OG detailed review & General plan after course

[roshni.patram]

Hi Stacey,

Sorry, this is going to be a rather long post.

First, wanted to thank you for all the very detailed posts on how to study, how to analyze practice problems etc . They have been extremely useful.

I wanted to check with you - I am taking the 9 week online course ( am in the 5th week) and am trying to cover the advanced content each week along with the class. I am doing all the homework(knock on wood!) with the benchmark OG questions (general and advanced) but feel that my review of the OG questions is not as detailed as I would like and as it should be, especially in Quant.

I am using the OG companion as well and so do have detailed stats of timing, mistakes etc. Overall, also, I do know the specific areas e.g Sequences, Weighted averages etc , that I have trouble with.

But given the pace of the class and not wanting to fall behind on the coursework, I was wondering if the detailed review of the OG questions - (traps, better/quicker way of doing the problem, shortcuts, mistakes that I make all the time, things to remember etc) can be done after the course when I do timed sets of mixed topics.

I have sort of divided the time -
1. During the course - Learn the content and learn to apply to OG questions (timed, of course)
2. After the course - Take a CAT -
Focus on the weaknesses identified earlier and in the CAT and do the detailed OG review with timed random sets.
3. Do the question banks.
4. Attend the "Quest for 750" advanced seminars and do the Challenge questions.
5. Do the CATs interspersed between 2, 3 & 4 to check if I am truly improving.

I would really appreciate your advice.

Thank you very much.

[StaceyKoprince]

I would actually recommend the opposite - don't try to do so many new problems right now, but really dig in and make sure you learn what you're trying to learn on the ones that you do. I'd rather have you cut the volume of new stuff a bit but make sure you're getting everything you can out of the material you are reviewing.

For starters, you can just do fewer OG problems - saving a decent number for review later is a good idea anyway.

Also, do the advanced material for the areas you think are pretty easy, but when you hit an area that's harder for you (and we do all have weaknesses!) then save that advanced material for later, too.

Also, most of the Challenge problems are 800+. Really, only do those if you're already at 95+ percentile on quant and you really are trying to get to 99th percentile on quant alone.

Other than that, I like your plan!

[roshni.patram]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you very much for the reply. I shall cut down the number of OG problems that I am doing now and save them for later. I am doing the advanced material for the topics I find easy. The good news is I have already identified my clear weaknesses (plenty to work on!!) and I do intend to spend more time on these as soon as the class is over.

I have been warned about the MGMAT challenge questions :) and shall not attempt them until the very end by which time I hope my Quant percentile will be at least close to 95%.

One last question - If I have a clear idea of my weaknesses and my timing issues, can I wait to take a test later after I have tried to address them as I believe that doing the test would show up these issues.

Thanks again for the all the advice.

[StaceyKoprince]

You can wait to take the test until later, yes, but I think there are a couple of good reasons to do it now, anyway - more in the spirit of practice than in the spirit of expecting a certain score increase.

First, you can actually start to practice implementing some of the things that you're learning, and that's a good thing to do.

Second, you can practice the overall timing and stamina, which are both also very important.

Third, you will then be eligible for a test review from your instructor at the end of the course. You need to take 3 tests total over the length of the course. The second test can be pushed off a little bit - say till week 7 or so - but you don't want to push it so late that it becomes the 3rd test.

Don't worry about the scoring - that's not your major concern right now. Your major concern is just getting practice and analyzing your work. :)

[roshni.patram]

Thanks very much, Stacey. Really appreciate your advice. Will let you know how things progress (fingers crossed!!!).

[StaceyKoprince]

good luck!