GMAT Strategy

My dear GMAT community,

Im currently preparing for the GMAT test in January 2013 in order to be admitted to a "better" European Business School. I'm aiming at 650-700 points. However, I frequently find myself left alone with some serious questions on the GMAT. So here's one of them:

Especially when I take the medium / hard questions on the GMAT Prep software, I really benefit from taking notes on a sheet of paper. However, I realized that you easily run out of time if you elaborate for too long on your paper.

So what do you think, how much note taking is advantageous ?! What harms your performance?

Awaiting your response.


Cheers from Germany !

Taking notes is a very good idea and it definitely can save you a lot of time. What I would recommend is to compile your own code - to use symbols instead of phrases and to substitute words with their abbreviated versions.
Note-taking is definitely indispensable when dealing with RC and CR.

Here is a way in which you can see "note taking":

The brain can do one of 2 things: take in the data, and process that information. So when you are reading it you are really reading stuff like "In Verland last year there was a decrease in blah blah....HOWEVER, blah blah....... Therefore, blah blah". The brain is trying to take in the information so it can build a context around it. It is when you make a quick diagram or write a few words to summarize that you read it helps assimilate the information.

The analogy is chewing food (reading information), and digesting food (understanding the info).

Don't make it an elaborate exercise. You are just giving your brain time to "breathe" so it should be short of doodling.

Arun