GoalStanford wrote:
I would like to create this thread to discuss innovative strategies in preparing for gmat.
I work in technology field and I have recently started looking at tech design documents at my work as my CR exercises.I go thru them quick and try to prepare a summary or email my feedback or respond to questions related on it.I started this as I hoped it would give me a double advantage.One,doing work &gmat prep at the same time.Second, it may increase my productivity at work.I have just started doing this and kind of see some positive results at work.The so-called boaring documents,now I look at them with focused eyes,trying to grasp as much info as possible in relatively short time.It is good fun also,I used to hate going thru the documents before.However I am yet to see any improvement in my GMAT CR but I am hoping I will,over next few weeks.What I like about this approach is, I am preparing all the time,at work , at home in the evenings.
I am interested in knowing from you if you are trying any innovative strategy and if it worked for you.Please share it and discuss here.
GoalStanford, your approach is similar to mine, I actually prepared everywhere - in restaurants, in the subway, at home, etc. As a non-native speaker I had problems with Verbal part of the test. I used such methodics: xeroxed questions from the books (Kaplan, PR, etc.) and solved them. Having found an error, I was happiest person in the world, because this allowed me to study rules which were problematic. I almost automated the process of study by dividing all possible errors into groups. Whenever I saw the topic from the group which was difficult to me, I concentrated my attention on the choices with it. And used process of elimination to find the answer.
I think that any process of study consists of 2 parts:
Firstly, a model for each answer to the question is defined. Sequence of tenses or idiom use, assumption CR, etc.
Then a model is applied to the POE(pocess of elimination) to get the right answer.
Time which is needed for the first step is about 20-30 sec.
The second step takes about 40-60 sec.
By dividing the topics into reasonable number of groups we can increase efficiency of the POStudy and decrease time needed for the first step.
By studying carefully each topic we can reduce time needed to conduct 2nd step.
The problem is: how to measure 1st and 2nd time? And how to see, what is the bottleneck, 1st or 2nd step in terms of time?
If anyone has his thoughts concerning this question, I would welcome any comments.