Three pillars of a successful GMAT strategy

Question

https://backtogurbani.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/the-strategy-1080533_1920-e1468686075820.jpg "How to ace GMAT" - The question is one of the most asked questions among the test takers, and the answers vary considerably. However, I believe one thing must be common in all the answers, and that should be 'having the right strategy'. The strategy also means a bigger picture or an overall direction. If your strategy is right, every step you take takes you toward your destination. However, if your strategy is wrong, no matter how hard you try, you'll find yourself stuck. In this post, I share what I believe to be three pillars of a successful GMAT strategy. I hope it helps the test takers in their preparation. Three pillars of a successful GMAT preparation strategy: 1. Systematic Approach to Studying : GMAT is a test of advanced application of some fundamental concepts within a timed limit. The scientific way to ace GMAT is by mastering these things in the following order Master the Fundamental Concepts Master the Application (of the concepts on increasingly difficult questions) Master the Timing (Once you have achieved the required accuracy on the questions, start timing yourself) A lot of people begin their GMAT preparation with practicing GMAT questions within time limits. Now, this is like trying to master all the three things (concepts, application, and timing) at the same time. Clearly, it doesn’t work as the candidates find out sooner or later. The idea is to first build the fundamental concepts that GMAT tests (In Quant, it means concepts such as those in geometry, number systems etc, and In verbal, it means grammar concepts for Sentence Correction and fundamentals of reasoning for Critical Reasoning), and then try to apply those concepts on increasingly difficult level of questions. Only when a person starts seeing a good accuracy on medium and difficult GMAT questions should he or she time him- or herself. Rather, in many cases, timing falls into place automatically as the person becomes increasingly comfortable with and confident about GMAT questions. 2. Deliberate Practice : We all have heard the phrase “Practice makes Perfect”. So, people practice as many questions as possible, believing that they’ll get perfect. And they do become perfect, but in solving questions, not in solving them correctly! People practice thousands and thousands of questions without improving much. And then they become clueless as to why they are not improving. Clearly, the answer lies in their approach to practicing. They are practicing to solve the maximum number of questions, ‘hoping’ they’ll learn a few things in the process. Well, there’s another way that is better than just ‘hoping’. The way is Deliberate Practice. Well, it means practice done deliberately i.e. with a specific purpose. What is the purpose? To strengthen the fundamental concepts and their application. Because ultimately, GMAT is about these two things. If you get these two things, most of the times your timing will fall into place naturally. And with these three in place, you are ready for the success at GMAT. Therefore, practice with an intention to learn from every question. Focus on “How to get to the answer”, not on the answer itself. Remember, you are not going to see the same questions on your GMAT. Therefore, what is going to help you during your GMAT is your approach to solving questions, not how many questions you got right during your practice. Now, to get the most learning out of your practice, keep an error log with the following fields: Source of Question (e.g. OG 2017, VR 2017 etc) Question Number Type of Mistake Concept Tested Why I rejected the correct option statement Why I selected the incorrect option statement A mistake can be made on one of the three levels: Conceptual Application Timing The corresponding three mistakes can be called conceptual mistakes, application mistakes, and silly mistakes. So, in the field “Type of Mistake”, you should fill in one of these three options. In “Concept Tested” field, you should write down the concept tested in the question. In Quant, it could be Geometry, Number System, Algebra etc. In Verbal, it could be Subject-Verb Agreement, Assumptions, Main point etc. The last two fields in the error log are especially relevant for the verbal section since, in the verbal section, you are expected to read all the five option statements. So, if you have gotten a question incorrect in verbal, you must have selected the incorrect choice, and you must have rejected the correct choice. Both of these mistakes offer learnings. And you should keep a record of these learnings because these are going to take your score to the next level. Besides, error log also helps you see patterns in your mistakes. It may be that you always get even-odd questions wrong or that you always make silly mistakes in Weaken questions. Such patterns can be extremely helpful in boosting your score. The last thing I would say on the topic of ‘practice’ is that you should try to restrict yourself as much as possible to official questions. A lot of unofficial questions are of poor quality and are not representative of the questions that appear on GMAT. If I combine the number of questions in OG 2017, Verbal Review 2017, Quant Review 2017, and the GMAT Prep Question bank, you have around 1900 official questions, not a small figure. However, you shouldn’t waste them. Practice them deliberately, and you’ll find they are enough. 3. Attitude : I think someone has rightly said, “Attitude is everything”. I believe a right attitude is a necessary condition to excel at GMAT. A right attitude consists of not treating GMAT as a pain, being interested in learning, and avoiding self-criticism. If you treat GMAT as a pain, you’ll not be able to spend as much time as you possibly can on your preparations (who wants to spend time on a pain!), and also, you’ll not be able to concentrate as much. There are some people who are so eager to ace GMAT that they consider learning not as a way to ace GMAT but as an obstacle on their way to GMAT. They say, “Sir, please help me clear the GMAT. Learning - I can do even afterward”. However, if GMAT is worth its salt, such a strategy cannot work. You have to learn your way to success at GMAT. Lastly, avoid self-criticism beyond a point. A lot of test takers start from a low point and go through a lot of struggles during their GMAT preparation. What happens in some cases is that the test taker starts criticizing himself so harshly that he loses his confidence or drive to continue to prepare. It might help to know that almost all test takers go through some struggle. Also, even though I have scored 770 on GMAT and have been teaching GMAT for a while, I still get questions wrong. If I had stopped getting questions wrong, I would have sat for the GMAT and scored a perfect 800! So, the idea is that you shouldn’t indulge in a lot of self-criticism when you don’t get things right. Keep persisting! Things will eventually start clicking! I believe these three - Systematic Approach to Studying, Deliberate Practice, and Right Attitude - are the pillars of a successful strategy for GMAT preparation. However, I’d like to add a few more points that I think are also quite important: Regular Studying yields way better results than irregular sporadic studying. So, it is recommended that you study daily for at least a couple of hours and more on weekends. I wouldn’t suggest spreading your GMAT preparation over more than 6 months. Quality over Quantity: As in all other things of life, quality matters more than quantity even in GMAT preparation. So, it’s not just the number of hours you study but also your concentration during those hours that determine your success. So, it is recommended that you stay away from distractions as much as possible while you are studying. Quality over Money: Clearly, there are many choices available in the market for GMAT preparation. I think while choosing any source for GMAT preparation, quality should be your top-most and perhaps the only criterion. It is important to understand that even if you spend lavishly on your GMAT preparation, it’ll still not be more than 1–2% of your MBA cost. When you know that GMAT is going to play an important part in your applications, isn’t it rational to make quality a much more significant criterion than cost? Unofficial Mocks - There are many companies that offer mocks e.e. Manhattan, Veritas etc. I haven’t found any of these to be representative. I believe your actual score can be plus minus 50 from your score in these tests. That’s a range of 100. So, I do not recommend these mocks to assess your level. However, you can take these mocks just to build your test-taking stamina. This is all I had to say now! Let me know if anyone wants to know anything else!

Senthil7 · Answer

Thanks for the useful insight Chiranjeev. 
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I think most of us engage in unofficial sources because of a notion perpetrated by some GMAT takers that difficulty level on real GMAT is higher than what we see on the OGs or GMATPrep.
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While you have touched this point in your write-up briefly, can you respond specifically to the above said?

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Hi Senthil7,

A very good question. You have taken GMAT 3 times and scored 700 in the latest one (Impressive improvement, I must say). What has been your experience regarding the difficulty level of questions in actual GMAT vis-a-vis OG and GMAT Prep?

Regards,
CJ

Senthil7 · Answer

Hi Chiranjeev, Those are MGMAT Mock GMAT scores. My actual GMAT is scheduled on 10Sep2016! :-)

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Oh ok

When I took GMAT and scored 770, I did see a few questions on verbal that were more difficult than the questions I had done. But were they out of the world difficult? Not really. Were all questions like this i.e. much more difficult than I had ever seen? No. I believe hard GMAT prep questions and last OG questions are quite representative of the tough questions we on the actual GMAT. Please note I'm talking about my case. If you are targeting more than 770, then it may not apply to you. Also, I have seen time and again that the toughest questions created by many test prep companies are tough because they make two options statements overly close in terms of logic, a pattern I have never observed on GMAT. GMAT questions have a considerable difference between the strength of the correct and that of the incorrect choice. So, the questions created by these companies are not even representative of GMAT and in some cases, are poor examples of logic. In many cases, people overly worry about these questions that they don't pay enough attention to more representative official questions to their own peril. I believe there are enough official questions out there that one can do sufficient practice to get a 770 or 780 on GMAT. This is my take on the issue

CJ

Senthil7 · Answer

Great, thanks Chiranjeev. 
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While one can practice from the 3 OGs (1 main + 2 supplemental), do you also suggest that after completing the GmatPREP CATs 1 &2 one can download the large pool of questions shared by these 2 CATS (1500 i reckon) from gmatclub to add to their lats few weeks of practice?
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If you consider my case, I've been studying from last week of April and booked by GMAT on 10Sep. I still have around 2 months left and I have almost exchausted all GMATPrep Question pack of 494 questions. However, I had spent most of my time on learning the theory, implementing on random problems developed by prep companies or experts on this forum. I have just started to take practice sets from the OG. Considering I have almost 2 months on hand leading to the actual GMAT date, 
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1. Do you recommend LSAT RC / CR for additional practice? Or do you suggest that downloading those huge GMATPREP pool of questions would be more appropriate?
2. is the scope of testing / pattern of actual test similar to OGs and GMATPrep?

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Regarding your first questions, I'll suggest that if money is not a problem, you can spend $90 on three sets of GMAT paper tests (you can buy them from mba.com). These three sets have 9 complete gmat paper tests in all. And each test has 61 verbal and 52 quant questions. So, in all, for $90, you'll get 549 verbal questions and 468 quant questions i.e. a total of more than 1000 questions. Not a bad deal at all. You can also, of course, questions from GMAT prep mocks you've already done. That's a very good resource.

Second question - Yes. Why would it be different? After all, these are retired actual GMAT questions.

CJ

kushalk · Answer

Thank you for the article! It was very useful!

ShubhadeepB · Answer

Dear Chiranjeev,
So do you recommend ONLY official mocks to judge someone's current capability?

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