Gear up!!

November 20, 2006

There are certain things which you will realise in the actual course of your preparation. But by that time you might have already lost some of your precious time. And that's the precise reason I thought of writing this, so as to keep you guyz from making the same mistakes as I did.

Performance Chart

It can do wonders for your preparation...trust me. It's a simple grid which can have columns for the question number, your answer, right/wrong, a brief description of the concept used (e.g. idioms, modifier, parallelism...for CR it can be Strategy...likewise). I would suggest you to make an excel and get like 50 print-outs with 100 questions per page. You can group them according to section/book. I would prefer a section-wise categorization. Generally you would do 50 questions per session. So at the end of 50 questions you can have an accuracy meter or something. I am sure all of you are creative enough to make such a chart which you can refer back to assess your difficulty areas.

This chart will help you filter out the tougher problems. So in the next round of solving the same problems (Yes!! next round...you have to solve the same questions again till your accuracy level goes up!! Atleast you would like to make sure that you are totally confident in the question types you have in your material).

Click here to download!!

Take a test date

Yes!! Take it. Without a test date you will never actually start respecting the entire thing. It will keep you focussed and up on your toes. Register yourself on the site. Get a date. I made a big calender for myself and stuck it before my study table. And obviously I highlighted the test date with a horrible colour :-D Also I put up stick-ons all around my place (mirrors, refrigirator, with dates on them) It's not getting psyched about it...but it really helps!!

Books!!

This is very important guys. I mean surely you wouldn't want your preparation to be going on a wrong line. Some books aren't just complete in their content. Some don't give you those "tips" which anyone aiming at a good score would want to have. So it finally boils down to having a set of materials rather than having just one book or one study material. But the question remains...which ones??

  1. Official Guide is a must have. GO FOR IT!!
    2. You will realise it isn't enough to satiate your thirst for the "750" figure. That's true, atleast for most of us.
  2. Kaplan Guide.
    3. CR & RC stuff, which you will not find anywhere else. Very very good book...I dare say, indispensable.

Trust me guys, these two are the only things on which you will have to spend money. Rest all is out here on the web.

But hey!! You still might ask...what about crossing the 750 mark?? So here's the trick. Get yourself KAPLAN 800 and Manhattan Sentence Correction guide. These are great books. Simply great!! I am sure they will add an extra 30 to your score, and that's a lot!!

A detailed list of materials (with links) will follow in a section wise discussion.

JUMP TO NEXT SECTION

Share This Story

Tags:

You Might Also Like

19 comments

  1. Anonymous11:07 AM

    Mukul,

    Hats off to your score and your approach to attacking the GMAT. I have looked all over the net for a good study approach and have'nt found anything better than yours.

    I have a question about the study material you had mentioned.

    # Kaplan Guide.
    CR & RC stuff, which you will not find anywhere else. Very very good book...I dare say, indispensable"

    I have a Kaplan GMAT 2006 edition "Comprehensive Program" guide. Is this sufficient enough or do I have to purchase the "Kaplan GMAT, 2007 Edition: Premier Program"?

    Thanks,
    CM

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown7:59 PM

    Hi CM!

    Thanx for the nice things u said bout my blog :-) makes me everytime someone finds it useful...

    for the kaplan thing....one basic kaplan guide is gud enuf...they repeat the same stuff in the variants...basically it has to be kaplan...i dun think u need to buy another kaplan guide...

    but if u r intrested in 750...and u think u r arnd that 700-20 types score....u shud go for kaplan 800...its a very very gud book...
    it WILL improve ur score by 20...thats a guarantee..

    catch ya later...ATB

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown12:22 PM

    Mukul,

    I got started with your OG grid to analyze the question types and found to my dismay that it belonged to the 10th edition. Do you know of anyone who may have come up with a similar grid for the 11th edition?

    Also, your GMAT material has been deleted from google.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown12:29 PM

    Could you please upload all your study material documents?

    Thanks,
    CM

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown2:44 AM

    Yeah dude I know!! I have mailed the google support guyz...
    and u shud make ur own grid...this way u can help others too...I dont think it will be very hard..
    I think u shud start it...it will really help you master it and giv confidence...
    Self help is better than spoon feeding...

    All the best!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown8:37 AM

    Mukul,

    I have created an excel grid for OG 11th edition detailing out the question types for every section. What would be a good way to share this in your forum? Let me know if I can email this to you..

    rgds,
    Maha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Victoria9:05 AM

      Hi Maha, I'm also studying with the OG 11th edition. I don't know if you were able to post your grid in Mukul's blog, but could you e-mail it to me?

      My e-mail address is victoria.palma.f@gmail.com

      Thanks,
      Victoria.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous9:22 PM

    machi amazing info man...Thanx alot..just starting to prepare


    Cheers
    Vijay

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown2:57 PM

    Hi Dude,

    I like your strategy... I especially like your grid idea. I notice that your study material has been deleted. Have you uploaded it to any other site ?

    thanks
    --Jay

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous1:24 PM

    Mukul - Amazing blog- Well done

    Maha - could you forward the OG 11 grid at sarah633@gmail.com

    All the best

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:45 PM

    Hello if someone could be kind enough to mail the OG 11 grid at cutencool25@yahoo.com

    Thanks,
    Raj

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous12:48 PM

    I am very appreicated about your hard-work and stragety to help out other ppl on the net.

    Could you please forward your materials to milkho@yahoo.com?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous11:44 PM

    I am very happy to find this good stragety to study and helpful for getting good score on the gmat.

    Could you please forward your materials to gcboy3@excite.com?

    thanks
    tommy

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous12:08 PM

    Mukul - Great job on this blog and your high score on the GMAT. It's a definitely a tough feat to have conquered, so congrats!!

    Maha or Mukul - could either of you send me the OG 11 grid at reshstar924@yahoo.com

    Best of luck in your future endeavors!
    ~Mary

    ReplyDelete
  14. rknrolls1:51 PM

    hey Mukul, good man and good blog!

    I am still waiting for my 11th OG. Meanwhile, I have downloaded the OG grid from the docs you uploaded.

    If that has not been updated from 10th, can you or Maha or someone here (!) pls email me the 11th edition to: rknrolls@googlemail.com

    cheers
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous8:41 AM

    hi my email addy is zainabubu@hotmail.com please send me the OG 11 test grid.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Unknown2:55 AM

    GR8 dude, fantastic article...

    ReplyDelete
  17. preeti10:12 PM

    Nice Post. To Score above the average, students should gave extra time in exam preparation. Time Management plays a very important role in it. Students should proper time to each GMAT section. Should gave extra time to weaker section.

    Best Regards
    GMAT SC

    ReplyDelete
  18. sudh4:18 AM

    Its really appreciable..Awesome article specially for beginner.. Mukul can you send me these study material to my mail id as its not available on your bolg. Email id: sudhvimal@gmail.com
    Thank you in advance

    Regads,
    S.Ranjan

    ReplyDelete

Follow me on Facebook