Tuesday, July 9, 2013

My Approach to Round 3.

***Warning: This post is long, detailed, and catered to my struggle with the GMAT. If you want to skip around to items relevant to you, see bolded headers below***


So I came up with a plan for my life. Well, not my whole life, just the standardized test taking part of it. I thought a step by step approach would work best considering that my 'study in isolation' approach landed me at 20 points below my starting point. I started the plan yesterday. So far, so good. Let me know any thoughts, resources, and suggestions. It’s never too late to go for gold.




Step 1: Trust your support system
If you have one, trust your GMAT tutor/ teacher as the expert. Mine had the following words of wisdom below.
1) Review your takeaways prior to test day.
2) Don't try to make any radical changes between now and then.
3) For your timing, look to make smaller, meaningful corrections on how you're timing.
4) Stay calm and loose, but focused. Have confidence in the work you've done thus far and the greater overall comfort you feel with the material.
5) Remember that no one question or couple questions can ruin your score (if you don't let them). Don't freak out or worry about a question on the test. Just get back to business on the next one. The GMAT requires a very short memory. View each question as its own little battle. Once the "battle" is done, focus only on the next one.

Inform people that you are busy, but keep them in the loop even if you want to isolate yourself

If you’re lost (like completely lost), compile questions that you have already reviewed and could not solve on your own and ask somebody. 

Step 2: Remain Positive, Humorous, and Authentic (Yes, even while studying for the GMAT)
Go to the hair salon and get an easy, long lasting hairstyle
Plan ahead for your friends and family time
Write “blogs” about how frustrating this process be and let them hang out in your “do not post” folder. No one needs the negativity.
Commit to the process and trust yourself– Put the time in for desired results
Strive for Stretch Goals to build endurance, but accept that the intense schedule may not be possible all the time

  • Stretch Goal: Take 2 CATS per day off (One in the morning and evening)
  • Be prepared for the best and the worst
  •  Strive to finish the test, but be ready to implement guessing strategy
    • i.e. Don’t guess on consecutive questions (guess, solve, guess, solve)
Positivity




Now for the real work….



Step 3: (Re)Building the Foundation
(Re)read Target Area Books

  • PowerScore's CR Bible
  • Manhattan GMAT books
  •  eGMAT Sentence Correction Section (Not sure about this one yet, taking suggestions)
  •  Reading the Economist (Reading Comprehension exercises)
Take Diligent Notes and Create (even more) Flashcards for Memorization (Focus on trouble areas)

  • 8 Sentence Correction Grammar Topics
  •  Rates, Work Problems
  • Geometry Problems
  • Statistics and Combination/ Probability problems
  •  Integrated Reasoning

Step 4: Mastering Question Types and Committing to Strategy

  •  Know the question types 
  •   Focus on tips and tricks

Step 5: Take Practice Tests

The CATs should be trending upward and towards your target score.

  •  For any problem that takes a long time, make a note. 
  • Keep track of any questions where you weren’t 100% sure of the answer or where you ended up guessing.
  • Map out all wrong and guess questions
  • Note the problem number, source, subject, topic, and where you went wrong.
  •  Answer how you deviated from the correct and efficient way to solve the problem?
  • What areas can still be worked on?
  • What foundation needs to be solidified?
    •   Know when to identify weaknesses and move on

Example
Time
Question #
A
B
C
D
E
Slow
Unsure
Correct
Wrong
Careless error
Concept error

In addition to an error log, keep track of all the incidentals related to each respective CAT

  •  List hunger, sleep patterns, stress inducers/relievers experienced, etc
Analyze tests by RAW score, to get more accurate view of progress. Where can I find tests?

  • 2 GMAC from MBA.com
  • 6 MGMAT with any book
  • Kaplan: http://www.kaptest.com/gmat/study-resources/gmat-free-practice-test
  • Princeton Review: http://www.princetonreview.com/business/free-gmat-practice-test.aspx 
  • PowerPrep: http://www.testpreppractice.net/GMAT/powerprep-gmat.html
  • Veritas: http://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/free-gmat-practice-test/
  • 4Tests: http://www.4tests.com/exams/examdetail.asp?eid=31 
  • PlatinumGMAT: http://www.platinumgmat.com/gmat-practice-test/ 

Timing for Questions

  • Note time at the end of each set
  •  Divide the 75 minutes into blocks, and try to stick to completing an equal fraction of the total questions in each time block.

Review

  • Do NOT read the explanation first
  • On any question I got wrong, solve it a second time before reading the solution.
  • Review ALL questions, regardless of whether you got them right or wrong.
  • Indicate careless vs concept mistakes
  •  Also, when going through the scores and answers, use the error log and be VERY thorough in reading the explanations. Even on those that you got right but went over the desired time to answer.

Some questions I have:

  •  When do you study for IR?
  • Where can you find a good error log?
  •  How do you know if noise is a distraction while testing? Does it even matter?
  • When do I master the AWA section?

How I came up with this plan (Resources and Useful Links)



….Please stay tuned to see if this works.

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