GMAT Strategy

Hi Experts,

I am down to my last 10 days and one thing I have noticed now a days is that because I am studying about 8 hours daily and doing about 25 CR, 25 SC and 5 RC passages along-with 30-35 PS questions daily. I have noticed that my accuracy have gone down specially in the last 2 days when I am very hard on my studies. For example today I was suppose to multiply 18 with 7 and generally these small calculation I do it in my head but today even on paper rather than doing multiplication I did addition.

SC is one of my strongest of all in verbal section. Today I came across about 2-3 different questions and they were probably 650 level very easy to spot simple modifier or idiom error but even after going through them 2-3 times I couldn't recognise the split or even decision point. When I saw the explanation I was thinking in my head either I have gone BLIND or my brain is not working. It has never happened before.

Can you please suggest me what should I do to get rid of tiredness. I am sleeping normal 7-8 hours a day. How many questions or how much time should i dedicate to my studies in the last 10 days so that I don't get stressed on test days. I have been scoring really good in the past 5 test all from 700-740 range and don't want to lose it last minute.

Please help.

Thanks,
Rakesh

Rakesh -

I think that you have overdone it!

You need to get a little bit of rest in before your test. And I do not mean just sleeping, but rather some "down time" for yourself as well.

There is no need for you to study more than 4 hours at the most heading into the exam. You are scoring very well. It sounds like you have the concepts down on all subjects, but you are over worked.


You should take a full day off today. Do something fun! Then start with 4 hour or less of studying now, with 9 days to go. When you get to the last couple of days before the exam you can study for maybe 2 hours two days before the exam and basically take the day before the exam off.

ALSO, get some exercise if you have not been exercising!!! Research shows that 10 days of exercise (make sure you get your heart rate up so that you are breathing pretty heavily) is long enough to bring flexibility and short-term memory benefits.

Here is an article on the importance of exercise. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/05/ ... e-the-gmat

[email protected] wrote:Hi Rakesh,

Based on what you're describing, it sounds like you're running a risk of "burning out." I've never asked anyone to study for 8 hours a day; it sounds like you're doing THAT repeatedly. You're scoring at a high level right now, so ease back a bit on your studies and try to relax a bit. I tell all of my personal clients to take 1 day off per week. No CATs, no studying, no review. Go do whatever you do for fun.

For fatigue, take a look at your diet (especially what you snack on) and try to get a bit of light exercise. Even if it's just a long walk, you'll find it to be beneficial.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Thank you rich once again. I would slow down on studies and rather than doing 100 problems a day probably 30 a day and analyse them would be better for me.

David@VeritasPrep wrote:Rakesh -

I think that you have overdone it!

You need to get a little bit of rest in before your test. And I do not mean just sleeping, but rather some "down time" for yourself as well.

There is no need for you to study more than 4 hours at the most heading into the exam. You are scoring very well. It sounds like you have the concepts down on all subjects, but you are over worked.


You should take a full day off today. Do something fun! Then start with 4 hour or less of studying now, with 9 days to go. When you get to the last couple of days before the exam you can study for maybe 2 hours two days before the exam and basically take the day before the exam off.

ALSO, get some exercise if you have not been exercising!!! Research shows that 10 days of exercise (make sure you get your heart rate up so that you are breathing pretty heavily) is long enough to bring flexibility and short-term memory benefits.

Here is an article on the importance of exercise. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/05/ ... e-the-gmat

Thank you David.

I read this article. I always thought that running too much will burn me physically. I used to run Half marathon 4-5 months back but I stopped it because I wanted to study day and night. One thing I still remember is that I was more energetic then than now I am. I think from today itself I will start 5 run walk and jog to start with and keep my study time to 30-35 questions a day and more reviews.

Appreciate your help.