Monday, November 15, 2010

Kaneisha's at it again: Free Webinar!

Kaneisha from The Art of Applying is hosting another free webinar. This one is about editing your essays down to the word count limit.

You can register here: http://bit.ly/cKs41N

She is going to edit a real essay that she's never seen before LIVE and get it down to the word limit.

I always enjoy Kaneisha's webinars. She's really upbeat and LOVES answering questions.

The webinar is this Wednesday November 17 at 9:00AM Pacific time (my time!).

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Just for Kicks - GRE

I just took a practice GRE CAT from Manhattan GRE (yes Manhattan GMAT now does GRE prep!). It has been six years since I last took the exam and after all this GMAT frustration I just wanted to see how the tests compare to each other.

The GRE math section is way easier!!! Obviously it does not have data sufficiency, instead it has a data comparison section where you are given a question and then two separate values in two columns. You must determine if Column A or B is greater, equal, or you cannot determine with the amount of information given. I did best in this section; I got a 550! I think that score may be higher than when I took the real thing. There is also a section where you have to interpret graph information. I didn't remember that section so it was a surprise when it popped up.

The verbal section is very different than the GMAT. Our buddy reading comprehension is there but the other question types are completely different: sentence completion, antonyms, and analogies. I did worse on this section than I did on the real thing: 390, ouch! There were lots of words I probably knew at one time but I don't know them any more and it made it impossible to get any of those questions correct.

Taking this GRE CAT has given me a better appreciation as to why b-schools want a GMAT score and not a GRE score. The GMAT is a much more difficult test. I have a better understanding as to why the AdCom uses it as an indicator for how you will handle the rigorous MBA curriculum. This just means I have to study harder!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

New and Improved Beat the GMAT Practice Questions Review

Happy November everyone!

Today beatthegmat.com launched its new practice questions!

There are two sections: math and verbal. Each section is broken up into question types. You can customize your own practice session by choosing different question types in the filters options. Let's say you just want to practice 700+ level data sufficiency integer property and percent questions; just check the boxes and begin. Or you can practice just math and have the question difficulty adapt to how you answer them, just like the real GMAT.

I think what I like the most about the new practice questions is the video explanations. The videos go over not just the question and the answer, they also go over the wrong answer choices and explain why they are wrong. Understanding what makes the other answer choices wrong is really an important part of GMAT studying.

BeattheGMAT.com practice questions is reasonably priced at $99. BUT WAIT! It's on sale for $49 until November 15th! Discounts are my favorite! Plus you get access for a year.

I highly recommend the Beat the GMAT Practice Questions. It's really showing me that I have major work to do in math. The video explanations are helping me as a private tutor would because I need to SEE someone do it for me before I fully understand how to break a question down.