GMAT Strategy

Hey GMATers!

TPNY/TPSF (Test Prep New York, San Francisco) is excited to return to BTG as a featured expert who can impart the most effective methods for taking high stakes tests. In our 20+ years in the business we've developed numerous ways for students to maximize their score while minimizing their stress. We hope to be a useful resource to you!

We'll be available to answer questions and provide the techniques necessary to 'fire' your inner critic, stay calm, combat a panic attack, and the bevy of other things--emotional and psychological--that may be compromising your 'game.' We'll be online throwing in some pro-tips of the trade.

Lets first take a look at the Inner Game and the Outer Game.

Any challenge we undertake occurs in two distinct arenas: the "outside" dimension-the nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts of the task required, and the inner dimension-the attitudes, emotions, and beliefs that powerfully shape our performance.

Broadly speaking, most of our experiences involve interplay between our inner and outer environments. We tend to think of the GMAT as occurring in the outer arena-and to some extent, it does. The 'outer game' of the GMAT experience includes commuting to the test site and experiencing the test site itself, including all the conditions of registering, getting settled, seeing your 'competition' in the other test takers, dealing with the barrage of questions, handling time constraints, and managing the use of the scratch pad and computer. It encompasses almost everything you confront of respond to until you see your 'score' on the screen and feel (we hope) elated when you leave the test center.

But before you can be ready for the outer game, you must first be ready for the inner game.

The "inner game" of the GMAT takes place within the test taker's mind. The inner game of the GMAT will be that voice in your head producing either negative emotions such as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, limiting concepts and assumptions, or, ideally, if you work through a few helpful techniques, the calm, excitement, focus, and belief in yourself which becomes effortless if you are in "the zone."

Inner influences that impact the Psychological State: Attitude, Perseverance, Vision, Goals, Time Management, and Spiritual Practice

Anxiety can be a huge issue during the GMAT process, but we're on BTG to help you fire your inner critics. In house, we start any prep by having the individual client lay the mental groundwork (psychological/emotional/spiritual) before diving into the academic material. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to recommend some general strategies, as well as explain the benefits of working on your inner game--look out for future posts where I'll delve deeper into specific behavior modification and anxiety relief techniques!

We welcome questions, comments, thoughts and even debate. Let the games begin!

Bara Sapir

Hi Sukkhi,

All of the problems you seemed to have had are very common, especially if it was your first time taking the exam. That said, we should identify and tackle each issue specifically before you retake the exam.

-What kind of prep did you do? How was your time management during prep--was this part of your strategy?
-The passages you didn't understand--is there also a language barrier? How was your reading speed?
-Do you feel you "choked" on the exam and did you have similar problems during practice tests? Have you felt this on other tests, and what have you done about this?
-What kind of anxiety did you have? Do you tend to have racing thoughts & distractions, or does your mind suddenly go blank under pressure?

Having a targeted plan to first create a productive, and thus positive mindset is very important. Start by identifying the specific sources and effects of your anxiety (by answering the questions above and any other related questions you can think of). Then, you can address each issue individually and try out the appropriate techniques to make a change--whether that be focusing on reading speed, comprehension, or even breathing techniques to deal with debilitating panic attacks.

If you'd like somewhere to start, take a look at your reading speed. Typically people read 150-250 wpm. On GMAT we recommend 400+. Find out your reading speed via one of the speed test links on our MindFlow class page: https://testprepny.com/mindflowclass/

Best of Luck,
Bara

Hey David,

Sorry for the delayed response: I didn't see this until now.

First: We're not saying that faster is always better. In fact, the speed we're advocating -- 400 WPM -- isn't a crazy-fast speed, so no, we're not saying "more speed" is always what's needed; more about that below. But in general, there isn't always ONE best way to do the GMAT Reading Comp. There are just best methods for each student to do it for themselves. We (TPNY/TPSF) have the luxury of not doing a one-size-fits all approach, so we teach best methods, and see how a student learns and what trips them up, and adjust accordingly.

What we've found for RC is that some students cling to methods that don't actually help them (such as mapping). We find that mapping itself doesn't help, but for some students, the fact they have a strategy calms them, and that in itself is helpful -- but they could get the same confidence-boosting effect
without wasting their time on mapping. Some students naturally read with deep comprehension at a fast pace. For others, the kind of scrutiny they
need to 'get a passage' slows them down and messes them up. What we've found in many cases is that our speed reading and mindful approach, taken
together, help immensely. Let me explain a bit more.

Most people read a lot slower than they need to, simply because they never knew it was possible to go faster and still comprehend. Let's compare this to walking. Many people have an average walking speed and don't tend to speed that up unless they're specifically needing to get somewhere or because they're exercising. They could walk faster, and could even increase their speed so that their average speed would be quicker when they were at 'casual walking' mode. But most people don't. They tend to just walk with their usual gait, which might not even be the most efficient way for their body to move.

Reading works the same way. What keeps us reading slowly? Habit. Habits in how we think about written text, and habits in how we use our eye muscles.
But if you stretch and train those muscles, and change the way you take in the information - - you're golden. Quicker reading with the same or increased comprehension -- increased comprehension because for many people, focus increases as you go quicker.

Now, if you just try to brute-force speed up your reading on the test without any practice or guidance, it's like trying to do a whole walk-a-thon at a much faster pace than your normal walking speed, without any advance preparation. You could actually slow yourself DOWN because of the various things that might happen that would HINDER you. For example: not being as steady on your feet, feeling your legs get tense, feeling your shins burn, not being as balanced as you'd like, getting tired more quickly then slowing waaaaay down.

If you go extra fast on the reading passages in the test, when you've not practiced, you won't get the benefit, most likely. The words will seem blurred, you may have to re-read things, you may get frustrated...a variety of things may happen that will work against you. SO we advocate practice and integration. It's true that students who have tried "reading fast" in ways that just get them more confused would probably find that reading much slower would be better for them. But reading slower isn't the only option for them -- it isn't the only way to increase comprehension. And in fact, below a certain speed, many people find that they do worse at understanding complex sentences and dense paragraphs.

As I said, the speed we're advocating -- around 400 WPM -- isn't a ridiculously fast speed-reading speed. We're not advocating that people read 1000 WPM, or that they skip over material in order to speed up, or use any other "tricks" that would give them a crazy-fast speed with poor comprehension.
In fact, many people who enjoy reading and who read a lot naturally read at speeds over 400 WPM with full comprehension. Then there are some people who read at even faster speeds, but don't realize that they're doing it by skipping over a lot of things and missing nuances; for those people, slowing down might be more helpful. But for many people who read slower than 400 WPM, reading is often hindered by a lot of bad habits which slow them down too much or cause them to be distracted. Habits like a nagging inner reading voice. Or trying to pronounce big words or sounding out large numbers when it's not really necessary. Or taking each sentence as an individual unit and failing to notice how ideas interconnect. We have witnessed that when people break these patterns, they read BETTER. In fact, even if they aren't reading faster, the speed reading techniques still help them read better, because they are more PRESENT and ENGAGED. They can take in whole lot more information that is helpful this way.

We also see that teaching students how to feel confident and focused, how to derail a panic attack, how to fire the inner critic, all while taking the test helps them. This is included in our speed reading course as well.

Another bonus: students see immediately improved results which gives them a burst of excitement. YES! They can manage their time AND get more questions correct. They comprehend better (as evidenced through discussion and through how they answer diagnostic Q & A).

We also see similar improvements on LSAT performance with our speed reading protocols. And SAT, ACT, GRE, and even MCAT (though we employ a very different methodology on the MCAT's Verbal Reasoning).

So our proof comes from our experience. Give students tools to get out of their own way - - plus tools to move faster...and they're succeeding.

Hope this helps. Happy to talk more about it.

(Thanks for bringing this up - - I think it will explain the process to a lot of students wondering the same thing!)