Can everyone give me any advice on what to do and what NOT to do. I am taking the test on the 17th.
My plan as of now is as follows:
Mon - Wed: Practice questions and review
Thurs: Practice Exam
Friday: Review exam and more practice questions (drill timing, etc)
Saturday: Practice Exam
Sunday: Review and more practice questions
Mon - Wed: Practice questions and review
Thurs: Practice Exam
Friday: Review exam and review 'memorization sheet'
Sat: Actual GMAT
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- cdkcurtis
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9361
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
DON'T take three practice exams in the last week and DON'T take a practice exam within 3 days of the real thing. (I actually prefer 5 days. Would you run a practice marathon within a couple of days of the real thing? It's the same thing here - not enough time to learn anything and you tire yourself out.)
If you are doing appropriate review, it should take you 3-4 days to review one exam, not just one day. Taking exams over and over without extensive review and analysis in between is NOT the best use of your time. The only reason anyone should be taking that many exams in this timeframe is if s/he has MAJOR pacing problems (think running out of time with 10+ questions to go) and needs the pacing practice.
For the last couple of weeks, get a very good grasp on your strengths and weaknesses. Make sure you thoroughly understand what you're good at AND what you're not so good at. You're not going to magically cure your weaknesses. Instead, acknowledge them and develop a strategy that is to your advantage.
When you're on a hard problem that would take you over the 2-minute mark (if you let it), ask yourself: is this one of my strengths or one of my weaknesses? If it's a weakness, DO NOT go over the 2-min mark no matter what. If it's a strength, decide whether you think an extra 20-30 seconds might be beneficial. Don't, however, throw an extra minute or two at a problem, even if it's an area of strength for you.
If it's an area of weakness, be quicker to "pull the plug" on the problem, make an educated guess, and move on.
In the last few days, go over all of your major pacing and technique strategies. Make sure you know what your gameplan is going to be for any type of question or situation (eg, what will I do if I discover I'm 5 min behind?). Make sure you know what you're going to do when you don't know what to do (this WILL happen, guaranteed). Etc.
The day before, don't study for more than an hour. Only review high level stuff - don't even do practice problems (you know what you know and you don't know what you don't know at this point).
And plan something to do after the test - you're either going to want to celebrate or you're going to need a drink. :) (Hopefully the former of course!)
If you are doing appropriate review, it should take you 3-4 days to review one exam, not just one day. Taking exams over and over without extensive review and analysis in between is NOT the best use of your time. The only reason anyone should be taking that many exams in this timeframe is if s/he has MAJOR pacing problems (think running out of time with 10+ questions to go) and needs the pacing practice.
For the last couple of weeks, get a very good grasp on your strengths and weaknesses. Make sure you thoroughly understand what you're good at AND what you're not so good at. You're not going to magically cure your weaknesses. Instead, acknowledge them and develop a strategy that is to your advantage.
When you're on a hard problem that would take you over the 2-minute mark (if you let it), ask yourself: is this one of my strengths or one of my weaknesses? If it's a weakness, DO NOT go over the 2-min mark no matter what. If it's a strength, decide whether you think an extra 20-30 seconds might be beneficial. Don't, however, throw an extra minute or two at a problem, even if it's an area of strength for you.
If it's an area of weakness, be quicker to "pull the plug" on the problem, make an educated guess, and move on.
In the last few days, go over all of your major pacing and technique strategies. Make sure you know what your gameplan is going to be for any type of question or situation (eg, what will I do if I discover I'm 5 min behind?). Make sure you know what you're going to do when you don't know what to do (this WILL happen, guaranteed). Etc.
The day before, don't study for more than an hour. Only review high level stuff - don't even do practice problems (you know what you know and you don't know what you don't know at this point).
And plan something to do after the test - you're either going to want to celebrate or you're going to need a drink. :) (Hopefully the former of course!)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9361
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Go over EVERY question, whether you got it right or wrong.
If you got it right:
- make sure you got it right for the right reasons
If you got it wrong:
- figure out why you got it wrong; study or put a habit in place to help you minimize that error in future
Whether you got it right or wrong:
- figure out the best way to do it - best is a combination of speed and accuracy (and just because you got it right the first time doesn't mean you did it the best way). If it's a math problem, figure out at least two different ways to do it.
- figure out what is "universal" about the problem - what could you use on future problems and how will you recognize any future problems that might look very different but fundamentally test the same principles?
- find any shortcuts. This is easier to do on problems you got right! How will you recognize the presence of those shortcuts in future?
- for math, find the traps - understand how they're built into the problem and figure out what habits to put in place to avoid them
- for verbal, be able to articulate exactly why each of the 4 wrong answers is wrong - well enough to explain to someone else who doesn't understand. Identify which wrong choices are most tempting and be able to explain why they're tempting, but wrong.
- figure out how to make an educated guess, preferably multiple ways. This is also easier to do on problems you got right!
- make connections between mid-level and harder problems. What are the similarities? How can you use what you already know on mid-level problems to make harder problems a little bit easier? How can you use what you already know on mid-level problems to recognize what to do on harder problems (as opposed to having to figure it all out from scratch)?
For "holy grail" for every problem: what about that problem do you want to recognize in future, so that you don't have to figure everything out from scratch? And how are you going to recognize it? What are the trigger words that will tell you what to do?
That should give you a good start. Basically, you aren't done studying a problem until you feel like you could explain how to think about it (not just do it, but recognize parts of it, do it in the best possible way, avoid the traps, have a fallback educated guess position, etc.) to someone else who doesn't understand that problem.
If you got it right:
- make sure you got it right for the right reasons
If you got it wrong:
- figure out why you got it wrong; study or put a habit in place to help you minimize that error in future
Whether you got it right or wrong:
- figure out the best way to do it - best is a combination of speed and accuracy (and just because you got it right the first time doesn't mean you did it the best way). If it's a math problem, figure out at least two different ways to do it.
- figure out what is "universal" about the problem - what could you use on future problems and how will you recognize any future problems that might look very different but fundamentally test the same principles?
- find any shortcuts. This is easier to do on problems you got right! How will you recognize the presence of those shortcuts in future?
- for math, find the traps - understand how they're built into the problem and figure out what habits to put in place to avoid them
- for verbal, be able to articulate exactly why each of the 4 wrong answers is wrong - well enough to explain to someone else who doesn't understand. Identify which wrong choices are most tempting and be able to explain why they're tempting, but wrong.
- figure out how to make an educated guess, preferably multiple ways. This is also easier to do on problems you got right!
- make connections between mid-level and harder problems. What are the similarities? How can you use what you already know on mid-level problems to make harder problems a little bit easier? How can you use what you already know on mid-level problems to recognize what to do on harder problems (as opposed to having to figure it all out from scratch)?
For "holy grail" for every problem: what about that problem do you want to recognize in future, so that you don't have to figure everything out from scratch? And how are you going to recognize it? What are the trigger words that will tell you what to do?
That should give you a good start. Basically, you aren't done studying a problem until you feel like you could explain how to think about it (not just do it, but recognize parts of it, do it in the best possible way, avoid the traps, have a fallback educated guess position, etc.) to someone else who doesn't understand that problem.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
- cdkcurtis
Stacey
Thanks for your input. I am planning on taking a practice test tomorrow and a final one on Sat. I do need to work on my speed and timing. Do you think that is ok - that will be 4 practice exams for me total. That will also give me a week without taking one to just focus on practice problems and working on speed drills.
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9361
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
6 posts Page 1 of 1