Published Sep 25, 2003
When I was preparing to take the SAT, one of the most important things I learned from my Princeton Review prep book was how to spot the trick questions and answers in that test. My Princeton Review GMAT prep book is doing the same thing, and I think it will be very helpful. With many of the wrong answers in the test designed to look “right”, it’s important to know how to spot these answers and stay away from them.
I’m also learning good tricks to find the answers to math problems. I spent way too much time on a few problems during the practice test, and these tricks all help me shortcut certain time-consuming mathematical tasks.
Until about sixth grade, I performed awfully on standardized tests; some of my teachers even wanted to send me back a grade because of my scores. In junior high I learned a lot about being a better test-taker, including how to pay attention to the question being asked. But, doing my review work, I find myself skipping over parts of problems and therefore getting the answers wrong. It’s disappointing, but I think it’s a consequence of the work I’ve been doing for the past few years. I deal with problems every day — but they’re not already-defined problems; I have to define them myself. So I think it’s unfamiliar to me to have to work with already-defined problems. Oh well, practice practice practice will fix that!