So you have finally decided to apply to business school, but your deadline is fast approaching and you only have one or two weeks before you need to take your exam – what should you do?

A student who studies for the GMAT for two weeks or less requires a very different plan than a student who studies for the more traditional one to three months.

Students studying for a longer period of time have the luxury of mastering the most effective methods and strategies before sitting for their exam.  If you are studying for less than two weeks you will not be able to master these methods and strategies.  Always remember, the GMAT is not a test for which you can cram – learning brand new methods in under two weeks is simply not possible.

Instead, students who are studying for such a short period of time should focus on two areas: improving in topics with which they are already familiar and test timing.

When studying for such a short period of time, students should not study areas with which they are not at all familiar.  This means that the inclination most students have towards studying topics such as combinations, probability and coordinate geometry may be ignored.  Instead students should think, “in what areas am I good but not great?”  Whatever the answer is, is what you should work on.

Additionally, you can improve your timing fairly quickly.  Keep in mind that you have two minutes for each math problem.  Purchase a stopwatch and make sure you are finishing in the allotted time.  If you are not done with a problem after two minutes, practice determining if you have a chance of getting it right in the next minute or so or if you need to guess and move on.  It is highly recommended that you do take at least 1-2 full length practice tests as part of your short study period, so that you’ve been through the entire experience and practiced managing your time etc before the actual exam.

By following the guidelines listed above, you will be able to see an improvement over a short period of time.  And, it should also be noted, you should only leave such a short time to study if it is absolutely necessary.  If you can take more time, you should do so.

As you’re preparing to take the test, you become very familiar with numbers, and I don’t mean just the numbers within the quantitative question.  Can you recognize the significance of the following numbers?

1) 700

700 is a 90th percentile score.  The average GMAT score for top 10 b-schools is right around the 700 range, so it’s a good score to set as your target if you’re looking to attend any of those schools.  If you knew this, that’s great.  You’ve probably already started looking at business programs you’re interested in.  If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to take a practice test to see what range you’re scoring in and how far you have to go to reach your target score.

2)  75/37

75/37 refers to the GMAT quant section being 75 minutes long and containing 37 questions.  In this handy format, it reminds you that you have an average of 2 minutes per question.  If you knew this, you’ve probably cracked open some prep material and you might even be cognizant of time management being a crucial skill for GMAT success.

3)  8

8 is the number of minutes for each of the two breaks you’ll have on the GMAT.  The first of the eight-minute breaks will be after the Analytical Writing Assessment section, and the second will be after the Quantitative section.  If you knew this, you may already be engaged in some intense preparation and have completed a practice test as well.

You may be thinking “I care about hitting a 700, and it’s good to know the 75/37 thing, but why do I care about 8?”  The best test takers are those who utilize every minute of the exam to maximum efficiency.  During the breaks, you need to stretch your legs, clear your head, and get yourself pumped up for the next section.  Lastly, for the breaks remember that 6.5 = 8.  If you exceed the eight minutes, the test will start again, with or without you!  So what I always tell students is to think of the 8 minute break as a 6.5 minute break.  You want those extra few seconds as a buffer before starting again; otherwise, what you did to relax during the break is negated by the fear of “did the test resume already?!”

It is test day.  You are on question number 11 of the quantitative section.  You have been on question number 11 for the past 2 minutes.  You glance down at your scratch work and you see a tangle of equations and calculations, but not one of them is getting you any closer to the right answer.  What do you do?

The first instinct of most students is to check how much time is left.  This is an important consideration in determining your next step, but its usefulness varies based on a couple of factors, as we will see below.

After checking the time remaining, students have two basic options: continue working on the problem or make a strategic guess and move to the next question.  If you are clearly ahead on time, especially late in a section, take another minute to try to solve it. If you are clearly behind on time, especially early in a section, guess and go to the next question.

But, what to do if your timing is right on track?  Look at the work you have done so far and ask yourself the following: how close am I to the right answer?  If you determine that it will take you two minutes or more to get there, it is time to take a guess.  Remember, GMAT math problems are designed to be completed in an average time of two minutes.  If it is going to take you longer than that, your time is better spent on later problems that you will be able to complete in the appropriate time frame.  If, however, you believe you can get to the answer in a minute or less, go ahead and finish the problem.

If you opt for the latter option, after another minute ask yourself the question again.  If you still believe you can reach the answer within another minute keep working, otherwise guess.  If you ever reach the four minute mark, even if you think you are on the right track, you need to move on – you may not see it, but you are making an error somewhere and your time would be better spent on later problems.  Learning to let go when you truly are stuck can make all the difference in your overall time management and ultimately your score.