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1 Month to go, 42Q 35V most recent CAT(t-640)

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by spark » Fri Mar 08, 2013 5:37 pm
Here are some ideas that might help.

1. Review your most recent CAT (and all subsequent CATs) thoroughly before taking another. Does it point to topics that could use more attention? Are there any patterns in the silly mistakes you made and can you do any targeted exercises to address them? Are you able to do the problems you missed without looking at the solutions? Did you have any lucky guesses that deserve another look? For the problems you got right, could you have gotten any of them right faster using the approach outlined in the solution? Did you go seriously overtime on any problems (3.5 min+)? How was your pacing? In hindsight, were there any challenging problems that were clearly out of your comfort zone and that you would have done better to guess on almost immediately?

2. If possible, schedule your remaining CATs at the same time of day as your real exam.

3. If your remaining CATs trend upward, don't let up. Keep up the intensity of your study and stay focused on truly maximizing your score. If your remaining CATs trend downward or are mixed, don't get discouraged. Try to accept the CATs with low scores as gifts that point out your weaknesses, just when you need them pointed out.

4. Focus your studies on topics and exercises that will shore up any core skills that need polishing. It's strategically more important to avoid missing easy and medium difficulty problems than it is to prove that you can get the most difficult problems right.

5. Your verbal is stronger than your quant, so the conventional wisdom is that you'd be better off devoting more time to quant. But if you've already pursued that strategy and neglected the verbal side, you might actually pick up points more easily by spending a greater proportion of your time sharpening your verbal skills. In particular, I'd push sentence correction if you haven't done so already.

6. Taper off your studies in the last few days and get enough rest. It's very important to go in well rested and fresh, so you can think on your feet. I'd recommend taking your last CAT at least 3 days before your real exam.

If you'd like to share any of your specific challenges, I'd be happy to try to give you some more targeted tips.

Good luck!
Stuart Park
Simply Brilliant
Stuart is a Harvard grad GMAT expert who scored 760 the first time he took the exam, with 99th percentile quant and verbal scores. He has extensive experience teaching for one of the "elite" GMAT prep companies. Through https://www.simplybrilliantprep.com he offers online classes, private tutoring and MBA application consulting for clients worldwide.
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by brianlange77 » Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:43 pm
DCS80 wrote:input? still using Manhattan guides/study approach....planning on taking another CAT this weekend.
There's always time for the development of a great study plan. Since you are in the final stretch -- you may find these articles interesting.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... an-part-1/
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ew-part-2/

The biggest thing is to actually spend the time to allow yourself to develop a plan and then stick to it.

Good luck.

-Brian
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