![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2018\/07\/4-steps-analyze-gmat-practice-tests-part-1-stacey-koprince.png\")
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How many GMAT practice tests have you taken so far? Are you satisfied\u2014or frustrated\u2014with your progress?<\/span><\/p>\n One of the biggest mistakes I see students make is also relatively easy to fix: they don\u2019t learn what they should be learning from their practice tests. This is exactly what we\u2019re going to talk about in this series.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, we\u2019re going to talk about a global review of your GMAT practice tests: How did you do on executive reasoning and timing?<\/span><\/p>\n Wait, if you don\u2019t get better <\/span>while<\/span><\/i> taking a practice test, then why are we starting here? Read on.<\/span><\/p>\n Have you ever done this? You take a test, but aren\u2019t happy with your score, so a few days later (or even the next day!), you take another exam. <\/span><\/p>\n Bad move! First, your data from that first test already tells you what you need to know; your skills aren\u2019t going to change radically in a week. Don\u2019t waste 3 hours of valuable study time (not to mention, one of your limited GMAT practice tests!) in order to get the same data that you already have.<\/span><\/p>\n Alternatively, have you read online that someone out there took 14 GMAT practice tests in a 6-week period and swears by this method of studying because he then got a 760? If you do just what he did, you\u2019ll get a 760 too!<\/span><\/p>\n Sadly, that\u2019s unlikely to work either. Do you remember that one kid from your school, the one who was always excited when standardized test days came around? She was super annoying because she just did well on these tests \u201cnaturally\u201d and she actually <\/span>liked<\/span><\/i> taking them. (Yes, that was me. Sorry.)<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing: for people like me, sure, the brute force approach seems to work. But we are, in fact, extensively analyzing our own data; we just do so more quickly than most. <\/span>Everyone<\/span><\/i> needs to use this data to figure out how to get better.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re going to use your GMAT practice tests to:<\/span><\/p>\n (1) practice what you\u2019ve already learned,<\/span><\/p>\n (2) provide data to help you build a roughly 2-3 week study plan prioritizing certain things based on what your analysis told you, and<\/span><\/p>\n (3) figure out how to get better at <\/span>executive reasoning<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Go ahead and click that link now. I\u2019ll wait.<\/span><\/p>\n Ready? Let\u2019s go!<\/span><\/p>\n Within the first roughly 2 weeks of your study, take a practice test. (Seriously! Don\u2019t put this off!) Also: the gap between practice test 1 and 2 will be on the longer side\u2014say 6 to 8 weeks. After that, you\u2019ll settle into a more regular cycle of about 2 to 3 weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n I’ll base my discussion on the metrics that are given in Manhattan Prep GMAT practice tests, but you can extrapolate to other tests that give you similar performance data. <\/span><\/p>\n You will likely need <\/span>at least<\/span><\/i> 60 minutes to do this analysis, not counting any time spent analyzing individual problems. If that sounds like a lot, split this into smaller tasks. Plan to spend 30 minutes each for your initial analysis of Quant and Verbal.<\/span><\/p>\n I know you\u2019ll want to look at your overall scores first. But don’t do what so many people do\u2014immediately become demoralized because you think your score is too low. <\/span><\/p>\n Right now, your score is what it is\u2014but this isn\u2019t the real test. You\u2019re going to use this to get better. That\u2019s the real focus here.<\/span><\/p>\n So, let\u2019s put those scores into some context. First, how confident can you be that they reflect your current ability level?<\/span><\/p>\n Next, pull up the problem list for Quant or Verbal. The problem lists show each question, in order as you took the test, as well as various data points about those questions. <\/span><\/p>\n Any strings of 4+ questions wrong?<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cI did well! And then I didn\u2019t\u2026\u201d scenario<\/strong><\/p>\n The first one or two in a string were really hard, so you spent extra time. You got them wrong (because\u2026they\u2019re hard). You knew you spent extra time, so you sped up on the next couple and made careless mistakes, getting those wrong as well. <\/span><\/p>\n If this happened to you, what do you think you should do to remedy the issue?<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cI didn\u2019t study this yet and\/or this is a weakness\u201d scenario<\/strong><\/p>\n You ran up against a little string of things that you haven\u2019t studied yet\u2014or maybe it was a mix of things you don\u2019t like and things you haven\u2019t studied yet. <\/span><\/p>\n What should you do about this?<\/span><\/p>\n For the first scenario, you probably need to train yourself to bail quickly on the stuff that\u2019s too hard even when you spend extra time. Then, you won\u2019t be behind on time when you get a question at a level you can handle, and so you\u2019ll be able to get that one right next time.<\/span><\/p>\n For the second scenario, which of these things is a good opportunity for you to learn? Add a couple of things to your study plan for the coming week or two\u2014but don’t add <\/span>every<\/span><\/i>thing. There\u2019s only so much you can do in a couple of weeks, so be choosy.<\/span><\/p>\n Go back up to the top of the Problem List. The Cumulative Time column tells you how much time you spent to that point in the section. The Target Cumulative Time column indicates how much time you\u2019d want to have spent based on the timing averages we need to hit for the exam. Compare the two columns.<\/span><\/p>\n How closely did you stick to the expected timeframe? It\u2019s completely normal to be off by +\/- 2 minutes, and I\u2019m actually not too concerned as long as you\u2019re within about 3 minutes of the expected timeframe.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re about halfway through our analysis of the Problem List. What have you figured out so far? What are your hypotheses about what went well and what didn’t go as well? Are there any particular things you want to look out for to help confirm or deny those hypotheses as you continue analyzing?<\/span><\/p>\n Join us next time for Part 2<\/a>, where we\u2019ll dive more deeply into a timing analysis of individual problems on GMAT practice tests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of\u00a0her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a>\u00a0absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n How many GMAT practice tests have you taken so far? Are you satisfied\u2014or frustrated\u2014with your progress?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,880,929,52871,930,2,879,52945],"tags":[53103,52799,52820,608,53580],"yst_prominent_words":[54449,54448,54443,53635,53821,54375,53630,54451,54447,53867],"class_list":["post-16024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-101","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-practice-tests-for-current-studiers","category-products-and-services","tag-cats","tag-executive-reasoning","tag-gmat-timing","tag-practice-tests","tag-problem-list"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024","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=16024"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17288,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions\/17288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}You Don\u2019t Get Better W<\/em><\/b>hile<\/b><\/em>\u00a0Taking a Practice Test<\/b><\/h4>\n
Use Your GMAT Practice Tests to Learn Your Strengths and Weaknesses<\/b><\/h4>\n
Where Should I Start?<\/i><\/b><\/h4>\n
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\u201cCorrect \/ Incorrect\u201d Column<\/i><\/b><\/h4>\n
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\u201cCumulative Time\u201d vs. \u201cTarget Cumulative Time\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/h4>\n
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Pause and Reflect<\/i><\/b><\/h4>\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>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong>\u00a0Stacey 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.\u00a0Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"