I am down to the wire on studying. I need to know how to spend my last couple days of precious studying time.
Studying:
1) I am having a hell of a time with a lot of the Word Problems (combinatorics and probabilities especially). I am alright with algebra and geometry but am just making stupid mistakes. Should I focus my time on trying to learn the basics of word problems or master algebra and geometry?
Test Day:
2)The graphs and charts take so long to do because there is just so much information, when I take the test I was going to guess on these problems and spend my time elsewhere to get a better chance of getting the rest of the answers correct. Thoughts?
3) What are the best answer guesses to make when I have no idea how to do the problem (assuming I am not able to eliminate any answers)?
Thanks so much!
Stephanie
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- stephanie.feulner
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- tommywallach
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Re: Test Strategy / Studying Strategy
Hey Stephanie,
The last few days can be intense, and I understand your trepidation. However, it's important to manage expectations. You're not going to see any significant improvement in your knowledge/skills in a few days. Instead, you should just be sure to stay engaged with material, and to make sure you know YOUR test strategy (where to guess and where to spend your time). To your questions:
1) If you make a lot of silly arithmetic mistakes, you might want to run the basic drills in the FDP/Algebra book (Assuming you have our books), or else a Foundations of Math kind of book. I wouldn't try to take on some whole topic you feel weak on.
2) I'd avoid guessing on an entire DI section, but maybe try to pick out the hardest/most time consuming questions and skip those. I mean, it's okay to skip the whole thing and come back to it, but you want to be careful, because you might then end up seeing yourself as "having" that time to do the rest of the test, which you technically don't (does that make sense?).
3) No such thing as a best answer guess. You should almost never be guessing out of all of the answer choices (Except on some of the hardest DIs), but should be able to eliminate a couple through educated guessing.
Let me know if that all makes sense, and if you have any follow-up questions.
-t
The last few days can be intense, and I understand your trepidation. However, it's important to manage expectations. You're not going to see any significant improvement in your knowledge/skills in a few days. Instead, you should just be sure to stay engaged with material, and to make sure you know YOUR test strategy (where to guess and where to spend your time). To your questions:
1) If you make a lot of silly arithmetic mistakes, you might want to run the basic drills in the FDP/Algebra book (Assuming you have our books), or else a Foundations of Math kind of book. I wouldn't try to take on some whole topic you feel weak on.
2) I'd avoid guessing on an entire DI section, but maybe try to pick out the hardest/most time consuming questions and skip those. I mean, it's okay to skip the whole thing and come back to it, but you want to be careful, because you might then end up seeing yourself as "having" that time to do the rest of the test, which you technically don't (does that make sense?).
3) No such thing as a best answer guess. You should almost never be guessing out of all of the answer choices (Except on some of the hardest DIs), but should be able to eliminate a couple through educated guessing.
Let me know if that all makes sense, and if you have any follow-up questions.
-t
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