Studying beyond basics for Geometry

[junichi]

(Sorry if I'm not following guidelines)

Hi. I've just completed a 9 class online course, and I'm taking the GMAT next month. I've noticed that my main weakness is with Geometry (mainly Triangles & Diagonals). http://puu.sh/LadB

Is there a more focused way for me to practice Geometry? I'm currently making an error log for all the Geometry problems I've done (which is really helpful), and I'm planning on doing as many practice problems as I can for OG Archer.

However, I feel like I understand the basic formulas and relationships, and that the main problem I have is failing to understand which one of them they're testing.

I would like to know if there's a particular resource I should look at for Geometry that goes beyond the basics, or if you guys have any other tips.

[StaceyKoprince]

A lot of times, Geometry questions feel like proofs - do you remember doing proofs in school? You have a couple of givens and then you have to get yourself to some certain "proof" in a minimum number of steps. Most people hated proofs in school. :)

The thing that stresses people out the most is this feeling, when you start, that you can't "see" what to do all the way to the end. That's okay. Draw a diagram, label it, and then ask yourself, "What else can I figure out?" Don't worry about "seeing" it 4 steps in. Just see what else you can figure out from what you have so far. And then do it again. And again.

After doing this 2 or 3 times, one of two things will happen. You'll then "see" the way to finish the problem off (in which case, you do!), or you realize that you're still lost (in which case you guess).

Then, you go back over the question without the timer ticking, and you look at the solution, and then you think "oh, that's what they were saying? that's what I had to do?" And you ask yourself a crucial question: "Now that I *know* that this is how to do it, what are the specific clues in the initial wording of the problem or the setup of the diagram that could have alerted me to try this path?"

Then you grab a flash card and, on one side, you write "When I see _______" and on the other you write "I'll think / do _______"
The clues go in the first blank and the solution path goes in the second.

Try that out with a bunch of old problems first - ones you've already done in the past. And if you're not sure what the clues are / how to "decode" a particular problem, ask!

[junichi]

Doing the error log made me see that a lot of the problems I got wrong are testing similar triangles, and that I needed to "look for" whether the 2 triangles have at least 2 angles in common.

I'll keep doing more problems and error logs. Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

Great! Keep up the good work!