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It's Friday afternoon and I'm Spent...

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It's Friday afternoon and I'm Spent...

by mpc0004 » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:38 pm
It's Friday afternoon and I'm spent - from work, studying and writing this damn admission's essay. My preparation began February 20th, and I have been pretty diligent about not missing study dates since then. During the week I studying for an hour in the morning and an 1-1.5 hours in the evenings, and then on the weekend I study for around 3 hours each day. My work is demanding and I have travel home every couple of weekends and I am just feeling exhausted. I am planning to take my second CAT Exam tomorrow after my first one 5 weeks ago and hope to see a good improvement. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to do well on the CAT because I believe doing well on it it will boost my confidence moving forward.

One of the most frustrating things for me right now is I am missing some problems in which I know the content but just cannot process the material fast enough or just draw a blank completely. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to get recharged and nail this test in the morning and also how to refocus completely on my exam prep?

Thanks in advance for everyone's responses!

Matt
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by [email protected] » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:52 pm
Hi Matt,

You used an interesting phrase in your self-analysis: "I know the content but just cannot process the material fast enough..."

It might be that you're trying to do too much work "in your head" instead of writing everything down piece-by-piece and doing the work on the pad. Most Quant questions are based on 3-5 "steps", but you're NOT expected to do those steps in your head (much less all at once), so you should try doing the work in small pieces. In many cases, putting the notes on the pad (writing down the basic notes, necessary formulas and calculations, using Tactics, etc.) can help you to connect the ideas that you can't connect by staring at the screen.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:16 pm
Here's some advice that might seem unsatisfying: do less studying and sleep more! You mention that you're exhausted from work. When you're exhausted, your brain processes information at much slower speeds. It's also a lot less likely to remember new information, or form new connections. (That's why when you pull an all-nighter to cram for a college test, you usually forget most of that information days or weeks later).

You might get a lot more benefit out of doing only 30 min in the evenings, but getting an extra hour of sleep. You can't force this stuff!
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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