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GMAT Ninja’s 13-Week Study Plan
Week 6 (~15 hours)
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Welcome back for Week 6 of the study plan! If you have no idea what’s going on here, then you’ll want to start with Week 1 instead.
One small formatting change this week: you’ll see the quant practice tests listed in section (B), along with another task that vaguely resembles a practice test. You’ll have a ton of options this week, so you might want to skim through the full homework list ASAP, just to help you prioritize your studies.
Friendly reminder: if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed – or if you’re not making progress as quickly as you’d like – you can always pause the study plan.
(A) Inspiration & Advice (optional)+
Check out this somewhat unconventional debrief, humbly titled How NOT to Study for a 700. Karthik740 provides some unusually nuanced wisdom in here – check out mistakes #3-8 in particular for some thoughtful advice.
Also, he went from a 460 to a 560 to a 720, and that’s pretty badass.
(B) Practice Tests & Diagnostics (4-6 hrs.)+
FULL, OFFICIAL practice tests are coming very, very soon. But first, we’ll give you a sanity-check with a crusty old diagnostic test that appears in multiple editions of the OG. It’s obviously not adaptive, but will hopefully give you a better sense of where you stand. We’ll keep a non-official quant test in the mix, too.
Week 6 practice test assignments:
- 1. Do the full, 100-question diagnostic test from the OG. Details below.
2. Do the quant section ONLY of a non-official GMAT practice exam (from GMAT Club or any other non-official source).
Three ways to access the Official Guide diagnostic test:
- 1. The diagnostic test appears in older editions of the OG (12th, 13th, and every edition from 2015-2020). If you have one of these books, great -- you’re all set.
2. In the OG 2021 & 2022, the old diagnostic test appears in its own section within the official Online Question Bank. If that works for you, great.
3. This might change by the time you click the link, but the entire diagnostic test is available in the preview (“look inside”) of the 2020 OG on Amazon.
Guidance for this week’s diagnostic + practice test:
- The diagnostic test (100 questions) is quite a bit longer than the actual GMAT. If you want to do the quant on one day and the verbal on a different day, that’s totally fine. The goal is to get an accurate snapshot of your skills – and if you’re exhausted at the end, that snapshot won’t be as accurate.
- After you’re finished, please check out the next post in this thread for thoughts on how to interpret your diagnostic results.
- Treat the OG diagnostic the way you treat your “regular” homework: time yourself, but don’t hurry. Do everything with test-like intensity, but for most people, we don’t recommend restricting your time just yet.
- On both the diagnostic and the non-official quant test: concentrate on avoiding unforced errors, and on letting the harder questions go. Remember: the GMAT algorithm is basically trying to find the level of question at which you get roughly half of the questions right and half wrong; in practice, most test-takers will miss 20-50% of questions. Your job is to guess and move on as soon as you realize that you don’t have a clear path to success on any individual question.
(C) Quant (~2-5 hrs.)+
This week, our focus area will be factors, multiples, and remainders. If you’re still intimidated by word problems in general, check this week’s resource list for some additional videos if you need them.
By now, careless quant errors should be completely out of your system. Also, you shouldn’t have any significant struggles with algebra, arithmetic, word problems, or geometry. If you’re not on track in either of these areas, you might consider pausing the study plan so that you can spend more time on these fundamentals.
Our usual reminder: the study plan includes specific topic-based practice and study resources only in Weeks 1-8. In Weeks 9-13, 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 6 quant homework
Think carefully about where you really need to spend your time this week. If you really need extra reps on quant (but not verbal), great – do extra sets from items #4-8, and maybe the optional videos. If you’re doing relatively well on quant, #2 & #3 are enough – and you can spend the rest of your time on verbal and the practice tests.
- 1. (Optional) If you need help on remainders & divisibility, watch Number Properties I (~1 hr.) Here’s Number Properties II, but it’s probably not the best use of your time unless you’re already crushing everything else on the GMAT.
2. GMAT Official Guide PS #101-125
3. 3rd set of 25 DS questions from the GMAT Quant Guide (the exact question numbers will vary depending on which edition you’re using)
4. (Optional) Do 15 divisibility/multiples/factors PS questions, mixed difficulty
5. (Optional) Do 15 divisibility/multiples/factors DS questions, mixed difficulty
6. (Optional) Do 10 remainders PS questions, mixed difficulty
7. (Optional) Do 10 remainders DS questions, mixed difficulty
8. (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, rates, number properties).
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?
These resources might help:
- 1. If you’re struggling with the fundamental content this week, here’s an hourlong number properties video and its sequel.
2. If quant topics from previous weeks are giving you trouble, whatever you need is probably in this first half of this playlist.
3. If you’re STILL making careless errors, this algebra video describes a process for approaching ALL quant questions, starting at the 1:01 mark; if you’re feeling inefficient, the video on Developing a Flexible Quant Mindset is still a good fit.
4. If word problems give you trouble, watch these videos on long, intimidating, and weird word problems, or word translations in general.
5. GMAT Club Math Book
6. Heroic quant threads from Bunuel: Ultimate GMAT Quant Megathread | Signature Question Collection | All You Need for Quant
(D) Reading Comprehension (1-2 hrs.)+
Those LSAT sets -- which you might have despised -- are optional now. Hurray!
If you ever need a check on your progress -- or want to be challenged by some tough language -- go ahead and do an LSAT RC set. Once we get you started on full practice tests in the coming weeks, it’ll become harder and harder to find time for extra LSAT sets.
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 6 RC homework
- 1. Do the 2nd set of ~25 questions from a recent edition of the Verbal Guide (skinny little book). (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.) Again, these will feel MUCH easier than the LSAT.
2. (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:
(E) Critical Reasoning (1-2 hrs.)+
We’ll feature boldface CR questions this week, but if your general process on CR is rock-solid, you might not need to drill specific question types at all. Boldface CR questions really don’t require any special logic, so if you do choose to watch the (very optional!) video, the fast-forward button might be your best friend.
LSAT CR sets are optional now, too. But if you ever need a sanity-check on your progress – or a nice challenge – do an LSAT CR set, and compare the results to Week 1. Hopefully the comparison will put a smile on your face.
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 6 CR homework
- 1. (Optional) Watch this video on boldface CR questions. Again, you don’t need much special sauce for these questions, so feel free to fast-forward liberally, or skip the video entirely.
2. (Optional) If you want extra reps with boldface CR questions, do a few extras from older editions of the OGs; you can find some from OG 12 and the Verbal 2nd edition here, or from the LSAT here.
3. Do the 2nd set of 25 questions from a recent edition of the GMAT Verbal Guide (skinny little book). These will still feel easier than the LSAT. (The CR question numbers will vary slightly, depending on which edition you’re using.)
4. (Optional) One full 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:
- Another link to that video on boldface CR questions. Boldface CR questions also make a quick cameo in this crash-course segment, at around the 6:16 mark.
- Beginners’ guide to CR
- YouTube video on how to approach CR
- All GMAT Ninja CR resources
- More full CR explanations than anybody should ever read
- A whole lot more YouTube videos
(F) Sentence Correction (~2 hrs.)+
This week, our focus topic is verb tenses. Sneak preview: there might be less to worry about on verb tenses than you might think. And you want some extra reps with subject-verb questions, that’s cool, too – but for most test-takers, subject-verb questions aren’t a significant barrier to success.
Usual disclaimer: there’s a shortage of official SC questions, and we’ll carefully assign them to maximize their value. So don’t race ahead -- we’ll get to everything in time.
Week 6 SC assignments:
- 1. Watch this older video or this newer video on GMAT verb tenses. Feel free to skip this if you’re confident in your command of verb tenses on GMAT SC.
2. (Very optional) Watch this video if you struggle with subject-verb agreement.
2. (Optional) 5-10 verb tense questions from older OGs. Sub-600 | Mixed difficulty
3. (Optional) 5-10 subject-verb questions from older OGs. Sub-600 | Mixed Difficulty
4. Do the 2nd set of 25 SC questions from the GMAT Verbal Guide (the exact question numbers will vary depending on which edition you’re using).
Need more SC help?
Please don’t go crazy watching extra videos or reading piles of extra articles yet – there’s still plenty of time to address your SC weaknesses. But in case you need them, here are links to more SC resources than you’ll probably ever need:
(G) IR & AWA (0 hrs.)+
You’ll get tired of reading this, but IR and AWA are always optional in this study plan. Why? Nobody really cares about them. Spend your time elsewhere, please.
22 Nov 2022, 10:00
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How to Interpret Your Week 6 Homework Results
Please read this section each week if you’re serious about optimizing your study time. If you don’t read this, it will be harder to (A) choose your homework wisely, and (B) avoid wasting time reviewing things that don’t really matter.
Obviously, some of this advice will be similar from week to week. But plenty of things will change, too. So if you’re panicking about a homework result – or if you’re tempted to spend a half-billion hours reviewing individual questions – please take a deep breath, and read through this post first.
Also, if you’re worried about something that isn’t addressed here, please post your questions/worries/doubts either here or in the Week 1 thread. I guarantee that other students are suffering in the same ways as you are.
Practice Tests+
Interpreting your Week 6 OG diagnostic results:
In case you used a resource that didn’t include the scoring chart, here it is:
- PS: Excellent (19-24); Above Average (16-18); Average (10-15); Below Average (0-9)
DS: Excellent (19-24); Above Average (16-18); Average (10-15); Below Average (0-9)
RC: Excellent (16-17); Above Average (14-15); Average (9-13); Below Average (0-8)
CR: Excellent (14-17); Above Average (9-13); Average (6-8); Below Average (0-5)
SC: Excellent (16-18); Above Average (11-15); Average (8-10); Below Average (0-7)
How to think about all of this:
- Take the quant results with a grain of salt. The diagnostic test is weird. For example, there are some unusual geometry and overlapping sets questions, and a bizarre DS question about variance. So if you’re “above average” on PS and DS, that might be fine, even if your goal is a 700+.
- The RC and CR is kind of weird, too. The scoring chart implies that the RC questions are quite a bit tougher than the CR questions, on average. You may or may not agree. Again, another reason to take the results with at least a tiny grain of salt.
- Were you “average” or “below average” on anything? If your goal is a 700+, I’m not too worried if you’re seeing a mix of “excellent” and “above average”; I only start worrying if you’re doing worse than that. If that’s the case, you might want to consider pausing the study plan so you can focus on your weaknesses.
- Don’t overreact to small differences in your results from one question type to the next. But if you SIGNIFICANTLY underperformed in one or two question types, it might be time for some extra work in those areas.
If you did a non-official quant test (from GMAT Club or another source), our advice should look familiar:
- Don't overreact to the score. It's nearly impossible for practice tests to mimic the actual scoring of the GMAT, so the score itself doesn't matter much.
- Count your careless errors. This process will end well if you don’t make careless errors – I promise. It won’t end well if you’re sloppy.
- Look for questions that took 3+ minutes. Your job is to spend your 62 minutes wisely. If you’re chasing questions that are hard for you, that’s bad. Learn to let go! Ideally, you shouldn’t have questions that take you more than 3 minutes.
- Don’t spend a ton of time reviewing your mistakes. Why? These aren’t official questions, and some will definitely be HARD on an adaptive test – these simply aren’t worth your time.
Quant+
Benchmarks for Your Week 6 Quant Results
The first part is the same as in previous weeks:
- Count the errors that make you go "whoa, how the 🤬 did I miss THAT one?!?" No really: count them, for EVERY quant set you completed. Then divide that by the total number of questions to get your careless error rate.
If your long-term goal is to score in the high 40s, here are the metrics I’d like you to hit in Week 6:
- Careless error rate: < 2%. You’ve heard this before: the careless errors need to be gone, or almost gone.
- OG & Quant Guide sets (#2-3 on the list): 80%+ correct is excellent, 70-80% is probably fine, since these are getting harder. Just remember that WHAT you miss is more important on the GMAT than how many you missed. If you missed OG questions on topics that you haven't studied, that's totally cool -- you'll have time to learn those things. And again: the questions are getting harder.
- Divisibility and remainders questions (#4-7 on the list): 75% or above is probably excellent, but take the results with a grain of salt! These sets are random, and if you happened to see nasty, strange questions, 50-60% might be pretty good. The quality and difficulty of number properties questions varies HUGELY, so don’t overreact to your results.
- Speed: On the OG and topic-based sets, you're still in good shape if you’re reasonably close to 2 minutes per question. If you're slower than, say, 2:30 per question on average, it might be a sign that your skills are shaky, or that you're not choosing efficient paths forward.
What Should You Do About Your Quant Weaknesses in Week 6?
Our usual reminder: on an adaptive test, job #1 is to be accurate on the questions that you’re capable of getting right. If you’re accurate on the easier ones, you’ll get pounded by harder questions – and you’ll miss plenty of them. Embrace the pain.
So don’t obsess over the hard questions that you’ve missed. They aren’t worth much of your precious time.
- If your careless error rate is too high: that’s bad. Do whatever you need to do to fix this. Do it now. Pause the study plan if you need to. Just fix the careless errors.
- If you struggled on the OG or Quant Guide sets (items #2-3): as usual, ask yourself WHY you struggled. If you’re at, say, 70% accuracy, that’s not ideal, but context matters: if nearly all of those errors are on topics that you’ve never really studied, you’re in great shape, since you have plenty of time to study those over the next month or two.
- If you struggled on the divisibility and remainders sets (items #4-7): concentrate on putting your errors into context. These questions can be weird – especially non-official questions. If you missed really hard ones or oddball questions, please don’t waste your time reviewing them. If you got CRUSHED on easier questions, you might want to revisit the videos in the study list, but don’t overreact – these topics aren’t worth THAT much time.
- If you struggled on other topic-based sets (item #8): again, concentrate on putting your errors into context, and look for broad patterns. If you made similar errors on several relatively easy questions, then you might want to revisit the quant books or videos. But if you missed hard or strange questions, who cares?
- If you got CRUSHED by ALL of the quant homework: if you’re nowhere close to the benchmarks on quant – and if your long-term goal is a high-40s score – then maybe you need to back away from the study plan, and invest some time in rebuilding your basic quant skills. If that’s the case for you, tag us in the thread, give us as much detail as you can about your situation, and we’ll try to help.
- How much time should you spend reviewing individual quant questions? Not much, please! Because it can take SOOOOOOO much time to review a question, it should be your absolute last resort. That’s why we want you to redo questions first – sometimes, you’ll see your mistake right away, and that’s the best way to learn. If you miss a question a second time, then maybe it’s a sign of an underlying issue.
- No, really: resist the temptation to obsess over individual questions. Instead, look for patterns in your errors – an error on one question might be a fluke (or a weird, hard, or badly written question), but if you miss several related questions, you have an opportunity to get a good ROI on your study time by addressing a general weakness via a video or articles or books.
CR & RC+
Benchmarks for Your Week 6 RC & CR Results
- Verbal Guide RC & CR sets: these are fairly easy sets, so I’d like to see at least 85-90% accuracy, in no more than 2 minutes per question – but these will get harder in the coming weeks, so don’t be alarmed if your results are somewhat flat over time.
- Random sets of boldface CR questions from the older OGs: sorry, we can’t really give you a benchmark for these, since randomness plays a role. Maybe you saw tougher questions, and maybe not.
Did you at least feel confident and systematic in your approach? If so, you’re probably fine. - Accuracy on (optional) LSAT CR & RC sets: 80% accuracy is still the goal if you’re looking for a 40+ on verbal. If you need a check on your progress, it’s a good idea to do an LSAT set occasionally, and compare it to your Week 1 results.
- Efficiency on LSAT CR & RC sets: 60 minutes or less is your long-run goal to have a shot at finishing the GMAT verbal section on time.
- Consistency on LSAT CR & RC sets: your errors and times should fall within a fairly narrow range across ALL of your LSAT sets. LSAT sets (~25 Qs each) do not vary much in difficulty, so if your errors or times fluctuate wildly, that’s a sign that you’re doing very different things at different times, and you might need to work on your approach to questions.
What Should You Do About Your CR & RC Weaknesses in Week 6?
- Look for “careless” errors. As with everything on the GMAT, pay close attention to anything that seems to be an “unforced error.” Did you miss a ton of questions that felt easy to you, especially in the OG and Verbal Guide? If so, you might want to revisit the techniques in the videos and articles in the assignment lists. This is MUCH more important than getting better at harder questions.
- If your results are significantly better on RC than on CR: you might want to invest time in some extra CR sets or videos – we’ll provide some recommendations each week.
- If you’re better at CR than RC: When this happens, the most common reasons are that you’re obsessing over details when you read RC (and missing the “big picture” by doing so), or you’re struggling to stay focused through a long passage. Maybe you’ll want to err on the side of getting a bit of extra practice on RC in the coming weeks, and we’ll keep feeding you videos that might help, too.
- If you’re slow ( > 60 mins per LSAT set, > 2 minutes per OG or Verbal Guide question): sadly, there are a ton of different reasons why your times might be high. At this stage, maybe you’re still learning new approaches, so you’re still figuring out how to integrate them into your process – if that’s the case, your times will come down. Maybe you’re not doing each set with test-like intensity. Maybe you need more coffee or more sleep. Maybe you’d be sharper at a different time of day. Maybe there’s inefficiency in your process – and if that’s the case, it’s likely that you’re still struggling to fully incorporate the techniques that you’ll see in the videos. It’s also possible that you’re a slow reader, and that’s a hard thing to fix. I wish I could tell you which of these things is happening – but you’ll have to figure that part out for yourself, unfortunately.
- If you’re getting impatient with your results: hey, it’s still only Week 6. If you’re hitting our benchmarks, you’re doing GREAT. If you’re not quite hitting the marks yet, are you at least seeing some improvement? If so, you’re on track – keep at it! And remember that you can always pause the study plan if you need to.
- If you’re getting CRUSHED on CR & RC: well, I’m impressed that you’re still reading this in Week 6. It might be time to check out this video about the factors that can lead to GMAT verbal struggles. If you think that your fundamental reading skills are an issue, this article and this one will give you some ideas for how to improve over time.
SC+
We only assigned one SC set again this week, so the most important thing is not to overreact. We’re starting to make headway on key SC topics, but there are plenty more to come. So please please please don’t obsess over individual questions yet – it’s still not the best use of your time.
Benchmarks for Your Week 6 SC Results
- Accuracy: 90% correct is cause for celebration, and 70-90% is still completely solid. If you’re under 70%, don’t worry – there’s still time to improve.
- Random sets of verb tense and subject-verb questions from the older OGs: sorry, we can’t really give you a benchmark for these, since randomness plays a role. Maybe you saw tougher questions, and maybe not. Did you at least feel confident and systematic in your approach? If so, you’re probably fine.
- Speed: if you completed the set of 25 questions in under 50 minutes, that’s great. If you were in the 50-60 minute range, you’ll eventually need to get more efficient, but you still have plenty of time to do so. If the set took you more than an hour, don’t panic – just be prepared to invest extra study time in the next few weeks, particularly with the recommended videos.
What Should You Do About Your SC Weaknesses in Week 6?
- Be prepared to spend more time in the coming weeks if you’re struggling. If your SC is lagging way behind your quant, CR, and RC skills then you’ll want to allocate more time for SC in the next few weeks…
- ...but please don’t spend too much time reviewing individual SC questions. It’s incredibly time-consuming, and every SC question has its own unique qualities that you might not ever see again. Instead, be patient – you’ll have plenty of chances to build your underlying skills via videos and more practice, and that’s a better use of time than obsessing over individual questions. You can always redo the questions you missed in a few weeks, after you’ve improved your underlying skills.
06 Aug 2023, 11:40
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In the Practice tests and Diagnostics section, Link In point 4 is not leading to any questions.
Can anyone please tell where can I find Diagnostic test? I have 2021 OG but my online questions validity is over.
Can anyone please tell where can I find Diagnostic test? I have 2021 OG but my online questions validity is over.
