Most Effective Ways To Learn Weak Topics?

Question

(Edit: Moved this topic to the appropriate forum)

Hey everyone,

I'm getting to the point in my quant studying where I'm learning the specific areas in which I'm weak. It's not a super long list but it's long enough. I went through Total GMAT Math and am almost finished the entire thing. I've marked off all problems/concepts I've either had a problem with or just felt uncomfortable with and have gone back over them at least once so far. Once I'm finished everything, I'm going to go through everything once more and then try to find other avenues of learning those specific topics.

What would you recommend? I do have all of the MGMAT guides and I intend to use those along with the book I'm currently using but more specifically I am looking for what strategies you used.

How did you drill down these topics that you weren't confident in? I'm finding it difficult to teach myself these concepts and I'm thinking I may be doing it the wrong way. I'm reading the material and trying to do the problems along with the material but it seems like there has to be a better way to do these so that I more fully understand the specific concepts.

At this point I've purchased more than enough materials and have no desire to enroll in another course. I have the ability to do this with what I've got and would really appreciate some feedback as to what other people in my shoes have done in the past.

Thanks!

JimGMATAnswers · Answer

The best thing you can do is look through groups of questions in your problem areas and see how an expert would solve them. I do have this stuff broken down for the OG questions if you are interested...

okay · Answer

My practice scores are almost identical to yours... looking for answers here!

PGTLrowanhand · Answer

You've done the first step right by acknowledging the weak areas.

Now, take the questions that don't make sense and classify them as to why they don't make sense.

For many questions, you may slap your forehead when you see how easy it really is.

Remember that the GMAT uses twisted language to intentionally obscure the fundamental concepts of what it is asking, especially in the Math section.

1) rewrite each question in plain English. It often helps to write it out longhand.

2) If you still encounter a fundamental misunderstanding in the math itself, I suggest you find a tutorial online that covers that particular topic but doesn't present it in "GMAT style."

3) Take the question and type a pertinent section of it into Google, within quotation marks. Likely someone has discussed it on one of these forums. Perhaps an alternative explanation will make more sense.

4) If you're working from a book that has explanations, feel free to modify the explanations as you see fit. Rewriting the explanations will help classify and organize your thought--immensely. The OG explanations may be "simple" for the Mathematician/Statistician who wrote them, but they are not necessarily the most convenient way to solve a problem if you're under time constraints.

5) I know this seems like a lot of effort, but you will be shocked how much better you begin to see things after deconstructing, say, 10 questions. The same process is perfectly applicable in Verbal as well.

It is a useful tool in any case, but its impact is felt only by those who take the time to use it!

Good luck!

JimGMATAnswers · Answer

These are both great points. Get the basics down and practice makes perfect.

BM · Answer

My weakest area was in math. The approach that worked for me included: (1) re-reading the Manhattan math books and (2) practicing and fully reviewing lots of math questions. I skipped the end-of-chapter questions in Manhattan, as they proved more trouble than they were worth. For question practice, the OG books, Jeff Sackmann's math sets, and GMATClub tests worked for me. To remove a weakness, you really need to pound it in your head every day.

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