GMAT in 5 Weeks - Strategy

Question

My GMAT Date is exactly 5 weeks from now. My weaknesses

+ Taking 2.5 mins on a CR or SC Question. 
+ Having timing issues on the verbal section.

What would be the best way to proceed ? How many full length tests should i give ?

GyanOne · Answer

Hi Abhi,

Would recommend practicing CR and SC first, before you get into the full length tests. Speed in CR and SC depends on clarity of concept, ability to grasp the question, and ability to hone down to the correct answer. Clarity of concepts will be obtained by going through your prep material/class notes, grasping the question will become faster with practice, while ability to hone down to the correct answer is a combination of strategies and conceptual clarity.

Follow up with at least five full length tests.

GMATPill · Answer

Take at least 2 full length tests and give yourself at least a day before your actual exam.

If you're spending 2.5 min on SC questions, you're bound to run out of time or not spend enough time on the RC questions - which require more thinking.

You need to work on reducing the time spent on SC and increasing accuracy. In order to do this, you'll need to be fluent with spotting booby traps and develop the skill of recognizing certain sentence structures so you KNOW what the GMAT is testing you on BEFORE you even begin going through the answer choices. This is critical because acing SC in record time will free up time resources for to spend on reading comprehension.

And of course, don't underestimate the  psychological nature of the GMAT exam .

Hope that helps! Ace That GMAT. Focus. Focus. Focus.

AbhiJ · Answer

I seem to have cut down my timing from 2.5 mins to 1.5 mins in both CR/SC. I need to practise a lot to really make it effortless.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Remember that on the GMAT, you *do not* need to get the majority of the problems correct. If you are having timing trouble, the first thing you need to do is commit to stay on time, even if that means guessing on some problems. Even at the 700 level, you should expect to miss about 40% of the problems, so it's no big deal to let a problem go to save time. CR are the best problems to guess proactively on, as you don't want to skip a whole RC passage, and skipping SC generally saves you less time. If you see a really ugly CR, or if you find yourself stumped by an SC problem, guess and move on. It won't hurt your score; in fact, it should help! Those are problems you're likely to miss anyway, only now you'll have a 20% chance of getting them right (if you guess randomly) and you'll have extra time to devote to the rest of the test. This is much better than trying to race through all the material, and lowering your overall accuracy.

Of course, while you're studying, you want to go back to these "killer" problems and work to understand them. But you also want to practice identifying the toughest problems, so you know which ones to drop (if need be) on test day.

Of course, while you're studying, you want to go back to these "killer" problems and work to understand them. But you also want to practice identifying the toughest problems, so you know which ones to drop (if need be) on test day.

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