I would like to share some tips & strategies that might prove to be useful while preparing and attempting the mocks as well as the GMAT:
1) Make sure
no question is left unattempted as you will be heavily penalized for doing so. Its better to randomly mark an answer if you are pressed for time than leaving it unmarked.
2) Its common knowledge that first few questions are more important. In order to take advantage of this piece of information,
spend more time on the first 15 questions, say an avg of 2.5 min per question. Spending that extra time on the first few questions will more or less fix your score band - this is what is meant by CAT.
Once the band is fixed i.e. once your level has been set by the computer, you will have to work really hard to change that level by either getting questions wrong continuously or getting them right continuously.
3) Even if there are 15 questions remaining and you have just 15 min to go, do not panic. Since your band has already been decided by the computer, in order to stay in that band all you have to do is make sure that you dont make too many continuous mistakes. Hence,
for every 3 questions that you solve 'properly', mark the 4th question randomly and move ahead. This will make sure your mistakes are well dispersed and will also help you manage your time.
BUT YOU SHOULD TRY AND ENSURE THAT YOU DON'T LAND UP IN SUCH A TIME CRUNCH!!
4) The importance of first few questions in each section has been emphasized enough everywhere. Although its not proven, it might be beneficial to remember that the initial 4-5 questions of each subsection in Verbal and Quant are also important in deciding your score band.
So give extra time to the first few questions of each of the 5 subsections, irrespective of how late or early they figure in the test.5)
Maintain an error log of all the questions you solve and make a note of the mistakes you made. Even for the questions you get right, make sure that you read the solution and check whether the reasoning used by you is correct.
6)
Make your own SC notes. Maybe for PS too. Your own consolidated notes along with the
error log proves very handy at the time of revision.
7) a) Revise Manhattan SC Guide at least 3 times
b) Revisit
OG questions at least once
c) Take GMATPREP tests 1 & 2 at least 2 times each
8)
Make use of the scratch pad that is made available at the test center. I used it while eliminating the options. I used to make a table as follows and mark a cross against the options that I have already eliminated:
A B C D E
1 x x x x
2
3
4
.
.
.
41
I also used the scratch pad to write down the gist of each para in an RC passage.
9)
a) Do not try to plan your strategies around the 11 experimental questions (these are not scored) that are present in each of the 2 GMAT sections as there is no way of knowing which are experimental and which are not.
Don't assume that a question must be experimental and won't be score just because it seems too tough. b)
Do not assume that you are doing well (not doing well) when you see (don't see) Boldface questions or Probability/PnC questions on the test.10) Prepare a list of 15 schools you would want to send your scores to. Depending upon how much you score you may then select the final 5 schools and
save 17$ * 5 = 85$PS: Some members have requested me to share my SC notes on the forum. Thus, I have attached the pdf at the end of this post! Hope it proves to be beneficial...
Hats off kudos to you samrus98......this is neat......i am happy i found this site so early in my prep....looks like it will be time well spent!