GMAT Study Plan - How to Start your GMAT Prep

Gautam/bb thanks for your inputs.
I actually started my prep in April (gave over a year break because I was discouraged). So its been about 3/4 months of prep, and now I'm writing on August 3rd. I guess my main weaknesses are Combinatorics/probability, number properties DS questions (700-800 level), Rates, functions (I can’t find questions on functions ANYwhere - didn't find Manhattan book helpful). Verbal: SC (reviewing Manhattan, its helping a lot!).

I’ve charted a tentative schedule for the next 2 weeks before my test, based on advice on some other forums and your advice; please let me know what you think:

Day 1 (today, July 14th) – Map study plan, OG 10 – Finish DS (50Q left), Verbal Supplement RC (SC/CR complete) – do 6 passages on timer. OG 10 PS – do 25 Q (still 200+ left)

Day 2 – MGMAT 3 (morning/afternoon), evening: OG 10 PS: 50Q OR Manhattan SC Idioms list (haven’t touched)

Day 3 – Review MGMAT 3 in depth. Finish Idioms, review few chapters SC Manhattan. OG 10 PS (finish it already!!). RC Supplement (6 passages on timer)

Day 4 – Questions on probability/combi from prep source. Practice calculations (20 x 20 tables once, remember squares and inverse ratios for percentage). CR practice (begin OG 10 CR)

Day 5 – Manhattan Number Properties (read specific chapters & practice corresponding OG 12 questions again). OG 10 SC questions practice. Read Manhattan SC

Day 6 – MGMAT 4, RC Supplement book (try to finish!), do quant questions from prep book (Jamboree) for specific questions

Day 7 – OG 10 SC (50Q), OG 10 CR (50Q), practice quant (leave it open)

Beyond this, it will mainly be revision of OG 12 (last 50 questions), going through practice questions, sitting with a friend to go over a probability/combi/inequality basics
Day 8 – <practice quant> , Finish OG 10 VERBAL

Day 9 - <practice quant> <practice RC/SC>

Day 10 – GMAC 2 (or should I take MGMAT 5 first??), revise EVERY QUESTION in depth using analysis guide on this club

Day 11 - <tentative>

Day 12 - <tentative> I still have MGMAT 5/6 and free Knewton test left (also want to reload GMAC and write at least twice to exhaust questions, maybe???)
Day 13 - Day 20 (tentative, don’t want to go that far right now). Day 21 is D-Day!

Lengthy read, but any comments or suggestions would be awesome. The advice on this forum has really kept me going these past few months. Can't thank GMATClub enough.

Aximili

Before responding to the above post, thank you so much for responding - really appreciate it. I read this Friday night before going to bed (India time), and applied some of the points yesterday to MGMAT 3 - 740 (M47, V44)!! My Math remained constant, but verbal +3!. That said, I took a 14 minute break M & V as opposed to 8 minutes, so that probably helped me recover from the severe disappointment I was feeling post M (which i thought went horrid).

Thank you Manhattan & bb, I''m going to print out the above advice and read it regularly till D-Day to remind myself not to make similar mistakes! That said, wrt to your advice:


"I often find a big problem is staying too long on questions that should be abandoned in favor of strategic guessing."/"being ok with that and picking your battles is a strategic, psychological step that can often get overlooked."
I'm JUST beginning to understand this. MGMAT has been the real teacher with this respect, for me to maintain a consistent 700 (which I have till now), with my weak math base, the MGMATs force me to very often guess or have no hope of finishing. Even with this latest MGMAT 740, I had 8 math questions left in 4 minutes! I remember the first 2 times i wrote the actual GMAT, I just could NOT get myself to move on leaving me with 8 Quant questions in the final 4/5 minutes (I didnt even read the final 5). Again, I'll keep the strategic guessing point in mind.


"If you see that you are spending longer on questions you get wrong than questions you get right,"
Hmm, again I haven't used the per-question time function on the MGMAT. I will keep this in mind during the review for successive tests (and while re-reviewing). I've been ignoring the value of that function so let me focus more here.


"Doing a really detailed review is preferable to burning through a lot of new questions--especially if you haven't mastered the old questions."
I'm going to take this advice to heart. I slowed down the pace today. I'd finished DS from OG 10 on Friday, spent 4 hours going over my mistakes on the last 50Q today instead of quick review. I've been going back and forth feeling guilty coz I didn't buy the Club tests which everybody here advocates, as I wanted to have all bases covered - after reading your advice I'm certain I will not buy those and not regret it either! Keeping your points in mind, once I'm done with OG 10 (and revise final 50 questions of OG 12 sections), I'm going to focus on Manhattan SC (I'm sure if I review that guide twice it'll give me another +1 on the verbal as my SC accuracy rate is still ~60% on MGMATs) & writing/re-writing GMAC tests.

You recommended I don't take any tests in the final week post GMAC 2- I'll do my best to wrap up all the test taking prior to July 29th, 5 days before D-Day - Aug 3rd. I might skip one Manhattan and write one free Knewton just to have max exposure to questions types (any thoughts?).

Sincerely, can't thank you enough for your advice.
A.

Sorry didn't realize you were going under the name Parker; Thanks for your awesome advice Parker!
I'm feeling more confident by the day about this exam which has caused me so much grief last year!

Hi,

i have been preparing for the GMAT now...started with concept revision from Kaplan premier...then started solving questions from OG 12...So far w/o timer my answers go correct.I also got Manhattan book for SC and have been practicing it.

So far my questions go correct from official guide.Today i solved the diagnostic test of OG12 by keeping timer on as i had completed all the sections from kaplan and manhattan as well as practiced questions from OG12 of all sections.I gave myself 30 mins extra in both the sections as the questions were more than the original GMAT tests.

I completely screwed the test.Got only 17/48 correct in quant,and verbal was more worse,barely 3 correct in CR,5 in RC and 7 in SC.


I am unable to understand,if i get answers correct during normal solving...If i consider an option that my concepts are not clear then i should be getting wrong while solving other questions in OG12..Why such a bad performance when i gave the test...I am confused how to go about my practise further...Please help..

Hi Ananta
That diagnostic test is kinda hard! I did that before beginning OG prep and got pretty dismal scores first time round. I would just like to say that in general its the timing on this exam which really makes or breaks you (i've written it twice already and am going for a rewrite).

One indicator, as you've mentioned, for your low timed score might be that you're concepts are weak. That means you should figure out what topics you are particularly weak in, buy/find targeted supplemental material for this (or consider a prep course, bb always mentions one with a money-back guarantee), and target you weaknesses.

I would recommend that if your timed questions are going badly, taking a step back and analyzing what the overall problems are is not such a bad idea (what I've been doing for the last 3 months too). Don't blindly launch into more timed sections without covering the basics! I made this mistake last two times. It will require a meticulous prep schedule from you.

Try a study plan where you've highlighted topics you're weaker at, you do a chapter on a specific topic, practice the questions corresponding to it (NOT under timer to get the concepts right), THEN practice the OG questions/other questions under a timer. See if that helps!

And no offense, but I would not go the Kaplan way. But that's just me.

one other thing, you might just be getting nervous first time around under the timer. If that's the case, practice makes perfect. Keep a stop watch on you and do all practice questions in say sets with approx 1 to 2 min average for the questions depending on difficulty.

However, if your basics are weak (as were mine), its like laying bed sheets on nails, its not gonna really help!

Hey BB!
I'm new on this group and I'd like to know how you can manage to read fiction while at the same time be able to be focused on your Quant Prep?
I'm on my first internship and do not have time for all that reading

One more question bb..do I need to time myself during the first and second months?

Hi Everybody:
This is my first post and I am little anxious whether I am posting at the right forum! First of all, I think there is no word that could thank you guys enough for this website, I am sure everybody is thanking you from their heart, but specially me, I will be ever greatful for such a good resource for GMAT preparation.

Now, I have just started to prepare for the quantitative section following your study plan idea, focusing only in Math right now, and I have completed 160 questions from the OG12, and reviewed most of the MGMAT Math strategy book (6 of them). I haven't practice the Data sufficiency yet.

Just to check where I am with Quant, I have taken the GMAT Prep Test 1 (Quant only, skipped all other sections), and within the given timeframe I have answered 24 questions, and result shows 13 incorrect, so Quant raw score is 25. I know looking at it, anyone would say I am very bad in Math...and I do feel down right now, but I want to nail this Quant to a raw score Quant 44 in next 1 month, what should I do now? I hope you could help now, you guys are my only solace.

YES! You want to time every exercise. Don't work on questions if you are not timing yourself.
We have a free GMAT Timer or you can just use a wrist watch or a GMAT ToolKit app on iPhone.

Well... what do you do after 10 PM? Watch TV? Well, you read books instead as you should NOT be studying at that hour - it is kind of tough to get much remembered and learned.

Welcome!


You should focus on the basics if you are at the 25 level. Perhaps go through the MGMAT Math Foundations if you have not yet. If you have, you need to go back and look at what you missed.

P.S. Always time yourself!

BB - Just read your signature link with its mention of the Manhattan Advanced book, now I'm wondering if I should go look for it to raise my Quant score.. but then I have about 11 days left (test on August 3rd). I do find myself faltering on strategies with 700-800 level questions, and score on an average M 45-47 in various practice tests. I think my verbal is taken care of (44 on last MGMAT, 43 on Knewton free test), and I'll be focusing more on Quant while brushing up verbal alongside.

Tough call, worst case scenario - postpone test by a week to August 10th, bare the repercussions at work since they've been gracious enough to give me 2 weeks for study prep already. Do you think its worth me looking for it? I've reviewed 2 of the Manhattan books (Word Translations & number props)? A Manhattan instructor had recommended I take it easy in my last few days to avoid burn out. I'm in two minds, third attempt, I want to hit all the major resources.

Thanks for a quick reply BB. I am going to review 5 MGMAT Quant books again, one thing I didn't do before that I have just figured out: I didn't do OG12 questions after the end of each chapter, I thought I will do them all at once after I am done reviewing 5 MGMAT books, and I think that approach doesn't work well as when I am solving OG12 questions, I don't really remember those MGMAT tips or strategies, I still try to solve OG12 questions with my own past knowledge....so thanks for your suggestion bb, I will start all over again but this time I will do it this way:
1) After each chapter of MGMAT, solve OG12 questions while using GMAT timer
2) After completing all 5 MGMAT book and OG12 questions, take GMAT prep test 1 Quant portion again
3) I will keep you posted my improvement
4) Read Wall street journal, financial times and fiction everyday 11-12:30 P.M

Thanks

I think I misunderstood between MGMAT foundations book and Number & Properties, Word translations (all 5). I thought they are the same. But after looking it up in amazon, seems like they are not same.

Do you think I should start with MGMAT foundations book or those 5 strategies book would be fine? What about Kaplan GRE/GMAT math workbook, would that be comparable to MGMAT foundations book? I am going to get the Kaplan math work book today from the library and if you think I need to start with MGMAT, I will just buy it from Amazon....waiting for your kind reply

Nope, they are definitely not.


Probably start with MGMAT Foundations if you have a Q score below 30.
The Kaplan Math Workbook is comparable to the MGMAT Guides, not Foundations. It is actually pretty tough. You can see my review here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html? ... ive=390957

Hard to say.... you could cover that book in about a week if you are good. I think it may be worth it so that you don't regret it later on but 11 days is tough.
As to the advice about burn out - absolutely agree!!! try to relax and go to a place in the city you have never been to or something you like. Then 24 hrs before the test, take a sample test (at the same time) and wake up at the same time you would for the next day. That way you will get in the mood. Don't study much else though.