OG Problems & Study Material Review Strategy

[Pranava]

Hello Stacey and other experts,

I have enrolled for the MGMAT online course & am following the MGMAT study schedule.

I have the following questions and would appreciate your inputs;

1. For OG problems I have decided to give a thorough review of each problem's explanation (both correct and wrong), ensure I got the core concept right, note careless mistakes, mark the problems I got wrong for future review.

Is there anything else you could suggest so I absolutely lock down the core concept for problems I got wrong?

2. With respect to review of study material, I currently review study material I studied each day at the end of the same day and the material I studied each week the end of the week. Any recommendations to improve this review strategy?

Also, I take notes of the study material everyday. I want to take a second more condensed set of review notes during my weekly review. Any suggestions on what to include and exclude?

Any recommendations on a "third review" timeline to refresh? For each week's study material after 1 week or 2 weeks (exclude a final complete material review after 9 weeks)?

Thanks for your recommendations and ideas!

P

[Pranava]

Any ideas guys?

[StaceyKoprince]

Hello! Please remember to read the forum guidelines before posting. Please don't "bump" your own post. We respond to all posts in order, oldest first, and the date of your post is based on the date of the last post in the thread, not the first. If you bump your own post, you will wait longer for a response. (We also are not in every folder every day—usually only twice a week, sometimes once a week during very busy times.)

Good questions. First, use this to help you review problems:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

In particular, make sure you get to the stage of making Know the Code takeaways (whether in flash card form or whatever form you prefer). When you get to that level, you know that you have really extracted the "essence" of the problem to use on future problems that share similar characteristics.

You can search for Know the Code on our blog to find more individual articles that show how to deconstruct a problem in this way.

Re: how to study, read this:
blog/2016/01/06/heres-why-you-should-interleave-your-gmat-studies-and-what-that-means/

It sounds like you're already doing some of this with your "touchback" review—just think about how else you can incorporate these principles into your learning.

The more condensed version should include anything at the Know the Code level. If you still have individual bits of knowledge that you need to memorize (eg, a formula), I would put that on a flash card—but in a separate stack from Know the Code. Ideally, you'll get to the point that you know the formula and you won't need that flash card any longer. The Know the Code-type takeaways are the ones that you'll want to keep coming back to and reviewing all the way until the test.

After that, I would say "be opportunistic" as you continue through your first review of all of the other new material. Incorporate some OG problems from previous weeks into this week's homework—and if you realize that you've forgotten something or are feeling shaky on it, then go back and review or practice that specific thing right now. (And where you realize you're still okay—pat yourself on the back and know that your review is working because you've retained that material.)

When you get done with the 9 weeks, you'll take a practice test and review it to see where your strengths and weaknesses are at that point. You'll then make a list of what I call your "medium weaknesses" or your "opportunity weaknesses"—in other words, not the things that are the worst for you, but the things that are weaker...yet there's some objective opportunity for you to improve. (Examples: Careless mistakes. Can do this but take longer than I would like. Didn't know this but the explanation makes 100% sense to me—I feel that I can learn this without too much trouble.) You address those weaknesses, take another CAT to see where your score is at, and repeat that process until you get to your goal score. You'll still have weaknesses at this point—but they don't matter, because you can still get to your goal score even with those weaknesses.

Good luck with your studies!