Great question - quite a few people use those last few days really unproductively (or, worse, counter-productively) so it's good to have a plan for them.
A lot depends on how much you've already done, but assuming you've put at least a few weeks into the GMAT your plan should consist of:
T-minus 5, 4, 3 days to go
Analyze your recent practice tests, and if you have time on day 5 or 4 to go and feel like you could benefit from the experience of one more practice test, take one more. Your goals here should be to identify the 4-5 things on either section that have the highest potential to hold you back. This late in the game it's unlikely that you'll gain a whole lot more knowledge or ability, but you can make a huge impact on your score by making sure you don't lose any points based on the kinds of mistakes that can turn all your correct work into an incorrect answer.
Pay attention to things like:
-Silly mistakes that occur more than once
-Devices in questioning that tend to trip you up (e.g. words like 'only' or 'except' that you may overlook in question stems)
-Question setups that bait you into a lot of wasted time and on which you may need to be prepared for a quick guess if you don't click with them quickly
Once you've identified those, make a checklist with reminders to yourself (e.g. "don't forget to consider 0"; "double check the question stem to make sure you solved for the right variable in the right units") and think more about your pacing strategy to ensure you have a good plan. At this point, you're protecting all the points you've earned from mistakes or poor pacing that could take them away.
The day before the test
Don't do anything new. It might feel strange to not to anything whatsoever, so if you do decide to spend an hour or so (please don't spend anything more than that - why wear yourself out?) on GMAT activities just review questions you've already done and focus on the process that got you there. Use any study time this day to remind yourself what you know how to do well - if you try to tackle a new set of problems or a new practice test, you run the risk of wearing yourself down and psyching yourself out. Don't ruin your hard-earned confidence by accidentally grabbing a set of poorly-written or disproportionately-hard questions and getting a handful wrong. By this point you won't learn anything brand new from doing new questions, so use the time to remind yourself of the process that leads to success on these questions, and to rest your body and mind in preparation for the exam.
It's pretty cliche to say things like "get a good night's sleep" so let me just say this - you'll be nervous, but remember that the only reason you're nervous is that you have a right to expect success. I've never been nervous buying a lottery ticket or watching the Grammys in the hopes that I'll somehow win - I have absolutely no reason to think that I deserve success. But before a race that I've trained for or a performance review at work I get a little nervous - in those cases I've worked hard to be in a position to expect success. If you're nervous before the GMAT that's a pretty good indication that you've worked hard enough to expect success. Which means you should be confident. So smile in the face of pressure and remind yourself that you've done everything you can do. The test itself is the victory lap - the hard work is behind you!
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
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. So just wondering, does anyone have suggestions on what material to go over 4-5 days before the actual test? Should I take tests or just practice?
