The Last 14 Days: Building Your Game Plan

by , Sep 13, 2012

Are you aware that, during the last 7 to 14 days before you take the real test, your entire study focus changes? This is crucially important I cannot count the number of people who dont realize what they need to do leading up to Real Test Day and so miss the chance to maximize their scores.

There are two levels to this discussion: (1) building a game plan and (2) reviewing. This post will cover the first topic and my next post will cover the second one.

Throughout both articles, Im going to discuss the ideal scenario: the one in which you have a full 2 weeks to conduct your review. This review can be compressed into a 7 to 10 day period, if needed if so, just note that you are going to take only one practice test, not two, and you of course wont be able to do as much review because you wont have as much time.

Warning: please do not literally compress everything discussed into 7 days instead of 14. Its a terrible idea to take the last week off of work and try to study for 6 to 8 hours a day. Youll just burn yourself out.

Focus Shift

In the last two weeks before your test, youre going to make a major focus shift. Youre going to stop trying to learn a bunch of new things in order to improve your score and instead acknowledge that your skills are what they are. Theyre not going to change an enormous amount in the last two weeks; you can tweak some things, but now is not the time to change major strategies across an entire question type. Further, it would be a mistake to spend your last two weeks entirely focused on your weaknesses; if you do that, then you wont be prepared to excel on your strengths.

Right now, some of you are thinking: but what if my score is not yet where I want it to be? The answer is not to continue trying to make it better right up until test day. The answer is either to postpone your test or to decide that you can live with a lower goal score. You may not like either of those options but I can promise you that they are both better than frantically trying to cram a bunch of new learning or a million practice problems into the last week or two before the test.

What is a Game Plan?

Your Game Plan will help you to make certain decisions quickly during the test. When is it a good idea to spend an extra 20 or 30 seconds on a problem? When should you decide to make an educated guess? When should you cut yourself off completely, guess immediately, and move on? What should you do if you find yourself ahead or behind on your timing? You want to know the answer to these questions before the test starts, so that during the test, you dont have to think. You can just react.

Your Game Plan will also help you to prioritize your review based upon your strengths and weaknesses. Youre going to review your major strategies in all areas, the major content you need to know (dont try to cram everything into your brain; review the stuff that shows up the most!), your pacing, your educated guessing strategies, and so on. As you do that, the data you gather will help you to tweak your game plan further.

Building Your Game Plan

First, the Game Plan is a dynamic thing. You perfect it a little bit more every few days as you gather more data and continue to review.

What Does My Gut Say?

First, make a list of your major strengths and weaknesses. Start with the five question types, but also drill down further into specific content areas (such as algebra and subject-verb agreement) and question sub-types (such as RC Main Idea and CR Strengthen). Consider both accuracy and timing when assessing your strengths and weaknesses; the two factors are equally important.

What Does The Data Say?

We cant rely only on our gut feelings to know our strengths and weaknesses. Our gut is often right, but it is sometimes wrong more often than most people realize.

First, analyze your last practice test. If you have been tracking your accuracy and timing on OG problems, also examine that data. If you are a ManhattanGMAT student, you can use the OG Archer program in your Student Center; it will then automatically calculate a bunch of statistics for you.

If youre not using OG Archer, then split individual OG question types (DS, PS, CR, RC, SC) into three broad groups: the first third in that section in the book (the easier questions), the middle third (the medium questions), and the final third (the harder questions). This will give you an idea of how your performance is changing as the questions get harder.

Note: if youre early in the whole study process right now, I highly recommend tracking your work on the OG problems or using our OG Archer program. If you want to do it yourself, create a simple spreadsheet and keep track of the specific source (book), question number, time spent the first time you did it, and whether you got it right or wrong. You can also add notes about what you want to learn, memorize, review, or do in future based upon your performance on that problem.

Using Your Game Plan

Generally, choose to spend an extra 20 to 30 seconds on a problem that is a strength for you, and only then when you believe you know exactly what to do but the problem is objectively on the hard or long side and so will take a little more time than usual. Also, note that I said 20 to 30 seconds above. Even if something is a strength, spending an extra minute or more pretty much guarantees at least one other question wrong on the test due to rushing, careless mistakes, or running out of time at the end. Plus, if you need an extra minute, that literally means youre already struggling or missing something on that problem, which increases the chances that youll get it wrong so theres really never a good reason to spend 1+ extra minutes on any problem.

Do not spend extra time on weaknesses (you can spend normal time, just not extra time). That may sound like common sense, but when were in the middle of the test, were often reluctant to let go of our weaker problems. If you know what your weaknesses are, you can let those problems go more easily after all, you know its a weakness so you know theres less chance youre going to get it right. Get it wrong before you lose any time so that you dont make the situation even harder for yourself.

When you have any of these feelings (we all have them sometimes!), guess immediately and move on:

But I studied this

But I should know how to do this

If I could just spend a little more time, Im sure I could figure it out

Ive invested so much time already that giving up now would just be a waste of all that time I invested

You may suddenly realize that you have been on one problem for an awfully long time youre not even sure how long. Stop yourself immediately, guess, and move on. Suppress the urge to think that you can get it right if you just spend a little more time. Its not going to happen.

If you realize that you are ahead or behind on timing at any point during the test, take steps to correct the situation right away. Do not think that the problem will fix itself (it wont!) and dont underestimate the dangers of being too far behind or too far ahead. Generally, if youre within 2 to 3 minutes of your pacing plan, youre fine. If you are off by more than that, take action.

If you are moving too quickly, make yourself start writing everything down. Take notes. Write down all calculations. Track the answers on your scrap paper. Basically, you need to be more systematic to ensure that you are not losing points to careless errors due to speed.

If you are moving too slowly, use your Game Plan. As soon as you see a problem thats an area of weakness for you, guess something and move on. Sacrifice that problem immediately in order to gain a significant amount of time back. If thats not enough to catch you up, do it again the next time you see a weakness problem even if its the very next problem.

Improving Your Game Plan

About 10 to 14 days before the test (ideally closer to 14), review your Game Plan and take a practice test under official conditions, including the essay and IR, the lengths of the breaks, and so on. Practice implementing your Game Plan during that test. Then review the test with an eye toward improving your Game Plan. Where did you make good decisions about how to spend your time or how to handle a certain problem? Where did you make poor decisions? What should you have done instead? How are you going to make sure that you make the right decision next time? Figure out ahead of time how youre going to handle different kinds of situations. Then, on the test, you dont have to think about what to do; you can just react.

Spend the next 5 to 7 days practicing and refining your Game Plan on shorter sets of questions. Intersperse this with your general review of content, question types, and so on. Then, about 5 to 7 days before the test (ideally closer to 7), take another practice test under official conditions. Practice implementing your Game Plan again, then go through your analysis, and refine further.

Finally, implement your Game Plan on test day!

Take-Aways

Change your focus during the final two weeks of study: away from learning new stuff, and toward reviewing material and developing your Game Plan.

Practice and refine your Game Plan over the last two weeks.

Use your Game Plan on test day!