Advice needed - Final week plan

Question

Hi all, Been a long time silent reader of the forum, finally decided to post something as I am in need of advice. Thanks in advance

. I am taking the GMAT on 11th Sept (7 days). Summary of my GMAT preparation: 1. 2 months of prep (June & July) along with work,~ 100 hours. 1 month dedicated prep (August), ~300 hours. 2. Completed Bloomberg (formerly Economist) prep tool. 3. Completed OG main and supplementary for quant, still doing OG supplementary for verbal. 4. Taken 4 mocks - main takeaways were pacing (Q&V), and approach for RC and CR. Mocks: 1. 750 Q51,V42 (18th Aug, Bloomberg 1) - Made some silly errors. Verbal was hit or miss. 2. 740 Q49, V41 (25th Aug, GMAT Official Prep Mock 1) - Pacing was terrible. Missed 2 quant questions. Made numerous silly errors (Q&V). 3. 740 Q51, V40 (29th Aug, Bloomberg 2) - Verbal was hit or miss. Felt terrible given the sliding verbal score (42-41-40). Followed this up with 3 days of dedicated verbal prep, and new approach for RC and CR. 4. 770 Q51, V45 (1st Sept, GMAT Official Prep Mock 2) - Pacing was great. Finished the first 10 quant questions in 10 mins. Verbal performance improved drastically. Issues: 1. I havent been able to practice a lot of 'high difficulty' quant questions. Not comfortable with advanced coordinate geometry and P&C. 2. Verbal accuracy is very frame of mind driven. Not sure if V42+ performance is repeatable. 3. Timing / pacing needs more structure and more practice. Plan: 1. 1 mock everyday for 7 days at the same time as the actual GMAT - 3 new (Official Prep 3&4, Bloomberg 3) and 4 retakes (Official Prep 1-4) 2. Quant: GMAT club question bank / CATs to build more confidence on weak areas 3. Verbal: Complete OG questions and try out GMAT club Any thoughts on this? What should i be doing differently? Also, it is worth using Official Prep mocks 5&6 now? I wanted to save them in case a retake is required. Thanks a lot, Shan

Harsh2111s · Answer

Plan: 1. 1 mock everyday for 7 days at the same time as the actual GMAT - 3 new (Official Prep 3&4, Bloomberg 3) and 4 retakes (Official Prep 1-4) Don't do mock everyday. In next 7 days you should focus only on revision. 2 mocks ares sufficient. 2. Quant: GMAT club question bank / CATs to build more confidence on weak areas Focus on strong area and make it even stronger. One week won't affect much, its better you know priorities while giving exam. 3. Verbal: Complete OG questions and try out GMAT club 10 questions a day is sufficient from each section. Especially those you got wrong on 1st attempt. All the best

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

To be honest, I think that one mock a day is a bit much. Remember, taking a practice exam does take a lot of energy, so I can't help but think that if you take a practice test each day until your GMAT, you'll be pretty mentally exhausted by the time you actually take your GMAT. So, I'd actually take maybe 2 exams or 3 max more prior to test day.

Also, here is a helpful article that has some more advice on what to do the final week leading up to your GMAT:

GMAT Test Day approaching?

Also, here is a helpful article that has some more advice on what to do the final week leading up to your GMAT:

GMAT Test Day approaching?

RetaketheGMAT · Answer

A couple of practice tests over the course of the last week should be enough. Give your brain a rest and do something fun the day before the test (to get yourself into a good mind frame).

Focus on the key elements of your in-test process:

1) Timing management -- remember that no question is worth more than 3 minutes because it starts to cannibalize time from multiple questions later (does it makes sense to you to spend 2 EXTRA minutes to get 1 question right and then cost yourself 2 or 3 later question because you only have 1.25 mins for each of them?

2) Remember the importance of the first step in every question (V or Q): capturing and preprocessing.
It doesn't matter if it's a verbal or quant question. One of the biggest traps in 700+ level questions is making you miss a key piece of information or not giving yourself a complete understanding because you didn't manipulate the information in the prompt.

3) Make a list of typical mistakes you make. If it's forgetting which variable you're calculating or not remember it's an "EXCEPT" question -- make a note of those key errors. AND compensate by writing big notes to yourself when you see a possibility of making that mistake in a particular question.

4) VISUALIZE quant questions -- the test writers create a web of confusion by using difficult wording. If you keep going back, you keep tangling yourself up in the web again and again. Translate the information in a quant question into a more easily to analyze format like tables, Venn diagrams, number lines etc.

The overall point here is focusing on the process things that will help you with 10 or 20 questions on each section. It's the key creating a score jump on test day!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Shan,

To start, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically shouldn't take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. Since your Official GMAT is 7 days away, you might be fine taking one more CAT this weekend, but you should NOT take any more than that. If you really studied 300 hours in the month of August, then you are running a high risk of 'burning out' before Test Day (and that is something that we want to avoid. During the last few days before your Exam, you should limit your studies to general practice and light review (NO CATs and NO 'cramming') - you would be better served by getting some extra rest so that you can go into Test Day calm, clear-headed and ready to work.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Advice needed - Final week plan

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