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Review or not to review

by november22 » Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:13 am
A lot of people who successfully wrote gmat told me that once we study any strategy guide and official guides then this is it and then there is no need to review all strategy guides and official guides again.

I just want to confirm this.


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by [email protected] » Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:23 am
Hi november22,

If you have a great memory, know the content and tactics perfectly and can correctly "link" a new GMAT question to questions that you've done in the past (so that you can remember the fastest, most efficient way to tackle the question), then you won't have to review.

If, however, you need to "refresh" your mind on material that you once looked at (possibly months ago) and might be a bit "fuzzy" on, then review is a must. When you face the Official GMAT, you want to be comfortable with most (if not all) of the material that's going to be tested. As such, you have to be ready to adjust your study plan so that you can get to that level of comfort- you might have to study more, review older subjects, redo questions from your earlier CATs, etc.

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:24 am
I'm impressed that these people can study topics/concepts/techniques once and never have to review them later in the future. That said, if someone fully grasps a topic/concept/technique (and doesn't forget), then there's no need to go back and review it.

Once a person covers all of the GMAT material, I feel that the best thing is to begin taking regular, FULL-LENGTH practice tests. Doing so will help identify areas of weakness that need to be reviewed.

Also remember that the GMAT is a test of your math and verbal skills AND it's a test of your test-taking skills. So, taking several practice tests is an important part of your prep. This will help you build your test-taking skills, and it will help you identify any remaining area(s) of weakness.

While analyzing your practice tests, there are four main types of weakness to watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
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by Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT » Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:17 am
I agree. The study strategy that works for you may not work for all.
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by Elizabeth@EconomistGMAT » Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:19 am
I agree. The study strategy that works for you may not work for all.
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by VivianKerr » Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:01 am
It's not the AMOUNT you study, it's HOW you study. So many of my students do the OG13 cover-to-cover and then are simply amazed their score hasn't shot up. But why should it? If you're just a GMAT question-monkey, then there's no VALUE in each question you answer. Try to spend the MAJORITY of your time using your GMAT books to target specific concepts. For example, if I wanted to become an expert at GMAT Assumption questions, I would do the following:

1) read each major test prep company's strategy and free lessons on Assumptions
2) watch every CR: Assumption video on YouTube/Vimeo, including Thursdays with Ron
3) read any Kaplan/MGMAT/Veritas chapter on Assumptions
4) look up how Assumptions are tested on the LSAT (just for fun)
5) answer every single OG13 and Verbal Review "Assumption" question
6) read at least 20+ of the highest rated blog articles in the BTG library on assumptions
7) read every GMATClub resource page on assumption questions
8) write out my Step-by-Step strategy for approaching Assumption questions on a piece of paper and tape it above my desk
9) do pacing drills with Assumption questions (EX: 10 questions in 20 min) to see how I manage pacing once I have a solid strategy in place
10) memorize common "Assumption" answer traps ("out of scope," "irrelevant," etc.)
11) log and review ALL incorrect "Assumption" questions in an Error Log and specifically identify WHY I got it incorrect each time -- are there patterns in the questions I'm missing?

This is just the basics. It's hard to become an expert at something, but if you really committed to one concept at a time, you'd be unstoppable! Here's some more tips for how you can step up your GMAT Verbal: https://gmatrockstar.com/tag/gmat-verbal/

Good luck!
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by BestGMATEliza » Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:41 pm
I think everyone has different study methods that work for them, but for most people (myself included) review is essential, especially in your problem areas. For my study strategy, I went through all the MGMAT books and took notes, then once I finished a book, I reviewed it by going through all my notes and making a cheat sheet. Also in the final week before my test, I went over the whole SC book again, because I was having trouble in that area.


Hope this helps!
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by VivianKerr » Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:16 pm
Eliza has an excellent point -- many of my students create their own notes from their practice material (and there are many notes users have created such as these I attached). Your own personal set of "crib notes" can be incredible helpful!
Attachments
Spidey Sentence Correction Notes.pdf
(311.15 KiB) Downloaded 133 times
Vivian Kerr
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https://www.yelp.com/biz/gmat-rockstar-los-angeles

Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"! :-)
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