Hours of studying versus actual improvement

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 amFollowed by: 994 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times

by beatthegmat » Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:01 pm

It sounds like you've answered your own question--it's not too surprising that your performance has lagged recently because your schedule has not allowed for consistent studying and to incrementally build knowledge on top of what you've learned.

You need to put together a solid study strategy that allows you to (1) systematically identify your weaknesses and (2) work toward improving them. Check out the Beat The GMAT Blog to see an example of how to put a study strategy together.

Also, be sure to read through the Beat The GMAT Resources Page. There are a lot of strategy tips and tools there to assist you in putting together a cohesive plan.

Good luck!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:01 pm

mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

by mayonnai5e » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:56 am

In addition to what Eric has already mentioned, I would also point out that you prepared for verbal first then focused on quant. I assume that when you switched to quant, you practiced verbal only minimally - is this correct?

I had the same issue when I studied - I noticed after just two weeks of not practicing verbal, the improvements I made started slipping. In order to combat that problem, I changed to a schedule where I had set days with V and Q interspersed:

M - CR
T - PS
W - RC
Th - DS
F - SC

1 topic each day of the week. This allowed me to stay up to date with all topics. Note that I only switched to doing this once I felt I had learned the basic strategies and concepts for each topic.

Hope that helps.

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:57 pm

Yep - absolutely. Whatever you study, it doesn't stay in your brain forever; the benefits slip away over time. It's good that you already saw improvements before, because it means you know what you need to do to see those improvements again - but you will have to do the work again. As mayonnai5e said, make sure you keep up both your quant and verbal skills simultaneously.

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