Test taking strategies and approach

[mobenny]

Hi,

I feel relativly comfortable with the content on the GMAT. However, I think that my score does not reflect my true skill level (particularly on QUANT). For example, when I analyzed the last CAT test I took I realized that half of the problems I missed were questions that I could have answered correctly. Some of the mistakes were careless computation errors and others were becuase of not undertanding the question fully. Basically, when I looked over the anser I slapped my head and thought duh!

What can I do to reduce the amount of these errors on the test. I think that these errors are keeping my score below my true skill level. Any ideas?

Thank you!!

[RonPurewal]

the following advice is tremendously useful not only on the gmat, but also in life in general:

you can prevent, or at least minimize, ANY kind of silly routine error, just by BEING AWARE OF YOUR TENDENCY TO MAKE THAT ERROR.

analogy:
let's say that you've stubbed your toe on a certain piece of furniture in your living room a few times (and the furniture is situated in such a way that you can't just move it).
are you just going to resign yourself to stubbing your toe every time you walk through that room, declaring that such silly mistakes are just out of your control?
no, of course you aren't. instead, every time you walk through that room, you're going to do so with a heightened awareness of that particular piece of furniture, and - voilà! - no more stubbed toes. yeah, you might hit it once or twice in a few years' worth of walking through that room, but you can bet that you'll NEVER hit it if you've just, say, had toe surgery.
heightened awareness!

now, for the gmat application:
let's say that your test-taking is plagued by 2 distinct types of errors: (1) solving for the wrong quantity, as illustrated in the very first post of this thread, and (2) sign errors (+/-) in algebra.
here's what you do:
just like walking through the aforementioned room, all you have to do is solve the problems with a HEIGHTENED AWARENESS of those two mistakes - and you won't make them. just keep them in your mind as Things To Look Out For - every time, just as you'd think about stubbing your toe every time you walk through the room - and eventually that extra caution will seep into your subconscious. it just will.

if you don't believe me that this sort of self-mind-control stuff works, imagine a hypothetical situation in which you got an automatic 800 on the gmat, no matter what else you did, as long as you didn't make either of those two mistakes a single time.
in that situation, do you think you'd ever make one of those two mistakes?
of course you wouldn't.
this proves that these mistakes are entirely under your control.

proceed accordingly.

good luck.

[mobenny]

Hi Ron,

You are totally right about the difference that awareness can make. It seems that part of the difficulty in the GMAT is understanding your strengths and weaknesses.

Do you have any suggestions about how to combat the pressure of the test? Specifically on the Quant, I always feel pressed for time and as though I am fighting the clock.

Thanks again!

Moses

[StaceyKoprince]

Unfortunately, if you're doing well on that test, that feeling isn't going to change. No matter how well you do, the test will just throw harder stuff at you - so if you are doing as well as you can do, then the test is always going to feel really hard.

What you can do is literally be aware of this - similar to being aware of your tendency to make certain kinds of careless mistakes. Know that you will feel pressured. Know that the test will give you some questions that you cannot do in 2 minutes. When that happens, you have two choices:
1) spend extra time
2) pick something and move on

How to decide:
IF you know exactly how to do the problem, but it just happens that the problem is a little longer than usual (takes some extra calculations, whatever), and if the extra stuff won't take you more than 30 additional seconds, then go ahead and finish it.

IF you don't know exactly how to do the problem within no more than 30 extra seconds, then stop, pick something, and move on.

You're going to get a LOT of questions wrong (at most scoring levels, people only get about 60% of the questions right - even at a 700 level!). That's okay because the test is going to give you some questions that are well above whatever level you're hoping to score. For instance, if you want a 650 (and you're doing well enough to actually get that score), the test will give you some 700 level questions. You can get every single one of those 700 level questions wrong and still get the 650.

So this is how the test works. Your task is to identify when the test has given you something that's too hard, so that you (a) don't lose time on it and (b) mentally remove the pressure from yourself. Do your best within 2 minutes, then dismiss it from your mind. (And maybe, once or twice, you don't even spend the 2 minutes. You just say - woah, that's a ridiculous problem. B is a nice letter. And move on. :)