Wednesday 4 June 2014

Statistics

I got distracted from studying for the past one month. :( I was away on a dive trip for a week, and I was on commentary duty for a week as well. In between those weeks, it was difficult for me to focus and that's why, it took me so long to complete the chapter on Statistics. The questions in the OG13 was not too tough, especially the DS questions. 

Total:
Total Hours: 6
Total Hours on Quant: 
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 52
Total Hours on Quant: 52
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

CATs:
30/3/14  MGMAT CAT 1: 630 Q42 V34

Thursday 1 May 2014

Integer Properties

This is another topic that I overspent time on. It was supposed to be easy. The concepts seemed easy at first, but I had difficulty solving the questions. GMAT does have a knack of testing simple concepts with tough questions. I read the guide twice, and spent additional time on GCF and LCM. These two are new to me, either I've completely forgotten them or I've not learnt them before in my school syllabus (non-American syllabus). 

Next Quant topic: Statistics!

Week's Total:
Total Hours: 10
Total Hours on Quant: 10
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 46
Total Hours on Quant: 46
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

CATs:
30/3/14  MGMAT CAT 1: 630 Q42 V34

Saturday 12 April 2014

The Economist GMAT Scholarship Attempt

My results were quite disappointing. I scored 520, and there were no breakdown by quant and verbal. I didn't time myself during quant and left 8 questions unanswered. The scholarship contest ends on the 25th of April and I'm considering another attempt next week. Hopefully I'll score better then. 


Wednesday 9 April 2014

Finally done with Geometry part 1!

Wow, it took me a week and half to finally complete part 1 of Geometry in the BTG study guide. It is indeed tough to study while having a full time job. I managed to study an hour before work, and two hours doing exercises from the OG13 after work. Part 2 tomorrow!


Today's Total:
Total Hours: 3
Total Hours on Quant: 3
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 36
Total Hours on Quant: 36
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

CATs:
30/3/14  MGMAT CAT 1: 630 Q42 V34

Sunday 6 April 2014

Geometry week

Spent the whole of last week in Geometry. I was following Day 15 of the BTG study guide. I was a little disappointed that I didn't manage to study much during the weekend. I should really buck up and try to study 2 hours before work, instead of the 1 hour that I'm doing now.  

Week's Total:
Total Hours: 6
Total Hours on Quant: 6
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 33
Total Hours on Quant: 33
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

CATs:
30/3/14  MGMAT CAT 1: 630 Q42 V34

Sunday 30 March 2014

Weekend post + Day 15

I've been reading up on geometry according to BTG Day 15 study guide. There is quite a lot of chapters to cover on the subject in the Manhattan guide, and I think I need another two days to complete it. 

I've also finally taken my first CAT, the free sample exam provided by Manhattan  GMAT. There was an option to take the test without the IR section, which I took. I was pretty nervous because I've been putting off completing a CAT. I didn't want to be too demoralised by a score that is too low. I skipped a lot of questions in the quant section but still did not have enough time. I had about 7 questions left in the last 4 minutes and I just randomly picked answers for those questions. I read somewhere in one of the forums that it is better for the overall score to have answers than to leave the questions blank. The verbal section was pretty decent. I have not started studying for verbal yet and I kept on using too much time on sentence correction questions. Thankfully, the results were slightly better than I expected, 630 Q42 V34. 
I'm glad about the results of my first CAT and I'm now more motivated to work towards joining the coveted 700 club. :)

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 2.5
Total Hours on Quant: 2.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 27
Total Hours on Quant: 27
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

CATs:
30/3/14  MGMAT CAT 1: 630 Q42 V34

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Day 13 & 14

Completed BTG Day 14, but I was confused when I got to the recommended questions in the OG13. Instead of word problems, the questions recommended where arithmetic questions. I attempted them anyway, but I did not do well because there were a few formulas that I was not familiar with. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 3
Total Hours on Quant: 3
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 24.5
Total Hours on Quant: 24.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Monday 24 March 2014

Day 12

I started reading on word problems strategies today, according to BTG Day14. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 1.5
Total Hours on Quant: 1.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 21.5
Total Hours on Quant: 21.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Day 11

I spent time doing questions from the OG13, according to day 13 on word problems. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 3
Total Hours on Quant: 3
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 20
Total Hours on Quant: 20
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Thursday 20 March 2014

Day 10

I spent an hour reading up on Overlapping Sets in the MGMAT Word Problem Strategy Guide. It was a refresher on sets, matrix and Vern diagrams, but I find that some of the solution methods taught in the guide are pretty time consuming. I think on exam day those solutions might take more than 2 minutes to complete, but it might be so at the moment because I've not done them in a while.


Today's Total:
Total Hours: 1
Total Hours on Quant: 1
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 17
Total Hours on Quant: 17
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Day 9

Today I read on rates, work and population word problems, according to Day 13 of the BTG. Managed to study for an hour before work, and an hour after. I've only done half of the suggested reading for Day 13, and didn't do any of the related questions from the OG13. Either I need to study longer hours, or I need to speed up and study more efficiently. It has been more than a week since I've started tracking my progress on this blog but I've only managed to cover a few days of the BTG study guide. I'll try to finish up Day 13 tomorrow. 
 
Today's Total:
Total Hours: 2
Total Hours on Quant: 2
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 16
Total Hours on Quant: 16
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Sunday 16 March 2014

Day 8

I did some DS questions on word problems from the OG13 today, according to BTG Day12's study guide. I attempted each question without timing constraints to ensure that I fully understand the concepts. I'll work on timing later on once I'm more familiar and have slightly more stamina. I managed to get 82% of the questions correct, which is great because I don't have to spend additional time on this segment of word problems. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 3
Total Hours on Quant: 3
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 14
Total Hours on Quant: 14
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Day 7

I took my time after work to finish up BTG Day 12 on Word Problems. I took my time to attempt each question and I got 95% of the problem solving questions correct. Feeling a bit more motivated and will attempt the data sufficiency section on word problems tomorrow. I've also done some questions  to recap on functions. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 3
Total Hours on Quant: 3
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 11
Total Hours on Quant: 11
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Monday 10 March 2014

Day 6

I didn't really do much today, only some quant exercises on functions from OG Quant. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 1
Total Hours on Quant: 1
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 8
Total Hours on Quant: 8
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Saturday 8 March 2014

Day 4 & 5

Since this is the first weekend of my prep, I initially planned to take my first prep test today. However, I decided against it because I wanted to get sufficient sleep to recover from the sleep-deprived week I've had. 

I covered Day 11 & and half of Day 12 of BTG study guide today. Topics studied were coordinate geometry and word problems. I didn't have much problems with geometry at this point. Word problems, on the other hand, is a little tough for me because I kept on jumbling up the variables and ended up confusing myself. 

I think my first week of prep has not been efficient and effective, probably due to the fact that I had been spending additional hours after work to write the market commentary. I'll have to do it for next Monday and Tuesday as well, and after that I'll allocate more study hours to each working day. 

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 4.5
Total Hours on Quant: 4.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 7
Total Hours on Quant: 7
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Thursday 6 March 2014

Day 3

I had to wake up an hour earlier today to write a market commentary before work starts. I only managed to do a few function questions during work, from OG Quant. I've decided to stop tracking the number of questions done, as it wouldn't really signify anything and takes additional time to tally. 


Today's Total:
Total Hours: 0.5
Total Hours on Quant: 0.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 2.5
Total Hours on Quant: 2.5
Total Hours on Verbal: 0

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Day 2

I managed to get up at an hour earlier today, and reviewed the answers to the OG13 questions on Functions for an hour before going to work. I was not able to study after work because I have extra work to do, up until next Tuesday. 


Today's Total:
Total Hours: 1
Total Hours on Quant: 1
Total Hours on Verbal: 0
Questions: -

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 2
Total Hours on Quant: 2
Total Hours on Verbal: 0
Questions: 25

Monday 3 March 2014

Day 1

Back from my vacation, I'm fully refreshed but not quite ready to jump start my prep journey. Only studied managed to study for a while after work and dinner. Completed only some Functions questions in the OG13, according to BTG Day 10 study guide. I did quite a lot of mistakes in the data sufficiency section, got less than 50% of the DS questions right. :(

Today's Total:
Total Hours: 1
Total Hours on Quant: 1
Total Hours on Verbal: 0
Questions: 25

Running Tally:
Total Hours: 1
Total Hours on Quant: 1
Total Hours on Verbal: 0
Questions: 25


Tuesday 18 February 2014

The Start

The purpose creating this blog is to track my daily progress of preparation for the GMAT. I’ve been trying to study the GMAT on my own for the past 6 months but I’ve been procrastinating and haven’t been making good progress. I was looking around blogs and forums the other day when I came across this post, and I thought that this will be a good idea to keep me accountable and on track to ace the GMAT.

This is not going to be a very formal blog but I will try to keep my records as detailed as possible. I will also include some links to posts that I find useful and inspirational. 

The prep materials I have so far are:

So…what I’ve done so far are:
1)      Refreshed my Maths with Manhattan’s Foundationsof GMAT Math 
2)      Skimmed through Foundations of GMAT Verbal 
3)      Subscribed to the Beat The GMAT’s 60-Day GMATStudy Guide 
I’ve been following the guide on what to study but progress has been very, very bad. I took around 2 months to complete Day 10 of the guide due to the festive season, work and procrastination. 

I know….I need to be more disciplined.

I’ve not taken a CAT yet, mainly because I felt that I am not exam-ready and do not want to risk being too demotivated by a very low score. I also didn’t want to waste precious CATs but I think that it was a bad strategy because I didn’t know where my weaknesses are and how to effectively improve that.

All forms of motivation, sources of inspiration to share as well as constructive criticism are welcomed! I’ll figure out how to put a chatbox in this blog later on.

I’ll be away for a holiday break and I’ll seriously start my prep on the 3rd of March, 2014.