I watched a documentary “American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden” about how the US Navy SEALs captured and killed Osama Bin Laden.
One thing that fascinated me in the documentary was how the Navy Seals and the CIA prepared for the mission beforehand.
The CIA built a mock-up of the actual compound in which they believed Osama was. The seals used the mock-up to rehearse their movements. They ran 100’s of drills replicating various expected scenarios. They knew what the compound looked like from the outside (satellite images). So, that was easy to replicate. They planned for and practised as many eventualities they could think of.
- Helicopters rehearsed their flights. SEALs practised using a rope to land from the helicopter on the top of the mock-up building and the courtyard.
- They did not know the interior layout. So they ran multiple drills with different potential layouts they could encounter indoors.
- They thought of every granular detail: Where in the helicopter are you going to sit? Where does the dog go?
- They simulated various things that could go wrong: Let’s simulate that a car left. Let’s simulate the fast rope from the helicopter didn’t work. What happens if this guy gets shot? What happens if this room blows up? What happens if we’re down from 24 guys to 12 guys?
They thought through each of these, and then they practiced them. They ran drills for each scenario. Not just in their heads. They actually executed them. Again and again.
So when the mission happened, and one helicopter did crash-land, they didn’t freeze. They had thought of that eventuality before. They had practiced it. They knew what to do. They had plan B, plan C and plan D in place.
Next level preparedness!
That’s exactly what I recommend you do for developing test-taking skills for the GMAT.
Use this framework to become a better test taker
Sure, one part is: try to avoid bad situations in the first place. But don’t stop there. Also plan: if a bad situation does happen, how will you respond? And not just “I’ll figure it out in the moment.” That’s the worst plan. Because in the moment, your brain is under stress. It won’t think calmly. Instead: chalk out eventualities. Decide how you’d like to ideally respond. And then practice those responses. So that when it happens for real, your brain doesn’t debate. It just executes. Because it’s one thing to know what you should do. It’s another to actually do it under pressure. That second part requires practice and training.
Essentially, I recommend a 3-step approach.
- Think of eventualities. What could go wrong during a section? Taking too long on initial questions, getting rattled by a tough question, blanking out.
- Chalk out how you’d ideally respond. Don’t leave it to your stressed brain on test day. Figure out beforehand: if X happens, I should do Y.
- Create simulations to practice your responses. Knowing isn’t enough. You have to drill it until the response feels automatic.
Now, to help you see this whole thing more practically, I’m going to share some eventualities, their corresponding ideal responses and how you can practice them. I want to stress though: do not treat this list as comprehensive. Figure out what issues you are facing that could be related to test-taking. Then figure out what could be ways to deal with such a situation – if it rises again. And then practice it so it becomes easier and more natural to execute too. The way to work on these aspects is not to just take more and more practice tests. Many situations might not even arise in a practice test. Moreover, the practice you get through tests might not be enough to help you address those issues.
Keep in mind: These are things related to test-taking and not skill-building. So all this should not be done in the initial stages of your prep. This stage comes after you are already getting high accuracies in questions when you attempt them without time limits.
Situation – Ideal Response – Prepare
1. You take 10-12 minutes on the first 3 questions
Ideal response: Don’t try to attempt each of the remaining questions in 1 or 1.5 minute. Instead, identify questions that appear even somewhat difficult, bookmark them and move on within 30 seconds. Skip a few questions here and there to save time so you can still attempt the rest at a pace you are more used to. Start taking calls to skip right away. Do not leave that till the last few questions.
How to practice: Do drills in which you don’t have enough time to answer all questions. e.g. 10 questions in 15 minutes. Do not try to answer all. Use such drills to get better at identifying good candidates to bookmark for the end. If you answer Instead of trying to hastily answer all 10, find those 6-8 questions you can answer properly in those 15 minutes.
2. You spend 6 minutes on one question
Ideal response: Similar to the first simulation. You now don’t have enough time left to answer all the remaining questions properly. Start taking calls. Start skipping questions that seem even a bit tricky. Do justice to a few instead of trying to manage all.
How to practice: In case such a situation arises, the way to work on it is the same as what I mentioned for point 1. To try to avoid such a situation in the first place, practice. See how aware you feel about time in the middle of doing a question. Be ready to make some tough calls. If no path appears in ~2 minutes, give yourself 30 more seconds. Still stuck? Shift your mindset from: “I have to get an answer” to “How can I eliminate a few options and make a smart guess?” Make 3 minutes a hard-deadline for every question (expect the first question of RC and MSR).
3. Five questions left, six minutes
Ideal response: Triage. Decide within 10-15 seconds whether to attempt or skip. You have time to only answer 2 or 3 questions comfortably. You goal is to practice finding the best 2-3 questions out of the 5.
How to practice: Run 5-question sets with 6 minutes. Remember: do not try to somehow answer all 5 in the first go. Find good candidates. Do justice to them. Skip the other questions quickly.
4. You feel the first section went horribly
Ideal response: Pause. Deep breath. Maybe it didn’t go as badly as I currently think. I’ll only find that out once I see the score at the end of the test. For now, it’d be best if I don’t keep thinking about the previous section and focus on the next. Also, realise that there will still be some residual stress. So, it’s ok to go extra slow. Give yourself the time you need to bounce back.
5. You just can’t seem to get to answer to a seemingly easy question
Ideal response: Don’t decide difficulty based on how the question seems. If you’re stuck, you’re stuck. Cap yourself at ~2:30–3:00. Make and educated guess and move on.
How to practice: Practice some mixed-bag questions in which you don’t know the individual difficulty of any. Try to take calls about whether a question is easy, medium or hard. I expect that a significant proportion of your calls will be wrong. We’re anyway not good judges of difficulty. So do not make that a decision-making factor when it comes to whether to continue to spend time on a question.
6. Panic loop (“I’m behind!” → rush → errors → more panic)
Ideal response: Become aware that you’re trying to rush because you’re pressed for time. Accept that the time loss has already happened. Now the goal is to think of how best you can handle the current situation. The solution will not be to suddenly become a ‘superhero’ and answer all the remaining questions quickly and correctly. If you try to get faster than you’re used to, your accuracy will dip. Realise you’re rushing. Instead go in the other direction. Since you’re panicking, you need extra time to understand and reason through questions. That’s ok. Give yourself the extra time. It is what is needed in the moment.
How to practice: Run drills in which you start behind on time. Rehearse resetting and giving yourself the time you need despite the shortage of time.
7. Blanking out (you read a question, brain freezes)
Ideal response: Don’t fight the situation. Accept it. Right now the brain is not working at its full capacity. I need to give it time to get back to that stage. For now, I’ll go very patiently. If I’m already blanking out, rushing is only going to make matters worse.
You don’t need to run all these simulations in one go. But over the course of your prep, pick a few, design drills around them, and repeat until your response feels natural. e.g. It’s one thing to know you should stay calm when you’re behind. It’s another to actually practice it. Do the second. That’s what will carry you on test day.
Hopefully your test goes smoothly and nothing “bad” happens. But, our old friend Murphy and his law could be at play in the background. So, just hoping that nothing bad will happen is not enough. It is better that we are prepared in a way that even if something bad happens, we know exactly how to deal with it.