Week 5

The GMAT fever is still on, atleast for me. This week, the plan is to finish review of the Word Translations Guide . This book addresses most of the so-called-hard topics of the GMAT such as Probabilty,Combinatorics, Statistics etc. I'm giving myself this whole week to go through this book. Alongside the Quant Section prep, I'm continuing with my review of the Manhattan GMAT SC book.

In summary this week,
Review of MGMAT WT guide
Review of the next chapter of MGMAT SC book, Verbs and Tenses

CAT 2

This morning I took a second GMAT CAT, the MGMAT CAT. My score was no big improvement but for the Verbal part. I spent the last week exclusively focussing on this part of the test and the result was 31 V. This may not seem a high score to many,but I'm not a native English Speaker and so, this score means a lot to me. From my observation, I have seen many native English Speakers,especially American English speakers, score very well on this part of the test achieving a Verbal score of 40+ and non-native speakers like me need to put in a lot of effort to get there. However, on the plus side, my Math skills are extremely sharp. Thanks to my Educational background and my country of origin(most people are inherantly above-average in Math).

Considering my latest CAT results, I'm going to revisit my GMAT prep plan for the next few weeks, I shall post my plan soon.

A GMAT lesson learnt

I was unable to concentrate on my GMAT prep over the last one week because of some personal commitments. I decided to start my prep today, no matter what. To my shock, I found out that ,it is extremely hard to get back into the GMAT groove after a break. I learnt a hard lesson :-( . I need to catch up with my schedule.

Lesson learnt - To all those preparing for the GMAT, make it a point to review atleast a few pages of your GMAT books every day, even of that means 5 pages. This will keep you going and not cut you out.

Week 4

Having taken a CAT some time back, I realized that my Reading Comprehension Skills are very low. I got all except one question right in my last Practise CAT(duh,terrible isn't it?). This is the reason for my total score to dip.I will be dedicating this week to Verbal RC and a few chapters in CR. Just so that I am in touch with the Quant part of test, I'm going to finish the review of the Foundations of GMAT Book this week alongside Verbal review. This is the book that I am referring to. Please note that this book is absolutely optional and does not even have great reviews written in the Amazon store. However, I'm reviewing the book since I want to score very high on the test. But,Infact,I found the book pretty useless except for the fact that it was a quick Math refresher to all concepts that we are expected to know on the GMAT such as Word Problems, Prime numbers(ahhh,I get stuck here), Equations, Probability etc.

And,by the way, one important tool that is giving my studies even more direction is the use of an Error Log. Many GMAT forums such as beatthegmat and gmatclub have always advocated one, but, I personally never had used them. Now, I'm using one during my prep. I tried to use the various MS excel versions that we have available(for free) over the Internet but they did not work for me. I spent 1/3 rd of my study time for entering the data in those worksheets. So, here's what I do: I maintain a plain,simple notebook and pen . I write down the questions that I get wrong and the concepts that I need to reinforce for the wrong questions. This is proving pretty helpful for me.

Ok,so back to study now - Happy GMATing to all of you!

My First CAT

I took my first CAT today and my score did not have any effect on me - it just shows that I need to work harder and that I have the scope to improve. Having gone through the MGMAT Quant guides,not all of them though, my score has improved a lot. Infact,I did not even know that so much of an increase is possible. If any of you want to know my specific GMAT score break up then shoot me an e-mail or just leave a comment and I"ll let you know.

This test has set a benchmark for me and I will review my study plan for the following weeks.

Flashcards - 6

Adjectives and Adverbs

• Adj and adverbs are modifiers

ADJECTIVES

• Adj modify nouns and Pronouns    Eg. A beautiful house stands at the shore
• Adj answer the questions: how many,which one and what kind
• Adj are commonly placed before nouns
• Adj are found in predicates after the linking verb  Eg. She felt lonely
• numbers are also used as adj   Eg. There are 300 cars parked today

Adj patters:

• Adj-noun

most adj appear before the noun they describe     Eg. An immature person makes many foolish mistakes

•   Noun-Adj

Adj follow the noun,when describing the direct object     Eg. He calls his brother stupid

• Subj-LV-adj

the adj describes the subj of the linking verb     Eg. This restaurant is expensive

Present and PAst Participles,nouns and phrases and clauses are also used as adjectives

• the jumping  horse won the race   Participle
• a copper or steel pan is hard to clean  noun=copper/steel
• prep phrases can b adj     Eg. the pan in the sink has cracked
• phrases with relative pronouns are often are adj

ADVERBS

• Adverbs modifiy words that cannot be modified by adj
• often words ending in-ly are adverbs. Eg, quickly,especially etc
• adverbs answer the quest: how,how often,to what degree,when,where
• clauses and phrases can also function as adverbs

Modifiers(adj and adverbs) should appear close to the words they describe othewise this leads to errors in the sentence known as misplaced modifier

Flashcards - 5

Verbs:

Types of verbs : transitive, intransitive,auxiliary and linking verbs

Transitive Verbs : the verb answers 'what' or 'whom'
Intransitive Verbs : describe actions but are not followed by direct objects or complements; followed by prepositional phrases
Linking Verbs: followed with subj complements(words/phrases/clauses that rename/describe subj); they describe conditions and not actions
Auxiliary Verbs: do not appear alone in a sentence but accompany other verbs . Eg, have, to be ,can, might and would; often modifiers appear in between and auxiliary verb and the rest of the verb phrase but are no a part of the verb phrase. Eg.,he has always liked music

Verb Tenses:
BASIC TENSES
1.Present Tense : describe actions that take place at the same time as they are being described.
2.Past Tense : describe actions/conditions that took place at a time before they are described
3.Future Tense : describe actions that will take place after they are described; it is created by adding 'will' to the basic form of the main verb

PERFECT TENSES
The Perfect tenses are used to describe how an event in the present ,past or future continues to be relevant at a later time.
---Mario has arrived home
1.Present Perfect : describes events that started in the past and continue
into the present
It is formed by using have/has with the past participle of the main verb
2.Past Perfect : describes an event in the past and shows that it was still relevant at a later time
Ex. Mario had arrived home when his mother walked in
It is formed by using had with the PP of the main verb
3.Future Perfect : describes an event in the future and shows its relevance to another event in the future
Ex.He will have arrived home when she walks in
It is formed by using will have with the PP of the main verb

PROGRESSIVE TENSES
This form combines the auxilliary verbs be,have and will with the present participle(ing form). It emphasizes that the event is in progress(either in the pres,past or future).


SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT

• subj and verb must agree in gender and number
• try to avoid the words that come betn a subj and verb(modifiers)
• cross out prepositional phrases
• verbs in compound sentences are usually plural
• in sentences beginning with here,there or where the verb comes first. so invert the sentence to locate the subj
• most indef pronouns are singular
• SANAM pronouns are sing or plural depending on the noun they refer to
• collective nouns,team,morgan associates,aundience etc are always singular

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE

• Subj--------->verb--------->Obj     (Active Voice)
• Subj is obj of action <---------Verb   (Passive Voice)
• use passive voice only to focus on the target of an action

MOOD

• 3 types of mood: Indicative,Imperative and Subjuntive
• mood is the use of verbs to indicate a person's attitude toward what he or she is saying
• Indicative:verbs state facts or ask questions. Writers suggest that their statements are true. Most sentences fall in this category. Eg. A dream is what our sub conscious state of mind feels while asleep.
• Imperative: used for requests and commands. Eg, Girls,stay off the grass! ; Henry, do not trample my flowers
• Subjuntive:in this mood,writers suggest that the sentences/statements are not true although the writers wished that they were. VErbs in this mood express desire,request or suggestion, or indicate hypothetical conditions.

       Eg.If I were rich, I would live in Hawaii.
       Similar sentences can be expressed using auxilliary  verbs could,might,ought,should and would.
      The verbs would and could are known as conditional forms as they tell what would be true in imagined situations.   Eg. If I had a high paying job, I would live in Hawaii
                                                      Subj                                  Cond
If the condition described is not hypothetical then the indicative mood is used. Eg. When I retire,I will live in Hawaii.
Expressions with the words  as though and as if introduce verbs in subj mood

• Verbs that express commands or requests in the indicative mood,are often followed by subj verb forms.Among them are ask,demand,insist,recommend,request and require. Eg, The man at the gas station asked that Roland pull up closer to the pump. Eg. She insists that she be excused today from attending office
• Present Subjunctive: VErbs appear in basic form. Eg. I suggest that he fill the application now     
• Past Subj:used for imaginary or hypothetical situations. Eg I wish I knew how to dance 
• The verb be : is used in the same form (be) in suggestions and requirements; were(past participle of be) is used in desires and imaginary situations Eg. If I were her, I would go today

Week 3

Phew, the days have gone by so fast! I know that GMAT days are fast approaching and I need to catch-up. The past one month has been pretty indisciplined for my GMAT Prep.
So,for this week I want to review the Reading Comprehension Guide . This book has some detailed analysis for RC Strategies and Question Types. Once I complete the review of this book,I want to get to some practise RC Passages every night, may be 2-3 passages. I heard that, doing RC daily, can help non-native speakers immensely on the Verbal Section of test(which is where my challenge lies!!). I think I'm going to temporarily pause my Quant Section prep and move on to exclusive Verbal this week. Along with the RC review, I'm going to get back to my basic Grammar review. I never expected that this basic grammar review will help me so much on the Sentence Correction part of the test.

In summary, this week
MGMAT RC Guide
RC Passages from OG / MGMAT
Basic Grammar Review - Chapter 5(Verbals) and Chapter 6(Adj/Adverbs)

Flashcards - 4

Pronouns:
Classified as 6 types

• Personal Pronouns:

As a subj:I,you,He,She,It,We,you,they
As an object:me,you her,him,it,us,you,them
As Possessive:my,mine,your,yours,his,her,hers,its,our,ours,your,yours,their,theirs(mine,yours,hers,ours and theirs are not followed by nouns)

• Reflexive Pronouns:myself,yourself,herself,himself,itself,oneself,ourselves,yourselves,themselves

used when action is directed back upon itself,i.e, subj and obj is same
Reflexive pronouns cannot be used as subj; Ann and myself studie together (WRONG)

• Relative Pronouns

Rel pronoun always introduces a relative clause in a sent(adj or nouns)
who,whoever- - refer to ppl only
that- - ppl or things
which - - things
what,whatever,whichever - - things

• Interrogative pronouns : used to ask questions

all relative pronouns except that are interrogative pronouns

• Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those - - used to point to things/ppl
• Indefinie pronouns: end in -body,-thing,-one ; always singular

Pronoun Antecedents:
-shud be clearly undrstood and must agree in no. and gender to the noun that it replaces
-if antecdent is not clear then supply the noun in place of the pronoun
-if forms such as 'they', 'you' are used vaguely then provide the noun.  Eg. They managed the store well. CORRECT The store cashiers managed the store well
-if pronoun and antecedent are not close to each other then,again, correct it

List of plural pronouns : both,few,many,others, several
SANAM - some,any,none,all,most/more - depends on anecedent
other indefinite pronouns such as anyone,each etc are always singular
nouns such as army,jury,audience,class - - singular

Week 2

After having finished reviewing the MGMAT Number properties ( The General Part), I have moved on to the next book. I chose to start with the Strategy Guide 3,Equations, Inequalities and VICs . The topics covered in this book were very easy to me(thanks to my Math background!) and I took one whole day to review the General Part of this book. So the plan for this week is to finish review of the Strategy Guide 3 and also do some reading from the MGMAT Sentence Correction guide , the first 4 chapters along with corresponding Official Guide Problems.

Week 2:
Strategy Guide 3 MGMAT
MGMAT SC book - Chapters 1,2,3 and 4
OG Problems for Strategy Guide 3

Week 1

You must be wondering what I have been doing. Well, I finished with the number properties book. I need to spend today and tommorow doing some problems from the Official Guide. Along with this book ,I finished a review of the related chapters in the Foundations of Math book. I have also kept in touch with my basic grammar review.

Flashcards - 3

Nouns and Articles

• Nouns are names. They indicate people,places,things and abstract ideas(anger, biology etc)
• Noun phrases:noun and some closely related additional words Eg. funny(adj) clown(noun)
• Noun clause:entire clause acts as a noun. Eg. They ate all that was on the table(all that was on the table = food / whatever)
• ask question 'who' or 'what' to find subjects
• to locate the direct object ask the question ' whom' or 'what'
• to locate indirect object ask the quest ' to/from whom' or 'to/from what'
• Indirect obj always comes before DO if both are present in a sentence
• Prepositional phrases: on the table, in the kitchen; they function as adjectives or adverbs
• Articles: A,An and The

Flashcards - 2

Sentence Basics

• Sentences are of two parts: Subjects and Predicate
• Subj is a place,person or thing
• Predicate says something about the subject

Eg. The hungry lions / ate everything
                 S                     P

• Linking Verbs : link subjects to verbs such as to be,appear,seem,feel

Parts of Speech:

• Noun:places,people or things
• Articles:A,an and the - used to refer to nouns
• Pronous:replace nouns
• Verbs:describe actions or conditions
• Adjectives: modify nouns and pronouns. Eg. small house
• Adverbs:modify verbs,adj or other adverbs;end in -ly;they answer question 'how','when','where'
• Conjunctions:connect words,phrases and clauses ;eg and,but,yet,nor,although,while,after etc
• Prepositions:connect nouns,pronouns and noun phrases to other words in sentences and indicates relationships between them. Eg: to,from,with

Phrases and Clauses

• Phrases are combinations of words within sentences that go together;they express a single idea
• there are noun phrases,verb phrases and prepositional phrases
• Clauses contain subj and predicate and can be complete sentences too
• Two types of clauses independent and dependent
• indep clause is onethat can stand alone as a sentence
• dep clause beginwith conjuctions such as although,while or a relative pronous such as who,which or that

Types of sentences

• Simple Sent:consists of a simple indep clause
• compound sent:has 2 indep clauses each with its own verb
• complex sent:consists of indep clause and dep clause(acts as a modifier). Eg. When we heard how much TV repairs would cost, we decided to get a new TV set.
• compd  complessent: has 2 or more indep clauses and atleast 1 dep clause

Sentence Patterns

•  S-V Eg. the woman arrived
•  S-V-Do Eg. She sharpened her chisel in the backyard
•  S-V-Do-Oc(noun or adj that describbes the Do) Eg.Alice called Charles amusing
•  S-V-Io(tells to whom or for whom the direct obj is intended)-Do Eg. Alice gave charles the rabbit
• S-Lv(is)-SC(not Do but refers to same thing as subj) Eg. Alice is happy(happy =Sc)

A sentence frag is an incomplete sentence (add missing element to corrrect it)and a run-on sent(add a period,semi-colon or conjunction to correct it) is two sent incorrectly punctuated as a single sent

Day 2

Finished chapter 4 of the basic grammar book. This chapter deals with verbs and related sub topics. It is Jan 2nd today and I'm in no mood to study seriously. We are planning to go to Times Square this afternoon - Yay!!I'm so excited. It's going to be a good break for me.In the coming 4-5 days, I plan to finish the number properties book. Unfortunately, I ordered the book on Amazon only 3 days back and it has,thus,still not reached me. This is the book that I am talking about.

Flashcards-1

Some important concepts(Coutesy: Foundations of GMAT Math by Manhattan GMAT)

Number Properties

• factors

If 6 is divisible by 1,2,3 and 6 then 1,2,3 and 6 are factors of 6

• Prime numbers

Numbers divisible by 1 and itself
2 is the only even prime number
2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19 are some prime numbers

• Prime Factorization

Breaking a number into its prime factors. Eg. 60=2*2*3*5

• If 12 is divisible by 6 and 6 is divisible by 3 then 12 is divisible by 3 as well
• If x no. of apples can be spli evenly into 5 groups =>divisiblity problem
• If the number q is divisble by 9,18 and 27 then find LCM of the 3 numbers to find multiples of q