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.

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

May 10

Focused on PS.

PS: 101/105 (Source OG 10th Ed.)

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

"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).

May 7

RC - 12/12 (OG 10).

Need to catch up yesterday's RC backlog. Pushed to tomorrow. Need to do more RC and a bit earlier in the evening - late night RC is really tough. But, hey! Good going so far.

PS (OG 10): 29/30

Learning: In % or fraction questions, always refer back to the question to cross-check % or fraction of WHAT is being asked for.

Also noted the property that if the digits of a two digit number X are reversed to form number Y, then X+Y is divisible by 11 and X-Y is divisible by 9.

SC : 16/16 (OG 10 - reached the end of OG 10 SC questions today - will need to figure out next SC source), 16/18 (Scoretop SC1000)

Scoretop 72. Aho, a Kiowa matriarch, held festivals in her home, they featured the preparation of great quantities of ceremonial food, the wearing of many layers of colorful clothing adorned with silver, and the recounting of traditional tribal jokes and stories.
(A) Aho, a Kiowa matriarch, held festivals in her home, they featured
(B) Festivals were held in Aho, a Kiowa matriarch’s home, which featured
(C) Aho, who was a Kiowa matriarch in her home, held festivals featuring
(D) In her home, Aho, a Kiowa matriarch, held festivals that featured
(E) Aho, a Kiowa matriarch, held festivals in her home that featured

Watch that modifier!

Scoretop 74. All-terrain vehicles have allowed vacationers to reach many previously inaccessible areas, but they have also been blamed for causing hundreds of deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging the nation’s recreational areas.
(A) deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging
(B) deaths and injuring thousands, and serious damage to
(C) deaths, thousands who are injured, as well as seriously damaging
(D) deaths and thousands of injuries, as well as doing serious damage to
(E) deaths, thousands are injured, and they do serious damage to

Parallelism.

83. Although it claims to delve into political issues, television can be superficial such as when each of the three major networks broadcast exactly the same statement from a political candidate.
(A) superficial such as when each of the three major networks
(B) superficial, as can sometimes occur if all of the three major networks
(C) superficial if the three major networks all
(D) superficial whenever each of the three major networks
(E) superficial, as when the three major networks each

Usage of "each ... plural verb vs singular verb form". Good example.

May 6

Deviated from the plan by a bit.

RC: 16/17 (Source: OG 10)

Q107 The number of patents granted to inventors by the United States Patent Office dropped from 56,000 in 1971 to 45,000 in 1978. Spending on research and development, which peaked at 3 percent of the gross national product (GNP) in 1964, was only 2.2 percent of the GNP in 1978. During this period, when the United States percentage was steadily decreasing, West Germany and Japan increased the percentage of their GNP’s spent on research and development to 3.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
(A) There is direct relationship between the size of a nation’s GNP and the number of inventions it produces.
(B) Japan and West Germany spent more money on research and development is directly related to the number of inventions patented in that nation.
(C) The amount of money a nation spends on research and development is directly relocated to the number of inventions patented in that nation.
(D) Between 1964 and 1978 the United States consistently spent a larger percentage of its GNP on research and development than did Japan.
(E) Both West Germany and Japan will soon surpass the United States in the number of patents granted to investors.

DS: 16/17 (OG 10), 44/49 (Scoretop DS Collection : GMAT Data Sufficiency Sections 1-42)

OG was okay. Did not do very well on the scoretop questions, which were on the tougher side of the scale. Messed up about 3 questions because of not enough focus - a couple were genuine misses that I learnt from. My answer rate on these is a cause for worry - a lot of questions felt like 700+ questions (gut feel). I think I will add a scoretop section to each day that I practice DS - they seem to be good. May do the same for PS as well. Will try scoretop PS section(s) tomorrow.

Q If x and y are integers, is xy + 1 divisible by 3?
(1) When x is divided by 3, the remainder is 1.
(2) When y is divided by 9, the remainder is 8.

Q Rectangle ABCD is inscribed in a circle as shown above. What is the radius of the circle?
(1) The length of the rectangle is sqrt(3) and the width of the rectangle is 1.
(2) The length of arc AB (=length of rectangle) is of the circumference of the circle.



Q In the figure above, line AC represents a seesaw that is touching level ground at point A. If B is the midpoint of AC, how far above the ground is point C?
(1) x = 30
(2) Point B is 5 feet above the ground.

Q If b is an integer, is sqrt(a2 + b2) an integer?
(1) a2 + b2 is an integer.
(2) a2 – 3b2 = 0

RC:
Could not start on RC (2 passages), so that goes into backlog for tomorrow.

May 5

Reached home at around 8 PM. Between food, IPL, and a wash - completed the target for today - 20 SC, 20 PS, 2 RC passages from OG 10th ed. Satisfactory start - need to keep it up and perhaps up the numbers next week onwards.

SC -> 18/20.

Messed-up Q239 and Q251.

Q239 Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species, including 180 songbirds.

(A) for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of

(B) to monitor population changes of as many, or

(C) to monitor changes in the populations of

(D) that monitors population changes of

(E) that monitors changes in populations of as many as, or

Q251 The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970’s.

(A) extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than

(B) extinction; its numbers are now five times more than

(C) extinction, their numbers now fivefold what they were

(D) extinction, now with fivefold the numbers they had

(E) extinction, now with numbers five times greater than

- Watch the agreement of pronoun with noun.
- "five times greater than when" is okay; need not be "five times greater than they were when", which probably has a completely different meaning ("five times greater than how much greater they were when") - ???.

PS -> 19/20.

Simple calculation mistake in squares of 21 & 19 - Q 245. Grrr...

RC -> Passages 1 & 2 -> 12/12.

Good going here although P1 was really scary and I had to rush through reading the second half. Its tricky to know when to let go of really trying to understand the passage and go to the questions instead and work backwards from there.

Remember: The eye of the tiger.

The Plan: Week 1

With 6 weeks to go, here is the preparation plan for this week. Will update a more macro view for the 6 weeks soon.

This week: Source: OG 10th Ed.

May 5: Practice Questions
RC - 2 passages
SC - 20 Q
PS - 20 Q

May 6: Practice Questions
RC - 2 passages
DS - 20 Q
CR - 20 Q

May 7: Practice Questions
RC - 2 passages
PS - 20 Q
SC - 20 Q

May 8: Practice Questions
RC - 2 passages
DS - 20 Q
CR- 20 Q

May 9: Practice Questions
RC - 2 passages
PS - 20 Q
SC - 20 Q

Not very difficult goals. Let's see if I can stick to this (or do more on a daily basis). Will up the ante next week. Weekend planning is still pending.

Performance Status

As mentioned before, I am consistently getting 90-95% questions right on all the sources tried so far - primarily OG 10th, Princeton Review, and significant parts of Scoretop 1000 lists.

From last two weeks, I have been focusing only on OG questions (starting with OG 10). I have started noting down all the questions that I get wrong and try them one again and make a mental note of the nature of mistake I made. Have seen some benefit as some of the mistakes had a pattern. I feel this is an important part of preparation.

PS, DS. reasonably ok - 90-95% consistently - but keep making silly mistakes in not reading the questions fully. Nine in ten mistakes I make are for this reason. Have to have better focus! I keep telling myself that I have to validate the answer once before moving to the next question - rarely seem to be able to do so, though. I should do much better on this front. Top areas of improvement: inequalities, probability, a bit more work on number theory. Inequalities are tough. Probability : OG does not seem to have many difficult questions on this, so is it worth a big investment - will soon figure out what to do.

CR - Doing unexpectedly great on this so far. Over 95% answer rate. Longer questions are more difficult - again a matter of not enough focus I think. Went back to the Princeton Guide on recommendations for tackling CR - got some really useful tips on scope and identifying assumptions/inferences. Would have done well without these tips too, but feel that the tips provide a bit of edge.

SC - Did very badly on this to start with and needed most practice on this. Initial answer rate was around 85% - now clocking over 90% but still not satisfied. Will keep focusing on this. Did not find the Manhattan SC Guide very useful. Did find some notes (will update the source later - cannot remember it right now) that were useful, esp. on idioms.

RC - Doing okay on this so far - 90% or, a few times, more. I generally don't have confidence in my RC answers while I am answering them but do seem to get most right. Also, found that I do much better on technical and business subject passages and not so good on social/current affairs. Don't know what action to take to improve though. Just more practice, maybe. Haven't found any pattern in my mistakes also. There were some scope related issues that I have tried to be conscious of. I guess RC will always be a bit tricky.

The big questions I wonder about are:
1. Is getting 90-95% on all the questions good enough to get a 730+ score (my minimum target).
2. If yes, will the same performance hold out in the actual test :-).

Getting started

These are the records of my journey as I prepare towards the GMAT in June 2008. I have done some light preparation in the last one month and am now initiating a last-leg of intense study leading up to 18th June - D-Day.

I am hopeful that besides being a record, this blog will add some discipline to the preparation itself by forcing me to reflect on the status of preparation on a daily basis.

So, here is what I have been doing so far in the name of preparation.

1. Looked up a host of websites with gmat questions (scoretop, manhattan, testmagic, beatthegmat).

2. Downloaded over 500 MB (!!!) of material from esnips, 4shared etc. Also finished all the material in the Princetop review book (except the online tests) - this was the first book I bought. Also bought the OG 11th edition. Bought the Barrons guide too - big mistake and pretty much a waste.

3. Discovered that a lot of stuff on the online forums is stolen/borrowed OG (Official Guide) material. Also realized that OG questions is where the action is. Finally - felt that refering to too many sources leads to bad planning - you cannot track what progress you are making. Maybe one online forum is good enough to keep trying out a few questions from time to time and to post some answers to difficult questions where you can as that helps clear your own thoughts about how you approach tough problems. I like both the scoretop and the mahattan forums.

4. Wrote some sample official paper tests for scores of 740, 690, 760, 750. Gave me a bit of confidence, but I really don't know if this will translate into a good score on the actual test. Let's see - I have 6 weeks of prep left.

5. Decided to focus on OG 10th edition and then get started on OG 11th edition. No plan yet for AWA - will get to it in a couple of weeks after finishing OG 10th edition questions (which is about 60% done).

6. Consistently getting about 90-95% answers right in OG 10th and all other question sources I have tried so far. Not sure what score it translates to.

7. Not able to get a good idea of 700+ question types so far - based on all the stuff I have read online, might go for buying the Kaplan 800 soon. OG 10 + OG 11 + Kaplan 800 - I think that is good enough if one's Math and English fundamentals are okay and if one is not really desperate for a 770+ score. I could be wrong, though.