I have sent somebody what I think a good study plan could be, I think I might as well post it out in another thread so other people who might be intersted can also see it, and talk about it.

In the first stage, what I would do is a systematic overview, both for math and SC. In other words, I would pick a book (Kaplan or something, I have not read them myself, so I can't give you my opinion about how good they are.) and read through it, doing its questions along the way, but not study each and every choices just yet. The purpose is to first get yourself to be familiar with the subjects, especially if you are not a fresh graduate from school and may not remember all the materials that you were taught. The second purpose is to identify your weak areas, be it probability or combination, or something else. Read a bit more about it, do some more questions.

In the second stage, I would start with a PowerPrep test. The full test, with AWAs. This would give me a feeling about the test, and a feeling about what my level is. Then I would study the OG very diligently, especailly on the area that I'm weak. For example, math is my strong point, I will not spend a lot of time on it. I will simply come to the forum and do some questions, just to keep my brain sharp on the GMAT type questions, and to pick up whatever good points others have and to feel the holes in my own skills. Then I would concentrate on verbal, especially SC, which I have identified in the first stage to be my weakness. I would do the OG questions in 20 or 40 question sessions, timing myself to finish in 35 or 75 minutes. Then I would check my performance. And then I would spend a lot of time going over the questions I just did. I would look at the explanation for each and every choices, with double emphasis on the ones that I wasn't sure (of course I have marked those when I did them) and the ones I didn't do correctly.
If I have a lot of time, I would perhaps do a couple practise test in different points of the second stage, to see how much I'm progressing and to see what area I still need to work on some more.

When I finish this second stage, I should be very confident that I have mastered everything that is to be mastered. I would leave the second PP test to two days before the real test. The last two days I would let myself relax. Review my error logs; Read the list of idomatic usages that I collected myself (I would not use one that is done by the other people, for only I know which one I need to memory and which one I already know); Going over the math question types that I felt hard; Reviewing AWA templates; And browse through new posts in the forum.


Of course this may or may not be a good plan depending on different people's background and situations. I just thought that I'd throw this out for the heck of it.

HongHu, thank you for your clear and detailed study plan. It is really helful.

Regards

Honghu, thanks for your great sharing.

Please post your idiom list if you don't mind.

Thanks Honghu,
this is really helpful.
When people who have scored well advise others about a good study plan to follow they are usually not flexible, and say: "you should do the Arco tests 3 days after you do your first 50 SCs from the OG and then if your math score was below 45 you should review Kaplan 800 at page 22, etc etc etc". In my opinion, this is too complicated and always "stretched", since everyone should forge its own study plan.
I really appreciate your guidelines for a study plan, since they are intended for people who want to know what is good to do and not to overlook on an individual basis, and not "exactly" what to do day by day.

Nice one honghu ! Perhaps you might like to say a bit more as to when you start to include GMAT club in your prep work ... think it could be interesting to see how GMAT club can come in to complement whatever materials one might already have