Reviewing GMAT/CAT-style exams - best practices

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I need some advice on best practices for reviewing full GMAT, (Manhattan CAT exams to be exact), exams that I've written. There's a lot that I can learn from my mistakes but it takes me a long time to go through them! It takes me 3-4 days to go through all 78 questions. I don't go too in detail with the 700-800 questions but even then, it still takes me a while.

I am thinking there must be a better way. How long do other people generally take to review their CAT tests? Or do they section it in chunks and review it as the days go by?

Thanks for your input in advance.
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by [email protected] » Thu Sep 24, 2015 8:36 am
Hi Ancilla,

CAT review is an exceptionally important part of the study process. There is a lot to be learned (and improved upon) by seeing how you perform under the 'pressure' of a Full Test (under realistic and test-like conditions). While there isn't necessarily a "right amount" of time that you should spend on each CAT review, there might be some adjustments you can make to become a bit more efficient at it.

1) How long have you been studying?
2) How have you been scoring on each of your CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?
3) What is your goal score?

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Rich
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by MartyMurray » Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:54 pm
How long one takes reviewing practice tests depends on what one is seeking to achieve.

Sometimes people focus mostly on the questions they did not get right or took a long time to do, only quickly checking the others to make sure that they actually knew how to do them. This obviously takes less time than going over all 78, or 91, questions.

Whatever you do, as long as you are learning from it and doing things that will increase your score, then you are doing something that makes sense. So if you feel that going over all of the questions is helpful, then it may make sense to do so.

You just need to judge whether anything you are doing to prepare is a good use of your time.

Generally speaking, going over practice tests to gain insight into how to handle questions you were challenged by and into how to prepare going forward is extremely valuable in preparing for the GMAT.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Sep 29, 2015 6:11 am
Reviewing is actually the most important part of the process! I'm glad that you're reviewing in so much depth. You'll have a much deeper understanding of the test than students who just skim through wrong answers and click "show explanation."

Here's what I think you should do when you finish a CAT:

1. Run an Assessment report on ALL the CATs you've taken: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/onli ... eports.cfm
- In your Assessment Summary, you can see you accuracy percentages in PS v. DS, and CR v. SC v. RC. You can also see timing, average difficulty, etc.
- In "Quant by Topic," you can see breakdowns of exponents, quadratics, etc.

2. Run an Assessment Report just on the MOST RECENT one:
- see if you've improved on anything since previous tests

3. In your most recent test, start with your WRONG answers in problem topics / question types.
- redo the problem before looking at the answer
- ask yourself: did I identify the concept? Did I think it through before solving? Did I have a plan? Did I execute that plan well?
- then read the explanation

4. Log your errors into an Error Log: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -studying/

5. Review RIGHT answers.
- Was it a lucky guess? If so, redo the problem.
- Ask yourself: could I have solved it differently? If so, try it.
- Did you learn anything from that problem about how the test behaves?

6. Flag to yourself any topics that need further review, and begin to review those.

This process should take a good deal of time. Just make sure it's not all that you're doing! You also want to be doing topic-specific practice to build your understanding of the variations of questions within a topic.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education