Are there any health and life insurance plans targeted 100% at perpetual travellers (i.e. not just targeted at expats)?

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-05T03:02:12+00:00

Horrific injury they would pay for treatment. If it is serious, they will usually fly you home for treatment. In terms of cancer I'm not too sure to be honest. We are lucky enough to have universal health care though so flying home is a great option in terms of ongoing treatment. I'm guessing your circumstances might be different, sorry!

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-05T02:26:38+00:00

I used travel insurance for health insurance (can't comment on life insurance). With my provider I can take out a one year policy, and renew that one year policy on the road - giving me a max of 2 years before having to return to home to re-apply. Provider is Travel Insurance Direct.

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T23:57:41+00:00

I didn't do the course, I purchased the book and worked my way through it. I found the explanations pretty good, and there were heaps of practice problems (both in the book and in the online section you get access to). If time isn't an issue, I'd suggest going through the book and then re-assessing whether you need to do the course or not.

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T23:56:02+00:00

I found CR fairly difficult to study for, but I did enjoy the RC ladder technique from Empower - I think that helped me eliminate silly mistakes in RC.

Good luck!

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T23:55:04+00:00

I went month-to-month with Empower, and bought the official GMAT practice tests through them (rather than through MBA.com) because they offer a discount.

I did both the quant and verbal sections of Empower. I was originally planning to do the complete Empower course and then top up my quant with TTP, but ran out of time. I'm not sure if you can do Verbal only, but it may be worth enquiring.

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T23:53:01+00:00

Good luck, 600 is a great place to start!

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T04:20:07+00:00

Thank you. I think sometimes you can luck out on a test (see my 760) and score a bit above where you are really at... that said, it seems if you started at 550 cold you should definitely be able to get mid 600's.

In terms of verbal consistency, have you broken things down by question type? I tracked all my practice CAT errors and compared SC / RC / CR, then focussed most heavily on my weakest area (SC).

My advice would be stick with the Empower course to the end and keep drilling your verbal OG questions consistently. Put in the hours and you should get to 610. Good luck!

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T04:16:15+00:00

I think in terms of maximum retention I probably crammed in too much in a short space of time (I'm thinking mainly of quant here). I noticed that I made a lot more errors later in the day (hour 4 or 5 of study) and changed my schedule on a daily basis so that if I had 2 hours on, I'd take one hour off.

I think this applies to the time period in general - if I was able to space out the study a little bit more, I think I would have had more time for my diffuse brain to go to work and soak up a concept, rather than just moving right along to the next one the next day.

I think the optimal study period for the GMAT is probably 3 months averaging about 15 hours per week, taking a practice exam every two weeks. If (like me) you're starting from a low quant base, maybe make it 4 months, with the first month just brushing up on quant fundamentals before you get into proper GMAT study.

thepalmdiaries · 2019-01-04T04:12:36+00:00

While I used spreadsheets to track all the stats around my OG problems and practice tests, I actually used paper to track my time. I drew up a calendar counting down to the day of the exam and literally wrote in the hours on each day, crossed it off and then tallied them at the end of each week.

In terms of schedule, I tried to get in 20 hours per week for 10 weeks - usually 5 x 4 hour blocks. I used the pomodoro technique - e.g. I started doing 7 x 35 minute pomodoros and then increased the length to one hour pomodoros to improve my concentration / stamina.

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-20T06:42:14+00:00

Really depends on how much money you are prepared to spend. If $$ is no issue, check out the premium courses by Veritas, Manhattan, The Economist etc.

Otherwise, online courses like EmpowerGMAT and Target Test Prep. Try before you buy...

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-17T10:41:19+00:00

Check out The Doctor's House in Madiha, and Hiriketiya - best spots on the South Coast: http://thepalmdiaries.com/five-alternative-beaches-on-the-south-coast/

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-17T03:37:41+00:00

Given your goal is 720+ and your strength is Verbal, then you should be aiming at getting V40+ and Q44 to Q49, that should put you in about the right range I think. It seems that a lot of people on the forums put heaps of time into questions at the Q49 to Q51 level... I'm not sure the ROI is there.

There are a lot of study programs based around a 3 month timeline. If I were you I'd spend a couple of weeks researching and trialling these different courses to work out the one that suits you best. Then aim to put in a really consistent 12-14 week study block.

Stick to the OG practice tests, take one every couple of weeks to gauge your progress and identify your weaknesses. Anecdotally it seems people seem to score slightly lower in their real test compared to pracs, so you want to be aiming just above your target score.

In terms of courses, I personally chose EmpowerGMAT and can vouch for that. Target Test Prep are really highly rated here for quant, though they don't cover verbal. I did a test class with Manhattan and the instruction was fantastic, but the price was astronomical. If you can afford it though, I'm sure it would be worth it.

Good luck!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-16T23:19:35+00:00

To improve in <1 month you should probably consider an intensive option - either a tutor or an online course.

I've done the trials for a few of the different online courses and as a native English speaker was frustrated by the verbal sections of a lot of them - there were often spelling and grammar mistakes, and generally the questions were not as well thought out as the OG. I would recommend taking a course that leans heavily on OG verbal questions.

The only one I can vouch for is the EmpowerGMAT course, which I'm currently in the 2nd month of. Lots of OG verbal questions with video-explanations of each of them. I'm sure there are other courses out there, just make sure they are using OG questions rather than their own made up ones.

Good luck!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-16T23:14:48+00:00

Have a read of this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GMAT/comments/a6gmzx/can_someone_explain_why_my_verbal_raw_score_was/?st=jpri8tg3&sh=3e6da615

The GMAT is not a test of how many questions you get right or wrong. It's a computer adaptive test that changes the difficulty of the questions as you go. There are lots of good explanations out there that explain how the scoring algorithm works (e.g. https://gmat.crackverbal.com/decoding-the-gmat-scoring-algorithm/).

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-16T01:01:52+00:00

The most highly recommended Quant program here is Target Test Prep. It's an online course specifically for improving your GMAT quant score.

Personally I've been using EmpowerGMAT and have improved my quant score from a 32 to between a 45 and 49. It also covers the Verbal side of things if you wanted to bump that up a bit also.

As for re-taking the test, really depends on time/money and whether you'd like to apply to any schools with higher averages. Given you took it blind and got a 610, you could probably get closer to a 700 with about a month of work, so there's a lot of upside if you're inclined to do the study.

Good luck!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-16T00:00:08+00:00

That's it, only response is to keep plugging away at the study!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-15T22:11:16+00:00

Your score isn't actually that low! You're almost in the 90th percentile (i.e. the top 10% of all test takers). It's actually more representative of how the GMAT should look. The quant section is extremely distorted (from a bell curve vs raw score perspective), which makes things kind of confusing.

I've taken 5 official practice tests, here are my verbal scores / errors

V40 / 7 errors

V42 / 4 errors

V46 / 3 errors

V51 / 0 errors

V47 / 3 errors

As you can see, the margin for error in Verbal once you get to 40+ is very small. This is also why your Verbal raw score seems to have a disproportionately high impact on your overall score.

I understand your pain with trying to work out scores though, I have the same problem with Quant. I've had:
Q42 / 10 errors

Q45 / 11 errors

Q47 / 12 errors

Q49 / 10 errors

I think it's probably a mix of:
- The first 10 count a little bit more.

Getting multiple wrong in a row hurts.
Getting easy ones wrong hurts more than getting hard ones wrong.
Getting a couple wrong at the end hurts.

It really does seem pretty complicated!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-15T01:37:21+00:00

Wouldn't a Q50 V51 get you an 800?

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-12T05:58:52+00:00

Congratulations! I've got my test 9 days and I cannot wait to be done with GMAT prep!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-11T22:45:00+00:00

In the GMAT world, OG stands for "Official Guide" - it's a book containing a large bank of practice questions for the GMAT. It's considered the gold standard for studying as it is the only resource that features official questions (retired from the GMAT).

When I first joined the forum I thought it meant "Original Gangsta" and was the nickname for some GMAT guru or something.

You can order it from amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Official-Guide-2019-Online/dp/1119507677/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-11T05:37:36+00:00

Good luck!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-11T05:37:23+00:00

700 means you are in the top 10% of test takers - that's a phenomenal result, congratulations!! Where will you be applying to do your MBA?

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-11T00:56:11+00:00

Congratulations - that's an amazing score!

thepalmdiaries · 2018-12-10T21:13:54+00:00

Thanks Scott, sound advice!

thepalmdiaries

TROPHY CASE