by RonPurewal Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:25 pm
here are 2 suggestions that you may find productive.
(1) for each problem on which you simply couldn't come up with an approach, find the corresponding mgmat strategy guide, and find the problem in the problem lists at the back of the guide. then go through most, or even all, of the other problems in that list - noting the similarities between the problems (especially signals in the problem statement that tell you what kind of strategy to use), and noting the strategies and approaches that they have in common.
it's hard to study problems when they're islands; the more connections you can make, the easier it will be to study the problems.
(2) make a flash card for each problem. on the front of the card, just write the problem (along with its answer choices, if it's PS). on the back of the card, write as many of the following as you can:
- approaches that work (no need to write out the whole solution unless it's tricky and elaborate)
- signal words in the problem that tell you to use those approaches
- tricks/traps in the problem (if you had an approach but got the problem wrong, then you should be able to identify at least one such trick/trap, because you must have fallen into it)
- any secondary methods that also work (vic, smart numbers, working backwards, estimation, and so on)
these methods are fairly time-intensive, but they may give you the edge you need to tackle those tougher problems.
good luck