GMAT Ninja’s 13-Week Study Plan Week 4 (~15 hours) Subscribe via E-mail | Join Study Plan Chat Group Welcome back for Week 4 of the study plan! If you have no idea what’s going on here, then you’ll want to start with Week 1 instead. I’m a fan of anybody who perseveres through the ups and downs of the GMAT. Our friend PyjamaScientist made a long, hard slog from a 430 to a 740 (the equivalent of going from a 435 to a 685 on the new score scale), and shared a lot of really great wisdom in his very detailed debrief . Definitely worth a read if you have a few minutes. You hopefully already understand that the GMAT really doesn’t measure how much stuff you’ve memorized. Instead, it tests your ability to read and reason and think logically under pressure – and to maximize your ability to do those things, you’ll need to make sure that you’re taking good care of your mind and body, even if you’re months away from your actual exam. So we’ll say it again this week: to be at your best on test day, you’ll want to look in some unexpected places. These three items won’t take long, and are worth a look for most test-takers. Watch this video about how to close the gap between your practice exams and your actual GMAT (6 mins). (Optional, but recommended) Read this article about how exercise can can help your GMAT performance (Optional, but recommended) Read this Q&A about nutrition and mental performance . Anybody interested in gut biome testing? This week’s focus will be on ratio and percents problems of various sorts. If you’re confident on these, great – feel free to skip the videos and optional homework. If you really struggle in these areas, that’s great, too – either spend more time on them this week, or pause the study plan if you need to invest extra time in your weaknesses. Our usual reminder: the study plan includes specific topic-based practice and study resources only in Weeks 1-9. In Weeks 10-13, we’ll focus exclusively on practice tests and mixed OG sets. How to approach quant homework 1. Time each set, but don’t rush through . Do every set with test-like intensity , but don’t impose an artificial time limit -- at least not yet. 2. When you’re finished, please do NOT review your errors at all just yet. On the day you do the homework, just input the results into your error log, and walk away. Week 4 quant homework There are tons of options on this list. If you need extra reps on quant (but not verbal), great – spend extra time on the videos and topic-based sets. If you’re doing relatively well on quant, do some extra verbal homework instead. 1. (Optional) Watch these videos as needed, but please skip them if you’re performing well in these topics: Percents, Ratios, and the Gift of “Direct” Translation (~ 1 hr.) More Ratios (~1 hr.) More Percents (~1 hr.) 2. GMAT OG PS #76-100 3. Do 20 ratios PS questions. Sub-555 level | Mixed difficulty 4. Do 20 percents PS questions. Sub-555 level | Mixed difficulty 5. Quant section only from the GMAT Club tests or another NON-official source (save the mba.com exams for later!) 6. (Optional) Do 15 word problems PS questions. Sub-555 level | Mixed difficulty 7. (Optional) Only if you’re CERTAIN that it’s worthwhile: do extra sets of topic-based questions as needed (algebra, exponents, geometry, word problems, percents, ratios). What to do AFTER completing a quant homework set 1-3 days after completing the set, redo your errors from scratch. Try to “wash your brains” and pretend that you’ve never seen the questions before. If you get most of the questions RIGHT the second time: you’re probably making careless errors, and fixing them needs to be your #1 priority. See below for some videos that might help. If you miss a question twice, don’t overreact. Obsessively studying individual questions drains a TON of your study time – if you miss a particular question, you’ll probably never see anything quite like it again. So focus on GENERAL takeaways on how to improve -- don’t spend hours memorizing steps for individual questions. For more on how to interpret your results, see the next post in this thread. Need help with quant? If you make careless errors or struggle on the content this week, these resources might help: 1. If you’re worried about time management on your practice test, here’s a familiar video reminder to bail when you flail . 2. If you’re making careless errors, this (probably very familiar) video on how to approach GMAT quant is essential viewing. 3. If you’re feeling inefficient, the video on Developing a Flexible Quant Mindset is probably a good fit. 4. Perhaps-familiar videos on word translations (~1 hr.) , ratios (1 hr.) , percents (1 hr) , or a combination of both (along with percents) (~1hr) . 5. If quant topics from previous weeks are giving you trouble, whatever you need is probably in this first half of this playlist . 5. GMAT Club Math Book 6. Heroic quant threads from Bunuel : Ultimate GMAT Quant Megathread | Signature Question Collection | All You Need for Quant By now you’ve hopefully gotten comfortable with different topic areas, and you’ve hopefully done some serious thinking about how to optimize your process on RC. This week, we’ll take a look at some common pitfalls on RC (and CR). From there, we’ll mostly just ask you to keep practicing, and let’s see if you can move the needle on your results. How to approach RC homework 1. Time each set, but don’t rush through . Do every set with test-like intensity , but don’t impose an artificial time limit -- at least not yet. 2. When you’re finished, please do NOT review your errors at all just yet. On the day you do the homework, just input the results into your error log, and walk away. (We’ll say more below about how to analyze your results.) Week 4 RC homework 1. (Optional) Watch this video on the most common mistakes on RC and CR . (The same video appears in this week’s CR homework.) 2. One full LSAT RC set 3. Do the second set of ~25 questions from a recent edition of the OG. (The page numbers will vary depending on which edition you’re using, and it’s OK to do a little bit more or less than 25 questions so that you don’t stop partway into a passage.) These will feel MUCH easier than the LSAT. 4. (Very optional) One more LSAT RC set What to do AFTER completing an RC homework set Don’t obsess over the questions you missed. You’re never going to see these passages again, and you don’t want to burn too much time reviewing them. Instead, focus on general patterns. Did you miss a bunch of primary purpose questions? Inference questions? Did you get intimidated by certain types of passages (like humanities/culture/literature)? Did you panic? Run out of energy? Pay special attention to errors that surprised you – did you somehow make a silly mistake? If you missed, say, three or more questions on a particular passage, you might consider redoing the entire passage (and its questions) from scratch. If you do better the second time, ask yourself: what should you have done differently the first time? For more on how to interpret your RC results, see the next post in this thread. Need help with RC? If you struggled with your RC homework sets this week, here are some resources that might help: Videos: How to approach RC | Another RC basics video | Dealing with RC culture and literature passages | How to identify different points of view on RC passages | Full GMAT RC video course All GMAT Ninja RC resources More RC explanations than anybody should ever read Beginner’s guide to RC again A whole lot of YouTube videos on many topics , or an RC-specific video course This week, we’ll offer extra practice on inference and “except” questions if you need it. If you don’t need the extra practice, don’t force it -- if your general process on CR is solid, you probably don’t need to drill specific question types at all. More broadly, your main goal remains the same at this stage: strive to become 100% consistent in how you read and comprehend CR passages. If you can do that, consistent results will follow. How to approach CR homework 1. Time each set, but don’t rush through . Do every set with test-like intensity , but don’t impose an artificial time limit -- at least not yet. 2. When you’re finished, please do NOT review your errors at all just yet. On the day you do the homework, just input the results into your error log, and walk away. (We’ll say more below about how to analyze your results.) Week 4 CR homework 1. Watch this video on the most common mistakes on RC and CR . (The same video appears in this week’s RC homework.) 2. (Very optional) A set of 5-10 inference questions from the LSAT or older editions of the OGs; you can find some from OG 12 and the Verbal 2nd edition here or from the LSAT here . 3. (Very optional) A set of 5-10 “except” questions from the LSAT or older editions of the OGs; you can find some from OG 12 and the Verbal 2nd edition here or from the LSAT here . 4. Do the second set of 25 questions from a recent edition of the GMAT Official Guide. These will feel MUCH easier than the LSAT. (The CR question numbers will vary slightly, depending on which edition you’re using.) 5. One full LSAT CR set 6. (Very optional) One additional LSAT CR set What to do AFTER completing a CR homework set 1-3 days after completing the set, redo your errors from scratch. Do your best to “wash your brains” and pretend that you’ve never seen the questions before. If you get most of the questions RIGHT the second time, that’s a sign that your overall CR process isn’t nearly as consistent as it needs to be, and fixing your process needs to be your #1 area of focus. See below for some videos that might help. If you miss a question a second time, don’t overreact: obsessively studying individual questions can drain a TON of your study time – and it really isn’t very valuable on CR. So don’t spend hours memorizing the steps for individual questions. For more on how to interpret your CR results, see the next post in this thread. Need help with CR? If you struggled with your CR homework sets this week, here are some resources that might help: EXCEPT questions aren’t interesting enough for their own video, but there’s a brief discussion in this video , including a full example at the 6:01 mark. Some wisecracks about CR and RC inference questions can be found in this video on common CR & RC mistakes . Beginners’ guide to CR LIVE YouTube video on how to approach CR or a not-so-live video on how to approach CR All GMAT Ninja CR resources on GMAT Club More full CR explanations than anybody should ever read A whole lot more LIVE YouTube videos on a wide variety of topics CR “pitfalls” videos: Missing the Heart of a CR Passage | Paraphrasing on CR | Obsessing over CR Question Types | Anticipating Correct CR Answers... Incorrectly | Falling in Love With Answer Choices | Irrelevant & Out of Scope Answers | CR Word-Matching | Rejecting Imperfect Answer Choice Here comes the REAL Data Insights fun, starting with Graphical Interpretation (GI). This is admittedly a light week of GI homework, and you’re probably itchy to do more than just one set of 10 questions. But again: please keep in mind that there’s a limited supply of official DI questions. We’ll carefully assign the official stuff to maximize its value, so please don’t race ahead -- we’ll get to everything over the next month or so, including every DI question type. Week 4 DI assignments: 1. (Optional, but recommended) Watch this LIVE video on how to approach Graphical Interpretation questions . Alternatively, you could watch this this not-so-live GI intro video and perhaps its sequel on odd-looking graphs and charts 2. 10 Graphical Interpretation questions from the GMAT OG question bank on MBA.com – see below for instructions on how to set this up 3. Do the second set of 20 Data Sufficiency questions from your version of the OG. 4. Do 15 ratios DS questions. Sub-555 level | Mixed difficulty 5. Do 15 percents DS questions. Sub-555 level | Mixed difficulty 6. (Optional) Do 15 word problems DS questions. Sub-555 level | Mixed difficulty Instructions for Official Practice Questions on MBA.com Access the GMAT Official Practice site at mba.com , and locate the "GMAT Official Guide 2024-2025" product (or whichever edition of the OG you’re using) Click the "Study" button -> "Practice Questions" in the left navigation menu -> "Start New Session" button. To start a session, select the "Choose the type, difficulty, and number of questions" radio button; click the checkbox to the left of the assigned question type(s) to select ALL remaining questions for that type. Keep the "Unlimited" radio button selected (under "Duration"), and select "Exam Mode" (under "Mode"). Week 4 assignment: select easy & medium GI questions only. And please stop after you’ve completed 10 questions – we’ll save the rest for later. Click the "Start Practice" button. Try to hide/ignore the timers at the top of the page , since you won't have those on test day. After doing the assigned number of questions, click the "Pause" button at the top right -> "Pause Custom Practice" button in the popup -> "Submit and End Session" (red, scary button) to confirm. What to do AFTER completing a Data Insights homework set 1-3 days after completing the set, redo your errors from scratch. Try to “wash your brains” and pretend that you’ve never seen the questions before. If you get most of the questions RIGHT the second time: you’re probably making careless errors, and fixing them needs to be your #1 priority. See below for some videos that might help. If you miss a question twice, don’t overreact. Obsessively studying individual questions drains a TON of your study time – if you miss a particular question, you’ll probably never see anything quite like it again. So focus on GENERAL takeaways on how to improve -- don’t spend hours memorizing steps for individual questions. For more on how to interpret your results, see the next post in this thread. Need help with Data Insights? If you make careless errors or struggle on this week’s content, these resources might help: 1. If you’re making careless errors on quant or Data Sufficiency, this (probably very familiar) video on how to approach quant and DS questions . For a deeper dive into Data Sufficiency, check out this live video or this prerecorded DS video 2. If you’re struggling on GI questions in general, check out this live video on how to approach Graphical Interpretation questions , or try this not-so-live GI intro video and perhaps its sequel on odd-looking graphs and charts . 3. If you’re worried about DI in general, here’s an overview video on how to approach the Data Insights section . 4. If you’re struggling with quant-specific content (percents, ratios, etc.) on DI questions, please take a look at the resources list under the quant section of this week’s study plan.

I think it's fixed now! We've had some trouble with this -- I used some tags that aren't fully supported by the site anymore, and sometimes they go haywire and delete the homework links. I don't understand why it happens at random times, but it does. If you ever notice anything like this again, please tag me, and I'll do my best to figure it out. Thank you for catching this, and have fun studying!

GMAT Ninja's 13-Week Study Plan (Latest Edition) Week 4 : General GMAT Questions and Strategies

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GMAT Ninja's 13-Week Study Plan (Latest Edition) Week 4

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