Managing your GMAT preparation
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Although cliched, this saying cannot be more true when it comes to GMAT.
Though there is no one "ideal preparation time" that one requires for preparing for the GMAT, we believe a regular preparation will take anything between 6 to 8 weeks. The duration might shrink to about 3 to 4 weeks
if you intend to prepare full time for the GMAT. The durations mentioned below are for the regular 6 to 8 weeks preparation schedule. Adjust the schedule suitably if you are planning to follow a full time rigorous GMAT preparation.
Phase 1 - Skill Building - 3 weeks
- GMAT Diagnostic Test: Before you start your prepartion take a full length timed GMAT diagnostic test. Find out where you stand. This test should be representative of a real GMAT test. The scores in the test will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and help you draw a schedule for GMAT preparation.
- Get a Comprehensive GMAT preparation material, not books that only have few practice exercises and some full length tests. Work through the lesson materials concentrating on skill building, not just practice test questions. Draw a schedule that will include covering ground in all the three areas of the quantitative section viz., arithmetic, algebra and geometry. Simultaneously you should spend time on English Sentence Correction and also master tips and tricks for reading passages fast and understand nuances of answering critical reasoning quetsions.
Pace yourself so that you complete the lesson materials in about 3 weeks from the start date.
- As you complete each chapter or topic, be it in math or in English, complete chapterwise exercises and tests that would help you consolidate your learnings from the topic. If your GMAT preparatory material does not have adequate test/ practice exercises, look for additional sources.
Phase 2 - Full Length Tests, Analysis, Feedback - 3 Weeks
In the second phase focus on taking as many full length timed tests as possible. It will be a good idea to take at least three tests every week starting from the fourth week. This way, you will get to take between 8 to 10 tests before you appear
for the actual GMAT.
Taking tests alone is not sufficient. All that it does is to improve your patience to face an exam that lasts at least 3 hours and 30 minutes. Analysing each test and getting feedback is the most important aspect of taking the test.
How to analyse a GMAT Practice test?
First things first - Do not skip the AWA section while you take the practice test. Most students skip the first one hour and proceed to take the multiple choice questions directly.
After you have taken the test, you will find that most practice test softwares provide you with a range of information to help you analyse your performance.
- Find out the questions where you have gone wrong and make a note of the kind of mistake you have made. Is it a mistake in understanding the language of the question? Or is it an error on account of oversight? Or is it an error on account of not being clear with the fundamentals in a certain topic or area?
- Check to see if you managed to attempt all the questions. If you have done it within the given time, most of the testing software will give you the average time that you took to answer the questions in each of the sections. In addition, these software also keep track of the time you took to answer each specific question.
Note down all the questions where you have taken at least 20 seconds more than the average time taken for the entire section. Make a note of the topics and type of questions where you exceeded your average by at least 20 seconds.
- Having noted down these info, you will now be able to map areas where you need to improve either on skill building, brushing up formulae, getting assistance on clearing doubts or realize that you need more practice exercises in a particular topic. Work on these recommendations that you have got after analysing the test.
- Take the next full length test only after you have been able to satisfactorily improve on the feedback that you had generated for yourself by analysing the previous test(s).
- If you consistently fair poorly in a topic or section, seek external help to cope with that topic or section. Your GMAT score is a very important component for securing a seat in a good b school - so take your GMAT preparation seriously.
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