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There is a lot to learn for the GMAT, in terms of both content and skills, and most people are preparing under a deadline. To compound matters, as time passes, it’s easy to forget some of what you’ve learned. So, it’s no wonder that many test-takers wonder how to retain information when studying. In an ideal GMAT preparation scenario, you’d maximize your rate of learning and minimize your rate of information loss.
In this article, I’ll go over some simple yet effective study techniques and methods to help you learn more, learn faster, and retain more while preparing for the GMAT.
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- Your Goal Is Active Learning
- Hold Yourself Accountable While Studying (and After)
- Taking Notes Can Improve Your GMAT Study
- Visualization Can Improve the Way You Study
- Make and Strategically Use Flashcards
- Go Beyond Memorizing to Understanding Underlying Concepts
- Reflecting on What You’ve Learned Can Improve Your GMAT Study
- Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
- Using Spaced Repetition to Accelerate Your GMAT Study
- Alternate Working on Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights
- Solve a Wide Range of Realistic Practice Problems
- Regularly Answer Questions Involving Past Topics
- Quiz and Test Yourself Regularly
- Do One-Minute GMAT Exercises at Every Opportunity
- Form Connections Between New and Old GMAT Material
- Use Mnemonics
- Be Cool, Calm, and Collected
- Get Some Exercise
- Get Enough Sleep
- Don’t Study for the GMAT When You’re Tired
- Form a GMAT Study Group
- Teach Others What You Know About the GMAT
- Final Thoughts About How to Learn Better While Preparing for the GMAT
- What’s Next?
Let’s begin by discussing how active forms of learning are much better than passive forms of learning.
Your Goal Is Active Learning
Some forms of learning, if not accompanied by other strategies, are quite passive. These include reading, reviewing PowerPoint slides and notes, and watching videos. How many times have you read a chapter only to realize that you couldn’t remember 80% of what you read? How many GMAT videos have you dutifully watched only to have little memory of the material?
Reading or watching a video is not taxing on the mind. These activities can provide you with illusory confidence that you are actually learning. So, because you may feel that you are mastering the material, you may use reading and watching videos as your default forms of learning.
Unfortunately, reading and watching videos, without other forms of concurrent learning, are weak learning tactics for most people. These passive forms of study don’t require your brain to work very hard. When the brain doesn’t have to work very hard, relatively little knowledge is gained, and even less is retained. So, unfortunately, when we only read or watch a video, we learn far less than we could, and we’ll probably find we can’t retain information very well.
So, are reading and watching videos poor study methods? Not exactly. Reading a chapter and watching videos related to the material can be powerful learning mechanisms if you become an active participant instead of a passive bystander.
In fact, on all learning fronts, the more active you can make your learning, the faster you’ll learn, the more you’ll learn, and the less you’ll forget. But, how exactly do you make your learning more active? There are a number of research-supported strategies.
TTP PRO TIP:
Combine reading and watching videos with more active forms of learning.
Let’s start with the most basic of these strategies: accountability.
Hold Yourself Accountable While Studying (and After)
It’s easy to read or hear something and tell yourself that you’ll remember it. For example, how many times have you looked at your weekly schedule to find a meeting time? Say you see that you wrote down 5 p.m. for the meeting time. If you forget the time as soon as you close your calendar, you are a victim of passive reading. The meeting time seemed simple to remember, but you did nothing active to help yourself remember it.
So, instead of just looking at the meeting time, read it and then ask yourself the time as you close your schedule. If you can recall that the meeting is at 5 p.m., then you know that you understood what you read, and you’ll remember the meeting time. As an added step, 30 seconds after you close your schedule, ask yourself again. By again recalling the time, you maximize your chances of remembering. You must take as active an approach as possible to your learning; you cannot be a passive participant.
This technique applies to your GMAT prep. When you read something, don’t let the information simply wash over you. Remember that just reading some material will result in very poor learning retention rates. Instead, check in with yourself regularly to ensure that you’re understanding and retaining what you’re reading.
For example, imagine that you have just read the definition of the least common multiple for the first time. Before you continue reading, take a moment and ask yourself to recite the definition. Then, some time later, recite the definition again. This strategy keeps you honest and helps ensure you’re actually learning, not just reading.
TTP PRO TIP:
Hold yourself accountable for learning, not just reading, new information.
Now, let’s discuss the importance of taking notes.
Taking Notes Can Improve Your GMAT Study
When you read or watch videos, take notes on the important information. By taking notes, you become a more active participant in your learning. The simple action of writing down a concept or principle will make you think more about its meaning, and the more you think about what you are learning, the better your learning will be.
For example, let’s say you are learning the difference of squares: x2 – y2 = (x + y)(x – y). Don’t just passively read the formula and continue. Instead, engage your brain by taking meaningful notes. Write down the difference of squares formula. Color-code your notes by writing the formula in red. Show an example in blue and note any special issues in green, for example. Make the notes your own.
In addition to helping you learn more, taking notes gives you something to review later, creating the opportunity for repetition of learning, which we’ll discuss shortly.
Say, for example, that you have just completed the chapter that covers the difference of squares. You correctly answered a number of quadratic equation questions, but you missed this one:
What is the value of (5552 – 552)/500 ?
Let’s say that you didn’t recognize it as a difference of squares question. Add this problem to your notes as a “case study,” highlighting this particular application of the formula.
In short, note-taking makes you a more active learner, allows you to capture key points and examples, and customizes your learning, thus making the material easier to retain. If you only read, with no concurrent study techniques, you probably won’t retain too much. To retain a larger amount of material, you want to create memories that stick, and taking notes is one way to do so.
TTP PRO TIP:
Taking meaningful notes helps you retain what you learn.
Visualization Can Improve the Way You Study
We’ve already discussed the value of active learning. Another way to be more engaged is to visualize what you’re learning. In other words, when you are learning new material, seek to create images in your brain. For example, if you just learned that rate = distance / time, instead of merely reading that formula, try to create a photograph of it in your brain. Creating an image — a snapshot — will engage more of your brain, helping you better retain what you learn.
Visualization turns what would otherwise be passive reading into a more active form of learning. Remember that anything you can do to make your studying more active will help you learn more and forget less over time.
TTP PRO TIP:
To better retain information, create mental images of key concepts.
Another method of effective learning is to use flashcards strategically.
Make and Strategically Use Flashcards
After you’ve taken notes, consider using your notes to create a set of flashcards. Making flashcards will provide you with another opportunity to think about the material and again put the information in your own words, reinforcing what you’ve learned.
In addition, flashcards will allow you to consistently and quickly review a concept and better retain the information. Flashcards are recommended because you can use them just about anywhere. If you have ten minutes on the subway, run through your flashcards. If you’re on a flight and you don’t have Internet access, quiz yourself using your flashcards. Some students prefer “old-fashioned” paper flashcards, while others prefer the digital version.
Whichever format you choose, just be sure to flip through your flashcards often. To challenge yourself even more, shuffle the deck before each use. By reordering the cards each time you review them, you will make the material unpredictable. Your brain will have to work a bit harder, and your retention will increase.
As you dive deeper into your prep, the number of flashcards you’re using will likely grow. So, to help yourself review efficiently, separate your flashcards into piles: one pile for concepts that you have mastered and another pile for concepts you have not mastered. Clearly, you would want to flip through the “not mastered” pile more frequently than the “mastered” pile.
TTP PRO TIP:
Use flashcards for consistent and quick review of concepts and formulas.
Go Beyond Memorizing to Understanding Underlying Concepts
Many concepts, such as the slots method for answering a combinations question, can be somewhat tricky to remember, and preparing for the GMAT can involve learning many such concepts. How do you remember them and keep them all straight? Yes, an approach may seem clear the week you learn about it, but what about a month later?
One answer is to go beyond memorizing concepts, formulas, and strategies, to seeking to fully understand what underlies them. For instance, if you understand how the parts of a formula relate to each other, you will remember the relationship much more easily than you would were you to simply memorize the formula. When you understand what underlies concepts, the concepts become almost unforgettable.
In fact, if you forgot something, such as the formula for rate-time-distance, but understood how to derive it, you could simply derive it yourself rather than looking up the formula. After a while, derivation and recitation would become practically one and the same. If you were not quite sure of some detail of a formula or approach, within seconds, you could confirm what is correct.
Generally speaking, the more deeply you understand something, the more its details will be clear in your mind, and the more your memory of it will be self-supporting. So, as much as is practical, seek to understand what underlies any GMAT-related idea that you want to remember.
TTP PRO TIP:
Seek to understand underlying concepts, rather than relying on rote memorization.
Reflecting on What You’ve Learned Can Improve Your GMAT Study
Research shows that reflecting on what you’ve learned can help strengthen your learning. For example, after you’ve read about a GMAT topic and watched some videos on that topic, take some time to reflect on what you’ve learned. This process doesn’t have to be a formal one. You could reflect while walking, while on the subway, while taking a break from work. Try to revisit, in your mind, what you learned. What was the essence of what you learned? Why was it important? What connections can you make to other concepts that you’ve learned?
Taking some time to reflect on what you’ve learned. This reflection can help strengthen your GMAT-specific learning.
TTP PRO TIP:
After learning new information, take some time to think about what you learned.
Let’s now discuss the importance of repetition in learning.
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Humans learn through exposure and repetition, so the more time you spend with a GMAT topic and the more often you study it, the better versed in that topic you’ll become and the better you’ll remember it. Therefore, as you prepare, it’s important to regularly re-expose yourself to previously learned GMAT material.
For example, if you learn about number properties on day one of your prep, it would not be wise to wait until day 60 to review number properties. Instead, spend some time reviewing number properties on day three, day eight, and so on. When you expose yourself to a topic over and over, you’re basically telling your brain, “Hey, this stuff is important!” You reactivate neural pathways to that part of the brain where the information is stored (and weaken competing pathways), making the information more easily accessible. That neural reactivation is a key to retaining previously learned material and keeping it fresh.
Keep this fact in mind: your brain is not designed to remember everything. In fact, it’s not designed to remember most things. Can you imagine how overwhelming it would be to remember everything you saw, heard, tasted, smelled, and felt each day? Furthermore, can you imagine how much energy it would require to remember all those details? So, by design, your brain remembers only the important stuff. But you must teach it what is important, and one way to do that is to study a topic multiple times, over multiple sittings, thereby making that topic memorable.
TTP PRO TIP:
Studying a topic multiple times improves your ability to retain information.
There is an important hack that you can use to make your learning even stronger through repetition. This hack is referred to as spaced repetition.
Using Spaced Repetition to Accelerate Your GMAT Study
It turns out that we learn more effectively when we give our brains a little time to forget what we just learned and then review and/or recall the material at a point in the near future. This process is known as “spaced repetition,” and it has been shown to improve learning considerably.
Let’s use the topic of units digit patterns as an example. Study units digit patterns for a preset time, say, one hour. Then, after the hour, move on to a new topic, for example, Identify the Assumption Critical Reasoning questions. Continue to move through a few dissimilar GMAT topics during that study session.
Over the course of a day or so, you’ll start to forget some things that you learned about units digit patterns. Now is the perfect time to restudy that topic. Sit down for a study session and work again on units digit patterns. You’ll find that you more quickly and easily attain the same level of competence that you attained in your earlier session.
In fact, you’ll probably get some new insights as you add to your knowledge base. You can continue to use spaced repetition throughout the course of your preparation. You could study units digit patterns five, six, or even seven different times, utilizing the process of spaced repetition to enhance your learning and avoid difficulty retaining information.
TTP PRO TIP:
Use spaced repetition to enhance your learning and improve retention.
Alternate Working on Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights
You know that spaced-repetition is helpful for memory and retention. Research shows that it’s also helpful to alternate between studying dissimilar topics and/or concepts.
So, you could alternate among a few different math topics, or, if you wanted to mix things up further, you could alternate between studying Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights. For example, do an hour of Quant and then take a break. Then do an hour of Verbal and take a break. Then do 15 minutes of Data Insights. Or, you may find that you better retain information if you do 30 minutes of Quant, take a break, and then do 30 minutes of Verbal, followed by DI practice.
Over time, you’ll get to know what time intervals suit you best. The key is to avoid study fatigue: keep your brain fresh, and you’ll be at max efficiency.
TTP PRO TIP:
Alternate GMAT topics to avoid study fatigue and keep your brain fresh.
Solve a Wide Range of Realistic Practice Problems
After you’ve read, watched some videos, taken good notes, quizzed yourself on the concepts with flashcards, and used spaced repetition to enhance your learning, it’s critical to put your new knowledge to use. Your goal is to develop skill in correctly answering questions, and the way to build this skill is to practice with a wide range of realistic GMAT practice questions. To answer practice questions, you must call upon what you know, and there is a strong relationship between retrieving knowledge and recalling it at a later date.
The more variations of a topic you practice, the better prepared you’ll be to handle future questions. For example, maybe you can use the slope-intercept form of a line, y = mx + b, to answer questions involving slopes or y-intercepts. However, if you have not also practiced using the formula for the standard form of a line, Ax + By + C = 0, you might struggle with a simple question about lines.
Additionally, practice other question types involving lines: parallel lines, intersecting lines, word problems using linear equations, and so forth. This practice has two benefits: you widen your scope and knowledge of a topic, and you see the many ways in which that topic can be tested.
Keep in mind that when you practice answering questions, failure is the rule, not the exception. You will get questions wrong. However, you can learn from your mistakes, thereby enhancing your knowledge and skill. Each time you practice, you should feel a little bit better about the material. Instead of practicing until you get questions right, practice until you can’t get questions wrong.
TTP PRO TIP:
To ensure mastery of a topic, practice a wide variety of questions.
After you’ve spent some time preparing, you’ll want to regularly practice with questions involving past topics.
Regularly Answer Questions Involving Past Topics
Most of the problem-solving skills you learn while preparing for the GMAT are perishable. In other words, if you don’t regularly use those skills, you’ll lose them. Thus, it’s a good idea to regularly answer questions involving previously studied topics.
Let’s say in the first month of your prep, you learned about linear and quadratic equations, number properties, exponents and roots, and inequalities and absolute values. You’ve dutifully reviewed your flashcards, but you also need to periodically use that flashcard information to solve GMAT-type questions. Therefore, you will want to regularly answer and review questions based on those topics so that you can determine whether you have forgotten any vital information or developed any weaknesses in those topics.
Each student has a different capacity for learning and retaining information, and you will want to assess yours. A wise move would be to spend about one-third of each preparation session reviewing prior material by solving problems from past topics. Also, I think that you’ll find that the more exposure you have to practice problems, the better you’ll become at solving them. Proper practice will help you improve both your accuracy and your speed.
TTP PRO TIP:
To evaluate your retention of past information, regularly practice questions on topics you’ve already learned.
Quiz and Test Yourself Regularly
You’ve been actively reading, watching videos, taking notes, making and reviewing flashcards, and practicing with realistic GMAT questions. All of these activities will help improve your knowledge retention, and most students know about the value of these activities. But there is a secret weapon that you can use in the fight against knowledge loss: regularly quizzing and testing yourself.
As you now know, the act of retrieving information (when solving practice GMAT questions, for example) helps to strengthen learning. By raising the stakes during your practice, you can further strengthen what you know. You can raise the stakes by sitting down to take quizzes and tests, which tend to evoke greater stress than problem sets do.
For example, to simulate the Quant section of the GMAT, once a week you could sit down and take a 21-question GMAT Quant quiz under realistic conditions. Or you could take a 23-question GMAT Verbal quiz. Because either of these quizzes would be more like test day than just answering sets of questions, your brain would have the opportunity to further strengthen what it has learned. Also, you will get valuable practice recalling information under stress, which is a skill all its own.
Eventually, of course, you should sit for full-length practice GMAT tests, which are as close to the real GMAT as you can get.
Regular testing and quizzing are powerful ways to strengthen your GMAT skills.
TTP PRO TIP:
To practice recalling information under time pressure, regularly quiz yourself on the material you’ve learned.
Do One-Minute GMAT Exercises at Every Opportunity
Think of all the minutes each day that you waste or spend engaging in mindless activity, such as waiting in line at the grocery store, filling your car with gas, walking the dog, waiting for the server to bring your lunch, or brushing your teeth. Make a habit of quizzing yourself during these moments. You don’t necessarily have to bring out the flashcards; just mentally review some items that require quick recall, such as the quadratic formula or the assumption negation technique.
A friend of mine memorized Hamlet’s soliloquy (“To be or not to be…”) during waiting time over a period of two weeks. Don’t underestimate the power of these free moments, which produce opportunities for strengthening your knowledge and aiding in your overall retention of pesky formulas and important details.
TTP PRO TIP:
Find ways to work quick study exercises into your daily life.
Form Connections Between New and Old GMAT Material
Perhaps the best way to retain information when reading is to connect it to what you already know. Let’s say you learned about patterns in units digits a week ago, and today you’re learning about patterns in remainders. It would be very helpful to pause for a moment or two and reflect on the similarities in the way we solve both types of problems. Making such a connection between GMAT topics will help both topics stick better in your mind.
TTP PRO TIP:
Making connections between different GMAT topics helps you remember both topics.
Use Mnemonics
A mnemonic is a memory device that utilizes a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations to help you remember information. For example, when I taught physics, my students often had a hard time remembering the colors of visible light in the proper order (by wavelength). So, I introduced them to my good friend “ROY G BIV.”
ROY G BIV is not an actual person. It’s a mnemonic to help one remember the wavelength-ordered colors of visible light: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. ROY G BIV helps make the order of these colors easy to recall.
You can use similar mnemonics (or other memorization techniques) for the GMAT. For many years, students have been taught the basic order of mathematical operations as “PEMDAS,” which stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. The good news about mnemonics is that no one has to understand them but you.
You can create your own mnemonics to help you better remember the rules and concepts you learn.
TTP PRO TIP:
Create mnemonics to help you recall key concepts and formulas.
Be Cool, Calm, and Collected
One of the most valuable skills that a person can master is managing his or her emotions. Stress and anxiety are not what you want to feel while preparing for the GMAT, because it’s very difficult to learn and to retain information when you’re feeling stressed or negative. Enjoy your learning! Approach it with positivity. Don’t get upset if you’re not mastering the GMAT material as quickly as you’d like. Getting upset is only going to further reduce the rate at which you learn and the amount of material you retain.
Instead, be as Zen as possible and remember that making mistakes is an inevitable part of learning. Each mistake that you make is one small opportunity to improve your knowledge and skills. For instance, when you make a mistake, be sure to determine why. Was it a timing issue? A concept issue? A careless error? Whatever the reason, learn from your mistakes so that you do not repeat them in answering future questions. Put yourself in a positive state of mind while preparing for the GMAT and use whatever relaxation techniques you can to keep yourself there.
If you find your level of stress and anxiety related to the GMAT difficult to manage, these essential strategies for combating GMAT test anxiety can help.
TTP PRO TIP:
Approach your GMAT prep with positivity and treat mistakes as learning opportunities.
Get Some Exercise
Research shows that people who engage in physical exercise have better information retention than those who do not. When you’re busy with school or work on top of GMAT preparation, it’s easy to let exercise take a back seat, but resisting that urge will actually help you perform better in your studies. Exercise is also a great way to blow off steam and reduce stress, which is important for remaining motivated and focused throughout your GMAT study. Do your best to keep your brain and your body in top shape. Your memory will thank you for it.
TTP PRO TIP:
Regular exercise helps you manage stress and study more effectively.
Get Enough Sleep
Proper amounts of sleep are critical for brain health and memory. Look to get six to eight hours of sleep each night. Resist the urge to burn the midnight oil. Instead, structure your day so that you can prepare and still get a reasonable amount of sleep.
TTP PRO TIP:
Good sleep habits help you learn and retain information.
Don’t Study for the GMAT When You’re Tired
Many people work or go to school full-time while preparing for the GMAT. With a busy schedule, it’s easy to wait until late in the evening to work on GMAT prep. However, it’s tough to learn and retain information when your brain is tired. Try to get some studying done early each morning, when your brain is fresh. Go to bed early on weeknights and wake up early on weekday mornings. Get some coffee or water and spend two hours studying.
One great benefit of studying before you start the rest of your day is that your brain and body will be well-rested and ready to absorb new information. There is also something satisfying about beginning the day by doing something for yourself, something that will help you grow and that will have a positive impact on your future. By the time you get to work or school, you’ll have already put in a good amount of preparation time — what a great feeling you’ll have at the start of your day!
TTP PRO TIP:
Studying when you’re fresh leads to more effective study sessions.
Form a GMAT Study Group
Research shows that peer learning is powerful. Chances are, there are many people near you who are also preparing for the GMAT. Consider forming a study group. Meet for coffee one day a week and work together. Solve GMAT problems, discuss GMAT-related concepts, and quiz each other. You’ll probably find that you remember much more at the end of the session than you would, had you worked on your own. You can also meet online using platforms such as Skype, WebEx, or Google Hangouts, to name a few.
TTP PRO TIP:
Studying with others can help you retain information than you would studying alone.
Teach Others What You Know About the GMAT
Research suggests that one of the best ways to learn and retain information is to teach it to others. Find some students who are less skilled than you are and teach them what you know. Once you’re forced to verbalize a concept, you may find some holes in your learning that need to be filled.
TTP PRO TIP:
Teaching concepts to others helps ensure you will retain those concepts.
Final Thoughts About How to Learn Better While Preparing for the GMAT
Part of the difficulty of the GMAT is that there is a huge pool of topics on which the questions are based, and you must be well-versed in as many of those topics as possible on test day. Learning concepts and developing skills are only part of the battle.
During the test, you must be able to both accurately and quickly draw on your memory to answer questions. Upon seeing a question, you won’t have the luxury of thinking, “Hey, I remember studying that about three months ago. Hmmm…what is that fact I learned back then about mixture problems?” Meanwhile, the exam clock is ticking away. Don’t put yourself in the position of having a time-consuming conversation in your head instead of answering the question.
By following the suggestions in this article, you will have learned the material and, just as importantly, you will have retained that learning to use on exam day, when both knowledge and quick recall count the most.
What’s Next?
Are you beginning your GMAT prep and wondering how to study effectively? Check out this guide to starting your GMAT prep on the right foot.
For more GMAT learning tips and good study habits, check out this article about the best way to study for the GMAT
Are you wondering how to motivate yourself to study? Learn how to find your GMAT motivation.
Looking for additional insight into the sections of the GMAT? Check out these tips for studying Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights.
