About to start my journey...thoughts?

Question

Hello,

To give a little background, I am currently a senior in undergrad. I will be working in management consulting this coming August. I wanted to take these next couple of months to get the GMAT out of the way prior to full-time.

I decided to pull the trigger on the Magoosh Comprehensive course as well as the Manhattan Strategy Series combining the two. My goal is to score 710+ (fingers crossed), and I plan to study 4-5 Hours per day 5 days per week for 10 weeks.

My questions are, has anyone used Magoosh? Am I budgeting enough study time? And do you have any tips on the day to day approach to studying?

Sorry if this question is too broad!

AjiteshArun · Answer

Although I prefer 3-4 months, 10 weeks is also good. What you really want to do is take a GMATPrep after your concepts are (mostly) in place (let's say 4 weeks) to check whether you're on track. If you want to take a test now and don't want to finish the GMATPreps (your best tests), you could take a test from the courses you've opted for, or you could take the diagnostic test in the OG. The diagnostic test won't give you a score, but the classification is surprisingly reliable.

1. You're looking to study 5 hours a day, which could be tiring. Make sure that you don't burn out.
2. Consider getting both exam packs 1 & 2 and question pack 1. They're really good.
3. Try to alternate between quant and verbal. Don't try to "complete" one before moving on to the other.
4. You might want to start timed practice sets and drills early on.

Musicat · Answer

Sounds like a good plan to me. Just remember to plan it clearly and go by the plan all times. You'll most definitely be able to pull it off, hopefully 10 weeks is enough

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi daffyxxduck4512,

Since it sounds like you're just beginning your studies, then it would be a good idea to take a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT Test; you can download 2 for free from www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). If you want to do a little studying first, so that you can familiarize yourself with the basic content and question types, then that's okay - but you shouldn't wait too long to take that initial CAT. That score will give us a good sense of your natural strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. A FULL CAT takes about 4 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have those scores, you should report back here and we can come up with a study plan.

Many Test Takers end up spending 3 months (or more) of consistent study time on their studies before they hit their 'peak' scores, so you might end up needing more study time than you've allotted.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

First things first, you should extend your preparation by 3 - 4 weeks if possible. You need to build the concepts/fundamentals before you jump in solving the problems. You can do so by choosing one of the following ways: 1. In person classes/private tutoring 2. Online classes 3. Self paced online preparatory course 4. Book heavy approach It is good that you have already chosen one course, because GMAT tests you on some concepts and fundamentals that you can learn from a course. You can get the reviews on the course here: https://gmatclub.com/reviews/gmat_courses?fl=menu In addition to the preparatory material, buy the Official Guides(both the Official Guide and the Verbal Review), Question Pack 1 and the 4 official mock CATs. They should be an indispensable part of your preparation. 1. Understand the concepts and fundamentals before jumping into problem solving 2. Solve full length CATs including AWA and IR. You can get two free GMAT Prep mock CATs and can purchase two more from mba.com 3. Make sure you solve the official questions from the Official Guide 4. 4 -5 hours per day might burn you out, try to study 3 hours daily and solve a mock CAT on the weekends. Follow the mock CAT with a thorough analysis.

MTLGMAT · Answer

Hi OP,

Here are a few suggestions.

Definitely take a practice exam to gauge where you are at. I would suggest doing one from the MBA website as these are most representative of what you will see on test day.

I assume that you aren't working from now until you start in management consulting. I would normally say 10 weeks of studying before the exam is a bit tight but since you could easily do 4-6 hours per day (2 hour study sessions in the morning, afternoon and evening) and still keep yourself fresh. This could give easily give you 350 hours of study time before the exam which is more than enough. I usually suggest around 150 hours of studying time for students (although this varies depending on where you start with your score and how high you want to progress). In any case, you should have plenty of time to study for the exam.

While Magoosh has some great stuff, here are some additional resources that I think you should take advantage of:

Offiicial Guide GMAT Review (edition 12 or later)
Official Guide GMAT Quantitative
Official Guide GMAT Verbal
Total GMAT Math by Jeff Sackmann
Manhattan GMAT - Sentence Correction book
Veritas Prep - online question bank and practice tests

I highly recommend Veritas Prep. Its practice exams will show you how long you took to answer each question relative to the average, what percentage of people got that question correct and it will also tell you what areas you most need to work on - helpful information in terms of focusing your study strategy. I also suggest doing one practice exam every week so that you can measure your progress. Use the first study day after your practice test to review the questions that you got incorrect.

Other things to note - you will need to get used to the timing of writing the exam (i.e. - doing quant questions in 120 seconds on average). What I suggest for this is giving yourself 30 problem practice sets, and forcing yourself to do them in 60 minutes. Also, you may need to go back and review some math or English concepts. Although the GMAT doesn't want you to have to memorize a lot of things, there are certain formulae and rules that you will need to know and apply on the test. I would suggest mastering these early on.

Best of luck with your studies!

daffyxxduck4512 · Answer

I actually also purchased the Official Guide bundle as well as the complete Manhattan Set. The study plan I am using with Magoosh, incorporates the Official Guide but I am a little lost as to how to best use Manhattan as a compliment. Do you have any suggestions?

MTLGMAT · Answer

Haven't used Magoosh personally. I just know that the particular Sentence Correction book from Manhattan is a great resource. Sentence Correction is the most rules-based of all Verbal sections and it is most important to know those rules like the back of your hand. The Manhattan book really helps with this.

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