GMAT Strategy

meanjonathan wrote:Ron, Thanks for the really thoughtful reply on all fronts and for the constructive criticism about my use of the word "tandem." You're a standup guy. Thanks again. :)

-mj.

well, i like to answer questions that aren't just about objective content all the time, so, thanks to you too for the discussion. good stuff.

sachindia wrote:Hi Ron,
You have been saying that we shouldn't burn our mind out while studying as it doesn't help build lateral connections needed for success on GMAT , especially on CR and RC sections.

How else do we prepare for the 4 hour marathon GMAT?

ok, i see what you're doing with this question, but you're confusing two different pairs of concepts.

1/
you're confusing a large volume in a single effort with a large volume of total preparation.
perhaps ironically, your own choice of the word "marathon" helps to explain why this confusion matters. in particular, the marathon is a really, really long running race -- about 26 miles, plus a little bit -- but even world-class marathon runners don't even come close to logging that many miles every day. (even though the marathon is over 26 miles long, most world-class marathon runners only run about 50 to 100 miles per week in training.) if they actually tried to run 26 (or more!) miles per day, they'd be headed for surgery, not the finish line.

also, marathon runners do with their bodies exactly the same thing you should do with your brain: they reduce their training as the big race day approaches, so that they can be fresh. in fact, that principle applies across virtually all human endeavors.

2/
MORE IMPORTANTLY
this is where the marathon analogy breaks down, but the real issue is that you are confusing two completely different mental tasks: learning and doing things.

* when it comes to learning -- as in actually absorbing concepts that the mind will be able to manipulate, not unthinking memorization -- the adult human brain burns out pretty quickly.
with the exception of certain people with very unusual brains, adult humans can't effectively learn things for more than a few hours in a day -- usually up to 4-5 hours in a day. and that's a figure for people who are perfectly well-rested and have essentially zero stress in their lives (in other words, people who can focus all of their mental energy on learning); for people who are sleep-deprived, tired, or extremely busy, the figure is lower.

* on the other hand, when it comes to doing stuff, people can basically do that until they drop from exhaustion, with surprisingly little decrement in performance until you get to the point of epic sleep deprivation (like, the point at which people fall asleep even though they are standing up). so, for instance, even though you can't spend more than a couple of hours a day learning NEW chemistry, your brain is perfectly capable of spending 16 straight hours on that lab report you've put off until tonight that is due tomorrow. you can't spend more than a few hours a day learning how the tax code works, but you can totally spend 20 straight hours doing your taxes before you rush off to the airport post office to postmark them at 11:59 p.m. on tax day. etc.

the simple fact is that taking the test itself isn't a learning task; it's a "doing" task. therefore, the length of that task is completely independent of the number of hours you spend trying to learn, since learning is a whole different game. in other words, even if the gmat were 10 hours long, you would still not want to spend any more time studying than you would for the current incarnation of the exam.

--

on the other hand, there is one sense in which this thinking is valid, and that's the sense of practicing purely for the sake of endurance/timing.

when your exam is decently close -- say, a week or so away -- if you find that timing is a major issue, you should take a couple of practice tests for the sole purpose of practicing and cementing your timing strategy. (if your timing is already good, there's not too much of a reason to do this.)

when you take these tests, you should spend very little time reviewing them; after all, the test is only a week away, so the whole "learning" thing is just about wrapped up at that point. instead, the point is simply to become accustomed to the actual time management involved in the exam.

sachindia wrote:Thanks a lot, Ron for your advice.

How many mock tests do you recommend in the last 2 weeks before the exam? and in order to avoid burning out attending these mock tests, how do these tests have to be spread over the week.. every alternate day/ once in three days?

* if you have trouble with time management, then you may want to try four or five of them.
importantly, you should do relatively little review of these tests. if the time management is a serious issue, you may even consider not reviewing them at all.
if you are having trouble with time management, the important thing is to wrap up the idea of trying to "improve", once you are decently close to the exam, and concentrate exclusively on your timing from that point onward.

* if you don't really have trouble with time management, then you should do maybe just one of them, just to keep yourself in the right rhythm.
in this case, you shouldn't take a practice test with less than 1 week to go. if you don't have issues with time management, then there's really no potential benefit in taking a practice test with only a few days remaining.

* if time management isn't really a problem AND you are a high-stress person who worries about a lot about stuff, then you should take zero of them.

I plan to take the last mock 2 days prior to the D day. . and do nothing but a few problems for warm up a day prior to the test day and a couple of questions on the morning of the test day..
Hope this is a right strategy..

you should do nothing the day before the test, and definitely nothing on the morning of the test (!!).
(do you think it would be a good idea to run a few miles before a marathon? same thing here.)
... and that's "nothing" as in nothing, not "just a few problems".

you should also do decreasing amounts of work for the last 4-5 days... for instance:
* 2 hours when you are five days out
* 1.5 hours when you are four days out
* 1 hour when you are three days out
* half an hour when you are two days out
* nothing after that
these don't have to be super-exact figures, but, i think you get the idea. note that this sort of thing precludes the idea of taking practice tests in the last few days.

sachindia wrote:I was actually planning to take off from work for 2 weeks before the exam but I now think that won't be a good idea at all.

it may still be a good idea for you to take the time off -- provided that you will actually use some of it to RELAX, rather than to gogogogogostudystudystudystudystudy for every waking hour of the day.

one thing that you've almost certainly realized, by this point, is that the kind of thinking required on this exam -- flexible, intuitive thinking, in which you try to develop an understanding of novel/unfamiliar situations -- is not compatible with excessively high stress levels. (you also shouldn't be too relaxed, either -- i.e., you shouldn't feel as though you're about to fall asleep during the exam -- but, for most people, that's not generally an issue.)
if taking time off will help you relax, get more sleep, and so on, then do it!

digvijayk wrote:Yes. You can't LEARN for more than 2 hours a day in any case. If you study carefully, one page of an mgmat or kaplan or any other book should take you some time and you should be adding more and more new concepts per chapter, to your repertoire, which takes time.

Same thing with videos, you can just watch one of "thursdays with ron" or the free gmat prep videos or any other video, since the length of most videos is 1.5 hours and you will pause a number of times, understanding what a NEW concept means, how its used, etc.

And finally, the LEARNING is different from PRACTICE. Again you should handle not more than 15-20 questions per practice session(keeping time), because every question will have a takeaway that can only be found by analysis. So 15x2=30 minutes for practice and then another 30-40 minutes for analysis and trap/concept hunting.

So if you add all of that up, it'll take you a shade over 3 hours per day. And the break will keep you sane during the whole process and will keep you interested in the analysis part. Also, the break is responsible for a major portion of concept absorption- letting the zillion new concepts you learnt sink in. Its like working out at the gym 5 days a week and then letting the torn muscle tissue heal, grow and become stronger!

this is all very well put.

in fact, it's posts like this one that make me feel that my time spent here is actually worthwhile.
these realizations aren't just going to help you study for this exam; think of all the other things in life that you'll be able to optimize (or at least make more efficient, if "optimize" is stretching it a little too far) by incorporating the same sorts of observations.