 pair of pants each morning for 3 days, what is the probability that he wears the same pair of shoes each day, but that no other piece of clothing is repeated?
Q If (x-4y)/(x+y)=4/5, what is the ratio of y to x?
a) -4/5
b) -1/24
c) 1/24
d) 4/11
e) 24/1
Q The area of a square rug with a diagonal of 17 feet is how much greater, in square feet, than the area of a square rug with a diagonal of 13 feet?
a) 240
b) 120
c) 100
d) 80
e) 60
I should have solved this one.
Note: "square" rug. I assumed rectangular - similar to a mistake done in the past.
Q What is the area of the parallelogram above? Note: AC, BD are the diagonals of the parallelogram.
(1) AC = BD + 4 = 12
(2) (AC)(BD) = 96
Go with what you know - don't assume like Joe Blogg.
Verbal : Got 6 answer wrong (85%).
Some of them were early questions - 3rd, 5th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 22nd. Could have done better. Four wrong answers in RC, one wrong answer each in SC and CR. Need to focus on RC. Take next test a bit early in day when not so tired.
Also - I had a lot of time left at the end of both the verbal and math sections. 10 min Math, 15 min in Verbal (surprising). Need to spread time more evenly. Spend more on RC.
Q Contestants entering the competition for the third or fourth time are likely to be at a significant advantage and are frequently able to outperform their less-seasoned rivals.
a) likely to be at a significant advantage and are frequently able to
b) likely significantly advantaged and frequently able to
c) liable to be significantly advantaged and can frequently
d) liable that they are at a significant advantage and can frequently
e) at a significant advantage, frequently likely to be able that they can
B is wrong. Parallel construction. “Advantaged” is a noun, and “able” is a verb.
The idiom is “likely to be at a ...”.
Q
In 1987, an environmental action group reported a 65-percent response rate to a questionnaire sent to all of its members. The subject of the questionnaire was ocean dumping. On the basis of these results, the group expects a 65-to-70 percent response rate to its upcoming questionnaire on air pollution.
The environmental group’s expectation is based on which of the following assumptions?
a) The group’s membership has not declined by more than 5 percent since 1987.
b) The same number of surveys will be distributed as were distributed in 1987.
c) People who are concerned about ocean dumping are even more concerned about air pollution.
d) The response rate of one questionnaire can be predicted from that of another.
e) The total amount of pollution today is the same as it was in 1987.
Obvious answer is E. Don't know why I did not choose that. C is out of scope, since the concerns of people in general may not be those of the members of the environmental action group.
Mind the scope in CR. Also be careful while evaluating "emphasis of", and "summary of" questions. Practice more such questions.
FOCUS ON RC PRACTICE. I HAVE BEEN LAGGING IN AMOUNT OF PRACTICE HERE - SO GOOD CORRELATION.
May 11
Tried Princeton Online practice. Easy questions so far. Like the fact that I am practicing on a computer based test for the first time. Its easier than a paper based test - more focus too.
Session 1: PS : 26/27.
Q: A retailer buys d dresses for a total of t dollars. If she sells all but b of the dresses at p dollars per dress, and donates the remaining dresses to charity, what is her total profit, in dollars, on the dresses that she sells?
a) (d-b)p - t
b) (d-b)p - dt
c) (d-b)t - p
d) dp - dt
e) (p-t)d - b
SC: 7/10
I spoke too soon about better focus - made one mistake as I was not concentrating.
Q Liverpool has slowly emerged from its post-industrial decline as a newly thriving city with a population of over five hundred thousand and more investors interested in large urban renewal projects than would have been thought possible twenty years ago.
a) of over five hundred thousand and more
b) of more than five hundred thousand and of more
c) more than five hundred thousand and greater
d) greater than five hundred thousand and greater
e) of more than five hundred thousand, with
Q Depending on one’s point of view, the proliferation of the television is either a great advance in communication or an unmistakable sign that the decline in high culture begun before the War is still continuing.
a) decline in high culture begun before the War is still continuing
b) decline of high culture begun before the War is still continuing
c) decline of high culture that began before the War is continuing
d) decline in culture in high places that began before the War is continuing
e) declining culture in high places that began before the War still continues
Q To distinguish quickly between king and coral snakes slithering out from under a rock, hikers should look at the bands of color on their bodies: red and yellow bands touch on the venomous coral snake, but they are always separated by black bands on the harmless king snake.
a) between king and coral snakes slithering
b) between kings and coral snakes that slither
c) among kings and coral snakes that are slithering
d) among king and coral snakes as they slither
e) kings from coral snakes slithering
CR: 9/10
An employee representative of the Quik Snak company has released a report containing information on about thirty employees at the company’s central meat-packing plant, all of whom were hospitalized with hepatitis. This report follows a similar one released last month by a local epidemiologist pointing out a sharp rise in the number of diagnoses of hepatitis among workers at the same plant. Quik Snak management, however, maintains that the ill employees must have contracted the disease while off the job.
Which one of the following statements, if true, would cast the most doubt on the Quik Snak management’s claim?
a) The thirty hospitalized workers were all diagnosed with other illnesses as well.
b) The epidemiologist’s report was scientifically sound.
c) The Quik Snak company is privately held, and will not publicly release its safety record.
d) All of the workers in question suffered from Hepatitis A, which is most frequently transmitted through tainted food.
e) No workers other than the thirty who were hospitalized show any signs of having hepatitis
Session 1: PS : 26/27.
Q: A retailer buys d dresses for a total of t dollars. If she sells all but b of the dresses at p dollars per dress, and donates the remaining dresses to charity, what is her total profit, in dollars, on the dresses that she sells?
a) (d-b)p - t
b) (d-b)p - dt
c) (d-b)t - p
d) dp - dt
e) (p-t)d - b
SC: 7/10
I spoke too soon about better focus - made one mistake as I was not concentrating.
Q Liverpool has slowly emerged from its post-industrial decline as a newly thriving city with a population of over five hundred thousand and more investors interested in large urban renewal projects than would have been thought possible twenty years ago.
a) of over five hundred thousand and more
b) of more than five hundred thousand and of more
c) more than five hundred thousand and greater
d) greater than five hundred thousand and greater
e) of more than five hundred thousand, with
Q Depending on one’s point of view, the proliferation of the television is either a great advance in communication or an unmistakable sign that the decline in high culture begun before the War is still continuing.
a) decline in high culture begun before the War is still continuing
b) decline of high culture begun before the War is still continuing
c) decline of high culture that began before the War is continuing
d) decline in culture in high places that began before the War is continuing
e) declining culture in high places that began before the War still continues
Q To distinguish quickly between king and coral snakes slithering out from under a rock, hikers should look at the bands of color on their bodies: red and yellow bands touch on the venomous coral snake, but they are always separated by black bands on the harmless king snake.
a) between king and coral snakes slithering
b) between kings and coral snakes that slither
c) among kings and coral snakes that are slithering
d) among king and coral snakes as they slither
e) kings from coral snakes slithering
CR: 9/10
An employee representative of the Quik Snak company has released a report containing information on about thirty employees at the company’s central meat-packing plant, all of whom were hospitalized with hepatitis. This report follows a similar one released last month by a local epidemiologist pointing out a sharp rise in the number of diagnoses of hepatitis among workers at the same plant. Quik Snak management, however, maintains that the ill employees must have contracted the disease while off the job.
Which one of the following statements, if true, would cast the most doubt on the Quik Snak management’s claim?
a) The thirty hospitalized workers were all diagnosed with other illnesses as well.
b) The epidemiologist’s report was scientifically sound.
c) The Quik Snak company is privately held, and will not publicly release its safety record.
d) All of the workers in question suffered from Hepatitis A, which is most frequently transmitted through tainted food.
e) No workers other than the thirty who were hospitalized show any signs of having hepatitis
Friday, May 9, 2008
May 8
Feeling very tired today - focused on SC, DS only.
Tomorrow: Catch up on RC passages (4 backlog + 2 scheduled) and practice PS, CR.
SC : 17/20 (Scoretop 1000) - not very good
99. Although the manager agreed to a more flexible work schedule, he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is assigned to do.
(A) he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is
(B) he said it had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor knows what everyone is
(C) he said that they would have to post the assignments on the bulletin board so that management and labor knew what everyone was
(D) he said that the schedule would have to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone was
(E) saying that the schedule had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone had been
100. Although the phenomenon of withdrawal has always been the crucial physiological Leng for distinguishing addictive from nonaddictive drugs, it has become increasingly evident that not all regular heroin users experience withdrawal symptoms.
(A) addictive from
(B) addictive and
(C) addictive or
(D) between addictive or
(E) among addictive or
103. American productivity is declining in relation to Europe’s; the energy expended per unit of production in the United States is as much as twice that expended in West Germany.
(A) as much as twice that expended in West Germany
(B) as much as twice that of West Germany’s expenditure
(C) up to two times of West Germany’s expenditure
(D) up to two times what West Germans expended
(E) up to double the West German expenditure
DS - 44/50 (Scoretop), 18/20 (OG 10)
Took one scoretop section very casually - practiced while reading TV - and paid the price. Two consistent problems with DS:
a - Not confirming what is being asked for after solving problem
b - Not ignoring a statement while evaluating the other
For some time, I will focus on just getting DS answers right and not be in a hurry to clock a good time as I am doing very good time on DS anyway.
Scoretop Q. What is the value of |x|?
(1) x = -|x|
(2) x2 = 4
Scoretop Q. All trainees in a certain aviator training program must take both a written test and a flight test. If 70 percent of the trainees passed the written test, and 80 percent of the trainees passed the flight test, what percent of the trainees passed both tests?
(1) 10 percent of the trainees did not pass either test.
(2) 20 percent of the trainees passed only the flight test.
Did not ignore one statement while evaluating the other.
Scoretop Q. If n is an integer, is n/15 an integer?
(1) 3n/15 is an integer.
(2) 8n/15 is an integer.
Forgot that n is an integer while solving this.
Scoretop Q. If the Lincoln Library’s total expenditure for books, periodicals, and newspapers last year was $35,000, how much of the expenditure was for books?
(1) The expenditure for newspapers was 40 percent greater than the expenditure for periodicals.
(2) The total of the expenditure for periodicals and newspapers was 25 percent less than the expenditure for books.
OG 10 225 Q. If y is greater than 110% of x, is y greater than 75?
a) x>75
b) y-x=10
OG 10 200 Q. If x and y are positive, what is the value of x?
a) 200% of x is 400% of y
b) xy is the square of a positive integer
Important: x, y are not integers here - keep in mind.
Tomorrow: Catch up on RC passages (4 backlog + 2 scheduled) and practice PS, CR.
SC : 17/20 (Scoretop 1000) - not very good
99. Although the manager agreed to a more flexible work schedule, he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is assigned to do.
(A) he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is
(B) he said it had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor knows what everyone is
(C) he said that they would have to post the assignments on the bulletin board so that management and labor knew what everyone was
(D) he said that the schedule would have to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone was
(E) saying that the schedule had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone had been
100. Although the phenomenon of withdrawal has always been the crucial physiological Leng for distinguishing addictive from nonaddictive drugs, it has become increasingly evident that not all regular heroin users experience withdrawal symptoms.
(A) addictive from
(B) addictive and
(C) addictive or
(D) between addictive or
(E) among addictive or
"distinguishing addictive from nonaddictive drugs" is idiomatically ok.
103. American productivity is declining in relation to Europe’s; the energy expended per unit of production in the United States is as much as twice that expended in West Germany.
(A) as much as twice that expended in West Germany
(B) as much as twice that of West Germany’s expenditure
(C) up to two times of West Germany’s expenditure
(D) up to two times what West Germans expended
(E) up to double the West German expenditure
DS - 44/50 (Scoretop), 18/20 (OG 10)
Took one scoretop section very casually - practiced while reading TV - and paid the price. Two consistent problems with DS:
a - Not confirming what is being asked for after solving problem
b - Not ignoring a statement while evaluating the other
For some time, I will focus on just getting DS answers right and not be in a hurry to clock a good time as I am doing very good time on DS anyway.
Watch out when |x| is asked for - don't mistake it for x.
Scoretop Q. What is the value of |x|?
(1) x = -|x|
(2) x2 = 4
Scoretop Q. All trainees in a certain aviator training program must take both a written test and a flight test. If 70 percent of the trainees passed the written test, and 80 percent of the trainees passed the flight test, what percent of the trainees passed both tests?
(1) 10 percent of the trainees did not pass either test.
(2) 20 percent of the trainees passed only the flight test.
Did not ignore one statement while evaluating the other.
Scoretop Q. If n is an integer, is n/15 an integer?
(1) 3n/15 is an integer.
(2) 8n/15 is an integer.
Forgot that n is an integer while solving this.
Scoretop Q. If the Lincoln Library’s total expenditure for books, periodicals, and newspapers last year was $35,000, how much of the expenditure was for books?
(1) The expenditure for newspapers was 40 percent greater than the expenditure for periodicals.
(2) The total of the expenditure for periodicals and newspapers was 25 percent less than the expenditure for books.
This is an important question. Even though there are three variables, the ratio of 1 to the sum of the other 2 is given. Watch out for such questions.
OG 10 225 Q. If y is greater than 110% of x, is y greater than 75?
a) x>75
b) y-x=10
I got the implications of statement 2 wrong - forgot that y > 110% of x and formulated an equality wrong. My inequality was y-x=10 => 1.1 x - x > 10 => 0.1 x> 10 => x >100, which is a wrong approach from the first step substitution of y itself as y could even be 50x which would result in a much smaller x. Be careful of making such mistakes.
OG 10 200 Q. If x and y are positive, what is the value of x?
a) 200% of x is 400% of y
b) xy is the square of a positive integer
Important: x, y are not integers here - keep in mind.
2y^2 = square of an integer does not mean y=sqrt(2).
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