RichXXV wrote:
I work 40 hrs/full-time. Exam scheduled for Oct and
MGMAT materials on the way. This gives me around 3 months to prep.
Right now, I am studying a Kaplan book to sharpen up my basics. Its pretty basic and I don't really get too in depth because I read a post saying "it's better to focus on
MGMAT guides" since the material is more GMAT exclusive.
How true is this?
Ideally, I try and put in at least 8 hours on weeknights and 4/4 Saturday and Sunday (16 hrs a week total).
I know this is going to vary by individual but I am still interested to know how much time people have calculated to fit their study goals...
Thanks
This is probably what I did for about 2 months. My time was not necessarily well spent though. Much of my time was making sure I had the attention span to get through the test. So I did a ton of practice tests start to finish (I repeated the entire set of
MGMAT tests for example, on top of all the other practice tests). It's probably not a strategy I would recommend unless you're relatively confident you'll score well. I had an engineering background and was actually always better in English, so I was more worried about my lack of concentration.
I didn't find Kaplan too helpful for review. If you really feel you need help with basics, I still advocate GRE books, because I think they don't presume the same baseline of knowledge. Start out with
the Official Guide and figure out where you're weak - if you are missing questions in the beginning, those are focus areas because those questions are easier. I found that if there were topics I was stuck on, I was better off going to the web and finding online tutorials on those specific topics and then doing those problems (stats & some geometry problems I did this for).
For verbal, I am a strong believer that writing things out and paraphrasing in your own words is critical. Eventually, you won't need to write it out and you'll gain speed. And read everything you can between now and then. Just reading will help improve your score.