Business Mindset Practice - Advice please!

[VictorR345]

Hi Stacey,

I was thinking on different ways to internalize the mindset required for the test. I'm thinking to take GMAT Exams 1 & 2 multiple times (like a dozen) in order to evaluate correctly which questions deserve my full attention, especially for Quant. I've already taken those tests for measuring my level, so it will not be the first time.
My question basically is, do yo think it is a good idea? Do you have other suggestions? Also, I wanted to create sets using the OG online tool, but since there's no adaptive component like in the GMAT tests, that practice may not be as good as with the exams. (where you will find harder questions as you move on)

Thank you for your time!

Victor

[StaceyKoprince]

Good questions!

First, I don't think you need this to be adaptive in order to still get good mindset practice. Sure, some of your choices will be around the fact that the question is objectively really hard for anyone, but some of your choices will be around just what *you* dislike. (ugh, cylinders... )

For the OG online tool, if your current Q section score is around 45 or higher, then choose only Medium and Hard questions. Then from 40 to 45, do E, M, and H. Below 40, do E and M.

For V, do M + H if your score is 36 or higher. Do EMH for 30 to 36. Do EM for below 30.

Re: the practice tests, the question pool is not very deep for the official practice tests—there's a good chance you will see repeated questions on your very first retake (especially if you haven't spent enough time studying to really change your score). By retake 4 or 5, you will mostly be seeing all questions you've seen before.

I actually think it's a really good idea to redo questions—but you want a little time / space between to allow you to start to forget the question.

So given that the adaptivity isn't necessary, I would do a mix of OG and the official practice tests, with enough time in between to start to forget. And I would weight a little more heavily towards the OG because then you can do other kinds of exercises.

For example, set up an 8-question (Q) or 9-question (V) set (or however many you want to do). Then give yourself exactly 30 seconds per question (Q, CR) or 20 seconds (SC) or 1 min (to partially read a passage) to decide: Am I in or out? Do that all the way through without actually doing any of the problems.

Then go back and do the set according to the way you'd already decided you would do it. And then analyze to see: Where did you make good calls? Where do you now realize you should've made a different decision? Why? And how will you know next time within the first 30 seconds—what do you need to see or notice to make that better decision?

And finally: I always have a particular person in mind when I'm taking the test. It's someone I worked with many years ago and this person was very nice but somehow always managed to find a way to suggest things that were a waste of time. She meant well. But I knew that half the time when she asked me to do something, I was going to have to think of a way of nicely saying "No" without saying, "That's a huge waste of time."

So I pretend that she's hovering nearby waiting to catch my attention to ask me to do something. And when I get that cylinders question (or whatever) that I just don't think is a good use of my time, I pretend that I'm saying no to this old coworker. And here's why: I don't feel bad about saying no. I *know* I'm making the right decision for me. So I don't carry over any mental "Ugh, I skipped this question, I have to get the next one" feeling. In fact, I'm happy to have let that problem go. I just dodged a bullet! I'm not going to be staying late at work to do something that I know isn't worth my time anyway!

You probably know or knew someone like this, too. Use him/her to your advantage as you build this mindset.