1 Month Prep?

Question

Well I'm lucky enough to work for a company that is giving me all of December off to prepare for the GMAT. The assigned test date is Jan 10th, 2008. I guess it's possible to start getting ready now, but with working >12hrs a day and sometimes on the weekend, I just can't find the time to study and comprehend the material.

So I was wondering if studying for 7-9hrs a day for a month would be adequate preparation for the GMAT? 

 Current Material:  OG 11th, Manhattan GMAT Complete Set, Kaplan Premier Program.

This weekend I will be taking a diagnostic CAT just to see where I'm at.

mediamindy · Answer

Might be too much too fast to really absorb what you need. 8 hours of study a day for a length of time will tire you out.. counter-productive. Your brain is a muscle.. needs rest to build.

kidderek · Answer

If you try to fill up a cup with a fire hose, you'll ultimately end up with a messy cup half full. If you do it slowly from a faucet, you'll have a clean cup filled to the brim.

Here's my general advice:
Start prepping NOW, even if it's 30 minutes/day. Start out learning the ins and outs of the test -->structure, types of questions, timing etc etc.

Then move on to the concepts. Sometime mid November, you should be so familiar with the test that you will know how to structure your December prep.

In December, break your prep into 4 weeks. The first week, you should go all out; try three 2 hour sessions/day. The following week, move down to 2 sessions/day. Use the third week to refine your weaknesses. Fourth week, polish your skills and relax.

Good luck

freestyla86 · Answer

kidderek:

That sounds like a great schedule! Do you have any recommendations on which order to use the study guides or how many I should get through per week?

R.E.D. · Answer

I started off with Princeton Review, solved their tests to warm up then read theory in Manhattan Review, solved all the tasks in Sentence Correction and then read Kaplan while mixing tasks to solve from Manhattan, Kaplan and OG.
Difficulty of tasks is Princeton => Manhattan => Kaplan.
Besides, Manhattan has some weird tasks in DS and is not as clear and logical in SC as OG is.

gmatclb · Answer

What firm do you work for?

Giving you a month off is fantastic.

emoryhopeful · Answer

I think that Kaplan would be a good book to read through during the intial phase of trying to learn about the GMAT and the question types, scoring, and some introduction to solving the problems. Then I'd say OG or even Kaplan 800 during your hard core study time, mixed with practice CAT's. I think 1 month is plenty of time to perfect your weaknesses. The first month where you have little time, should just let you know where your weaknesses are and what types of questions you're comfortable with.

kidderek · Answer

This is just a personal recommendation but I would avoid Kaplan. It really does nothing for you. I scored some 200 points below on one Kaplan paper test than on the actual exam. More to the point, the questions do a poor job of emulating the actual gmat questions. These are not just my viewpoints, but the general consensus of the gmatclub community.

However there are some who argue that Kraplan does offer something in the way of a new angle. I won't deny that. But I will tell you this much, Kaplan doesn't cover anything that Princeton Review already does.

Depending on how much standardized concepts you remember, I suggest you start with the Princeton Review. You should be able to breeze through this book. While your doing so, do three things, which you will do until test day. One, time everything. EVERYTHING. Two, start a set of flash cards. Write down any concept you don't know cold. Write down any question you get wrong. You make a mistake, you punish yourself with the flash cards. Three, notate every incorrect question (kinda goes with flash cards). You will redo the ones you got wrong.

Carry these cards with you where ever you go. If the pile gets too thick, shuffle, take a manageable portion and switch off from day to day.

When you're done with the PR book, take inventory of ALL gmat CATs you can get your hands on. I used three kinds -- PR (pretty accurate in terms of score), MGMAT (pretty tough) and GMATPREP (the gold standard). 

IMPORTANT - The GMATPREP is GOLD. Do NOT take a test on a whim. Treat it like gold.

If you haven't already, pick up the OG supplements as well. They're pretty easy compared with the OG, but still better than any other company.

Here, I would say start attacking the first half of each OG section. The questions are not that difficult. You should get a very high percentage of them right.

When you're done with the first half of the OG, get the manhattan gmat books that correspond to your weakness. Definitely get the sentence correction. If the PR sentence correction is high school grammar, mgmat SC is Shakespearean prose. Get it, no questions asked.

The mgmat math stuff is very good too. I like to think of myself as a quant, and even I had difficulty with the math. MGMAT breaks it down into simple manageable components. Keep practicing. The online exercises that come with each subject focus is brutal, but very helpful.

Try taking a GMATPrep at this point. Do not be discouraged by your score. You're still a work in progress.

Are you still working on those flash cards? The ones you've memorized, you can put aside. 

Continue working on the rest of the OG.

When you're done or near done with them, you should be about 1 or 2 weeks away from the actual gmat. Take your second GMATPrep. If this score is within 30 points of your target, you're good to go. Work on all the problems you've gotten wrong. Find other materials, namely the 1000 series. Keep your brain warm and prepare yourself psychologically for the test. You're in the home stretch. 


Damm, I wrote a lot.

dosa_don · Answer

Great tips Kid...let me throw in my 2 c here. 

I think powerprep is a great tool BEFORE you start working on OG but after say working on PR. Once you work on OG, PP becomes useless. So do it before starting on the OG and you will find it to be very useful to gauge your level.

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