helloitsme wrote:
hey ppl ,
i am planning to give the gmat in march '08 and need ur advice on wat should be my study plan.. i can give 6-8 hrs / day of self study for it... these dayz i am not too sure about to go about it so have started working on quant with like 3 hrs a day.
if u guyz could help plzzzzzzzzzz.... m from india and since english is not my mother tongue so need to put more effort for verbal i guess...thnx... confused
Take a diagnostic test first. Preferably from
Official Guide 11. This will give you a feel for your strengths and weaknesses in the 5 core areas: Critical Reasoning (CR), Reading Comprehension (RC), Sentence Completion (SC), Data Sufficiency (DS) and Problem Solving (PS). Don't worry about the AWA section yet unless you consider it a major weakness.
Since you say verbal is your weakness, that's where you should spend a good portion of your efforts. Here is my advice on improving verbal:
1) First, based on the diagnostic test, set a realistic target score. Soak up on success stories of people who've improved their verbal scores. I would encourage you to spend atleast a day or two just on this. Try to observe a trend or commonality -- there usually is one. Remember that people who write these reviews put a lot of effort into them, and mostly do so right at the peak of their preparation.
2) Buy a couple of good books on verbal. OG11 is a must. Its supplement will also be helpful since you have plenty of time to d-day. Also buy
Manhattan GMAT's sentence correction book -- I cannot recommend it enough. You also get 6 free CATs with the purchase of this book.
3) For SCs, read up on the
MGMAT SC guide, solve OG11 problems referenced in this guide as you go through it. Maintain
concepts for questions that you get wrong in an
error log file. Review these from time to time (say bi-weekly). When solving OG11 problems, understanding the incorrect ones is MORE important than understanding the correct ones, as bizarre as that may sound. This is so you can apply the process of elimination correctly.
4) For RCs, first solve a few passages from OG11. Start off by taking any amount of time needed to answer these questions. If you're giving yourself 15 minutes to solve an essay, and you still get half the questions wrong, know that this is going to go against you on d-day unless you really work on it. Get an overall feel for the direction of the passage. Don't stress on details. As you progress, start timing yourself (do some RCs a day and time them but don't start off this way). Make a habit of reading sites like the New York Times and the Economist, where the grammar is generally good.
5) For CRs, first identify the question type (weaken, identify conclusion, strengthen, assumption etc). With this in mind, approach each statement very critically. Pay attention to words such as "all", "many", "some" etc. While practicing, if you get a question wrong, dont read up the solution in
OG immediately. Try to figure it out yourself first - however long it takes.
Now, if math is a weakness, I have some basic (but effective) recommendations:
1) Come up to speed on tested concepts (look up the set of topics covered in OG11). Remember that number theory is of utmost importance so focus a lot of attention there. Don't spend a lot of time on "advanced" topics such as permutations and combinations - you will only get 1 question or so on this.
2) Once you're done with OG11, I would recommend doing the
GMATClub tests on this site. They are a must to be in the upper echolon of math scores. There are atleast 25 tests so you can space them out every few days and this is all you really need as an ongoing review of your math preparation. Don't forget to revisit incorrect choices (equivalent to an inherent
error log) or to re-take tests as a refresher.
Once you're done with OG11 (say in a couple of months from now), take a free GMATPrep test available from MBA.com. You will now know what areas to focus on going forward. At this point, you can plan on taking other helpful CATs such as
Manhattan GMAT's. Leave one GMATPrep and a few
MGMAT CATs for the 2 weeks before the test date. Also, one of the best ways I've found to improve is to participate on this forum. Try that out and you'll see what I mean. Don't be scared to put down an answer even if you're not sure.
Well that's about what I have for now, I know there's a whole lot more that others can contribute. But check with us from time to time so we can help you out.
Good luck.
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