Looking for advice regarding studying from MGMAT books

If you are, then I'm right there with you - I was going to post a similar thread when I saw yours.

Good luck with your studies!

Don't worry, guys. The "asking-stupid-questions" group has grown to three with me

The thread is very interesting and I somehow hope us to reach to the ultimate studying strategy. I have also the 8 MGMAT Guides, the 3 OG12 Guides and in addition - Math & Verbal Foundations and Advanced Math. Latter two will be the books I will start with, but the tough questions is how to proceed once I have started with the 8 strategy guides. Currently I think I might start with Quant and then, as I have finished the 5 quant guides, move to Verbal. But I would be very grateful if someone could share his experience. Another questions is if the MGMAT Strategy Guides should be read in their exact sequence. And should we complete the OG Exercises right after every MGMAT chapter, or first finish the books and then do exercises from OG12, OG Quant and OG Verbal. At least I know when to use the Advanced Math book

Is it a good idea to have CAT's (no matter if GMATPrep or MGMAT) prior to having read the MGMAT Guides at least once?

Regards,

Everybody studies differently and gets value from different areas of studying, but personally, while I found the MGMAT guides to be helpful, I focused on them too much. I would honestly recommend running through them once without stressing over the material. Then focus on OG problems (work corresponding problems with the topics you have covered in a study session) and refer back to the guides to cover weak areas in depth.

I just finished the 9 week MGMAT class a couple weeks ago and I have a month of self study left. I have concerns that I did not place enough emphasis on doing additional OG problems outside what was assigned in the syllabus.

The study guides are fantastic and I am certain I will return to them for brush up, but from my experience, I would recommend focusing more on actual problems.

@ neilferrini: Thanks for the feedback! Your opinion that you focused too much on the books could be vital. Initially I thought to try to read the 8 MGMAT Guides twice. But maybe it will be better to read them once (together with the OG12 questions) and then to try how the score has improved resp. to define some problem areas. The foundations' books as well as the Advanced Math book are respectivelly prior and after the 8 strategy guides.

Maybe the best strategy is to follow the sequence of the 8 guides and start with Quant, and end with Verbal. Once all strategy guides are completed and one can use a CAT to gauge the situation. Once you already have the basics, it is better to mix Quant and Verbal (their question types) depending on the amount of errors. As an example: 2 days SC, then CR (and still some SC questions) etc. But share your experience

Personally, I recommend that you do not work through the guides in sequential order. Again everybody has different learning styles, but I think in general it is best to study a balanced focus on quant and verbal during individual study sessions or over a couple of study sessions. Not sure what your study schedule will look like, but if you work through the guides in sequential order you won't touch verbal until the 6th guide. If you spend a few hours every night it could be weeks before you see verbal strategy. Also, once you begin verbal strategy guides you may forget the quant principles and strategies form weeks ago. I think it would be best to work through a specific 2 quant guides and a verbal strategy guide and then move on to the next pairing of quant and verbal guides.

I would recommend going through a few chapters of each strategy guide only one time and working through the in action problems un-timed. After doing this, go to your OG 12th ed. and look at the corresponding problems (they are detailed in each study guide) for the material you have just covered and work through some of those problems timed. If you struggle in some areas go back and read those specific sections again and then work a couple more problems.

As far as mixing and question types within verbal and quant, this is always a good idea. Do 10 question timed drills picking a few random questions from the OG problem lists for material you have covered out of the strategy guides. The more guides you knock out, the more question types you should pull from. Ultimately when you have done everything, your timed drills of 10 to 20 questions will include everything.

Hopefully this helps. Best of luck. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. I'm no expert as I haven't hit my goal score yet, but I have worked through all of the guides. I now have a month of pure drilling through OG, VR, an QR timed questions and a weekly CAT exam.

Thanks neilferrini !
I'm in the same situation as the other guys here . I just bought the 8 Mgmat guides and the 3 OGs but I'm not sure what strategy to adopt . ok I'm going to use my Kaplan practice cat as my baseline score . I scored a 670 ( q 42 v 41) . So based on that what strategy do you suggest ?

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

A 670 is a great baseline score to start your prep with. I would run through the guides and really only focus on areas you aren't already comfortable with. If you are scoring a 670, you must have some of the foundations and strategies covered. Definitely go through every guide (a couple quant and one verbal and then move onto the next set), but just focus on areas you need to improve on. My guess is that if you are already scoring in the upper 80th percentile, drilling timed problems, taking CATs, and reviewing weak areas are primary focus.

Thanks Neilferrini,

I think I like the 2:1 guide approach. One month of only studying Quantitative section seems a bit too much. Before moving on the second book I will cover each book thoroughly, including the few dozen problems from the OG that the guide is referring to.

I am still not sure, should I start doing problems from the OG in depth when I am completely done with Q and V section, or as I move on?

Are you referring to to the official verbal and quant review books? If so, I am going to work through those problems after the OG 12the ed problems. Personally, I don't think it matters too much which books you begin with as they all consist of GMAT problems from the official test writers. I have heard advice from MGMAT instructors saying you can start with those books or you can use those books after the OG. The MGMAT syllabus assigns OG 12th ed benchmark problems after each chapter in their strategy guides so I chose the latter approach. I plan to use the VR and QR book questions to do timed drills of various question types to mimic the real test after covering all material in the OG.

Hope that helps

I was wondering...

If I do problems in the OG wrong and look into solutions for the explanation, OG's approach is sometimes quite different from what I have learned in the MGMAT book (including advanced section). It seems to me that some MGMAT explanations did not cover the OG to 100%.

Would should I do? Memorize each approach to the problem or look elsewhere to learn about general concepts (where?)?