10 days to GMAT..What all to do?

Hi,

Thank you so much darbal!Just finished one of the GMATprep tests and got a 590(Q41 and V31) .Like in the previous practice tests,I struggled with pace a lot during this test too and blindly guessed at least 5 questions on the Quant section and 4 on the Verbal. I've realized that since the strategies mentioned in the Manhattan series are so elaborate,that I end up taking too long when executing them.
Going to practice the questions you mentioned,hoping to improve my scores.Any particular advice on how to improve pace for CR and RC qs?
Also since I purchased the Barrons book, I have access to 4 of its tests.Not sure how close they would be to the actual tests,but I've done one of the tests and the questions seemed easier than the GMATprep ones.

Aimba123

Don't worry about the pace issue, the reason I say that is because almost everybody will struggle with their pacing on the GMAT. Even when I do really well, I am always on my toes, so this whole situation of constantly being stressed and rushed is part of the game. That is not to say that there aren't people who do extremely well with say 15 minutes left. I have had a fair number of students in that category, but I would say 98% of us will always be under tremendous pressure.

As far as guessing on some of the questions, that is common too, I think the key is to steer away from the hard questions that won't impact your score much, and instead can be time sinks. May be two or three that you can sidestep.

In my personal opinion, cookbook strategies don't really work on the GMAT, unless you are lucky and see the exact same problem in the exam. That is rare. Instead of trying to look for what would work where, I would recommend you to deeply understand what the question is asking, without making any assumptions and approach it with general tools as opposed to trying to fit a preexisting method.

I don't teach the Verbal section of the GMAT, but I can tell you that on the RC I recommend reading the passages with deep focus. This is not easy because the GMAT passages are extremely dense. This one will take practice to improve. You may first want to deal with easier passages and then raise the difficulty level. I found the categorization and the explanation in the official guide to be extremely helpful.

I would skip the tests from Barron's. Instead, take the second test in GMATPrep and then dive in to the set of questions in the forum link I posted earlier. you could get the Exam Pack 1 extension that gives you two more CATs, but at this stage I don't know if taking a lot of CATs will help. You need to strengthen your conceptual understanding, once you do that it also helps with the pacing.

Cheers,
Dabral

I'm fairly confident about my quant concepts and I get most Qs correct if I dont rush too much. As far as verbal is concerned it takes too long to make the skeletel sketch of the passage and then answer Qs. So I end up cutting down on time from SC qs to spend on RC and CR questions.
I read your blog about the how to use the scratch paper.I think,quant is not where my issue is.But verbal is.I write notes all over the place and have to make a grid on every question which I think wastes too much time.What would you suggest for that? Also how to keep track of time for verbal without doing elaborate mental calculations ? :s

Hi,

Given the short time left, I would advise you to do two things:
(1) Take full-length mocks under strict conditions to train your stamina and mentality should something go wrong (touch wood). For example, don't check your mobile phone during the mocks.
(2) Work your body clock around the exam. So if your exam is in 9am in the morning, then make sure you wake at the same time the week before and that your brain is primed at that time.

I hope this helps, cheers!


Michael

Hi Aimba123

Generally speaking, you should wrap up all new topics and concepts one week before the test, and begin reviewing what you've already learned with practice questions and sim tests. Be sure to alternate between sim tests and reviewing. When you conduct a simulation test, try conducting it in similar conditions to exam day. That way, you can prepare yourself for exam day as much as possible. And I know this sounds obvious, but be sure to focus on getting a solid sleep routine. You want to be well rested for the test!

It appears that you have some issues with time management on the verbal section. For time management, try grouping five verbal questions together and spend no more more than 9 minutes on them. Use this strategy on both practice questions and simulation exams. If you fall behind schedule, make a strategic guess or two to catch up. Make strategic guesses on questions that you aren’t confident on or that would take you much longer than two minutes to answer.

If you need more help on the GMAT or want to take a free sim exam, click here: https://econgm.at/freetrialoffer.

Best of luck!

Jessica

Hey!

Thanks Michael and Jessica!! I think it's just that tradeoff one makes between one extra of studying with a good night's sleep .I think I need to make that investment now that only 7 days are left(....talk to self ...*stay calm*)
Just did the Princeton Test .Got A 600 (Q46 and V27) .This time I had to blindly guess 2 questions on the quant because I was running out of time(at the end).However,I tried to apply this strategy (that I would have to guess at least 1 Qs to stay on track and not miss RC Qs at the end) so I blindly guessed 2-3 questions in the middle of verbal section since I was expecting another RC ( a long one) to appear soon.After randomly guessing 2 Qs I was back on track and even had 3 mins excess at the end of the test.See that's what's annoying and frustrating..What do you do?Guess/not guess/smart guess which would mean spend at least a minute on that.??:S I'm not sure if doing that in the middle is better or at the end when you probably might end up leaving them blank too.But I read a post on the businessweek which mentioned it's better to leave it blank at the end if it's verbal. So confused!
P.S. should I abandon all hopes of getting 700+ in 7 days ?

This is how I keep track of my time. Let's say I just finish Question#23 in Quant, that means I have 14 question left, I double that to give me 28 minutes, and the display clock should be more or less around 28. Plus or minute two minutes is okay. I have to keep a greater cushion towards the end because I know I will get hard questions in the final stages from Q31 to Q37.

Cheers,
Dabral

Yeah..that's what I tried doing last time and really helped. I made grid on the right side for verbal for eliminating answer choices.That also helped in organizing my notes while solving Qs.
I was doing this analysis of my practice tests and noticed that I got 17Qs wrong on Verbal in the GMATprep test and only 12 wrong on the Princeton Review practice test but got V31 and V27 respectively. So does it have to do with when I answer a question wrong? or that I got the easy ones wrong ?
Also this was the businessweek article which got me all confused about the guessing algo https://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... d-skipping
Hope to get a response from someone soon.

Also @Dabral,today I'm going to dive into the pool of questions you posted.Can you kindly share the source and what's the difficulty level of the Verbal Qs?

Hi,

If you have only a few days left before you take the GMAT, I will highly recommend to go through the post below.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-prep-software-analysis-and-what-if-scenarios-146146.html

Best,
AK

THANK YOU! So helpful! Because even after a lot of practice, I have not been able to bring down my CR time averages to <2 min and some of the tougher SC Qs also take ~ 1.5-2mins.

Still hovering on the cursed 600 (Q47,V26) .This time I was so conscious of getting the first 10 correct but I guess I took too long in the first 10 for both sections.:/

Aimba123

The pool of questions listed in the link in my first post are from the GMATPrep software. Only do these after you have taken the two official GMATPrep Practice tests.

Cheers,
Dabral

"Hi,

With just a few days to go, just focus on your core strengths.

Here's one thing which you can do. Appear for as many mock tests as possible during this week. And spend as much time as possible in analysing each of them. Typically if you spend 2 hours on a mock test, spend 6 hours in analysing your performance in the same. Find out ways by which you could have optimised your score. Try out these strategies in the next test. Keep working on it and you will hopefully start moving closer to your ideal score.

Also, write your target score on a piece of paper and stick the same in front of your study table. Whenever you feel anxious or low on confidence, just have a look at your test score and tell yourself that you are going to achieve this. Give this thought a lot of energy, forget the rest and give it your best shot.

Wish you all the best and do keep us updated on your progress.

www.manyagroup.com"

Hi,

With just 10 days to go, just focus on your core strengths.

Here's one thing which you can do. Appear for as many mock tests as possible during this week. And spend as much time as possible in analysing each of them. Typically if you spend 2 hours on a mock test, spend 6 hours in analysing your performance in the same. Find out ways by which you could have optimised your score. Try out these strategies in the next test. Keep working on it and you will hopefully start moving closer to your ideal score.

Also, write your target score on a piece of paper and stick the same in front of your study table. Whenever you feel anxious or low on confidence, just have a look at your test score and tell yourself that you are going to achieve this. Give this thought a lot of energy, forget the rest and give it your best shot.

Wish you all the best and do keep us updated on your progress.

https://www.manyagroup.com"

Hey!

That sounds very useful.Yes anxiety is kicking in for sure because only 4 days left now.Got a 710(Q48 and v40) on one of the gmat prep tests just now.But a lot of Qs were repeated so I should have gotten way better! I've tried resetting a bunch of times but seems the software has a limited question pool once it's downloaded.Should I uninstall it to get a better variety of Qs?

You need to take a completely new official GMAT test. Repeating the tests is of use only in the early stages where one is still trying to get a hang of what the real GMAT will be like. If you have already taken the two free official practice tests, then get the Exam Pack 1 test so you can have a realistic experience of what the real GMAT will be like.

Dabral