Day-7, Beat The Gmat Study Plan

7th Day of BTG Study Plan covered : 

• In the Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition:
• Review the section on Ratios (p. 113)
• In the Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition, tackle the following Ratios questions:
• Problem Solving: 20, 21, 31, 34, 52, 55, 61, 63, 66, 76, 80, 86, 96, 103, 109, 118, 162, 169
• Data Sufficiency: 38, 44, 48, 58, 78, 111, 163

• Watch the video, Introduction to Ratios
• Watch the video, Ratio Problems
• Watch the video, Advanced Ratio Problems
• Watch the Knewton video, Work Rates

I am very happy with Day 7 as out of 18 Problems in PS, I got 15 right and in DS out of 7 I got 5 right! 

Though this is just one topic, it surely gave me a much needed boost of condfidence.

GMAT is as much a mind game as it is applying what you know. So do whatever you can to get your mind working in peak positive and confident state!

Prep Update - 27.01.11

I have been following the 60 Day BTG Study Plan. Though I subscribed quiet sometime ago, I have not been following it everyday as I should have.

Today was the 6th day. Things covered :

• In the Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition:
• Review the section on Percents (p. 113-114)
• Review the sections on Mixture Problems, Interest Problems, Discount and Profit, and Sets (p. 142-144)
• In the Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition, tackle the following Percent questions:
• Problem Solving: 8, 10, 13, 17, 19, 47, 60, 64, 78, 92, 94, 111, 115, 123, 124, 128, 131, 139, 151, 156, 187, 193, 200, 202, 220
• Data Sufficiency: 2, 7, 21, 33, 37, 52, 55, 63, 67, 79, 89, 142, 143
• Watch the video, Percent Change
• Watch the video, Finding Percents
• Read this article, Interest and Compound Interest Problems

Though the 60 Day Plan also recommends referring to Kaplan Premier book, I am just following OG-12. 

For the above problems my score was - 

PS - 13 Correct out of 25

DS - 4 Correct out of 13

As you can PS I am still not able to go beyond the 50-50 ratio and DS remains my Achilles heel. :-(

I also did a thorough review and I seem to be making the same careless mistakes every time. :-(  

Any advise? 

Along side I am also studying SC and referring to Manhattan SC which refers to OG-10 Verbal for problems.

For today I went thru Parallelisms (Pg-75-83, Manhattan SC) and then solved around 49 problems from OG-10 Verbal. Scored 25 Correct. Here again I am not able to break through the 50:50 ratio. 

Tomorrow seems to be a busy day with reviewing the 49 SC questions. 

Laters!

Update - 24 January 2011

Firstly wishing you all a very Happy and Joy-filled New Year 2011!


Last month has been totally crazy in a happy way! My sister and 5 yr old niece were here and so it was all fun and frolic all the time. Needless to add, my GMAT study schedule totally went for a toss. Though I did try to practice whatever I could each and everyday, there were more days when I totally didn't do anything and I am not one bit happy about it. :-(

But these things do happen and I gotta take stock now and move on. I didn't want to contemplate this when I was having a good time, then I wouldn't be in either of the place. So I enjoyed when the time was right and now its time to get back on track. Its always good to be present in the moment instead of in the past or in the future.

In between all the good times I also took a second GMAT Practice test. The result was shocking as I dropped down 80 points to 420. The break-up :


Quants - 18 Correct, 19 Incorrect

PS - 12 Correct, 8 Incorrect
DS - 6 Correct, 11 Incorrect


Verbal (21 Correct, 20 Incorrect)

RC - 4 Correct, 9 Incorrect
CR - 7 Correct, 4 Incorrect
SC - 10 Correct, 8 Incorrect


I did the very important extensive review and this is what it looks like -

Quants

Verbal

Some other observations : 

*Overall my score is 50-50 for each section which I urgently need to skew towards Correct ones.

*In Quants DS is clearly my very very weak part. Even while solving Sample Questions from OG-12,   DS I score very less compared to PS.

*Usually RC I do well, but this test RC I totally got butchered and bad.

*SC I should have done a lot better since I have been going thru Manhattan SC.

*Reasons for my poor score(not excuses, I messed up and need to improve, as simple as that) : 

1. Sitting and concentrating thru the test is difficult than I thought. Now instead of every month I am scheduling a test every 15 days to increase my endurance level and getting used to.

2. RC passage was very very dry and hence I was barely concentrating and moving to the next question in a hurry.

3. Not been studying as much I want, been way too distracted at home because of guests.

Now time to get back on track for a week as next week again I will be busy travelling for a week for a family wedding!