I am just not able to crack the RC’s :( they are so tough that they get your mind spinning in a loop. I try not to let that drive me mad, because I do understand that it’s the way it is. Of course if the author just spreads the facts all over on the page then there wouldn’t be challenge to begin with. None the less, I can’t help reading the entire passage out of habit. Need to lose that. Right now I’m practically dragging myself to complete the RC test in Kaplan, there are 50 questions and I have solved only 22 questions in 3 days! I should stop working on it on and off and try to just complete it in one sitting. I wonder if I’ll be able to complete it tonight, I might not, but I’m hoping to complete atleast 3 RC’s minimum. 4 RC’s in half an hour looks like a milestone far into future, it will take time to get there.
On the plus side, I learnt these tidbits while reading ‘beat the gmat’ flash cards while sitting on the.. ehm.. loo, ya that was TMI
When you have ‘consider’ in a sentence you don’t use ‘to be’ as the former word itself is implied to incorporate ‘to be’
John was considered to be a great architect – WRONG
John was considered a great architect – RIGHT
Wonder if this applies to the word ‘Declared’ as well?
To calculate how many arrangements are possible from any word, for eg TRUST
Number of all letters factorial / number of repetitive letters
To take it up a notch, what about Mississippi?
4 s's 4 i's 2 p's 1 m.
11!
Number of arrangements = ---------- = 34650
4! 4! 2!
I stumbled upon this page while searching the net to ensure my answer is right – a good read
I haven’t begun working on the official guide yet!!!! That is getting me anxious, today, I briefly rolled over the pages to get a feel of how intensive it is and oh yes, I felt the monsters gnarling at me as soon as I opened the book. Feels sick to the core. I should tackle the diagnostic test before this week passes by.
With 3-4 RC’s today I wouldn’t be able to Kaplan today for sure, I should atleast try to complete that chapter. MUST GET ON TO OFFICAL GUIDE TOMORROW!
I was thinking what it was to live GMAT, in my opinion, it is practically to keep it running in your mind wherever you go, I mean it - literally. In the shower? Ponder on this word problem
“If Cecilia needs to do practice questions from official guide book to take up GMAT in 30 days and assuming there are about 1400 questions overall, split up as 600 quant and 800 verbal, and if each quant problem takes 2 minutes to solve and verbal in 13/4th minute. For each and every question solved, allocate an average of 3 minutes (because 3 multiplied by 2 goes very well with divisions by 60 :))for the answers to be reviewed and analyzed. Then,
- a) How long will it take her to solve the entire book.
- b) How many minutes of practice does Cecilia need to put in everyday if she needs to solve the book in 30 days
- c) Assuming she can work only for 5 hours during the week days and 6 hours equally split between the saturday and sunday, how much extra/less effort does Cecilia needs to put in during weekdays and weekends, if she prefers to spread the load between weekends and weekdays, while maintaining the ratio of Monday : Saturday as 1:2, i.e work two times harder on weekends than on weekdays?
*You are free to round up numbers for division, but keep it minimal.
ew I feel geeky, but I do need to solve it for my schedule in any case. Hm, come to look at it, it would be funny to see your name pop up in GMAT :)
Answer:
By reading the problem We know for certain that Cecilia would need to spare a minimum of 3X1400 = 4200 minutes or 70 hours for review and revision.
- a) To solve the entire book = 600*2 + 800*1.75 = 1200 + 1300.00 = 2500 minutes or 250/6 hours, because every question is followed up with a revision, add 4200 = 6700 or 70 + 250/6 hours = 70 + 41.8 = 111.8 hours
- b) If it takes a total of 111.8 hours and this needs to be spread over 30 days equally then 111.8/30, or 11.18/3 ~= 3.72 hour. Accounting my general lack of understanding RC’s, I’ll round it to 12/3 = 4 hours, so Cecilia needs to put in 4 hours each day if she wants to complete the book in 30 days
- c) But as she can work only an hour each day, and 6 hours on weekend, and assuming it is a typical month with 4 weeks, Cecilia can only study for (1+1+1+1+1 + 6) * 4 = 44 hours the entire month. So she still needs to incorporate the extra 112 – 44 = 68 hours somehow in the month!! Or 68/4 = 17 hours extra during a week 5 days of weekdays and 2 weekend days.
Because Cecilia wants to maintain a ratio of 1:2 between week day and week end, lets split the original number into weekly quota’s = 112/4 = 28. Now lets say, Cecilia works in ratio of 1:2 already, then she would be working 1*5 + 2*2 = 9 hours per week, but the given number of hours to work is 28 => 28/9 = 3.1 => Cecilia need to improve her daily practice by 3 times or she needs to work 1*3.1 = 3.1 hours each day and 6.2 hours each on Saturday and Sunday for 4 weeks. Phew! Took me 2 takes to get that right gahhh.
Yeah, I shouldn’t have solved the problem right away, gives me the creeps, I unnecessarily wasted almost 2 weeks drooling on Kaplan. Again, I will try to keep my calm, just keeping myself disciplined can help me get the strength to complete the official guide, and I can not waste one single day! I should get used to the lifestyle of practicing at least 3 hours daily, beginning in small increments from today.
