My study plan

Do maintain an error log and check to see if there is a pattern to your incorrect answers. Then use it to improve in your weak areas. After taking CATS it would help to go through all the questions. For incorrect ones try to understand the concepts. Do not skip the questions you answered correctly. Check if you have selected the correct choice for right reasons. Some times you will find better/quicker ways to solve questions. Hope this helps and good luck

I have just recently started studying for the GMAT. Below is my approach.

I purchased all the Manhattan GMAT books, and OG11. I will get the 1000sc and 1000rc later on.

OG11 has:
1- 249 problem solving questions
2- 155 Data Sufficiency questions
3- 141 Reading comprehension questions
4- 124 Critical reasonning questions
5- 138 sentence correction questions

I strongly believe that EVERY ONE OF THESE PROBLEMS should be completed. the first few questions are always easy but I still do them to get use to the format.

so there are 404 math questions and 403 verbal questions.

Depending on the time allocated to your studies you can probably tackle around 20 math questions/ day and 20 verbal questions/day. This should take approximatly 20 week days to complete OG11. It would take around 2 hours/day to complete the questions and go through the answers.

Each weekend, I take 2 CATs (one saturday and one Sunday)...

I believe that this plans covers all the basic needed to get a decent score (650+). I will keep everyone posted as to my final GMAT score.
I am still studying for the exam and so far so good. I don't feel too exhausted from it, and I have learned so much with this learning plan.
I have a GMAT test target of 01/31/08

Any Thoughts from GMAT experts?

I can't consider myself an expert on anything I haven't done yet (eg the GMAT ) but from my prep I can say that you have a solid study plan. However, I think you have some pretty conservative estimates regarding how many OG problems can be done in a day. 20/20 may be right when you get down to the more difficult questions, but in the beginning you should be able to blow through them pretty quickly. In that way OG can be done in less than 20 days if you're pressed for time.

I'm certainly no expert, but I found it really useful to tackle one "subject" per day (I only had about 10 days to study)...I'd do about 80 questions in that subject every day. By the end of my session, I felt MUCH more confident about that subject and was able to carry that over to my test.


p.s. - by subject, I mean "Data Sufficiency", "Problem Solving", "Sentence Completion", etc.

I agree with you. As you said I am being conservative, as not everyone is at the same level at first. This seems to be the plan that works for me as I currently work full time and have to care for my 1 YO daughter (who knew they could wreck so much in such a little playing ground?)

I really like the 1000SC. As for the 1000CR, i find that really good as well. I haven't done much from the 1000Rc, but I do see it good so far. Although I shouldn't be skipping any of them, i always find myself managing to complete all the subjects for the day except for the RC. by the time i open the RC, i wouldn't have the energy to read the whole text critically. hmm...do you think if i improve my skills on all the subjects except for the RC, I could still end up with a good score on the gmat? my accuracy rate on RC is usually about 50%.

I'm sure you could still get a good score without RC if you nailed everything else, but I think that trying to struggle through RC at the end of the day could help. Verbal is the last section of the test so you'll probably be tired and worn out towards the end of the section. Practicing RC and things like that when you're in the same state of mind seems like a great idea. Maybe it will even build up mental stamina so that you never get tired on the real test.