DelSingh wrote:
Hello all,
For the last two months I've been studying around 85% quant and 15% verbal. I have one 5 more weeks (1.1 months) left until the exam and I really don't how to approach this last month. I want to start studying more verbal and have a 50/50 split in the studying sessions but I don't want to compromise any of my quant skills that I have learned. The most discouraging thing is when I am studying a topic and start doing really well in that topic, and then see that topic being tested again two weeks later I forget a fraction of the material. My weakness is definitely quant, however, in order for me to do really well in verbal (mostly critical reasoning and reading comp) I have to practice a lot of questions which takes up a lot of quant studying time.
Does anybody have a advice or know of any popular study methods?
I typically like to study 4 hours a day 2 hours at a time. What do you recommend?
-Split those 4 hours half verbal half quant,switch days?
-One day quant next day verbal?
or
-Two to three days quant and two to three days verbal?
Also, up to this point, I've been studying by mostly reading and THEN doing questions. I have been making an
error log on the questions that I have missed. Should I change my method of studying also? Example - doing more sets and quizzes on a timely? I normally get every quant question done under 3 mins.
Any insight would be great.
Del
Hi Del, it's difficult to pin down exactly what the best strategy is for you, it depends how things are going, what questions you find difficult and how you learn best. I'll give some general tips and you can feel free to decide which ones work best for you!
1) if you're enjoying 4 hours/day in 2 hour slots, then that's great. The important part is to make progress, learn new concepts, and feel more prepared with each passing day. How many days a week are you doing this for? If the answer is 7, it's probably too much; your brain needs a break and will perform better if it's not overloaded. You can do half verbal / half math, but if you're focusing on quant, then maybe do problem solving in the morning and data sufficiency in the afternoon twice a week, or whatever breakdown works best for you.
I personally like to do both in the same day, 2 hours math and 2 hours verbal, it keeps your mind on the fact that it's an integrated test, not two separate concepts. Verbal has some math,
and a huge part of quant is interpreting the question. That's me, though, if a different strategy works better for you, then go for it!
Another question is how much reading are you doing? At this point, if you've been studying for the last 2 months, you've probably learned all the material you need. You should focus on questions to see if the concepts are sticking with you or if you're falling into GMAT traps and not grasping the concepts as well as you should when they're put in the context of actual questions. Learning by doing questions is a very effective way to cement your understanding, so your focus should shift towards that gradually as the exam date draws closer.
The
error log sounds useful, but again the idea is to not make the same mistake over and over, so whatever method works for you is good as long as it produces results. You also mentioned that you cover a topic, then 2 weeks later you've forgotten a portion of it... this is normal. You're not going to retain everything, but you should be learning the key concepts and getting better each time.
Please feel free to let me know how many hours you're putting in per week and what your general weaknesses are. I think you're on the right path but you always want to be maximizing the value of your study time (or your utility, to put it in economic terms).
Hope this helps!
-Ron
I totally agree above, I should definitely make question interpretation a core concept and not just dive into writing stuff down as soon as I get done reading the question.
In one week I am putting about 20 hours, which I think may be too much. There are times when I do feel like I am pushing myself too far and realize that I am getting some kind of mental fatigue but it's hard to convince myself to stop.
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Updated on: 13 Mar 2013, 10:43
