So you have finally decided to apply to business school, but your deadline is fast approaching and you only have one or two weeks before you need to take your exam – what should you do?
A student who studies for the GMAT for two weeks or less requires a very different plan than a student who studies for the more traditional one to three months.
Students studying for a longer period of time have the luxury of mastering the most effective methods and strategies before sitting for their exam. If you are studying for less than two weeks you will not be able to master these methods and strategies. Always remember, the GMAT is not a test for which you can cram – learning brand new methods in under two weeks is simply not possible.
Instead, students who are studying for such a short period of time should focus on two areas: improving in topics with which they are already familiar and test timing.
When studying for such a short period of time, students should not study areas with which they are not at all familiar. This means that the inclination most students have towards studying topics such as combinations, probability and coordinate geometry may be ignored. Instead students should think, “in what areas am I good but not great?” Whatever the answer is, is what you should work on.
Additionally, you can improve your timing fairly quickly. Keep in mind that you have two minutes for each math problem. Purchase a stopwatch and make sure you are finishing in the allotted time. If you are not done with a problem after two minutes, practice determining if you have a chance of getting it right in the next minute or so or if you need to guess and move on. It is highly recommended that you do take at least 1-2 full length practice tests as part of your short study period, so that you’ve been through the entire experience and practiced managing your time etc before the actual exam.
By following the guidelines listed above, you will be able to see an improvement over a short period of time. And, it should also be noted, you should only leave such a short time to study if it is absolutely necessary. If you can take more time, you should do so.
Bret Ruber
Kaplan GMAT
