How to Create the Best GMAT Problem Sets
Initially, when youre studying a new topic or problem type, you wont do sets of problems; instead, youll just try one problem at a time. As you gain experience, though, youre going to want to do several problems in a row so that you can practice your time management and recognition skills.
But how do you put together the most effective problem sets? Lets talk!
Why is it so important to do sets of problems?
First, the real test will never give you just one problem. Youll always have a bunch of questions in a row, right?
Next, they'll be all jumbled upan SC, then a couple of CRs, then back to another SC that tests different grammar rules than the first SC, and so on.
You need to gain expertise in two areas:
- Jumping around among question types and topics while still recognizing what to do.
- Managing your time and mental energy among a whole set of questions
When do I start doing problem sets?
Youre going to use problem sets to test your skills, so youve got to develop some of those skills first. If youre using Manhattan Preps Strategy Guides to study, then at the end of one chapter, do just two or three OG problems to make sure that you understood the material in the chapter.
Later, when you finish that Guide, do a set of problems that mix topics (and question types) from that entire book. Make sure you can distinguish between the similar-but-not-quite-the-same topics in that book. For quant, make sure that you can apply your skills on both problem solving and data sufficiency.
Finally, as you finish subsequent Guides, your sets can include problems from everything youve done so far, not just the most recent Guide. Keep mixing it up, just like the real test!
How do I make the sets?
First, you need real past test questions. If you dont already have a copy of the latest Official Guide for GMAT Review, I strongly recommend that you buy one. These books contain questions that were used on the real GMAT in the past. (The Official Guide is more commonly known as the OG.)
Second, decide whether this set is going to be a random set or a defined set. Earlier in your studies, youll tend to do smaller, more defined sets: you will choose problems from specific areas based on what youve been studying recently.
Later in your studies, your sets will get somewhat larger and youll move more towards random sets: you wont know whats coming, just like the real test.
Youll need to balance three things when you create a defined problem set:
(1) Number of problems.
Initially, start out with a small number of problems (3 to 5). As you gain experience and add topics, youll increase the size of the setswell talk more about this later.
(2) Type of problem and content.
(a) For quant, always do a mix of Problem Solving (PS) and Data Sufficiency (DS). For verbal, mix at least two of the three typesbut include all three types in larger sets.
(b) Do not do a set of 3 or more questions all from the same chapter or narrow content areafor example, dont do 3 exponents questions in a row. You know exactly what youre about to get and the real test will never be this nice to you.
(c) Note: if you have Manhattan Preps books, then you have access to a document that tells you the category for every single OG question. Take a look in your Student Center account on our website.
(3) Difficulty level.
(a) In the OG, the higher the question number, the harder the problem (roughly speaking). So consider the first third of the questions the easier ones, the middle third more medium, and the final third more hard. Give yourself an appropriate mix, depending on your current skill level.
(b) Note: youll sometimes choose a higher-numbered question and think it was pretty easy, or vice versa. Thats because your strengths and weaknesses dont exactly mirror the strengths and weaknesses of the entire population, thats all.
Random problem sets, on the other hand, are easier to make. Youre going to take advantage of your online access to all of the problems in your OG.
Look in your physical copy of your OG for instructions regarding how to access the questions online. This software allows you to set certain parameters for problem sets; the software will then deliver the questions to you as one big quiz.
Choose Practice Mode or Exam Mode (in practice mode, you can go back and forth; in exam mode, you cant). Choose which question types you want to be given (eg, DS and PS). Choose the difficulty levels that you want (Easy, Medium, Hard, All). Finally, choose the number of questions that you want (say, 8).
Voil! Youve got your random problem set. (You can also, of course, just pick problems randomly from your physical book.)
Note: Theres one drawback to the online software. The way that Reading Comprehension (RC) is delivered is sub-optimal. All of the questions are included, even if there are 8 or 9 questions. So if youre doing just a 5-question set, you may not be offered any RC, even if you select it. Plus, answering 9 questions gives you a huge advantage on later questions (since you know so much about the passage by then); youll never have that advantage on the real test, since youll never be given that many questions for one passage.
So, for verbal, use the software to deliver Sentence Correction (SC) and Critical Reasoning (CR) only. Have your book handy so that you can tack an RC passage onto the beginning or end of that set of questions.
On the real test, you will typically see 3 or 4 questions for one RC passage. So, in the book, if a passage has 6 or more questions associated, then split the passage and questions into two. Do all of the even ones now and then, in a month or two, you can re-do the passage using the odd questions. If the passage has 5 questions, go ahead and do them all at once (since you dont want to do a passage with just 2 questions).
Timing!
Next, youll need to calculate how much time to give yourself to do the problem set.
Quant is easy: multiply the number of questions by 2. For instance, if you have 3 questions, give yourself 6 minutes to complete the set.
Verbal is harder. For every SC, give yourself 1 minute and 20 seconds. For every CR, you get 2 minutes.
For Reading Comprehension (RC), start with about 2 to 2.5 minutes to read shorter passages or 2.5 to 3 minutes to read longer passages. Then add 1 minute and 30 seconds for each problem you do.
For your verbal problem set, add up the individual times and now you know how long to give yourself to do that set.
Set a timer to count down your given block of time and
Go!
Pretend its a real testing situation. You have to finish by the time you run out of time. Cut yourself off and guess when you hit a problem thats too hard to do in a reasonable timeframe.
Above all, do NOT tell yourself, Oh, Im studying, so I really want to try each problem to the best of my ability, no matter how long it takes. If you do that, you will build very bad habits for this test! When you are doing problem sets, your main goal is to study how to take the GMATand that includes being able to cut yourself off when thats the best decision to make.
Afterwards, if you would like to spend 30 minutes trying a problem before you look up the answer, feel free. But while the clock is ticking, make decisions the way you want to make them on the real test.
Its really important to internalize the fact that the GMAT is not expecting you to get everything right. In fact, the test writers expect you NOT to be able to answer everything. They want to know whether you can properly assess a situation, identify bad opportunities (questions that are too hard or will take too long to do), and appropriately cut yourself off and move on to another opportunity. After all, good business people do that every day.
If you havent already read this post on what the GMAT is actually all about, read it right now.
I did the set. Now, should I make another?
Not so fast! You did the set, but you havent really learned from it yet. Most of your learning comes afterwards, when you review your work and the decisions that you made.
Do two levels of review. First, look at the set as a whole. Did you make appropriate decisions about how to spend your (limited) time and mental energy? If you could have made better decisions, what and why? If, in hindsight, you realize that you really should have cut problem 3 off a lot faster, then figure out the moment at which the scale should have tipped. What was the clue that should have made you say, No way! Im not wasting any more time here.
If you werent able to get to some of the problems because you ran out of time, first remind yourself that, on the real test, your score just tanked. You have to figure out how NOT to do that next time. Second, feel free to try those problems nowbut you still have to time yourself, since you didnt actually try them under timed conditions the first time.
Then, dive into the individual problems. You can use this this article about the 2nd Level of Learning on the GMAT to help you analyze your work. Whenever you want to try a problem again before you look up the answer, go for it. As I mentioned earlier, you dont even need to time yourself this time around. In fact, feel free to look up anything you want in your books or elsewhere to help you try to figure out how to solve it. If, in the end, you get stuck, go ahead to the solution to see what you can learn.
One more tip: when you start to review the solution, only go as far as the first time you think, Oh, hey, thats a good idea! or Interesting! I didnt think of that. Then stop! Set aside the solution and see how far you can push the problem yourself with this new idea (again, feel free to look things up in your study materials). When you get stuck, continue with the solution until you have another, Oh, I can do something with that! moment. Keep doing this until you either figure it out for yourself or get to the end of the solution. Youll learn a ton.
Okay, I reviewed the set. NOW can I make another?
Yes! As long as you promise me that you really did thoroughly review and learn from the previous set. A lot of students will just plow through a million sets without really learning from them. Obviously, I dont want you to do problems but not learn from them.
Okay, as you get further into your studies, youll have more and more material to review. Now, youre going to start making larger setsperhaps 8, 10, 12, or even 16 questions.
First, if you are doing quant, I recommend making sets in multiples of 4. Why? See here. For the same reason, I recommend doing longer verbal sets in groups of 8 (when you are ready for longer sets).
When doing larger sets (8 or more), make sure that you are pulling from at least 2 different topic areas (e.g., algebra and geometry, or modifiers and parallelism plus inference and weaken).
When you are making larger defined sets, approximately half of the questions can come from things youve been studying relatively recently (and on which you want to test yourself), but the other half should still random. This is how youre going to work in your review! Lets say you studied fractions a month ago, and then this new set includes a randomly-chosen fractions problem. If you get it right, great. If you miss it, then maybe you need to schedule a little time to review fractions.
By the time you get through all of your Strategy Guides, you should be making sets that cover topics from across the spectrum. At this point, you might even decide to buy GMACs GMAT Prep Question Pack #1, a bank of 400 practice problems integrated with the GMAT Prep practice test software. (Im not including a link because itll just break in future. Go to www.mba.com and look for the product in their store.) Thatll give you access to another pool of questions for which you can continue to set up random problem sets.
Final Words
I know I said this once already, but its so important that Im going to repeat it: the vast majority of your learning comes AFTER you have finished the problem set, when you analyze both the problem itself and your own work. Dont just do problem set after problem set! Really dig in and learn how to get better before you try a new problem set.
Do you have any other tips to help your fellow students create effective problem sets? Tell us in the comments section below!
Good luck and happy studying!