![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/03\/4-4-17-social-1.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Guess what?\u00a0You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free\u2014we\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Welcome to part 3 of our series! If you haven\u2019t seen the earlier installments yet, please start with part 1<\/a> and work your way back to me here.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve talked about how to create sets of GMAT problems and how to set your time limit. We haven\u2019t yet discussed what you need to learn from one of these sets before you try another one.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of your learning doesn\u2019t actually occur <\/span>while<\/span><\/i> you\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to do two levels of review. <\/span><\/p>\n (1) First, look at the set as a whole:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014Did you make appropriate decisions about how to spend your (limited) time and mental energy? <\/span><\/p>\n \u2014If you could have made better decisions, where and what and why and how? <\/span><\/p>\n 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, \u201cThis isn\u2019t happening. I\u2019m out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If you weren\u2019t 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\u2019t want do that next time! Second, feel free to try those problems now\u2014but you still have to time yourself. If you didn\u2019t get to 2 Quant problems, give yourself 4 minutes to try those problems now.<\/span><\/p>\n You might be wondering how you know that you spent too much time on a certain problem. Here\u2019s an additional angle you can add to your sets of GMAT problems: have <\/span>two<\/span><\/i> timers available. One will count down the time you\u2019re allowed for the entire set. The other will allow you to track your time per question\u2014you just need a timer that has a \u201clap\u201d 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 \u201cNext\u201d and \u201cConfirm\u201d buttons on the real test in order to advance to the next problem.)<\/span><\/p>\n (2) Then, dive into the individual problems:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014Did you actually understand what the problem was asking and telling you?<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014Were you able to come up with a good plan or approach to tackle the problem?<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014Did you have the necessary skills and knowledge to execute on your plan?<\/span><\/p>\n Take a look at this article about the <\/span>2<\/span>nd<\/span> Level of Learning on the GMAT<\/span><\/a> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n At times, you\u2019ll run across a problem that you feel you should know how to do\u2014but 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\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019m going to learn and remember more.<\/span><\/p>\n Yes! As long as you promise me that you really did thoroughly review and learn from the previous set. <\/span>\u263a<\/span> A lot of students will just plow through a million sets of GMAT problems without really learning from them. Obviously, I don\u2019t want you to do problems but not learn from them.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier, I told you to do larger sets in multiples of 4 for Quant\u2014and I\u2019m finally going to tell you why. (By the way, I suggest multiples of 8 for Verbal.)<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve 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 <\/span>blog-post version<\/span><\/a> of this (though it doesn\u2019t have all of the info that\u2019s in Interact\u2014so if you do have access, do the Interact lesson).<\/span><\/p>\n These strategies involve organizing your Quant work in groups of 4 and Verbal in groups of 8\u2014so if you hold to these groupings in your problem sets, too, then you\u2019ll truly be mimicking full test conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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).<\/span><\/p>\n I know I said this once already, but it\u2019s so important that I\u2019m 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\u2019t just do problem set after problem set!<\/span><\/p>\n 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!\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Guess what?\u00a0You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free\u2014we\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Welcome to part 3 of our series! If you haven\u2019t seen the earlier installments yet, please start with part 1 and work your way back to me here. We\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,52871,930,2,8,10],"tags":[53002],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-quant-on-gmat","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-sets-of-gmat-problems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13473"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13527,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13473\/revisions\/13527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13473"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReview and Learn<\/b><\/h4>\n
Okay, I reviewed the set. NOW can I make another?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Are there any other good sources of problems for making sets of GMAT problems?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Final Words<\/b><\/h4>\n
*<\/span>The Official Guide for GMAT\u00ae Review<\/span><\/i> comes with online access (at <\/span>gmat.wiley.com<\/span><\/a>) 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).<\/span><\/h6>\n
You can (and should!) also download the free GMATPrep software made available by the official test-makers (at <\/span>mba.com<\/span><\/a>); it comes with two free practice tests and 90 free practice questions. You have to \u201cbuy\u201d 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).<\/span><\/h6>\n
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\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT \u00a0for 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\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"