Make the Most of Your Holiday Study Time - Part 2
Last time, we talked about how to use holiday downtime to get ready for round 2 admissions. This time, were going to talk about what to do if you arent applying for round 2 this year.
We have two broad scenarios to talk about. Do you work an 80-hour-a-week job or have some other significant commitments during non-holiday time such that your studying is suffering due to lack of time? And do you have some downtime around the holidays, or at least less-crazy time? If so, then youre going to use the holidays to give your studies a much-needed boost.
If, on the other hand, youve been studying at least 10 hours a week (and really more like 15), and youre generally keeping your studies on track during non-holiday time, then heres your reward: youre going to slow down during the holidays and give your brain a much-needed break, so that you will be fresher when you ramp up again after the holidays.
Scenario #1: My normal schedule is crazy but I have some breathing room around the holidays.
The bad news is that you havent been getting as much done as you need, but the good news is that you can use your downtime over the holidays to get more done. The driving concept: prioritization.
You do not want to turn your 80-hour regular week into an 80-hour study week. Your brain can learn only so many new things at once; if you overload it, it will start to rebel and drop memories. (Youve experienced this, right? You cant remember what was decided at that meeting 3 days ago. Your significant other swears s/he asked you to pick up milk on the way home, but you have no memory of that exchangeuntil you find the evidence on your phone. :))
Youre going to follow some of the advice that I discussed in the first installment of this article (so pull that up right now), with a few differences. Pull out your calendar and follow the advice I gave with respect to scheduling study appointments with yourself. Since you dont have a rapidly-approaching deadline to take the real test, though, plan to take only one practice test.
If it has been more than about 4-6 weeks since your last practice CAT, plan to start your holiday study period with a CAT. If you have taken a CAT fairly recently, plan to end your holiday study period with a CAT.
Either way, analyze your most recent test and classify everything into your three buckets (youll understand what buckets are after you have read that article). Youre going to concentrate on bucket #2.
Important note: bucket #3 is for things that are so hard for you that youre going to blow them off right nowliterally, just get them wrong fast. People hesitate to put things in bucket #3 because they dont want to give up on that category forever. Thats not what youre doing here! Youre just saying, Right now, given my limited time, this isnt worth my time in the next few weeks. I have other, better lower-hanging-fruit that Im going to do first. Later, youll revisit your bucket 3 and move some things to bucket 2 as bucket 2 items move to bucket 1.
Next, youre going to work intensively on your bucket 2 items over the holidays.
Use the process described here to minimize careless mistakes.
For holes in your foundation (easier problems that youre missing), start with the relevant chapters in our Foundations of Math (FoM) or Foundations of Verbal (FoV) strategy guides (or equivalent study materials from other companies). First plug any holes in your foundational knowledge. When youre ready, move up to the equivalent chapters in the main strategy guides (or, again, equivalent materials from others). Finally, test your new knowledge and understanding by trying problems from the Official Guide.
For example, if youre struggling with exponents and roots, start with those chapters in FoM. Make flash cards for anything you need to memorize. Use the end-of-chapter and online problem sets to drill your skills. Then move into the Algebra strategy guide and dig into the more advanced exponent and root material there. Again, make flash cards and use the end-of-chapter and online problem sets to drill. Finally, try a few (2-3) OG problems from these areas, and make sure that youre analyzing these problems at the 2nd Level.
This is important: do NOT do all of the OG exponent problems at once. Half of the battle on the GMAT is figuring out what a new problem is testing; on the real test, youll never know that youre about to get an exponent problem. So most of your OG study needs to be done in timed sets of mixed questions, where youre having to jump around, figure out for yourself what each new problem is, and decide how to allocate your time and mental energy among the questions.
After 2-3 weeks, work will ramp back up again. Take another CAT to gain experience and gauge your progress. Analyze using that same article linked earlier and revisit your buckets to see what you can move from bucket 2 to bucket 1 and whether you want to move anything from bucket 3 to bucket 2. (Note: some things really should stay in bucket 3 forever. For me, combinatorics and 3-D geometry will always be bucket 3.)
Scenario #2: My regular study time is already pretty productive.
Thats great! Now heres your reward. Yes, youre going to study some over the holidays, but youre actually going to give your brain a pretty substantial break. I wish that I could recommend this to everyone, but the realities for some (crazy jobs, looming deadlines) make this impossible.
Pull up your calendar. Block out around 5 days completely; you arent even going to think about the GMAT on these days. Seriously! Youve been working and studying hard for a while now, and your brain is becoming fatigued. This break is going to allow you to come back super fresh and re-energized in January.
If you feel guilty when those days come along, say to yourself, Stacey said not to think about the GMAT today! and go merrily about your day. :D
What you are going to do on some days during this break is organize. Do you have notes all over the place about SC rules? Consolidate them into one file or notebook.
Are you not quite sure which lessons youve done thoroughly and which werent done as well the first time around? Are you not sure what you need to review? Take some time to look over previous lessons just with an eye towards classifying them: this one is good; this other one could use some light review; I need to re-do this lesson from start to finish. You dont actually have to do them now; youre just figuring out what youre going to do when you ramp back up again after the holidays.
Heres the one substantial thing you can do: if its been more than a month since youve last taken a practice CAT, take one over the holidays and analyze it. Also analyze the individual questions (you might analyze just the ones you got wrong now and save the other ones for later). Altogether, this assignment might take you around 8 to 15 hours, depending on whether you analyze everything now.
Use this analysis to help you figure out what you need to prioritize after the holidays; dont actually start studying now.
If you find yourself falling between two of these categories, mix and match the advice from each one. Alternatively, come talk to me on the MPrep forums and ask for advice regarding your particular situation.
Good luck, happy end-of-2015, and see you in the New Year!