One of the main goals of GMAT Hacks is to help guide you through the quagmire that is the commercial GMAT prep marketplace. There are some good resources out there, and there’s a lot of garbage. Unfortunately, even if you find the best resources, you still may not use your time as effectively as you could.

Here are the two things that will help you use your time the most effectively when doing practice questions: (1) Choose realistic questions. Start with the Official Guides.  (2) Choose questions at the appropriate difficulty level.

The second one is much harder than the first. How do you know how difficult each question is? After all, you’d have to do it to know how challenging it is, right?

To read more, follow the link below…

This is an excerpt from a longer article by Jeff Sackmann, originally published at GMAT Hacks.  Jeff has created several valuable GMAT-preparation resources, including Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal.

Interested in reading more? Click HERE to see more test prep advice.

If you’re like me, the hardest thing about the GMAT Verbal section is that it is just plain boring.

The content is uninteresting and unfamiliar, the arguments are flawed, the sentences are ungrammatical (even the right ones aren’t very good sometimes), and you’ve got to focus on every last detail for more than an hour. It’s like reading a bad in-flight magazine but with the expectation of a detailed quiz you land. You can learn all the test-taking tips in the world, but they won’t make taking the exam any less of a slog.

This is an excerpt from a longer article by Jeff Sackmann, originally published at GMAT Hacks.  Jeff has created several valuable GMAT-preparation resources, including Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal.

Interested in reading more? Click HERE to see more test prep advice.

Most test-prep resources tell you that, in order to get better at handling GMAT Reading Comprehension passages, you should do lots of reading. Preferably, you should read things that are similar to GMAT passages.

That’s easier said than done. However, if you’ve practiced much Reading Comp, you know that many passages fit into the same patterns:

• A theory is described and criticized;
• Competing ideas are offered and compared;
• A discovery or scientific phenomenon is explained.

You’ll consistently find reading material that follows those patterns (without requiring too much of your time!) in the book review section of a newspaper or serious magazine such as The New Yorker or The New York Review of Books.

Book reviews are great practice for this, because the reviewer will often differ from the author of the book under consideration in a general way. The argument may hinge on details, but you’ll want to read for the more general differences in arguments. No matter how many details and technical definitions you see, the focus should always be on the overall structure of the piece.

This is an excerpt from a longer article by Jeff Sackmann, originally published at GMAT Hacks.  Jeff has created several valuable GMAT-preparation resources, including Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal.

Quite often, the last time I meet with a student, often a couple of days before their GMAT test date, they tell that they don’t “feel” ready for the exam. In some cases, they’ve been studying hard for months; how can it be that after all that time, they don’t feel fully prepared?

The truth is, very few people very feel truly ready to take the GMAT. You probably won’t either. Waiting until you feel ready is just asking to burn out, and it’s probably not an efficient use of your time.

So what can you do? Follow the link below to find out more…

This is an excerpt from a longer article by Jeff Sackmann, originally published at GMAT Hacks.  Jeff has created several valuable GMAT-preparation resources, including Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal.

Interested in reading more? Click HERE to see more test prep advice.

Many people associate being good at math with being able to do math quickly. There’s plenty of truth to that: usually, when you struggle with something, it takes longer than if it’s a strong point for you.

However, when you’re preparing for the GMAT Math section, don’t work quickly for the sake of working quickly. Speed on math questions isn’t something you can develop by trying really hard and moving your pencil faster: it will come when you are more comfortable with the underlying concepts. For that reason, make a concentrated effort to slow down.

But how can you do that? Follow the link below to find out more…

This is an excerpt from a longer article by Jeff Sackmann, originally published at GMAT Hacks.  Jeff has created several valuable GMAT-preparation resources, including Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal.

Interested in reading more? Click HERE to see more test prep advice.

The idea that the first 5 to 10 questions in each section are somehow particularly crucial to your success is a myth with staying power, but a myth nonetheless. And even if it were true, there’s only so much you can do; as I tell my students, would you just “try really hard” on those questions if you knew they were so important?

Perhaps you would, but I would hope that you plan to “try really hard” on every question.

Just as test-takers tend to overestimate the importance of the first several questions in each section of the GMAT computer-adaptive test, they tend to underestimate the importance of the last several.

Here’s why you shouldn’t…

This is an excerpt from a longer article by Jeff Sackmann, originally published at GMAT Hacks.  Jeff has created several valuable GMAT-preparation resources, including Total GMAT Math and Total GMAT Verbal.

Interested in reading more? Click HERE to see more test prep advice.