How to Make the Most of Your Final 7 Days Before the GMAT - Part 1
One week out from your real test, your scoring level is about what its going to be on that real test. The key word is about.
GMAT scores are variable; it isnt the case that your score is an exact score at a certain point in time and thats that. Rather, you have a range of potential scores at any given time. If your range is, say, 670 to 720, what can you do to put yourself at the top end of your range on test day?
Before we begin, Id like to say what this article is NOT about. This article is definitely not about how to lift your score by 100 points in the last week. If thats your goal then your best bet is to postpone your test date. (I know thats probably not what you want to hear, but thats the most realistic response.)
Mindset
In the final week, youre going to have to change your mindset. Until now, youve been trying to lift your score. That's no longer your goal.
Now, your goal is to solidify what you already know so that you can peak at the top end of your current range on test day.
If you think it will help, write Peak, NOT lift!! in big letters on a piece of paper and keep it where you can see it while youre reviewing during this last weak. Dont let yourself shift back into the Lift mindset.
Day T-minus-7: Take a CAT
Total time: 3.5 hours.
Seven days before, youre going to take your final practice test. (If needed, you could do it 6 or 8 or 9 days before. Later in the week, though, Im not going to give you that kind of leeway to change the dayFYI!)
Start this test at the exact same time that youll be starting the real test. (If youre scheduled for, say, 8am, plan to start at about 8:15am, as the various sign-in and security procedures take some time.) Eat a good meal beforehand. Set up your snacks to be ready to eat / drink immediately on your breaks; youll have these ready to go in your locker on test day.
I recommend that you take a clean GMATPrep. (Clean means that you havent taken this test before, nor have you exposed yourself to the questions that you might see. In other words, you will mimic real test conditions.)
Speaking of real test conditions: do the essay and IR sectionsand do them with the same level of effort that you plan to expend on the day of the real test.
Then, take an 8-minute break. Note that, for the real test, you will have to raise your hand to be escorted out of the room and you will have to check back in. The security procedures eat up about 3 minutes of your break time. So dont take a full break in that 8 minutes. Either give yourself about 5 minutes of true break time, or take 8 minutes but spend 3 minutes of that time essentially standing around doing nothing (not stretching, not eating or drinking) while you wait for the security procedures to take place.
And then, of course, youll dive into the quant and verbal sections. (You get a second 8-minute break between these two sections. Same rules as before.)
Days T-minus-7 and T-minus-6: Review the CAT
Total time: Approximately 3-4 hours.
Youre not going to do your usual comprehensive review to figure out your weaknesses and then take several weeks to learn how to do a lot of the kinds of things that you couldnt do on that last test. Your goal is no longer to lift your score.
You are still going to analyze your results but, this time, youre going to accept that your weaknesses are what they are. You likely still wont be able to do this (or do it efficiently) for the real test. And thats okay! The point is this: you know what your weaknesses are, so you can make good decisions about where not to spend time and effort on test day.
Separate the different questions into these categories:
- I know how to do this in a reasonable amount of time.
- I know how to do this, although it takes me a little extra time (up to 1 minute over the average for that type).
- I know how to do this, but I made a careless mistake.
- I used to know how to do this but havent reviewed it in a while, so I made a mistake.
- I dont know how to do this, though the explanation does make sense to me.
- I dont know how to do this and the explanation is hard to understand.
For the few days you have left, any review and practice that you do will take these different categories into account.
Types 1 and 2:
Youll generally do these problems on test day, although if you find yourself quite behind on time, its possible that you could bail on a #2. (Better, though, to bail on a #5 or #6.) Youll do some light review or practice with this material, but thats all.
Types 3 and 4:
These are your priorities for this week. You know how to get these points but something might prevent you from capitalizing on these problems on test day. For #3, what new habits do you need to build that will help you to minimize that type of careless mistake in general? Drill that habit. For #4, what do you need to review that you havent reviewed in a while and are in danger of forgetting or messing up on test day?
Types 5 and 6:
Prior to this final week, youd try to make category #5 betterthis is one of the ways to lift weaknesses and thereby lift your score.
You only have a week left, though, and your goal is not to lift your score. Your goal is to peak on test day. So heres your new mantra: On test day, let these kinds of problems go. In the next week, if you run across more of these, you can ask yourself whether theres a good way to make an educated guess, but dont prioritize these beyond that. Instead, literally just practice letting these go.
Category #6 is an automatic no-go, of course. The explanation doesnt even make any sense to you. Your goal here is simply to be able to recognize these quickly so that you can guess right away and spend your valuable time and mental energy elsewhere.
To summarize:
Prioritize categories 3 and 4.
When doing practice sets: guess whenever you recognize that one is too hard for you (categories 5 and 6). Work carefully when a problem contains a characteristic that you know tends to result in a greater incidence of careless mistakes for you (category 3).
Okay, days T-minus-7 and T-minus-6 are accounted for. Join us next time, when well talk about days T-minus-5 through T-minus-3.