Articles tagged "study tips"

How To Learn From Your Errors

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errorWhen I make an error, I get excited. Seriously “ you should be excited when you make errors, too. I know that I’m about to learn something and get better, and that’s definitely worth getting excited!

Errors can come in several different forms: careless errors, content errors, and technique errors. We’re going to discuss something critical today: how to learn from your errors so that you don’t continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. First, let’s define these different error types.
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How To Get The Most Out Of Your Study

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GMAT study tipsLast year, the New York Times published an interesting article: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits. At Manhattan Prep, we’ve been discussing it since it came out and I wanted to share this discussion with you.

Get up and move

According to the article, multiple studies support the hypothesis that altering our physical study environment helps us to retain material better. Our brains are apparently making connections based on what we see and hear while we study, even when the sights and sounds are unrelated to the subject matter and noticed only subconsciously. The more connections your brain makes with regard to a specific piece of knowledge, the easier it is for you to retrieve that information when you need it.

What this means for you: Read more

The “Best of MGMAT” – How-To-Study List

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In this article, I’m going to offer a Best of list for how to study. Below, you’ll find links to the articles that I think are most helpful in developing and executing a comprehensive study plan, as well as a discussion of how to use them.

Whether you’re just getting started or are nearing the finish line, it’s critical to develop a study plan that’s appropriate for you, and that study plan will need to be revised periodically as your skills change (because you are getting better over time, hopefully!).

So, start with Developing a GMAT Study Plan. This article will help you determine three critical things: Read more

The Distinction Between a 700 Score and a 760 Score

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[This article has been updated in a new post featured May 9, 2014. Read the newest version of The Distinction Beween a 700 Score and a 760 Score]. Recently, I was asked to write an article addressing what it takes to score in the 99th percentile. I have some reservations about writing such an article, but I agreed to write it.

First, I’m going to tell you why I have reservations about writing this article. A lot of people may read this article and think: Great! I can just do this and score in the 99th percentile! In order to have this conversation in the first place, however, we have to assume that the tester is already scoring at least 700, if not higher.

In other words, you cannot start with the information in this article (unless you’re already at 700+!). In addition, I can’t write an article that tells anyone, at any current level, how to get to 760. What I can do is write an article detailing the differences between a 700-level scorer and a 760-level scorer. What you can do, if you really want a 760, is first get yourself to a very solid 700-level “ using other articles and resources, not this one. (A very solid 700-level refers to someone who can consistently score 700 under full, official test conditions; it does not refer to someone who got 700 once after skipping the essays.)

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How to Analyze a Practice Problem

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When we study practice problems, our overall goal is to master the problem we’re working on right now. What does mastery mean? It means that, when we see a future different problem that tests the same thing as this current problem, we will recognize that the future problem has certain things in common with this current problem, and we will know what steps to take as a result ” we will, literally, recognize what to do on the future different problem, a problem we’ve never actually seen before.

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Top 5 GMAT Study Tips

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Here is the latest in our latest Strategy Series, by Chris Ryan, Director of Instructor and Product Development.

You’ve just accepted your fate. I have to take the GMAT, you admit to yourself. And now you admit one more thing: No, I can’t walk in and take it cold.

So you contemplate all the research you have to do. Tomorrow you’ll start trolling the online forums, talking to friends about their GMAT-prep experiences, and haunting the Study Aids aisle of your local Barnes & Noble. But right now, you don’t want to buy anything. You want general principles. Whichever books you pick up, whatever course you take (or not) “ how should you think about preparing for the GMAT?

Here are five tips to guide you.

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