GMAT Strategy

lunarpower wrote:answering a pm

Rukz wrote:I am restarting from tommorrow and have decided to do 20 Problem Solving, 20 DS, 20 SC, 20 CR and 20 RC daily. I will go back to the OG as it has been a while since I touched it.
Sat for test and Sun for review.

100 problems a day?
*five* days of just doing problems for every *one* day of review?
this is not good... not good at all.

if you're studying properly, you should be spending substantially MORE time on review than on doing problems. if you can do even close to 100 problems per day, that indicates that you're just doing problem after problem after problem after problem after problem, and not spending nearly enough (if any) time reviewing.

here's what you should be able to do:

for EVERY quant problem:
* don't concentrate on the solution to that actual problem, since you can be sure you aren't going to see that actual problem on the exam
* instead, try to find TAKEAWAYS from the problem, which you can then APPLY TO OTHER PROBLEMS. this is key - DO NOT LEAVE A PROBLEM until you have extracted at least one piece of information, whether a formula, a strategy, a trick/trap, etc., that you can apply to OTHER problems.
do not leave a problem until you can fill in the following sentence, meaningfully and nontrivially:
"if i see _____ ON ANOTHER PROBLEM, i should _____"
* notice the SIGNALS in the problem that dictate which strategy to use. if you miss the problem, then notice the strategy that's used in the book's solution (not always the best solution, in the case of the o.g., but better than nothing), and go back to see if there are any signals 'telling' you to use that strategy.

for EVERY verbal problem:
* you should be able to give SPECIFIC reasons why EVERY wrong answer is wrong, and why EVERY right answer is right. ("i just know that it's wrong/right" is NEVER acceptable -- you need to think carefully about the problem until you have discerned a specific reason.)
* you should GENERALIZE these lessons in ways that could conceivably apply to future problems (e.g., "on this problem type, any answer choice more general than the passage = wrong").

for EVERY SC problem, in addition to the above:
* you should be able to go through the CORRECT sentence -- including the non-underlined part -- and justify EVERY construction in that sentence.
e.g.
-- if there's a modifier, you should be able to explain exactly what it modifies, and exactly why that modification makes sense.
-- if there's a pronoun, you should be able to explain exactly what it stands for, and exactly why that makes sense.
-- if there's a verb, you should be able to find its subject. you should also be able to justify the tense in which the verb is used, and/or the tense sequence of multiple verbs.
-- you should be able to explain the exact meaning of the sentence.
-- if there are parallel structures, you should be able to explain (a) the grammatical parallelism AND (b) the parallelism in meaning.
etc.

if you're doing these things, there's no way you'll be able to get through even half that number of problems.

quantity ≠ quality.

Another point to note is that if I practice SC today then tomm. I perform well in SC and bad in other areas of Verbal. If I practice CR today then RC and SC will inevitable fall.

this doesn't seem reasonable; if this is really happening, then the result is 100% due to psychological factors -- i.e., you're telling yourself you're going to do worse at topic X, so, surprise!, you do worse at topic X.

barring things like brain lesions or memory disorders, the kinds of skills that are necessary for this exam can't reasonably be forgotten in less than a month or two.

--

also, DO NOT STUDY FOR SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.
do not do it.
you need at least 1 day OFF per week.
you also need at least 1.5-2 hours of FREE TIME each day.
if you don't have these rest periods, your brain will not make lateral connections, as i've mentioned in some previous posts.

lunarpower wrote:answering a pm

Rukz wrote:I am restarting from tommorrow and have decided to do 20 Problem Solving, 20 DS, 20 SC, 20 CR and 20 RC daily. I will go back to the OG as it has been a while since I touched it.
Sat for test and Sun for review.

100 problems a day?
*five* days of just doing problems for every *one* day of review?
this is not good... not good at all.

if you're studying properly, you should be spending substantially MORE time on review than on doing problems. if you can do even close to 100 problems per day, that indicates that you're just doing problem after problem after problem after problem after problem, and not spending nearly enough (if any) time reviewing.

here's what you should be able to do:

for EVERY quant problem:
* don't concentrate on the solution to that actual problem, since you can be sure you aren't going to see that actual problem on the exam
* instead, try to find TAKEAWAYS from the problem, which you can then APPLY TO OTHER PROBLEMS. this is key - DO NOT LEAVE A PROBLEM until you have extracted at least one piece of information, whether a formula, a strategy, a trick/trap, etc., that you can apply to OTHER problems.
do not leave a problem until you can fill in the following sentence, meaningfully and nontrivially:
"if i see _____ ON ANOTHER PROBLEM, i should _____"
* notice the SIGNALS in the problem that dictate which strategy to use. if you miss the problem, then notice the strategy that's used in the book's solution (not always the best solution, in the case of the o.g., but better than nothing), and go back to see if there are any signals 'telling' you to use that strategy.

for EVERY verbal problem:
* you should be able to give SPECIFIC reasons why EVERY wrong answer is wrong, and why EVERY right answer is right. ("i just know that it's wrong/right" is NEVER acceptable -- you need to think carefully about the problem until you have discerned a specific reason.)
* you should GENERALIZE these lessons in ways that could conceivably apply to future problems (e.g., "on this problem type, any answer choice more general than the passage = wrong").

for EVERY SC problem, in addition to the above:
* you should be able to go through the CORRECT sentence -- including the non-underlined part -- and justify EVERY construction in that sentence.
e.g.
-- if there's a modifier, you should be able to explain exactly what it modifies, and exactly why that modification makes sense.
-- if there's a pronoun, you should be able to explain exactly what it stands for, and exactly why that makes sense.
-- if there's a verb, you should be able to find its subject. you should also be able to justify the tense in which the verb is used, and/or the tense sequence of multiple verbs.
-- you should be able to explain the exact meaning of the sentence.
-- if there are parallel structures, you should be able to explain (a) the grammatical parallelism AND (b) the parallelism in meaning.
etc.

if you're doing these things, there's no way you'll be able to get through even half that number of problems.

quantity ≠ quality.

Another point to note is that if I practice SC today then tomm. I perform well in SC and bad in other areas of Verbal. If I practice CR today then RC and SC will inevitable fall.

this doesn't seem reasonable; if this is really happening, then the result is 100% due to psychological factors -- i.e., you're telling yourself you're going to do worse at topic X, so, surprise!, you do worse at topic X.

barring things like brain lesions or memory disorders, the kinds of skills that are necessary for this exam can't reasonably be forgotten in less than a month or two.

--

also, DO NOT STUDY FOR SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.
do not do it.
you need at least 1 day OFF per week.
you also need at least 1.5-2 hours of FREE TIME each day.
if you don't have these rest periods, your brain will not make lateral connections, as i've mentioned in some previous posts.