Great idea bb to post a GMAT Study plan!

May I suggest a study plan for retakers? people with a 590 in their first exam and aiming for a 700+

My story in brief:
I have taken a 2 month break since I have taken the exam and now I am in the process of starting from the beginning and creating my study plan for retaking the exam.

I believe I have decided on the books (Og12 + MGMAT Books + Kaplan Premier) and the online CATtests (gmat club tests, GMATPrep, MGMAT tests) I will be using.

However I have some trouble with the next step: Creating the STUDY PLAN: Do I study all the theory in the MGMAT books and in between schedule CAT tests (also do I take one in the beginning?) or do I focus on any weaknesses I recognised from my last attempt or...? Also it is very important for me to plan how long I need to spend during the week (I work full-time, 45-50hrs week - w/ends off) and how long during the weekends; I have read somewhere that if you work long hours for the GMAT you might burn yourself, on the other hand people say that you should NOT study for the exam more than 3-4 months as it will start to have a negative effect on your scores! So I would really appreciate any guidance on how I should go about 'taming' this exam!

My first attempt took me about 3 months and during that time I was also investigating techniques, finding out about books, the gmat club, online CAT tests and I tried to incorporate them in my study as I went along, which is something I believe one should definitely avoid.

I want to get it right from the beginning this time, so I would like to ask if you have any suggestions for the study plan in retaking the exam (while working full-time) to go from 590 to 700+

Thank you!

I've been taking the GMAT tests here and the first 9 tests - I've averaged about 20 correct answers - which is actually quite pathetic. I'm looking at Jeff Sackman's GMAT bible again and am doing his practice problems. If that doesn't take me to the 90th percentile on GC club tests - I'll have to try out the Kaplan math workbook or something else.

Hi BB,

Great post. Does anybody have any statistics of people who followed this approach about their success?

Jochen

Yes. Also take a look at the GMAT Retake thread: should-i-retake-gmat-thread-retaking-gmat-strategies-83339.html

It is tough to improve if you don't have a clear enemy - most often people lack a solid base (moving too fast through books, etc). One way to stumble on those topics that you have missed is to do hundreds or thoudands of practice questions. However, an easier approach may be to review the books you have used or possibly get a different set: top-gmat-prep-books-guides-reviews-comments-77703.html
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Thanks once again. I am gonna give the test once again in mid December and considering joining Knewton. They have 50 point increase program which can help me.
Manish

3 weeks is tough to go through all of those materials. Possibly, but you will need at least another week or two to tie up and take full length tests.
Usually as long as you take the GMAT before the deadline (even if the scores are not in yet), you can submit your application and it will be reviewed (this is based on what Shadowsjc reported).
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Hi All- I recently completed the GMAT with a disappointing 640 and want to re-take the test. I had issues both with math and verbal. Specifically with Math- number properties, data sufficieny (Is p>q type questions in DS), word problems (silly mistakes mostly) and time!
With Verbal- I often found myself short of time. Analytical- I would boil it down to 2 choices and get stuck. With RC- its the regular complaint of just not having enough speed to read and understand, and with senetence correction: I got tripped up by 3 questions which asked me about usage of : ; and - in sentences. In general I should improve the speed on sentence correction to give time for RC and Analytical.
Books I have used first time round: OG 12th edition, Princeton review and MGMAT for SC only.

Can you guys suggest how I can plan my study next time round and books you would recommend to fix my above weeknesses? Your replies are greatly appreciated.

burnttwinky,
You bring up a good point.I was getting anywhere between 650-720 on my tests but here is tye catch. The ones i got high, I found that I had already done the OG questions and when I took the GMAT Prep test, some of them were repeats and so may havegiven me a false indication. This is one of the reasons I want to have a good study plan this time and why I gave the list of books I have already used. My weak points remain the ones I said in my previous email. Any thoughts on a study plan and book recommendations? Thanks.

Just one suggestion!
pay for "The Economist" subscription, get the audio edition free
i am already into 2nd Qtr running .Hope, I improve my speed:lol:

BB
No. I mean for GMAT takers

Sometimes boring topics(in print) become juicy if the audio version is with us
Economist does the same for the subscriber
Releases the audio edition every thursday/ friday just before their print edition
and its word by word

I will recommend the "Business, economy, Science & tech and the opinion/editorial part"

the special reports are also amazingly good even for the MBA interview, later on