Day 18 - Mar 31

Plan

1. 4GMAT Simple Linear Equations
2. MGMAT Geometry - Advanced Geometry Strategy
3. LSAT Test 12

Day 17 - Mar 30

Plan

1. 4GMAT Simple Linear Equations
2. Powerscore CR - Main Point
3. MGMAT SC - Comparisons
4. GMAT Prep 2
5. MGMAT Geometry - Coordinate Plane Strategy
6. MGMAT Geometry - Advanced Geometry Strategy
7. LSAT Test 12
8. Ron's session on CR: Problem's with numbers and statistics

Skipped a day

Skipped a day as I was catching up on the backlog in my study plan.

Day 16 - Mar 28

Plan

1. 4GMAT Simple Linear Equations
2. Powerscore CR - Must be True questions
3. MGMAT Geometry - Lines and Angles
4. MGMAT Geometry - Strategies for DS
5. GMAT club test
6. LSAT Test 11 - Review Errors
7. Ron's lecture - RC, short passages

Day 15 - Mar 27

Plan

1. 4GMAT Number Properties Chapter
2. MGMAT SC -Verb Tense, Mood, Voice 
3. GMAT club test
4. MGMAT Geometry  - Circles OG questions - 14
5. MGMAT FDPs - Digits OG questions - 22
6. Triangles and Diagonals OG questions -  15
7. LSAT Test 11

My view on LSAT

LSAT Critical Reasoning is hard. I realized that after completing 200 questions from LSAT CR. For anyone who is reading the passage first and then the CR question, it is going to be double HARD. Listen to Ron. I was able to reduce my errors by reading what I'm looking for FIRST. Then I went ahead and looked for what ever it was I'm supposed to be looking for. Otherwise, the answer choices will trick you into choosing something insane.

Skipped a day

Took time to go over my strategy for CR and didn't really do anything according to plan.

GMAT Prep I

Scored 750 with 48 Quant and 44 Verbal. Made 11 mistakes in quant and 4 in verbal. Score must be skewed as most of the passages were familiar to me. My plan is to minimize the number of mistakes in quant and verbal and gain mastery on both. As this test is the closest indicator of actual performance, I would be taking this test, at least the quant portion, as many times as possible.

Day 14 - Mar 25

Plan

1. 4GMAT Number Properties Chapter
2. MGMAT SC -Verb Tense, Mood, Voice
3. GMAT club test
4. GMAT prep 1
5. MGMAT Geometry  - Triangles and Diagonals
6. MGMAT FDPs - Digits and Decimals
7. LSAT Test 11
8. Ron's session on Reading Comp - Main Idea

Day 13 - Mar 24

Plan

1. 4GMAT Number Properties Chapter
2. Strategies for DS - MGMAT Number Properties
3. MGMAT SC -Verb Tense, Mood, Voice
4. GMAT club test
5. GMAT prep 1
6. Ron's session on CR - Conclusion
7. Ron's session on CR - Strengthen/Weaken/Evaluate the Argument
8. Ron's session on CR - Explain the Situation
9. Powerscore CR - The Question Stem and Answer Choices
10. MGMAT Geometry - Polygons

Skipped a day

I had an unexpected visit from a friend, so I had to skip a day.

Day 12 - Mar 22

Plan

1. 4GMAT Number Properties Chapter
   
2. Ron's recording on Parallelism
   
3. LSAT Test 10 - 2 CR Sections
4. Strategies for DS - MGMAT Number Properties
5. MGMAT SC -Verb Tense, Mood, Voice

Day 11 - Mar 21

Plan

1. The basics of CR from Powerscore CR guide
2. 4GMAT Number Properties Chapter
3. Ron's recording on Parallelism
4. MGMAT Number Properties - Roots
5. MGMAT Number Properties - PEDMAS
6. GMAT Club Test 1
7. LSAT Test 10 - 2 CR Sections
8. Review GMAT Club Test Errors

GMATClub Test 1

I took the first gmatclub test M01 today. I followed the suggestions for timing considerations and I was not stressed out or anything while taking the test. I simply guessed and moved on. When you're clueless about the question, that's the best thing to do. Here are my results.

Test    Correct    Total    % Correct            Percentile
m01     26             37              70%                46%

Day 10 - Mar 20

Plan

1. Consecutive Integers chapter from MGMAT Number Properties
2. OG questions related to Consecutive Integers
3. Exponents chapter from MGMAT Number Properties
4. OG questions related to Exponents
5. Modifiers chapter from MGMAT SC
6. OG questions related to Modifiers
7. The basics of CR from Powerscore CR guide
8. 4GMAT Number Properties Chapter
9. Ron's recording on Parallelism
10. LSAT Test 9 (2 CR sections)

Skipped a day

I skipped a whole day because I wanted to understand the timing strategy for the test, so I spent time listening to the lectures on the psychological aspects of timing on the GMAT. Worth it. If you need details, refer to the "Timing Considerations" session in Ron Purewal's lectures. Link on resources page.

Topics I'm omitting

I've decided to remove Quantum CAT and LSAT RC from my study topics. There will simply not be enough time to do these. Instead, I'm replacing these with 4GMAT and Aristotle RC respectively.

Day 9 - Mar 18

Plan

1. Odds and evens from the MGMAT Number Properties Guide
2. Positives and Negatives from the MGMAT Number Properties Guide
3. Pronouns chapter from MGMAT SC Guide
4. Intro to CR from Powerscore CR Bible
5. Questions on divisibility and primes from OG
6. Questions on odds and evens from OG
7. Questions on positives and negatives from OG
8. Questions on Pronouns from OG
9. Ron Recording
10. LSAT Test 9
11. 80 questions on Quantum CAT
12. GMAT Club Test 1

I'm doing only the general questions now. As soon as I complete the advanced chapters, I will do the advanced questions. There are 47 chapters in all the 5 guides of MGMAT quant. My target is to complete the general chapters in all guides (31 of them) and then take one day for each of the advanced chapters.  So, the general chapters would have to be covered at least 2 chapters a day. My target end date is the 31st of March.

Why plans fail

A major reasons plans fail is because once you make the plan, you're all happy and forget about the plan. And one fine day, you wake up wondering where the hell all the time went.

Another reason is because you forget to re-visit the plan and change the strategy according to changing circumstances. Your plan is too rigid. So to avoid these two pitfalls, here's what I'll be doing.

1. Each day, write a blog post on what I plan to accomplish THAT DAY.
2. Re-visit the plan each week and if things are not working as planned, REVISE the plan.

Focus Booster

Discovered a new tool online to help me focus better. This cool tool, focus booster helps plan my study time and time my questions in productive intervals of 25 mins.

Day 8 - Mar 17

1. Completed the parallelism chapter on the MGMAT SC Guide. 
2. Completed 50 parallelism questions from OG-12.

Day 7 - Mar 7

Completed 20 CR and 20 SC from OG-10.

Day 6 - Mar 6

1. Did 32 Strengthen the argument CR questions from OG-12.
2. Completed the first chapter on the MGMAT Number Properties Guide.

Day 5 - Mar 5

Couldn't do much in the morning as I had to leave early to office for a meeting. On reaching there, found out that the meeting was canceled, just minutes before it was planned to start. Anyways, my morning plan was screwed up. Here's what I did in the evening:

1. MGMAT SC - Subject Verb Agreement

2. OG - 12,  Subject, Verb Agreement - 25 questions

Finally, found a way to take snapshots of Ron Purewal's classes. Took snapshots of classes 1 and 2 for Verbal. This made me really happy, since I was not too excited about the prospect of writing down detailed SC and CR questions. Not to mention RC!

Day 4 - Mar 4

LSAT test 7, CR section 4 complete.
LSAT test 7, RC section 3, RC passages 1 and 2 complete.
Reviewed all the incorrect answers in LSAT tests 7 and 15.

Day 3 - Mar 3

Started the day by watching Ron Purewal's "Thursdays with Ron" free session "Sentence Correction - Miscellaneous Topics". I've already completed viewing all the maths topics and taking notes. For anyone out there reading this blog, I've added a Resources page containing a link to the Thursdays with Ron. It has a whole lot of useful stuff and several sessions on Quant and Verbal. Incredibly useful!

Did a bit of jumping rope as part of my exercise routine. I used to swim during weekends, but considering my three month plan for GMAT, I decided not to spend too much time traveling to the pool, and chose skipping as an effective means to keep fit. I'm also cooking everyday, to avoid the burnout and weakness resulting from eating junk food. Nothing fancy, just simple meals to stay healthy.

I also watched "Critical Reasoning: Assumption" from Thursdays with Ron. In my GMAT study list, I completed the following today:

1. LSAT test 15, CR section 3
2. LSAT test 15, RC section 3rd and 4th passages
3. OG 12 - CR, Assumption questions (24 questions)

OG 12

Looking back, I see the mistake that I did while working through the OG. I would just work through all the problems sequentially without any method. And then, today, I was searching on strategies, to cross that 700 mark and I found this link, which immediately made sense to me. Work on one kind of problem at a time. Here's why.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110623/acing-the-gmat/slides/2

Day 2 - Mar 2

1. LSAT test 15, CR section 2 completed
2. MGMAT SC - Chapters 1 and 2 completed - 19 SC questions from OG done

Day 1 - Mar 1

1. Completed 25 questions from Quantum CAT
2. LSAT test 7, CR section 2 completed
3. LSAT test 15, RC section 1, 2 passages completed

The road ahead

From my earlier experience, I understood clearly that applying to schools is not to be done in a week. It takes months to craft out that perfect essay, get those glowing recommendations and hit the submit button without going crazy. So here's my plan for the coming months.

1. Quantum CAT
2. Aristotle SC, Aristotle RC, PowerScore CR
3. LSAT CR and RC
4. Manhattan GMAT books + OG
5. CATs during weekends

Updates so far

My highest GMAT score so far is 690 (45 Q, 40 V).  I've decided to re-take the GMAT and score above the 700 mark. I didn't have it in me to start another blog, so I just deleted all my earlier posts and would be blogging about my GMAT prep. 

By the way, the GMAT format is changing, so it would be better to take the GMAT by the end of May.