After scoring a disappointing 660 on the GMAT in January, and abandoning my GMAT efforts for the past 6 months, I am now prepared to make a concerted effort at achieving my goal of a 720+ score. I am currently putting together my plan for executing this task and am looking for some input. I have read each of the study plan threads and success stories, and trying to find other debriefs that are applicable to my situation. If anyone has had an experience like mine and would like to share some tips, or even point me towards some good threads I may have missed, I would greatly appreciate it.
Following are a list of my exam history leading up to the exam. During this time period I was able to miss some work and probably reached the 100 hour mark on preparation:
16 DEC 13:
MGMAT CAT V: 660, Q41, V39
19 DEC 13: GMAT Prep I: 640, Q43, V35
26 DEC 13: GMAT Prep II: 720, Q47, V42
2 JAN 14: GMAT Prep III: 660, Q43, V38
5 JAN 14: GMAT Prep IV: 710, Q47, V40
7 JAN 14: GMAT: 660, Q42, V40
The materials I have are:
OG 12th Edition
OG Verbal and Quant Reviews, 2nd Edition
2 additional practice tests from GMAC and question bank
Manhattan GMAT set of 8 books, 4th Edition
MGMAT Advanced GMAT Quant (just purchased)
MGMAT Tests and Question Banks
PowerScore CR Bible
*considering
GMAT Club testsStrengths/Weakness from prep:Verbal>Quant
RC>CR>SC
My plan right now is to start fresh and go back through the
MGMAT guides, extending my prep time from a consolidated 1.5 month period to a more spread out 3-4 months. I believe 1-2 hours per week day and about 5 hours per weekend day will work much better for me. I would like to spend a good two months on just quant, moving through all
MGMAT regular chapters, then going back through the books studying the advanced chapters, and then wrapping up with the Advanced GMAT Quant book. Once I feel confident that I am at the 48+ level for quant, I will move onto verbal. In my last prep I read the
MGMAT once and really only read the first couple chapters of the CR Bible and only did RC (my strongest category) in practice exams. This time, I will spend 2-3 weeks exclusively studying SC before moving onto CR bible. I have never gotten more than 2 RC questions incorrect on a practice exam, so I don't plan on practicing those questions at great lengths. Once I am done with all this, my plan starts to get hazy. Last time I took a few tests, reviewed subject areas I was weak in, and did question sets of 5-10 using the GMAC question banks. I plan on doing the same this time but hopefully this time, because I will be spreading out my study, I won't be as burnt out on GMAT material.
Please poke holes in my plan! After typing it out, I am already beginning to realize some of my preparation mistakes, but would love to hear from the community. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!