The Holidays Will NOT Pause Your Brain, So Don't Pause Your Training

By EMPOWERgmat on December 5, 2017

It's the third week of December. Your last workday of the year just ended. The laptop goes in the closet, the practice books go on the shelf, and you tell yourself what a LOT of Test Takers tell themselves every year: "I've earned a break. I'll pick it back up on January 2nd."

Here's my verdict: taking three FULL weeks off from your GMAT training is a bad plan. Not because you don't deserve rest. You do. It's a bad plan because your brain doesn't care what the calendar says. The skills you've built over the last few months don't sit in a freezer waiting for you. They fade.

The good news? Keeping them sharp doesn't take hours. It takes about 20 minutes a day.

Why three weeks off costs you more than three weeks

Think about a marathon runner who stops running for most of a month. She doesn't come back at the same fitness level. Her first few runs are heavy and slow, and it takes weeks just to get back to where she was. She didn't forget HOW to run. She lost the conditioning.

The GMAT works the same way. What fades first usually isn't the formulas. It's the mechanics: the habit of taking notes on every single question, the reflex to TEST THE ANSWERS, the feel for what two minutes actually feels like, the instant recognition of a pattern you've seen twenty times. Those are trained reflexes, and reflexes need reps.

I'll bet that the first practice set you did after your last long vacation felt clumsy. Slower. Sloppier. Stop and actually think about that for a second. Now multiply it by three weeks. That's what January looks like if you go cold. Instead of building, you spend the first part of the month REbuilding.

And remember what you're training for. The Quant section is 37 questions in 75 minutes. Verbal is 41 questions in 75 minutes. Before those come a 30 minute essay and 12 Integrated Reasoning questions in 30 minutes. The test is adaptive question by question, which means the computer picks your next question based on how you're doing, and you can't go back to change an answer. Every careless slip costs you on the spot. Since July 11 of this year, you also choose one of three section orders, which you can read about on GMAC's official page on the sections and timing. None of that rewards rust.

Two people on a snowy hill: one takes small steady steps upward each day while the other sits on a sled and slowly slides back toward the bottom. — Small daily steps hold your ground. Sitting still lets you slide.

The 20 minute holiday routine

This isn't a study plan. It's a maintenance plan. You're not trying to make huge gains over the holidays. You're trying to walk into January at the SAME level you left December, or a little better.

Minutes 1 to 3: Warm up on your own notes. Look over the questions you've missed recently and the reasons you missed them. Just remind your brain what it's been working on.
Minutes 4 to 14: Do 4 or 5 questions with full notes on paper. Alternate days: Quant one day, Verbal the next. Use questions you've ALREADY done. What's more powerful: being an acquaintance of 5,000 questions, or being the commander of 1,000? Redoing a question tests whether you can repeat the right process, not whether you remember the answer. The official practice materials are the best source for these reps.
Minutes 15 to 20: Review WHAT YOU DID. Not "right or wrong." Did you take notes on everything? Did you take the fastest route? Where could you have saved 30 seconds?

That's it. On a packed family day, you can still find 20 minutes: before breakfast, after everyone goes to bed, on the train to your parents' place. So you have to decide what you want MORE: three weeks of zero GMAT, or a January where you start ahead instead of behind?

Here's what two of those reps might look like.

Try it

Problem Solving. Jen has twice as many holiday cards as Sam. If Jen gives Sam 6 of her cards, they will each have the same number of cards. How many cards do Jen and Sam have in total?

Show the answer

Step 1: Notes first. Write: J = 2S. J gives 6. Then equal. Question asks for TOTAL. Circle the word TOTAL.

Step 2: Notice a shortcut. Total = S + 2S = 3S, so Sam has one third of the total. That makes TEST THE ANSWERS fast.

Step 3: Start in the middle with (C). Total 24 means Sam has 8 and Jen has 16. After the gift, Jen has 10 and Sam has 14. Not equal, and Jen ends up with too FEW. So Jen needs more to start with. Go bigger.

Step 4: Try (E). Total 36 means Sam has 12 and Jen has 24. After the gift, Jen has 18 and Sam has 18. Equal. Quick check on (D): total 30 means Sam 10, Jen 20, then 16 and 14. Not equal. The answer is (E) 36.

The trap: plenty of people do the algebra correctly (2S − 6 = S + 6, so S = 12) and then click (A) 12 because they found "a number." Others click (C) 24, which is Jen's count. Both answered the wrong question. That circled word TOTAL in your notes is what saves you.

Data Sufficiency is the other Quant question type. You get a question and two statements, and your job is to decide whether the information is ENOUGH to answer the question. You don't need the actual answer.

Try it

Data Sufficiency. If n is an integer, is n odd?

(1) n² + n is even.
(2) 3n + 1 is even.

Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient.
Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

Show the answer

Step 1: Set up your notes. Write "AD" on one line and "BCE" under it. Write the question: n odd?

Step 2: TEST VALUES on Statement 1. Try n = 2: 4 + 2 = 6, which is even, so this value is allowed, and the answer is NO. Try n = 3: 9 + 3 = 12, also even, and the answer is YES. Two allowed values, two different answers. Insufficient. Cross off A and D.

Step 3: TEST VALUES on Statement 2. Try n = 1: 3 + 1 = 4, even, so it's allowed, and n is odd. Try n = 2: 6 + 1 = 7, odd, so n = 2 is NOT allowed. Try n = 3: 10, even, allowed, and n is odd. Try n = −1: −3 + 1 = −2, even, allowed, odd again. Every value that fits is odd. The logic backs it up: if 3n + 1 is even, then 3n is odd, and 3n is only odd when n is odd. Sufficient. The answer is (B).

The trap: Statement 1 LOOKS like it tells you something, so people lean toward (C) or (D). But n² + n = n(n + 1), which is two back to back integers multiplied together. One of them is always even, so the product is always even, no matter what n is. Statement 1 tells you nothing. Testing two values exposes that in about 20 seconds.

Two questions like these, done with full notes and a real review, is a complete holiday session. Now notice what you just practiced: notes, testing answers, testing values, reading the question asked. That's the stuff that fades. That's the stuff you're keeping.

A cozy kitchen table at night with a mug, a small timer and a notepad full of handwritten work, with a decorated tree glowing softly in the background. — Twenty focused minutes fit into almost any holiday day.

5 holiday mistakes (and what to do INSTEAD)

Going completely cold. "I'll start fresh in January" sounds clean, but it means starting from a lower level.
INSTEAD: 20 minutes a day, at the same time every day, so it becomes automatic.
Planning one giant "catch up" day. A five hour session on December 30th does not undo twelve days of nothing. You'll be tired, frustrated and sloppy by hour three.
INSTEAD: Short and often beats long and rare. Every time.
Doing questions on your phone, on the couch, in your head. Holiday mode makes this tempting, and it trains exactly the wrong habits.
INSTEAD: Paper and pen, every rep. Your Test Day work belongs on paper, so your practice does too.
Cramming practice tests because you "finally have time." A practice test is a measuring device. It gives you an approximate score, but it DOESN'T make you a better Test Taker.
INSTEAD: One full length test per week, max. If you take one over the break, take the whole thing, essay and Integrated Reasoning included, in the section order you plan to choose on Test Day.
Only doing the hardest questions. It feels productive. It usually isn't. The points most people are losing are on 'gettable' questions they rushed or did in their heads.
INSTEAD: Use your holiday reps on medium questions done PERFECTLY: full notes, fastest route, zero silly mistakes.

Your challenge for today

Open your calendar right now. Block 20 minutes every day from today through New Year's Day. Then do the first block TONIGHT: two questions you've already seen, full notes on paper, then five minutes asking yourself what you DID, not just whether you got it right.

Don't read another article until that first block is done. Rest over the holidays. Just don't stop.