I want my instant gratification!
24 hours in a day are just not sufficient. I realize that I sound like a greedy little kid, but I want to pack so much more into my day! I took a sailing lesson yesterday and it was totally awesome! I learnt enough to realize that sailing is (a) great fun, (b) difficult to master and (c) very dangerous for a novice! I am tempted to continue the lessons regularly, but I just won't find enough time for them on a regular basis. I have to defer my gratification (sigh!).
Later on I took a Kaplan full length test and, as expected, found it much tougher than the others. There seems to be a general consensus on this, and so I was not very suprised. I tried to analyse why I found it tough:
Quant:
1. Ambiguities in a couple of questions - for example [spoiler alert!], one of the questions was something like this "What is the smallest possible ------ of two integers which are both greater than X?" It does not clarify whether the two integers are different or whether they may be identical. The answer is different for each of the two preceding cases.
2. Word problems are not perfectly phrased, so you have to make certain assumtions to solve the problem. The "reasonableness" of the assumptions required is questionable.
Verbal:
1. RC passages are ridiculously long and abstruse. This is my only major complaint with the Kaplan test (the other factors are not unsurmountable). There is little that anyone can do about these time sucking passages. The effect of the lengthy passages extends even beyond RC questions because I was forced to spend less time on other parts of the test.
2. Critical reasoning - negative logic questions, that are usually tougher and lengthier, are used often. For example, "If X is not Y, the which of the following must necessarily be FALSE?" This requires you to first rephrase the original statement, and then evaluate each of the 5 choices for the modified statement. Such questions are perfectly valid, but too many of them make life miserable :-)
In spite of my apparent discontent, I am actually very pleased with my performance. My scores were almost identical to my previous ones (740, Q 50, V 41), but I consider my performance to be much improved because this test was so much tougher. The GMAT surely cannot get any tougher than this, so my confidence is soaring! Perhaps the discontinuous learning curve does work (see previous post)!
Later on I took a Kaplan full length test and, as expected, found it much tougher than the others. There seems to be a general consensus on this, and so I was not very suprised. I tried to analyse why I found it tough:
Quant:
1. Ambiguities in a couple of questions - for example [spoiler alert!], one of the questions was something like this "What is the smallest possible ------ of two integers which are both greater than X?" It does not clarify whether the two integers are different or whether they may be identical. The answer is different for each of the two preceding cases.
2. Word problems are not perfectly phrased, so you have to make certain assumtions to solve the problem. The "reasonableness" of the assumptions required is questionable.
Verbal:
1. RC passages are ridiculously long and abstruse. This is my only major complaint with the Kaplan test (the other factors are not unsurmountable). There is little that anyone can do about these time sucking passages. The effect of the lengthy passages extends even beyond RC questions because I was forced to spend less time on other parts of the test.
2. Critical reasoning - negative logic questions, that are usually tougher and lengthier, are used often. For example, "If X is not Y, the which of the following must necessarily be FALSE?" This requires you to first rephrase the original statement, and then evaluate each of the 5 choices for the modified statement. Such questions are perfectly valid, but too many of them make life miserable :-)
In spite of my apparent discontent, I am actually very pleased with my performance. My scores were almost identical to my previous ones (740, Q 50, V 41), but I consider my performance to be much improved because this test was so much tougher. The GMAT surely cannot get any tougher than this, so my confidence is soaring! Perhaps the discontinuous learning curve does work (see previous post)!
posted by FSM | 1:59 AM
7 Comments:
I am so glad I never have to take that test again. It is pure torture!
Actually, I don't see it as torture (except for the Kaplan RCs). I take it as a game / puzzle and try to constantly improve my performance. I *almost* enjoy this process :-)
740 on a Kaplan is more than good !I hear Kap tests are toughest. You're right it wont get tougher than this.
I am about as far from *almost* enjoying this process as possible. Good for you! Sounds like you got this GMAT *almost* conquered!
I liked every aspect of the Kaplan GMAT 800. Can not say I enjoyed the GMAT because I have many other fun things to do.
Studying for the GMAT does make you a better manager of your time. Once the GMAT is over, you feel like you can do loads of stuff now that the entire evening is available.
Inblue - I could not leave a comment on your blog, so I am posting the solution to your problem below:
Q: What will be the last digit of the exp (2 raise to 123)?
The answer is 8 .. here's why:
2 ^ 5 ends in 2
so, ((2 ^ 5) ^ 5) ends in 2
and (((2^5)^5)^5) also ends in 2
hence 2^125 ends in 2
2^123 = (2^125)/4
so it will end in 8 because any power of 2 ending in the digit 2 when divided by 4 always ends in 8. (A power of 2 can end only in the following digits : 2, 4, 6 and 8. Multiply each of these by 4, and you will see than only 8 gives you a number ending with the digit 2.)
Here's a much easier method. Why didn't I think of this earlier? The last digits of the powers of 2 follow the sequence: 2,4,8,6 repeated over and over again (2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512 ...). 123 modulo 4 is 3, and the third term of the above sequence is 8.
I think that this question is simply too tough to be on the GMAT. I can't imagine many non-engineers solving it, and thus would be unfair to them.
Post a Comment
<< Home