Tuesday, January 14, 2014

GRE Quant Strategy

Each of the two scored Quantitative sections consists of approximately 20 questions in 35 minutes, or 1 minute 45 seconds per problem. Also, GRE is a section-level adaptive exam, meaning that your performance on your first math section will determine the difficulty of the next math section you will receive. To get a difficult second section of math (you must get the hard section to achieve a top score), you must answer all or nearly all questions quickly. Since there is no penalty for wrong answers in GRE, you can always try guessing in some questions, it's always better than leaving it unanswered. 

I would talk about some useful Quant strategies that a GRE aspirant should embed into his/her preparation to get (near) perfect score:

1. Use of Calculator - Since calculator is allowed in GRE, many people avoid using there brain even for a simple calculation like 2+2. This instead of reducing the time taken for solving the questions, increases it. Please try to avoid using calculator for simple calculations & try to calculate as much as in your mind as you can. This will take much lesser time.

2. Time allotment to per question - On an average, 1 minute 45 seconds is the time that you can take on each question. Let's make it a little more easy & you can take as much as 2 minutes/question, BUT, than you have to do some questions in less than 1 minute time (which is very much possible). So try to complete the easy questions as soon as possible.

3. Information given - Try to thoroughly analyze each & every information given in the question as every information is important & leads us to the answer.

4. Word Problems vs. Direct Problems - Direct problems generally don't take much time, but be very careful with word problems, which can be tricky at times. Please read every part of the question carefully so as to judge well what exactly the question is trying to ask. Allot more time on word problems.

5. Options - sometimes it's much better to solve the questions from options. If it is possible, try to do the question from options than to do it the longer way.

6. You have the best method - Many people will tell you that this is the best way or that is the best way to solve a particular question. But it is you who know the best what is the BEST method to do a particular question. Try to stick to the method that suits you best.

some other points to remember:

7. Analyze tables/graph thouroughly.

8. Break Complex figures to smaller shapes. 

9. Keep your cool.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Advice on Strategy for 165+ Quant section of GRE Preparations


Quant from PP, Kaplan, Barrons, Princeton, etc. is not good enough to take you to 165+ in GRE. To get the extra marks you should also focus on other areas. Try to cover the syllabus of Indian MBA entrance exams like CAT, this will give you the added confidence to crack GRE. One to the recommended books will be Arun Sharma (TMH Publications) for Quantitative Aptitude.

Keep special focus on Probability questions, you can do GMAT probability questions/CAT questions/IIT JEE questions. Some distribution questions on normal distributions, number of SD, area under curve, comparing two areas, comparing distance from mean, etc.

DI/Table questions need strategic approach, again Arun Sharma for Analytical Reasoning (TMH Publications) comes handy here.

In all target around 1000 tough questions during your quant prep which will require around 30-50 hours of preparation. 

GMAT-GRE overlap: Probability (around 5 hours should be dedicated to probability).

Tough areas for GRE:
  • Combinations & Probability (the word problems are very confusing).
  • Standard Deviation.
  • Harder Data Sufficiency for Integer Properties questions.
  • Mixtures.
  • Remainders.
  • Triple venn diagrams.
  • Converting from miles/km/hours/minutes, etc. to solve word problems.
Learn all the fundamentals and shortcut for solving question. Making sure you know the statistics and probability kinda helps you score 165+, Some people skip those parts & thinks that only 1-2 questions will come from these areas, but often it turns out that even 5-6 questions are asked & the target of achieving 165+ score becomes unachievable.





About Open Knowledge Initiative Freegregmatclass.com (FGGC)

Free online Virtual Classes on GRE GMAT preparation; Includes Practice Sample tests) - An Open Knowledge Initiative By The Qcfinance.in, Indore

 http://freegregmatclass.com/

ALL CLASSES WERE RECORDED FROM 2011-13
SALIENT FEATURES ABOUT THE INITIATIVE
1. Be able to learn words faster and build a good vocabulary by our Dashastra (10 techniques for word memorization), will be able to build a strategy for each question type by using concepts such as diplomatic-language-of-examiner / Power of Elimination. Also students will be able to solve the toughest possible questions as the classes are taken of various levels: intro vs practice vs toughest possible question. 2. Special care is taken on building pre knowledge for essays so that the students can cite good examples; this will increase the general awareness. Also some of the research papers on computed linguistic are used to develop a full-proof strategy for the essays. 3. GRE/GMAT scores are valid for 5 years so prepare now as it is possible that you don't get time in future with added responsibilities. UNIQUENESS 1. The course is very condensed but highly scientific where we have taken concepts from medical, psychology, strategy management, computational linguistic etc for making a comprehensive approach for GRE preparation. All the research is cited so that the students can read more on how he can link all these areas for his exam preparation. 2. All classes were recorded in the from year 2011 to 2014. 3. All classes were taken with the help of well prepared ppts which contains theory and questions. The idea is to email content the students 24 hours before the class so that he can look into (the ppts of some of the classes which are freely available to download at my Wiziq profile).

GRE vs GMAT:

1. Both exams are accepted for admission in MS / PhD / Master-in-Management from USA. GRE can be used for applying MS in finance, Operation management, Accounting, etc. 2. Also this course will be helpful and provide a base for GMAT which is relatively tougher exams. The grammar, vocab, reading comprehension strategy can be applied to GMAT also which then you can study in relatively shorter amount of time. 3. So first getting a GRE score and then working for GMAT is a good strategy. As a change of trend many universities are now also accepting GRE score, though GMAT is always a better exam for MBA aspirants. Sometimes GMAT requires average of 4-5 years experience but MS in management is cheaper and easier as compared to MBA (from USA).

Max Extreme, Toughest possible and Doubt Clearing: Three New Series started!

1. In extreme classes you will find tough questions on Math and Verbal, also we will doing some doubt clearing classes. There is a series called the "Max extreme series" and " Toughest possible questions for GMAT" which is available for free, check them out. This class will be on weekend and will be of 5 hours duration. 2. "Toughest possible questions" which solves each question live from the Quantum CAT ( Arrihant Publication, Author SS Sharma) and also CAT Quantitative (TMH Publication, Author ARun Sharma). For people who want to get a perfect score in Math they can join it, all you have to do is join this class. Also very useful for CAT aspirants. The division of question in the max extreme class is 2,3,4 whereas the level 5 and the hardest questions are done in the "Toughest Possible Series". All max extreme classes will have different set of questions. 3. "Doubt clearing classes" to bring any questions to the class. Doubt clearing sessions are open classes where you can bring any of your doubts which we will discuss in the class. You can bring them from Maths, or Verbal or logical reasoning or any place. These classes will help you to cover your study material. Generally, the tough areas in GMAT are data sufficiency and Probability, which you should solve very rigorously. So the "toughest possible" series can help you, and also the max 5 hours class on Weekends online (virtual classroom). There are level 1,2 and 3 and in that series the level 2 & 3 are covered which you should also do. Contact Us: info@freegregmatclass.com

http://freegregmatclass.com/

GRE University Selection Algorithmic Tool

About the University Selection Tool for GRE developed by http://www.freegregmatclass.com/

        University selection Tool is made for the freegregmatclass.com (an Open knowledge Initiative supported by qcfinance.in).
       Will help a GRE aspirant to better select his/her University. Totally Free of any charge!!





Inputs For The Tool:

       From Website
       From Student
       Data Entry
       From Developer (Counsellor)

Output From The Tool:

       Final Shortlist of Universities.

About Demo Version:
 
       Consists of 10 Universities, focus only on MIS & only 6 research areas.
       Universities are not ranked on placement criteria rather on overall composite  score.
       Research areas are given more weightage than GRE score for research universities.
       Composite score of 175 is best & 155 is the lowest for Rank 1 & Rank 50 respectively. 
 
     Weightage According To Normal Composite Score:

       GRE Score – 50%
       TOEFL Score – 10%
       IEEE/ACM/Springer Journal – 5%
       IEEE Explore Conference – 2%
       Other Journals – 2%
       Other Conferences – 1%
       Percent in BE/B. Tech – 30%
       Strong Extra Curricular Self Rating – 2%
       Student Home Page - 5


     Weightage For Research Score:

       IEEE/ACM/Springer Journal – 50%
       IEEE Explore Conference -  20%
       Other Journal – 15%
       Other Conference – 10%
       Recommender’s Publications - 5 %