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Hi PGites

My journey for cracking the MBA entrance scenario began six months back, when I started preparing for CAT ... I would regularly visit this site and compare my Sim-CAT scores with others to follow my progress ... But things did'nt go off too well for me on D-day ... My splits were -

Quant - 77 percentile

DI - 92 percentile

Verbal - 99 percentile

Could'nt make it through any of the IIMs, so decided to try my luck at GMAT ... Decided to take a month to prepare for it and give it my best shot ...

Just gave GMAT yesterday ... And man! Am I relieved it's all over! ... The worst part about preparing for GMAT was that, unlike CAT, I would know what my score is within minutes of giving the test ... And the result of my hard work will either pay off or go down the drain ... And in the end, it did pay off! ... I got a 760, and the world has just turned a shade of rosy pink! ...

I wanted to share my experience with PG ... Hopefully it might benefit a few others who are looking to break into the 700s ...

What I studied

The Official Guide -

Absolutely essential ... Especially for Verbal ... I did only the last 100 questions or so for Quant ... But solve each and every question in Verbal ... And don't simply solve the questions ... Understand why or why not ...

Kaplan CD -

Tests are OK, though low scoring ... Lessons are good for review ... Good to practise Quant from here, as the questions are above the OG level ... If you're aiming for above 700, get very comfortable with toughies ... RC's are very bad! ... The lengthy psycho-abstract mumbo-jumbo they give is nowhere near the standard of the actual GMAT ... They'll throw you off ...

Princeton -

Verbal is good ... especially SC ... The rules are very clearly laid out ... Too few problems to practice in their Bins, though ... Quant isn't that good ... AWA explanation was also the best among all the material I referred to ...

ARCO -

Did'nt observe anything extraordinary here ... Just solved all the questions for practice ...

What I did not study

Barrons -

Kindly abstain ... Words are not enough to describe the Barrons experience ...

The tests I took

While giving tests, it's very important that you give the whole thing in one sitting, under a controlled environment ... The sooner you start giving essays with your tests, the better it is ... Get used to the four hour environment ... And spend a respectable amount of time analysing your results ... Not just the ones you got wrong, but also the ones you got right ... Find out if you got them right for the right reasons ...

PowerPrep -

The accepted method to start your GMAT prep is with a PP test ... People told me that the score you get here is what you will ultimately end up with ... I got 730 in the first one and 750 in the second one ... Both Quant and Verbal were definitely much more simpler here than most of the questions I encountered in the actual GMAT ... But be sure to finish the two tests before you start your OG, as all questions are repeated ...

Kaplan -

Like I mentioned, scores are low here ... I got 640, 650 and 630 ... My accuracy was about 50% in both RC and CR ... Just could'nt identify with most of the solutions they gave ... Refrain from taking them a week before GMAT if low scores bring you down easily ... Very good analysis for results, though ...

Princeton -

I was'nt very impressed with the tests they gave on the CD ... Well, I did not have a net connection on the computer where I gave my tests, so I could not check my results for the two Princeton CATs I took ... So I can't comment on their analysis ...

How I studied

Started off with a PP ... Then sat down to finish all the Non OG material ... Princeton, Arco, Kaplan CD ... Took the other PP ... Finally sat down with OG during the last week and solved each and every problem systematically ...

Here are some strategies I picked up during the course of my prep ...

Quant

Unlike in CAT, in GMAT it is not a good idea to try out the process of elimination in Quant ... If you've got your basics right, you've got more than enough time to actually solve each and every question ... Use your scratch pad generously ... Don't be shy to write down the process ... It pays to be sure ... And practice as many short cuts as you can for the known problem types that you might encounter ...

For example,

A does some work in x days

B does the same work in y days

Time taken for both to do the work is

x*y/(x+y) days

A serious CAT Quant Prep should be more than sufficient to see you through any problem in GMAT Quant ... Just avoid silly mistakes, and double check DS questions ...

Reading Comprehension

You will get 4 passages of an average length of about 40 words each ... Get comfortable with topics with technical jargon, social issues, gender inequality ... No arbid topics here ... And time spent in reading the passages thoroughly is time well invested ... And COMPREHEND what you're reading ... Develop a burning interest in what you're reading ... As you keep reading, it helps if you start asking yourself what might come next ... Break the passage down to a skeletal structure, and you're done ... Initial practice may require you to use a scratch pad to do this, but with enough practice you'll be able to do it mentally ... Just get the main flow down, details can be referred to later ...

Once you do this for a passage, the content will be so imprinted in your mind that you'll be ready to answer the questions without the need to refer back to the passage