After you’ve read, watched some videos, taken good notes, quizzed yourself on the concepts with flashcards, and used spaced repetition to enhance your learning, it’s critical to put your new knowledge to use. Your goal is to develop skill in correctly answering questions, and the way to build this skill is to practice with a wide range of realistic GMAT practice questions. To answer practice questions, you must call upon what you know, and there is a strong relationship between retrieving knowledge and recalling it at a later date.
The more variations of a topic you practice, the better prepared you’ll be to handle future questions. For example, maybe you can use the slope-intercept form of a line, y = mx + b, to answer questions involving slopes or y-intercepts. However, if you have not also practiced using the formula for the standard form of a line, Ax + By + C = 0, you might struggle with a simple question about lines.
Additionally, practice other question types involving lines: parallel lines, intersecting lines, word problems using linear equations, and so forth. This practice has two benefits: you widen your scope and knowledge of a topic, and you see the many ways in which that topic can be tested.
Keep in mind that when you practice answering questions, failure is the rule, not the exception. You will get questions wrong. However, you can learn from your mistakes, thereby enhancing your knowledge and skill. Each time you practice, you should feel a little bit better about the material. Instead of practicing until you get questions right, practice until you can’t get questions wrong.
Warmest regards,
Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep
