last minute tips, week before GMAT

[raeesebrahim]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to get some last minute tips, pointers week before the GMAT.

Key facts, concepts, ideas, strategies to review.

Not so much timing, but more mental preparation. I've taken the GMAT a couple of times, but never really been at ease.

Thx,
Raees

[StaceyKoprince]

The primary focus for the last week is really about review, not trying to learn a bunch of new stuff - so you're on track there.

Review:
1) major pieces of content (most common* grammar rules, quant formulas and rules, etc)
2) strategies for each type of question (at the most basic level: SC, CR, RC, DS, PS - but you also want to get a bit more in-depth than that, eg, CR find the assumption, CR draw a conclusion, etc.)
3) pacing strategies for:
3a) individual questions (averages)
3b) groups of questions (eg, when you're on the 10th question, what should the clock read?)
3c) what to do if you find yourself either ahead or behind on time
4) guessing strategies for the different question types

*Most commonly tested stuff tends to be:
Number Properties (especially divisibility, primes, exponents, roots)
Algebra (especially equations of various types - basic, quadratic, exponential - and inequalities)
Word Problems (especially, fractions & percents, rates, statistics)
Grammar: modifiers, parallelism, comparisons, tenses, subj-verb agreement, pronouns
CR: find the assumption, weaken, strengthen, draw a conclusion
RC: main idea, inference, look-up

You may also want to take a look at The GMAT Uncovered, the free e-book that is in your account (if you have ever signed up for a free practice test or pretty much bought anything from us, then you have this book in your student center - it was added about a month ago). It's got a list of Things To Do and Things To Avoid on test day. (I won't repeat it all in my post here because I wrote that part of the e-book myself, so it already says everything I would tell you!)

Good luck - let us know how it goes!