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15 days to my test...Should I do more practice tests or OG??

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15 days to my test...Should I do more practice tests or OG??

by livitup_bailey » Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:06 pm
Hi There

First I wanted to thank the beat the gmat team for all the great information posted on this site...it certainly has helped me tons so far...

Second - I just booked my test and it is in exactly 20 days from now... I figure I will have 15 good study days and I want to make sure I use them well...

Would you guys suggest I do

1) spend my time on doing as many practice tests as possible...I have access to 9 Kaplan and 4 Manhattan GMAT ones plus 2 MBA.com ones...so in total I can basically do 1 a day

OR

2) Should I spend doing more questions from the OG guide ...?

I have done the Manhattan GMAT course so I am familiar with most of the concepts...now I feel like I need a whole lot of practice and hoping for some good advice ... HELP plz =)
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by InkyBinky » Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:49 am
Since you have already reviewed the material, I would say focus on practice tests so that you can perfect your timing and improve your stamina, while reviewing your incorrect answers so that you understand why you missed them.
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by Frankie@VeritasPrep » Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:27 am
Hey livitup_bailey -

You put forward a great question and one that a lot of people preparing for the GMAT ask themselves, especially as it comes down to "crunch time." I tend to agree with InkyBinky that you should exhaust the practice tests you have at your disposal, though those remaining practice questions will come in handy for any remaining troublesome spots you need to brush up on. A few tips I always relay to my students regarding how to best use those practice tests:

1) Make it all about take-away for test day. My best advice for maximizing your take-away with each practice test is to be incredibly analytical. It is easy for students to fall into the trap of reviewing only the questions they answer incorrectly. That is how most of us were trained through out our schooling - correct your wrong answers and move on. But let's consider that approach for the GMAT. Even the best test-takers and highest-scoring students get some questions right because they make a solid, educated guess between two remaining answers OR they get questions correct but spent 3 minutes on the problem when it could have been answered in significantly less time. As my GMAT date approached, I was spending nearly as much time reviewing my practice tests as I was taking them. A systematic approach is to create a simple grid for the 41 verbal and 37 quant questions to make a quick note of how you felt about the answer you choose: confident, so-so, or worried. Use that as a guide to review each and every question. Ask yourself questions like "Did I get this right because I knew the answer or because I made a lucky guess between two remaining choices? How could I have been certain? What was I missing? Could I have saved time somewhere?" For questions you answered incorrectly, use the solution as a starting point and see if you can resolve the problem correctly. If not, review the solution explanation and make note of any formulas, concepts, etc. tested in that problem that you know now you need to review - this is where your Official Guide questions will come in handy.

2) Do your best to mimic test conditions. Think about all of the controlled conditions of the testing center. Get used to note taking and performing calculations with a wet-erase marker (you don't want test day to be the day you learn how easy those pens smudge!). Two or three times, wake up and take the test at the same time you'll be taking the official exam. I even went so far as to wake up and go to a new location (a friend's office and the library) on the two Saturday's preceding my test. I found that this helped minimize my test-day anxiety since by test-day, I was more or less used to the whole process.

3) Try not to ignore the AWA. No, it doesn't factor into your 800 score and no, a really great AWA score isn't going to do much to help your chances at your dream school. However, a bad AWA score can hurt your chances. If you are still not convinced you need to practice the AWA, consider that if you don't practice a fair amount of "full-length" - AWA included - practice tests than you are putting yourself at a serious disadvantage come test day. As all of your preparation has likely shown, this exam isn't simply a test of content or reasoning. It challenges your mental stamina. If you've never completed the hour of writing before the two 75-minute sections, then you won't have a solid grasp on how you'll hold up test day.

Hope this helps answer your questions. Best of luck in your final days of preparation!
Frankie Beecroft
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by livitup_bailey » Tue Aug 10, 2010 5:32 am
Thank you so so much you for your reply! Fingers crossed ...wishing for the best now = )
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by livitup_bailey » Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:59 pm
Sorry one more question... Frankie how would you suggest I improve my speed... I noticed today I had to hit the pause option and ran out of at least a good 10 mins... If my speed is off ...will doing more questions help or simply smart quessing should be the goal...
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by Frankie@VeritasPrep » Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:04 am
Hey livitup_bailey,

You are on the right track - pacing yourself on the GMAT is more than just knowing how to solve the problems. While working through problems and concepts will likely improve your accuracy and overall comfortability with the questions, ultimately it won't be enough on its own to significantly impact your speed. There are pros and cons to the computer-adaptive format and one of the things students struggle with most is "letting go" of a question that has them more or less stumped. Since the CAT requires that you confirm each answer choice before you see the next problem, "letting go" is important for the GMAT!

As you continue through practice tests monitor your time and I'd recommend that you no longer use the pause option. You're getting close to test day so the more you can mimic testing center conditions, the better. I'm guessing those problems that have you hitting "pause" are eating up more than 2-3 minutes each. On test day these are the questions you'll want to start "letting go" of. The best thing you can do for your GMAT score is to get a problem right quickly. Conversely, taking a long time to get a problem right is a double-whammy. In most cases, if you can't unlock the math or the logic on a GMAT question in a minute or so, you're probably going to get the problem wrong. Be aware of your timing on questions that have you at a loss - do what you can to eliminate answer choices, take a stab or two at solving it, but once you are nearing a 3-minute mark guess and move on.

It can be difficult to let go on test day when you've invested so much time and energy into your preparation and you have so much riding on the exam results. Two thoughts should help drive the point home:

1) A recent Veritas blog (https://blog.veritasprep.com/2010/08/und ... rithm.html) relays the point that a lot of wrong answers contribute to even the best GMAT scores. You are going to get questions wrong - once you realize a question has you baffled, recognize the test savvy in choosing to make a solid guess and "deposit" more time in the bank for later questions.

2) The 37 quant and 41 verbal questions include experimental questions that will not count toward you score. You definitely don't want to spend more than a few minutes on a question that doesn't even count. I particularly like to remind students that this also gives them a great opportunity to maintain a positive mental space. When a question has you spinning your wheels, allow yourself to toss it up as an experimental question, make an educated guess, and then move on to the next question.

A final thought - you want to be conscious of timing but over vigilance will cause undue stress and anxiety. I'd recommend breaking the sections down into larger time chunks (12-15 minute blocks) and have a rough idea of how many problems you should have worked through by then. Use practice tests to perfect the process but you should find that 5 or 6 time checks are sufficient for you to speed up or slow down if need be but it won't have you glancing up at the timer every problem. Best of luck!
Frankie Beecroft
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Veritas Prep

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by livitup_bailey » Thu Aug 12, 2010 12:42 pm
THANK YOU SO SO MUCH AGAIN! Here I go again this time considering what you have mentioned!!!
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