GMAT Ninja Study Plan Week 13

Question

GMAT Ninja’s 13-Week Study Plan Week 13 (4-10 hours) Subscribe via E-mail | Join Study Plan Chat Group Holy poop on a stick, you’ve made it to Week 13! If you have no idea what’s going on here, then you’ll want to start with Week 1 instead. Of the many, many people who have started the study plan with visions of a 760 dancing in their heads, fewer than 10% will make it through the whole thing. So you’re in elite company if you’ve survived long enough to read this. I hope that you’ve read at least a few of the inspirational debriefs along the way, because if you have, you probably know that I have sooooooooo much respect for GMAT Club members who work like crazy to achieve their goals. Now you’re one of them. So whatever happens on test day, please be proud of the epic amount of work you’ve just done. This study plan was written by an absolute tyrant, and it takes a lot of persistence to make it through. Quite frankly, that persistence is more important to your success in life than the ability to fill in little bubbles on a standardized test. After all of this work, you don’t just deserve a cookie. You deserve a whole 🤬 cake. You’ve worked your butt off. You’ve barely relaxed for the last 13 weeks. But guess what? Sometimes a relaxed approach to the GMAT is a good idea. Check out this story about Mr. Fat Pants, who scored a 720 on his actual GMAT but never scored above a 680 on his practice tests . Don’t get the wrong idea: I’m not saying that you should rely on luck on test day. But if you’re nice and relaxed when you walk into the GMAT, you’re far more likely to get lucky – or at least to perform at your very best. I mean this sincerely: whatever happens on test day, it’s an accomplishment to spend this much time gearing up for the GMAT. Even if you’re not thrilled with the result, treat yourself to a nice meal afterwards – and remember to wear your fat pants. One last practice test: Full mba.com test #6, including AWA and IR. That’s it. You deserve a cookie. Or a cake. Or a croissant, golab jamun, malva pudding, ghraybeh, baklava, egg tarts, knafeh…

Once again, the main focus should be on getting your body and brain rested and ready for the big day. We’ll toss a few remaining official questions at you, but any additional quant practice is optional at this stage. If your results have been consistently good, don’t do too much heavy lifting in the final days before your exam -- just do enough practice to stay sharp. Week 13 quant homework 1. Any remaining DS questions from the GMAT Quant Guide (skinny little book) 2. Any remaining PS questions from the GMAT OG 3. (Optional) Only if you’re CERTAIN that it’s worthwhile: do extra sets of topic-based questions as needed. Need help with quant? If you’re worried about quant this week, these resources might help: 1. A playlist to help with pre-exam stress and anxiety 2. A picture of a smiling dormouse That’s it. Take a bow – you’ve survived a TON of work, friends. It’s exam time, and you should mostly be focused on getting your mind right for test day. So extra RC practice is pretty much optional. Do enough questions to keep yourself sharp, and that’s it -- even if that means just doing a short little set of whichever OG RC questions you might have left. Week 13 RC homework 1. Do any remaining questions from a recent edition of the OG. Depending on the exact edition you’re using (and the choices you’ve made about where, exactly, to end your previous practice sets of ~25 questions), you might only have one or two passages left. That’s totally fine. 2. (optional) Do a full LSAT RC set. Or just a passage or two from an LSAT set. Whatever you need to do to stay sharp and focused. Need help with RC? This week’s RC resources in case you need them: A full GMAT RC video course All GMAT Ninja RC resources Kevin Hart & The Rock slapping each other with tortillas. Once again: the goal is for you to walk into your exam rested, relaxed, clear-headed, and confident. If you want to do a few extra CR questions to stay sharp, awesome. If you don’t need them, that’s awesome, too. In other words: when in doubt, take it easy, and spend that extra time getting your mind right. Week 13 CR homework Do any remaining CR questions from the GMAT Official Guide. Or a few loose LSAT questions, or a few questions from older editions of the OG or Verbal Guide that you haven’t seen before. But really: don’t overdo it. Need help with CR? If you struggled with your CR homework sets this week, here are a few of the usual resources, plus a random animal: All GMAT Ninja CR resources A nine-video GMAT CR course A dog saying “I love you.” Congratulations, you’ve survived CR! It’s pretty much showtime now. You’ve already run through nearly everything in the OG and Verbal Guide, and we want you to use the last handful of questions just to stay sharp. And honestly, if you feel like the practice tests are providing enough SC practice, there’s not much harm in skipping the SC homework this week, too -- there’s not much of it, anyway. Week 13 SC homework 1. Do any remaining SC questions from the GMAT Verbal Guide (the exact number of questions remaining will vary depending on which edition you’re using) 2. Get some sleep! No, really. 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.

GMATNinja · Answer

How to Interpret Your Week 13 Results 
Is your head spinning from your final practice test… or from your actual test? If so, please keep reading.

How to interpret your results on mba.com test #6 
   Did you do WORSE on test #6 than on previous mba.com tests?  If so: that’s not unusual. It just means that you care. And it probably also means that your answer might be “yes” to the next question… 
  Is nervousness a factor?  Is your mind going blank under the pressure of a practice test? Are you struggling to sleep the night before a practice test? If so, check out  this beginner’s guide to test anxiety ,  this test anxiety quiz , or  this YouTube playlist ... and especially  this video , which reminds you that when you’re nervous, it’s a sign that you care, you’re ready, and you’ve been here before.  
  Remember that the whole experience changes if you’ve done test #6 before . You might not  consciously  recognize many questions, but I can 100% promise that you’ll be faster and more accurate on questions you’ve seen before – and you’re MUCH less likely to struggle with time management as a result. Just be prepared for the fact that you’ll struggle more with timing on a brand-new test than you did on this one. 
  Don't cram at the last minute, regardless of what happened on test #6 . You've generated a mountain of data over the past few months. If you've followed the plan, you're ready to take this test. Don't freak out about some obscure topic at the last minute -- it's a waste of your energy. If you had a letdown on test #6, it's probably a performance issue -- not a skill, knowledge, or talent issue.   
 
 What to do about your actual GMAT result 
   Take a break and wash your brains . Go enjoy life for a few days and forget about the GMAT. If you’re happy with your result, great – consider this a well-deserved vacation. If you aren’t happy with your result, that sucks – but still take a break, pat yourself on the back for working so 🤬 hard, and clear your head with a few really good, fun days. I’m serious: a really fun few days is the best thing you can do for your score in the long run. 
  Consider purchasing an ESR .  This video will help you interpret your GMAT ESR  – and whether to purchase one at all.  
  If you’re planning to retake: write down everything you can remember as soon as you’re finished with the exam.  You’ll be surprised by the volume of questions that will come spilling out from the end of your pen. As you write down those questions – or fragments of them – odds are good that you’ll notice something useful about your performance. 
  If you’re THRILLED with your score : please tell us about it in the thread! And if you need a good MBA admissions consultant, reach out to us via GMAT Club or the GMAT Ninja website, tell us a bit about yourself, and we’ll send over the names of some of our favorite consultants at a few different companies. 
  If you’re frustrated with your score : reread some of the debriefs from the first 12 weeks of the study plan. S**t happens – and it happened to almost every test-taker that we’ve featured in the study plan. So give yourself some time to reflect and reset, and then get back to work once you're refreshed and reenergized. I promise that good things will eventually happen if you do.

shivpanjwani · Answer

Hi to the entire GMAT Ninja team, you guys are AWESOME! Before I tell you my story and result from yesterday's attempt, I just want to give you guys my heartiest gratitude for doing all this work and providing it for FREE! It is unbelievably selfless of you guys... I would give you a hug and a piece of the cake you asked me to buy.

GMAT 1st attempt on May 4th, 2023: 610 (Official Practice Test average before exams: 700; I was indeed one of the infamous horror stories) GMAT 2nd attempt on August 7th, 2023: 740 (Official Practice Test average before exams: 700; this time I channeled my anxiety to get the best out of me!) To be honest, I found this gold mine of a study plan a bit late, and had to bring it down to 10 weeks. As you can see I was already averaging pretty well on the mocks by this point, but anxiety got the best of me on my first attempt. So, I decided that I would need to address both anxiety and skills equally. I started with the GMAT ninja anxiety quiz and ESR YT video to understand my weak points. I then downloaded and got the full version of the Waking Up app, which has upskilled my mind beyond the GMAT. I diligently followed the study plan until week 6, and decided to skip Week 7,8 and 9 since these had the more rarely tested quant topics. I ran through the beautiful "fake tests" (verbal fake tests are ugh) using the Official practice questions, and did the official practice tests in a library away from home and close to the test center. About 9 days before the exam, I was still unsure of SC. I decided to take 3 days and complete GMAT Ninja's SC course on YT. And boy, oh boy, it completed the trick (Find the definitive errors I kept telling myself). Finally, on the day of the exam I could feel the anxiety from my toe to my head. I had, however, visualized my entire experience multiple times before taking the test. Once again, thanks to you awesome guys' recommendation. I saw the first question, and bam, the anxiety turned into enthusiastic problem solving. Before I knew it, up came the 740. Q36 to Q49 (Say NO to silly errors) V36 to V41 (LSAT made GMAT look easyish) All in all, you guys are wonderful, wonderful people. Keeping on helping this community in fighting the good battle! Cheers

robpark · Answer

I followed this study plan extensively and got a 720 (Q49, V39) in my GMAT exam i took yesterday. A huge shoutout to Charles  Gmat  Ninja. This study plan works !! Thank a ton!

NA08 · Answer

YOU ARE A GOD  GMATNinja

I followed this plan (mostly not 100% tbh) and score 760!!!! WHATTTTTTTT
All thanks to you Charles. I had given GMAT in 2021 and scored 680. I tried again this time and followed your plan. It led to an 80 point improvement. For everyone reading this, TRUST EVERYTHING THIS GUY SAYS.

bb · Answer

Wow. Fantastic score! Congratulations! How long did it take you to complete the plan?

Would love to hear more about your start and what did not work… Would you be open to writing a debrief about your GMAT journey in the share GMAT experience sub-forum?

Posted from my mobile device

GMATNinja · Answer

I showed this to my wife, and the look on her face implied that she vigorously disagrees.

You're amazing, congratulations! And thank you so much for the kind words. If you managed to get a 760, you're obviously brilliant at this, and if anything we've written here played a role, it was a very, very tiny one. So please take a belated bow, NA08 ! This is incredible, and you deserve a cookie. shivpanjwani and robpark -- I'm so sorry that I didn't respond to your posts earlier! I'm not sure how I missed the Week 13 lovefest, but I wanted to very belatedly congratulate both of you. It's HARD to use a self-study plan like this to make progress, and you both deserve a ton of credit for making it work for you. You also deserve tons and tons of cookies.

Thank you for the kind words, everybody! And congratulations again.

dp895 · Answer

Hey Charles (and everyone else!),

Writing to thank you for this study guide, to thank all of you at GMAT Club, and to thank every GMAT Club Forum poster. I just got home from my first official GMAT Focus attempt, scoring a 655 (93rd percentile)!!!

I started studying for the GMAT about a year ago (December 2022) with hopes of a 700+ in the original GMAT. After 7 months of “my own” study plan, I realized I was lacking crucial structure - and really any general understanding of proper GMAT preparation - in my studies. I began this study guide in July, and with the 13 weeks of structured studying, as well as many “pauses” to learn/grasp each Quant Concept, I was able to get where I wanted to be in 5 months.

For anyone wondering, here are my practice exam scores (I switched to target the GMAT Focus, rather than the original GMAT in September, as Data Insights was a bit more up my alley).

MBA Practice GMAT Test #1 (July, 2022): 580 (Q38, V31), 43rd Percentile
MBA Practice GMAT Focus Test #1 (November 15th, 2023): 605 (DI: 82, QR: 77, VR: 81) 75th Percentile
MBA Practice GMAT Focus Test #2 (November 23rd, 2023): 665 (DI: 83, QR: 80, VR: 86) 94th Percentile
MBA Practice GMAT Focus Test #3 (December 3rd, 2023): 645 (DI: 79, QR: 81, VR: 85) 89th Percentile
MBA Practice GMAT Focus Test #4 (December 10th, 2023): 655 (DI: 84, QR: 79, VR: 85) 93rd Percentile

GMAT Focus #1 (today, 12/14/2023): 655, 93rd percentile

Not sure the exact splits, but I’m guessing about (DI: 78, QR: 81, VR: 89-90). Don’t remember the scores exactly, but I did see 100 percentile in Verbal!

Again, thank you so much for constructing such a helpful study guide, and for throwing it out there for free! My future, and so many others here on GMAT Club Forums, are brighter than ever because of it!

Drew

GMATNinja · Answer

Congratulations,  dp895 ! I'm so sorry that I'm late to the party on this, but it put a huge smile on my face to read all of this, especially since we still haven't adapted the study plan for the GMAT Focus. We'll get there at some point soon, hopefully.

Most importantly: holy smokes, congrats on absolutely crushing verbal, Drew! That's incredibly hard to do.

Thank you so much for writing all of this, and please keep us posted on your application adventures -- I'd love to see where you land.

Congratulations again!

jay128 · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja ,

I wanted to thank you and your team for all the support throughout my GMAT journey with the Study Plan itself and the videos. I finished my recent GMAT Focus with a score of 675 (equivalent to 730 in GMAT Classic) with a 96 Percentile, after my GMAT prep based on your Study Plan.

I am writing this rather detailed experience to 1) appreciate GMAT Ninja's amazing help; and 2) help  anyone  who is  exploring different study plan options (or expensive tutoring) because they are stuck in a long plateau .

A brief context of my LONG GMAT journey...

Season 1:   GMAT Prep with a Tutor Institution in Korea  - May 2022 ~ October 2022

Attempt #1 (August 2022):  660  (Q48 (63%) / V33 (63%) / IR6 (63%))
Attempt #2 (October 2022):  660  (Q48 (65%) / V32 (67%) / IR6 (64%))

Season 2:   GMAT Prep with TTP  - November 2023 ~ March 2024

Attempt #3 (March 2024):  FE 625  (Equivalent to  680 ) - (Q84 (85%) / V80 (60%) / DI 79 (79%))

I was very disappointed with the score with only a 20-point increase despite the hard work for 5-months!

Season 3:   GMAT Prep with GMAT Ninja Study Plan  - May ~ mid-July 2024

Attempt #4 (July 2024):  FE 675  (Equivalent to  730 ) - (Q89 (97%) / V82 (79%) / DI 80 (86%))

I had a   50-point increase   in just 2.5-months!!

So.. What made the difference: ultimately overcoming the long plateau I had been suffering for such a long time?

Instead of digging into a large number of questions, or going too deep into individual questions, I tried to apply the "GMAT Ninja Principles" in every practice quesetions / tests I tackle. I had to admit that I had a good level of concepts and foundations (if you go over all the contents in TTP - you are more than ready to go in terms of fundamental concepts).

What's more important, based on in-depth reflection on my previous preparation and test-taking experiences, I needed more  "training"  - not studying - with the right habit, and the right coaching. I needed to tackle every question with consistency, how to manage time wisely during the test, and how to consistently address challenges during the test (ex. facing a "killer" reading passage).

Here, GMAT Ninja's coaching through its videos and study plan was the best I can ever find. The 2.5-months were spent to train my self with each homework questions that the Study Plan provided.

Below are Some of the Principles that  DIRECTLY  Impacted My Score Increase:

1. (Quant) Do NOT Make Careless Errors

During previous actual tests and practice tests, I have  always  made 1-2 careless mistakes. Before the GMAT Ninja Study Plan, I arrogantly believed that I will NOT make such mistakes during actual tests, where my focus level is high. But boy, was I wrong.

I discovered that making careless errors was a habit: I repeatedly solved for a wrong value (ex. checking the value of x when the question required the value of x + y); and made silly calculation errors.

As GMAT Ninja 'pleaded', I read the question twice for almost every single question; wrote down the value I needed to solve for on my scratch pad; and checked the calculations along the way for relatively long calculation processes. The result?  A HUGE increase in my score from 84 (85% percentile) to 89 (97%).

2. (Quant) Have a Flexible Mindset

Several quant questions seem to be deliberately designed to test your level of flexibility. If a question seem to require simple, but dense amount of calculations and steps?  Don't fall into the temptation of jumping right into the calculations like a machine . You may get the question right, but it will usually drain a lot of time - increasing your chances of making silly calculation errors.

Instead, re-read the question, explore - for few seconds - whether there would be a 'smarter way' to answering the question. There usually was.

3. (Verbal) Use the Process of Elimination for All Questions 
: If you are left with 2 options and running out of time, guess between the two. You are left with much better chances of getting the question right.

To be honest, I never "conquered" CR. If there were medium-hard to hard questions, I struggled.  But I did manage to increase the score and overcome the problem of running out of time for the verbal section .

The key was the process of elimination. If you clearly understand the "heart of the passage" and the reasoning behind it, it's rather easy to eliminate 3 answer choices (2 for some tough ones), as they have nothing to do with the heart of the passage, or they function in an opposite way of what the question requires you to do (a 'weakening' answer choice when the question requires you to 'strengthen').

If you can eliminate all 4, great.  But if you can't decide between the two remaining answer choices and the time has reached 2-minutes - let it go. Guess between the two and move on . You successfully increased your chance of getting the question right from 20% to 50%.

The sad thing was, based on my experience and personal data, even if I spent over 3-minutes, I got that tough question wrong anyways. My principle was " If increasing my chances within 2-minutes is the best I can do, good job. Move on ." This allowed me to increase the overall Verbal score in the end - as I got at least 50% of the CR questions that I struggled with during the test right from using this approach.

4. (RC) Fight Through the "Killer Reading Passages" 
: Don't Move Into the Questions Without Understanding What the Author's Trying to Say.

The biggest reason I got crushed in my first GMAT Focus Test was that I got completely stuck in a "killer" reading passage. It was MUCH harder than the RC passages I studied during my studies. I had no clue what the passage was trying to say. Startled, I moved right into the question, but the repeating process of moving back and forth between the passage and the questions - which took MUCH more time than it should have.

This ruined my morale, time management, and I had to rush through the remaining questions - which was devastating to my final score.

What was the principle for the RC? I made sure I understood the author's purpose for each of the paragraphs and the passage overall. I actually wrote down simple notes in 1-2 sentences on what the purpose was on my scratch pad - for both my practice questions and the actual test - JUST like what Charles did in his GMAT Ninja videos.

This may sound time consuming, but although I spend extra 1-2 minutes to digest the questions, the time I needed to tackle each question took MUCH less time. I made sure I solved each RC set within 10-minutes.

The  LSAT Questions  in the GMAT Ninja Study Plan played a significant role in preparing me fight through any killer questions. If you decide not to give up on the LSAT questions in the first few weeks of the Study Plan, and observe improvements in your performance on them - you are on the right track of overcoming the killer RC Questions on the actual test.  The chances are, the killer RC passage on the actual test won't be as challenging as the LSAT RC passages . Well, at least this was the case for me.

5. (All) Train Yourself to Let Go

The most important principle is to "learn to let go" of any question that you just can't solve or is draining too much of your time. This will not happen in actual tests if you do NOT practice this beforehand. Practice fighting against the tempation to "just put a little more time" in all practice sets. The "just a little more time" you put into a single tough question can expand longer than you think.

This was especially true in Quant and DI. It makes even more sense to let go of tough, time consuming questions, given that you can bookmark the question and go back to it.

One principle that I made was that if I identify a question type - especially in DI and Quant - that seemed to unconsiously drain a lot of time, I spend about 30 seconds to see if it's doable. But if it did not, I just bookmarked it and moved on.

You need to collect your own data on which questions type do this to to you. For me, one such big question type was the "algorithm" type graph questions for DI.

In conclusion, thank you GMAT Ninja for providing me with the RIGHT principles for preparing and taking the GMAT. For anyone feeling stuck, train yourself based on his principles - you will see the end of the long GMAT tunnel in the end!!

	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $79 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $325 $200 Discount + $79 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

GMAT Ninja Study Plan Week 13

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards