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May 1408:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
Most GMAT test-takers are intimidated by the hardest GMAT Verbal questions. In this session, Target Test Prep GMAT instructor Erika Tyler-John, a 100th percentile GMAT scorer, will show you how top scorers break down challenging Verbal questions..
May 1212:00 PM EDT
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Make the most of your break with the most realistic GMAT™ prep. Take up to $700 off select products.- May 13
08:30 AM PDT
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In Episode 4 of our GMAT Ninja CR series, we tackle the most intimidating CR question type: Boldface & "Legalese" questions. If you've ever stared at an answer choice that reads, "The first is a consideration introduced to counter a position that... - Jun 10
06:00 AM PDT
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Register for the GMAT Club Virtual MBA Spotlight Fair – the world’s premier event for serious MBA candidates. This is your chance to hear directly from Admissions Directors at nearly every Top 30 MBA program..
27 Sep 2021, 09:19
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GMAT Test Day approaching?
So, your official GMAT® is coming up in a few days…To help you get the best score you can, I’d like to share some valuable test day wisdom and strategy with you and perhaps impart some inspiration as well.Manage Your Time Properly
A major component of earning a good GMAT® score is savvy time management. Although different students use different time management techniques, whatever strategy you use, don’t let yourself get behind on the clock. Be disciplined. If you have practiced spending between two and two-and-a-half minutes per quantitative question, don’t suddenly start spending five minutes or more on a given question. If you can’t answer a question in the allotted time, quickly eliminate any answers you can and take your best educated guess from the remaining answer choices.It’s important to avoid incorrectly answering a consecutive string of questions; if you spend four or five minutes on a few earlier questions, you’ll likely end up guessing on the last four to six questions. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that guessing on these questions will likely lower your score. Be disciplined with your time management on test day.
Stay Engaged in the Moment – Compartmentalize – Focus
Staying engaged and focused is essential to your success. When you begin solving the first problem on the quantitative section, don’t think about anything else but that problem. Don’t worry about the questions that lay ahead, don’t worry about those final few formulas you couldn’t master, and certainly don’t worry about how other students in the room are doing – just focus – be in the moment – own it; this is your time to shine. Similarly, as you begin each subsequent problem, don’t ever think back to the earlier problems and don’t look forward to the upcoming problems. Don’t think about anything but exactly what you’re working on at that exact second in time.Do Not Try to Determine How Well You’re Doing
You will never know how well you are doing until the test is over. Despite your best intuition, you have absolutely no way of determining whether a question is easy or hard for the purposes of your score. You have no way of knowing how other students did or are doing on that problem. What seems easy to you may be hard for the majority, and what seems hard to you may be easy for the majority. Furthermore, you’ll be blindly exposed to experimental questions. That is, you won’t know they’re experimental. Perhaps that question that’s worrying you so much won’t even be counted. So why waste your limited energy thinking about things you can’t control? Just focus on doing the absolute best you can. Similarly, do not try to guess how well you did on a particular section. You may feel like you really bombed the math section, but you have no real way of knowing. Worse yet, if you get down on yourself because you assume you messed up on the quant section, that may negatively affect how you perform on the verbal section.Remember — You Don’t Have to Answer Every Question Correctly to Earn a Good Score
Too many student experience anxiety regarding the number of questions they have to answer correctly. First, worrying about your performance never improves your performance; only being alert to the problem at hand can do that. Second, realize that you can probably get more questions wrong than you think and still get a good score.The GMAT® is a computer adaptive exam. That is, in general, the questions you face become more difficult as your performance improves. So, at some point, you’ll be facing questions that will be too difficult for you to answer, and you’ll likely get them wrong. That’s okay — you should expect that to happen: it happens to almost everyone. To be clear, your goal is to answer correctly as many questions as you can. However, don’t expect to answer all questions correctly, and certainly don’t lose focus over that.
Guess Judiciously and Intelligently
Let’s first be crystal clear about one thing: if you find yourself having to skip and guess on a large number of questions, you are probably not as prepared as you should be. With that said, almost all test takers will encounter some problems that are just too difficult for them to solve. Recognize the problem types that you know are difficult for you, take your best guess on them, and move on. For example, maybe you didn’t have the time to study functions sufficiently. Furthermore, let’s say you tend to incorrectly answer roughly 80 percent of all function questions you attempt. If you see what appears to be a difficult function question on the test, would it be wise to spend three minutes trying to solve it? Probably not. Instead, guess and move on to the next question, armed with the extra time that you just gained by not wasting time on a likely miss. In other words, use strategic guessing to enhance your score. Fight the battles you can win.Don’t Worry If You Struggle With the First Question or Two
Often, students who perform below their goals on the GMAT® say that they had a hard time with the first few questions and, as a result, lost their focus on the following questions. Of course, it would be desirable to recognize and easily solve the first few questions you encounter, but if you can’t or if the first few questions seem unusually abstract or difficult, don’t worry. Just keep your focus. Put your energy into the questions to come; don’t ever think back. Stay engaged.Caffeine or No Caffeine?
We personally love coffee. However, this one is up to you. If caffeine helps you perform better, go for it. However, it’s probably not the best idea to slam down a venti caffe americano right before the test. After all, you only have a few breaks, and the entire experience will likely run about 4 hours from checking in to receiving your unofficial score report.Don’t Worry About Running Out of Room on Your Notepad
You can always ask for a new one. Similarly, when you get your pens, inspect them, making sure they have good tips and write smoothly. If you don’t like the pens you’re given, immediately ask your proctor for new ones.Get to the Test Center Early
There’s nothing worse than being rushed before your test starts. Make sure you know where the test center is and arrive at least 30 minutes before your scheduled test time.To read the complete article, view my full article on Target Test Prep’s blog.
02 Oct 2021, 18:08
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Possibly my favorite of all the moves listed in this post is warming up by doing practice questions before the GMAT. Warming up can get you into game mode and can also calm you down. In fact I found that doing warmup questions before the GMAT made the GMAT seem to be just more practice questions - in a good way - meaning that it didn't feel like a big deal, with the result that my stress level was reduced.
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