a few responses here.
resilient wrote:In looking back on my exams, I often noticed that I was leaving easy points on the table for just being careless with math. SO now I actually over write out the question and almost every mathematical step.
well-intentioned, but don't forget that you are ALWAYS up against the clock.
you have to find a strategy that strikes the proper balance between thoroughness and proper time management. so when you say '
every mathematical step', you're worrying me a bit, because you're giving the vague impression that you're going to leave entire rooms of the proverbial house dirty because you're still scrubbing the same tiles with a toothbrush.
if you have tested this strategy against your worst enemy (the stopwatch), though, and found that it actually works, then go for it.
resilient wrote:BUt I end up getting tired and the overall color of the screen tires me down.
that's an interesting attribution. i've heard students blame testing fatigue on all manner of things, but this is definitely the first time the color of the screen has been cited.
try the following:
1) eat/drink strategic snacks at the breaks. you might want a little infusion of caffeine at each break; perhaps keep an energy drink in your little locker, and steal sips off it between the sections. or, if you have any go-to snacks that can give you quick energy (clif bars? powerbars? even m&ms?), down them on the breaks.
or, if the screen color is really the dealbreaker,
2) get some sunglasses with yellow or orange lenses (these should be rather easy to find; they're marketed semi-truthfully as night vision enhancers for driving, etc.) put them on / take them off at odd intervals throughout the exam, as they'll change the colors on the screen somewhat.
the yellow lenses will also make everything light-colored around you, but especially the screen, appear a bit brighter,* so the resultant jolt may be just what you need.
resilient wrote: Specifically, the RC passages literally make me tired. I enjoy them but for some reason they get me winded. So as the most logical remedy, I am going to do RC passages in 3-4 sets.
you enjoy them? well then, you're already 1 step ahead of just about everyone else here.
try to approach the passages from the standpoint of a
professional writer of ABSTRACTS and TABLES OF CONTENTS. pretend that you're being paid per abstract, or per table of contents, and that you have to create them (good ones, of course) as fast as possible. that might help a bit with the tedium.
also, you should pretend that you have to explain the gist of the article OUT LOUD to some other person, in 15 seconds or less. this will force you to paraphrase the content, because no one would ever speak with the sort of language employed by the articles. if this works really well, you might even do it in the test center, by mouthing words (silently, of course; the last thing you'd want is to be banned from the test center).
resilient wrote:So the trick to learn is how to stay fresh throughout the exam.
i can tell you with 100% confidence that this is NOT specific to the exam; if you find consistent ways to stay fresh
in general, then the benefits will spill over to the exam as well.
perhaps you should keep a journal, in which you notate the following:
* time you went to sleep
* time you woke up
* the basics of the food you ate that day (doesn't have to be in excruciating detail, but you should note whether it was high in carbs, protein, fats, etc)
* any drugs you took, including caffeine, alcohol, etc.
and then... the point:
* your alertness level, on a scale of 0-5 or 0-10, at various points throughout the day
if you keep this journal for just a few weeks, you will begin to have an EXACT grasp of the things affecting your alertness.
i kept this sort of journal as a college athlete, and the knowledge i gained from it has enhanced the quality of my life to this day. not a joke. people think i'm a bit strange because i can predict exactly how sleepy i'm going to feel at time X the following day if i go to bed at time Y or eat food Z, but believe me, it's valuable knowledge. being able to apply it to the gmat is only the tip of the iceberg.
resilient wrote:
1. My scores are dropping when I do 3 or more rc passages in a row. My best score is the first of course then a steady decline.
don't do 3 or more rc passages in a row, then!
you may get 2 rc passages in a row on the test, but the likelihood that you'll get 3 consecutive rc passages is virtually nil. (some people only get 3 rc passages on the entire exam.)
if you really want to test your mettle in this way, then alternate between rc passages and critical reasoning passages, but
don't nail yourself with a salvo of never-ending rc passages. that's not even a reasonable simulacrum of the way the test works, and may serve only to discourage you. remember, fatigue is largely a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you believe you're going to get tired during the test, then, guess what?
resilient wrote:2. Life would be a lot easier if I could get the correct textual evidence quickly. THis will increase accuracy and bring down time.
well yeah, but there's no quick fix for that.
you might want to pay proportionally more attention to keywords and proportionally less attention to the actual details in which those keywords are found.
life would be a lot easier for salesmen if they could somehow go only to people who'll buy their product, too, but there's obviously no point in getting upset about the rejections. same goes for the rc passage - just dig until you find something.
by the way, don't forget that you will essentially always be looking in
exactly one place for the information you want. one nice thing about the rc passages is that they don't ask you to synthesize information from different parts of the passage, although you may have to do an insanely careful reading of the single part that
does matter.
resilient wrote:3. I am getting better at writing more concise and cleaner passage maps. I designed a system. A.) read the paragraph and write in a few words what the paragraoh just did and what author sis trying to do, draw a rectangle around it. B.) explain what is said in most boiled down version of what the content of the paragraph is. c.) Tie it all together keeping in mind where the story is in general and respect to where it can go later on. (broad view)
that sounds like a lot of detail to actually write down - you might want to stick to doing (b) and/or (c) in your head, to economize on time - but again, if this system WORKS and does so WITHIN THE TIME LIMIT, then, go for it.
