Chat With GMAT Test Taker On GMAT Strategy

[10:04:57 PM] gmatpill: Hi
[10:05:00 PM] student: hi Zeke
[10:05:04 PM] gmatpill: How are your GMAT studies going?
[10:05:12 PM] student: good…
[10:05:39 PM] student: are you going to host some conference call at skype?
[10:06:35 PM] gmatpill: we decided to make this a more personal experience with one-on-one chatting tonight
[10:06:47 PM] gmatpill: Some topics we’ve been talking about include time allocation
[10:06:55 PM] gmatpill: on the verbal portion
[10:07:12 PM] student: yes.. that’s where I’m most interested.
[10:07:13 PM] gmatpill: How is your performance breakdown between SC/CR/RC?
[10:09:58 PM] student: I gave two GMATPrep tests. Both the time I attempted only verbal portions. V 29 and V35 were my scores.
[10:10:51 PM] gmatpill: v29 and v35 is a decent difference
[10:11:00 PM] gmatpill: Between the 3 sections, where are you weakest
[10:11:25 PM] gmatpill: We generally recommend making your SC section extremely time efficient.
[10:11:39 PM] gmatpill: So you can free up more time for the more time-intensive RC and CR that require more thinking.
[10:12:04 PM] gmatpill: Did you review your GMATPrep tests – mark down all the ones you got wrong
[10:12:08 PM] gmatpill: And revisit them the next day
[10:12:09 PM] student: Although there were repeats, some of the repeats I got wrong. But, I couldn’t manage to finish the test on time and had to guess last 5-6 questions.
[10:12:11 PM] gmatpill: and again the next day
[10:12:55 PM] gmatpill: Ask yourself – why did you get it wrong again?
[10:13:06 PM] gmatpill: What about your thought process – you went down the same thinking path as last time?
[10:13:09 PM] gmatpill: and got the same answer?
[10:13:16 PM] gmatpill: or you went down a different path and still got the same answer?
[10:13:45 PM] gmatpill: Ask yourself: what if I focused on another part of the question? would I arrive at the same conclusion?
[10:14:14 PM] gmatpill: Every question has that SMALL point that can ultimately determine if you are on the right/or wrong track
[10:14:30 PM] gmatpill: Since you know the answers to the ones you got wrong, figure out what that SMALL point is
[10:14:44 PM] gmatpill: THe difference between a good score and a great score is an accumulation of these SMALL details
[10:14:55 PM] student: got it.
[10:14:58 PM] gmatpill: You need to identify and spot that small details in these practice GMAT questions
[10:14:59 PM] student: Yes. I made note of all the questions and did full review and re-attempted questions next day. I got most of the questions correct next day with no test pressure while reviewing.
[10:15:03 PM] gmatpill: make a note in your memory
[10:15:26 PM] gmatpill: that’s good..keep doing the same for the next test
[10:15:29 PM] gmatpill: then set aside one day
[10:15:43 PM] gmatpill: to redo questions you got wrong from both tests at the same time
[10:15:49 PM] student: ok
[10:15:54 PM] gmatpill: hold yourself to a HIGH standard
[10:16:03 PM] gmatpill: since you’ve already seen the answers and questions
[10:16:11 PM] gmatpill: there’s no reason for you to get them wrong again
[10:16:19 PM] gmatpill: in fact, focus on minimizing time
[10:16:36 PM] gmatpill: were there certain answer choices that you didn’t necessarily have to read and still could arrive at the right answer?
[10:16:54 PM] gmatpill: if so, train yourself to develop that confidence to answer the question
[10:16:56 PM] gmatpill: because you’ve seen that pattern before
[10:17:02 PM] student: ok
[10:17:08 PM] gmatpill: and can confidently choose (B)..and not bother with (d) or (E)
[10:17:19 PM] gmatpill: ( d )
[10:17:28 PM] gmatpill: I guess skype turns answer choice d into a drink
[10:17:40 PM] student: i like that
[10:17:47 PM] student: This was my split.
V29
12 incorrect of 41.
5 CR, 5 RC and 2 SC were incorrect.
V35
13 incorrect of 41. 
2 CR, 4 RC and 7 SC were incorrect.
[10:18:23 PM] gmatpill: what?! 7 SC wrong?
[10:18:46 PM] gmatpill: The SC questions come in the beginning and can set you off bad for the rest of the exam if you get the easy ones wrong
[10:19:02 PM] gmatpill: START OFF STRONG
[10:19:06 PM] gmatpill: You’re doing decent in CR and RC
[10:19:16 PM] gmatpill: were you mostly narrowing the SC to 2 choices?
[10:19:29 PM] gmatpill: Or blindly guessing?
[10:20:08 PM] student: 2-3 were blind guessing in the end. but for most of them i come to last two options.
[10:20:42 PM] student: I think i’m getting stuck between question from 21-31. I was on track till 20 but after that tests threw my timing off.
[10:21:14 PM] student: I’m trying to follow this timing plan.
[10:21:26 PM] student: 75 0
56 10
38 20
20 30
1 40
0 41
[10:21:30 PM] gmatpill: Are you identifying the question correctly?
[10:21:45 PM] gmatpill: When you are down between 2 – are you confident you know what the question is testing you on?
[10:21:51 PM] gmatpill: descriptive phrase, main sentence
[10:21:51 PM] gmatpill: vs
[10:21:52 PM] gmatpill: idioms
[10:21:55 PM] gmatpill: vs long lists
[10:22:10 PM] gmatpill: it’s critical that you know what they are testing you on
[10:22:29 PM] gmatpill: otherwise you can waste a lot of time THINKING they are testing you on subject-verb agreement, but relaly they’re testing you on X&Y consistency
[10:22:33 PM] student: generally there are two concepts tested in most of the questions.
[10:22:55 PM] gmatpill: yes..by the time you narrow it down to 2 choices, ther’es usually just 1 concept left
[10:23:01 PM] gmatpill: what are the numbers you sent?
[10:23:44 PM] student: Second column represents time left when I’m on a question in column One.
[10:24:33 PM] student: I copied from word.. so I lost the formatting and the headings
[10:24:45 PM] gmatpill: on question 38, you had 20 extra seconds
[10:25:27 PM] student: yes. I know but didn’t want to remember time in decimals
[10:26:07 PM] student: One thing I’m trying to make sure is that I don’t solve any question in the test without applying some process.
[10:26:16 PM] gmatpill: ok
[10:26:17 PM] gmatpill: one thing to note
[10:26:36 PM] gmatpill: you need to develop a sense of timing without looking at the clock
[10:26:49 PM] gmatpill: on the actual exam, if you keep looking at the clock, you’re going to psych yourself out
[10:26:54 PM] gmatpill: and raise your stress levels
[10:27:06 PM] gmatpill: you need to have a sense of time…roughly when it’s time to move on to the next question
[10:27:16 PM] gmatpill: and roughly how much time you can afford to spend on this question
[10:27:35 PM] gmatpill: sure a little practice with the timer is good in the beginning
[10:27:43 PM] gmatpill: but you’ll need to internalize that timing
[10:27:49 PM] gmatpill: every second counts on the exam
[10:27:55 PM] gmatpill: you don’t want to waste it looking up and down at the timer
[10:28:58 PM] student: how can I do that? Some questions may take up more than regular time and some of the easier ones would be knocked off quickly enough.
[10:29:21 PM] gmatpill: exactly
[10:29:25 PM] gmatpill: bust out the easy ones as much as possible
[10:29:34 PM] gmatpill: you’ll be fed another harder one
[10:30:02 PM] gmatpill: knowing that you got some easy ones earlier that took less time, you know can afford to spend a little bit more time on a hard one
[10:30:13 PM] student: ok.
[10:30:16 PM] gmatpill: it’s a fine art
[10:31:14 PM] student: do you recommend some tip for questions from 21 to 31?
[10:31:34 PM] student: are there more experimental questions in this range?
[10:32:43 PM] gmatpill: Possibly, though no one knows for sure
[10:32:56 PM] gmatpill: Probably would be lower for the first few questions of the actual exam, I would guess
[10:33:07 PM] gmatpill: So that leaves greater probability in the 21-31 range
[10:33:22 PM] student: ok.
[10:33:31 PM] gmatpill: By the time you get to 21-31
[10:33:37 PM] gmatpill: you’ll be a little tired mentally
[10:33:46 PM] gmatpill: So really it’s about maintaining your focus for a long period of time
[10:33:50 PM] gmatpill: a mental marathon of sorts
[10:34:01 PM] gmatpill: that’s what your study sessions are – mental marathon practice sessions
[10:34:23 PM] gmatpill: not only do questions get harder, but your mental capacity gets lower as the test wears you down
[10:34:27 PM] gmatpill: don’t let that happen
[10:34:33 PM] gmatpill: it’s a battle between you and the GMAT
[10:34:36 PM] gmatpill: maintain your focus even after 20 questions
[10:35:12 PM] student: oh yes. I definitely try my best, but I guess it isn’t enough.
[10:35:31 PM] gmatpill: If you watch tennis at the US Open
[10:35:35 PM] gmatpill: You’ll notice all the professionals are highly skilled
[10:35:50 PM] gmatpill: They’re all pretty much very good
[10:36:00 PM] gmatpill: The difference between the very best and the best is not skill
[10:36:13 PM] gmatpill: it’s mental capacity and psychology
[10:36:18 PM] gmatpill: The same is true for the GMAT
[10:36:19 PM] student: true
[10:36:31 PM] gmatpill: THe person with 700 is not necessarily smarter than the person with 610
[10:37:04 PM] gmatpill: He just had the mental capacity swivvel his way through the test and system
[10:41:34 PM] student: how many time full GMAT tests should I give now before my real one?
[10:42:33 PM] student: How many times can I repeat GMATprep tests? I think after a while I’ll see more repeats in GMATPrep.
[10:43:04 PM] gmatpill: Usually 2 or 3 should be fine
[10:43:27 PM] gmatpill: Repeat GMAT Prep tests as many times as you can.
[10:43:43 PM] gmatpill: You can even aim to keep doing them until you get every single question right
[10:43:50 PM] gmatpill: which is extremely difficult–but hey why not
[10:43:55 PM] gmatpill: you’ve already seen teh question before and the answer
[10:44:23 PM] student: i have subscriptions of mgmat,grockit etc… but don’t want to overwhelm myself again.
[10:45:01 PM] gmatpill: I see
[10:45:05 PM] gmatpill: treat GMATPrep and OG as primary sources
[10:45:13 PM] gmatpill: for better quality practice
[10:45:14 PM] gmatpill: use the others as additional practice.
[10:46:00 PM] gmatpill: student – I hope this chat session was helpful for you
[10:46:12 PM] gmatpill: I do need to direct my attention somewhere now
[10:46:18 PM] student: yes it was.
[10:46:19 PM] gmatpill: But as always, I’m here to help.
[10:46:24 PM] student: thank you Zeke.
[10:46:38 PM] student: have a good night.
[10:46:47 PM] gmatpill: Have a good night. Sleep well, and focus tomorrow ;]
[10:46:51 PM] student: hope to cross you on wall st some day
[10:47:03 PM] gmatpill: ;] hopefully we’ll be on teh same side of the trade
[10:47:20 PM] student: later.
[10:47:29 PM] student: thank you for your help.

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