Oh My God! Help! I have the YIPS!

hi stephanie i also think that you should take a break. by the i also apply for insead and hec. what deadline do you take ? i apply for the 21 jan. christoph

Wow, 6 hrs a day for that long.. thats a lot of work ! you have worked really hard...

I think the best thing to do in your situation is to start from the basics and refresh your concepts. Sure, keep practising every day, but also work on learning these concepts.

Mortals like me will NEVER be able to solve 100% of the problems 100% of the time. I learnt that its ok if i cant solve solve some problems. You should treat those problems as opportunities for learning something more. Everything problem that you do, see if you learnt something. Summarize what you learnt at the end of every prep day. wouldnt that be a helpful thing to have two days before the test? Do you analyze your errors. if not, start doing that rightaway.

If you think that you will solve every problem you come across, thats a really tough goal to have. Some problems need careful reading ,analysis and only then the problem starts falling apart. You are required to use limited number of tools to solve unlimited number of problems(god bless akamai). And with all these limitations, we may not always be 'ready' to solve a problem. Sometimes we are not concentrating well enough or sometimes we just didnt read the problem well or sometimes we make a simple mistake... the key is to learn from them and to minimize your errors.

Practise tests are no way related to your performance. Either you are trained or not ! if you have taken your time to understand the concepts and if you have tested yourself regularly under timed conditions, you will have trained well. Go back and look at your work in your prep. analyze your mistakes and see if there is room for improvement.

In SC, study Grammar and learn all idioms and basic rules. In RC and CR, go over the strategies that you have used till now. Develop a strategy and implement it well on test day

For Math, eliminate as many silly mistakes as you can. Concentrate harder on the easier problems because getting them wrong will mean you wont even get close to a good score. As for the tough problems, dont freak out if you dont know how to solve one. doing harder problems wrong does affect your score , but the worst thing you can do is to do consecutive problems wrong.

Dont let practise tests tell you how you are doing. you get a 800 or a 400 on the practise test. both scores mean the same to me because you still have to go out there and perform when it really matters.

If you need more help,please let me know.

Thanks
Praetorian

praetorian, do you suggest that one should study other material for SC than kaplan, og and princeton ?

If you are beginner, please do not touch princeton or kaplan for Sentence Correction. I would strongly recommend taking a online course like the one offered by GMAX (https://www.gmaxonline.com). I can speak for that course because i have reviewed it.

here is what i suggest:

1. Your initial focus should be on learning the grammar. for SC, I suggest you LEARN from the SC's in the OG first. try to get the answers correct, but most importantly , convince yourself why a choice is wrong or right. Dont move on until you have done so. Along with solving problems in the OG, buy a good grammar text or refer to a website such as https://www.bartleby.com.

2. your next target should be to solve the SC's in the 9 ETS paper tests.

Thats atleast 400-500 SC's right there.

Make sure to have a "lessons learned" folder where you record what you have learnt everyday. This is especially true for verbal.

After you have learnt your SC and have improved your skills, try solving problems in the Verbal forum. Also, now you can pick up a copy of the Kaplan book and see how you do.

Keep your focus on learning, learning and learning.

Hope this helps
Praetorian

by the way, where do i get the 9 ets tests ???

https://www.mba.com

They are sold in sets of three. I think one of the tests has questions from the OG.. but it wouldnt matter, because you cant buy them seperately. its all good.

thanks
Praetorian

Hello and thanks to all who commented, esp Praetorian...

I pfaffed about for 2 days, barely studying, then took a practice quantitative exam yesterday... got a 39 on it! which is fully 7 points better than the last one i took! whew... back on track.

i really appreciate all the comments, esp. breaking it back down into manageable sections. the comments on the SC were particularly helpful. thanks!!

steph