Practicing Sets of GMAT Problems: Mimic the Real Test (Part 3 of 3)
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Welcome to part 3 of our series! If you haven’t seen the earlier installments yet, please start with part 1 and work your way back to me here.
We’ve talked about how to create sets of GMAT problems and how to set your time limit. We haven’t yet discussed what you need to learn from one of these sets before you try another one.
Review and Learn
Most of your learning doesn’t actually occur while you’re doing a practice problem. Your real learning comes afterwards, when you review your work and the decisions that you made to learn how to get better next time.
You’ll need to do two levels of review.
(1) First, look at the set as a whole:
—Did you make appropriate decisions about how to spend your (limited) time and mental energy?
—If you could have made better decisions, where and what and why and how?
For example: If, in hindsight, you realize that you really should have cut problem 3 off a lot faster and guessed, then figure out the moment at which the scale should have tipped. What were the clues that should have made you say, “This isn’t happening. I’m out.”
If you weren’t able to get to some of the later problems because you ran out of time, first tell yourself that, on the real test, your score just tanked. You don’t want do that next time! Second, feel free to try those problems now—but you still have to time yourself. If you didn’t get to 2 Quant problems, give yourself 4 minutes to try those problems now.
You might be wondering how you know that you spent too much time on a certain problem. Here’s an additional angle you can add to your sets of GMAT problems: have two timers available. One will count down the time you’re allowed for the entire set. The other will allow you to track your time per question—you just need a timer that has a “lap” button. (Most timers on smart phones have this feature built in.) Every time you finish a problem, hit that lap button. (This mimics the real test, too! You have to hit “Next” and “Confirm” buttons on the real test in order to advance to the next problem.)
(2) Then, dive into the individual problems:
—Did you actually understand what the problem was asking and telling you?
—Were you able to come up with a good plan or approach to tackle the problem?
—Did you have the necessary skills and knowledge to execute on your plan?
Take a look at this article about the 2nd Level of Learning on the GMAT to help you analyze your work; it contains a general framework for extracting takeaways from problems and links to a series of questions you can ask yourself to really dig in and figure out how to get better.
At times, you’ll run across a problem that you feel you should know how to do—but maybe you made a careless mistake or forgot something and need to go look it up. Feel free to look up anything you want and use any resources you have, then try this problem again; you don’t even need to time yourself this time around. If, in the end, you get stuck, go ahead to the solution to see what you can learn.
Personally, I think that kind of approach is great for almost any problem. If I can figure anything out on my own, versus just passively reading or watching an explanation, then I’m going to learn and remember more.
Okay, I reviewed the set. NOW can I make another?
Yes! As long as you promise me that you really did thoroughly review and learn from the previous set. 
A lot of students will just plow through a million sets of GMAT problems without really learning from them. Obviously, I don’t want you to do problems but not learn from them.
Earlier, I told you to do larger sets in multiples of 4 for Quant—and I’m finally going to tell you why. (By the way, I suggest multiples of 8 for Verbal.)
We’ve got some pretty cool strategies for you to use to track your overall timing across all of the questions in the IR, Quant, and Verbal sections. If you have access to our Interact lessons, check out the Prepare to Face the GMAT lesson in session 6 of the course. I do have a blog-post version of this (though it doesn’t have all of the info that’s in Interact—so if you do have access, do the Interact lesson).
These strategies involve organizing your Quant work in groups of 4 and Verbal in groups of 8—so if you hold to these groupings in your problem sets, too, then you’ll truly be mimicking full test conditions.
Are there any other good sources of problems for making sets of GMAT problems?
Yes! As I mentioned in an earlier installment, the Official Guide* books do come with online access to the same questions that are in the books. That online access allows you to set up random question sets.
In addition, the official GMAT Prep software comes with 90 free practice problems that can also be made into random question sets. You can also buy an add-on pack of about 400 questions for additional, random practice. You can choose certain parameters (number of questions, question type, and difficulty bucket).
Final Words
I know I said this once already, but it’s so important that I’m going to repeat it: the vast majority of your learning comes AFTER you have finished the problem set, when you analyze both the problem itself and your own work. Don’t just do problem set after problem set!
Good luck with your study. Do you have any other tips to help your fellow students create effective problem sets? Tell us in the comments section below! ?
*The Official Guide for GMAT® Review comes with online access (at gmat.wiley.com) to all of the problems printed in the book, along with 50 Integrated Reasoning problems. The website allows you to create random problem sets with certain parameters (question type, number of questions, and difficulty buckets).
You can (and should!) also download the free GMATPrep software made available by the official test-makers (at mba.com); it comes with two free practice tests and 90 free practice questions. You have to “buy” it in the store, but the cost is $0. You can also buy an add-on pack of about 400 questions for $30 (as of the time of this writing).
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Stacey Koprince is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here.