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Overcoming stress:
2. Consider Limiting your Studying (or maybe not studying) a couple of Weeks Before the test
This is probably the number 1 reason I did so well the last time I tested. I was told not to study beyond 2 hours a day the week before the exam. Seems that this was still too much for me since it contributed to my stress level and also exhausted me. I finally recognized I had prepped enough and decided to take a vacation and went to the beach the week before the test. I felt refreshed and was able to sleep well. Not surprisingly, my performance was at its best. I took the test two days after I got back and scored a 730.Timing Strategy:
6. Make Wise Time Investment Choices
. You can (and should) skip/guess up to 5 challenging questions in each section (q & v). If you are having trouble with a question during the test, chances are you'll get it wrong anyway. This is generally true and If you are able to see how long you took per question in your practice tests, you'll probably notice that you got wrong most of the questions that took you over 2 minutes to answer. Skipping a few hard questions gives you time to solve questions you actually will get right. As you know, the GMAT penalizes you more if you get easy questions wrong, so you don’t want to invest time on hard questions you’ll get wrong anyway.7. Master Quant and Verbal Timing Strategies that Work for You.
For verbal, I found the Manhattan GMAT timing strategy useful (free online). The rest of this bullet will explain a quant timing strategy I found super helpful. You'll need a yellow plastic practice notepad; similar to the one you get during the exam. If you don't have one, use nine pages of regular paper. Split the first page into 5 even spaces. Split each of the remaining eight pages into four even spaces in which you will solve the quant questions. Number each space in the nine pages from 1-37 (number of quant problems in a test). 1-5 goes into page 1, 6-9 into page 2, etc. At the bottom of each page, write down your timing benchmarks. At the bottom of the first page note 64, meaning that when you have 64 minutes remaining for the want section, you need to be flipping your page and moving on to question 6, page 2. This gives you two minutes per each of the first five questions and an additional minute to prepare your notebook with the markets I'm describing here. Then for each additional page you subtract 8 minutes from your timing benchmark, giving yourself 2 minutes for each quant question. Bottom of the second page, for instance, the benchmark is 56, meaning that when the clock marks 56, you need to flip to the third page, question 10. This method works, but you are diligent with the benchmark and if you practice using it before the test. During the exam, you have a minute to read the test instructions prior to quant section.Staying focussed
Double-Checked Your Work After Every Problem. You can't afford not to
The test is so long it is hard to focus deeply, so making careless errors is easy. Sadly, careless errors will get you to get 300 and 400 level questions wrong, and getting 300 and 400 questions wrong will heavily impact your score. Make sure to review your verbal choices as well. In sentence correction, take time to re-read sentences with your choice of answer. In my case, reviewing my verbal answer choices in my last exam helped me score a 98 percentile in the verbal, which was a huge jump from my prior tests. I was probably making careless errors in verbal all along, but never made the time to double check answers as I was trying too hard to answer every single question instead of skipping 5 hard questions. Also, if you are making careless errors like 2*2=6, review your multiplication tables. I know this is silly, but memorizing the tables until you are tired of them may help avoid these obvious errors.trust and know you can reach your target score if you prep, and dealing with the ADD strategically is part of prepping to reach these targets.
First, Keep the Zen State of Mind during the test. When an unrelated thought entered my mind in the middle of the exam, I would cut it off immediately and think: "I will deal with this after the test." Then, I focussed back in the test. This probably sounds obvious for some, but for me was a whole new skill. Similarly, when I got anxious during the test, I would stop for a moment to calm down, took a deep breath, relaxed and even prayed. While this took a few seconds, it enabled me to avoid the panic and keep focussed. Second, ADD folks may take longer to get through the GMAT study period. Plan to get over the GMAT as early as possible prior to applying to schools and expect to invest ample time to study. If you can, get done with it a year before applying to schools. Think about it - you'll have time to focus on your applications, essays, visiting schools and actually applying first round. Third, make a study schedule. The GMAT requires a lot of prepping, and If you are the type that can't sit still for 3 hours, you won't prep well. It really helped me to break my study in smaller sessions: one hour before work, 30 minutes during lunch, and 1-2 hours after work daily. I did study 3+ hours daily. Since I was busy at work also, I had to give up my social life. Fourth, if you can't keep focussed for 3 hours straight, you gotta work on building stamina. Take practice exams every couple of weeks in actual/real exam conditions so that you can build the attention span needed. Do try to study for a couple of hours straight. Don't take any practice exam at least 8 days before the test. Finally, be healthy, take vitamins (e.g. B complex, fish oil), exercise, sleep, get a massage, whatever you need to do to be at your best. Actually, if I had to do it again, I would consider going on medication.Prepping:
What mattered most wasn’t the number of problems I did, but the quality of time I spent with each of them.
I revisited problems I got wrong and made sure I could master them. When I reviewed a problem, I tried to find more than one way to solve it. My instructors told me I should invest 2 minutes to solve a problem and twice as much (at least) to revisit a problem. I stayed with a problem until I understood it, and went to the GMAT club and similar sites to find responses when I didn’t understand a solution.
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
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