GMAT Study Plan - How to Start your GMAT Prep

Thnx a lot for your guidance. I have downloaded the error logs from GMAT club
and will start to keep a track of my common mistakes going forward.

Do you have any others inputs for free online reference material for RC improvement as that is my weak area ?


Regards,
Tania

My main suggestion for RC is GMAT Fiction as well as this post: gmat-club-s-reading-comprehension-strategy-guide-83101.html

I like the part about "Step 4: Figure out your weaknesses". I was working on my weaknesses which is SC. I brought a book, and worked on SC. I had improved 40 points by doing that.... take my weakest part and bring it up to par.

Hi BB, Hi everyone

I just joined a few days ago, after reading your reviews of the Official Guide for GMAT on Amazon. I’ve just found this Plan for GMAT novices and I think is extremely useful to me.

I’m not a native speaker and actually I’m taking six months off in order to improve my English profiency in a English-speaker country (stuying in a English Language School). I would like to start to study for GMAT at the same time so I can take advantage I’m a student again.

I’m planing to take GMAT in 4 months and I already bought some of the books you’ve recommended:
1. OG12
2. OG for GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Ed.
3. OG for GMAT Quantitative Review 2nd Ed.
4. Kaplan GMAT 2010 Premiere Live Online
5. MGMAT Prep Guides - CR
6. MGMAT Prep Guides - RC
7. MGMAT Prep Guides – SC
8. Ace the GMAT (my personal decision based on Amazon reviews).

I’m planning to stick to your study plan for novices. However, I was wondering, why there is no reference to neither OG12 nor OG Verbal nor OG Grammar in the novices guide. Do you recommend study from OG12 or OG Verbal or OG Grammar? If you do, When is the best moment to study from these books? Do you recommend to study before Kaplan Premiere or after?

In addition, What do you think about Ace the GMAT? Do you think is a good GMAT prep Book?.

Finally, I think this site is amazing, any suggestions to take advantage of it at maximum?, Thank you so much for your help.

great info on this string - I am just starting with my gmat study plan, and I'd like to write my GMAT within a month. I'm not currently working so I'll have time to focus and maybe condense the 3 month plan. I haven't seen much posted about tighter timelines and any experiences people have had going full-time studying on this.

The reason I want to do this is to complete my GMAT before the next round of apps are due (early/mid January) here in Canada. According to another posting I read it takes upto 20 days to for scores to reach b-schools. Those who have done apps, do you know if it's necessary for schools to have the scores in hand with the apps, or if writing it prior to the due date suffices.

Any suggestions/comments would be much appreciated.

Hey bb

I like the 3 month study plan you posted. Only thing is I have 2 months and a half to prepare for the test. I was thinking Going first and second month as outlined in your study plan, and go two weeks for the last portion. Just want to know what do you think regarding this.

Also, how many hours per day would you recommend (Weekends also?). I got the time since I am not currently working, however I do not want to burn out before te test. My first real GMAT test was terrible, Quant section very bad.

I am pretty sure for application purposes you can just write them in. After admission is made then they would corroborate with the official scores.

You can make it in 2.5 months.
The thought is that you can dedicate 1-2 hrs a day or (1.5) but quality hours. That's not all you should be spending, however. Read books if you need to improve Verbal. If you don't, then solve some math riddles/questions when you have downtime or late at night.

Hello,

I just start this week my preparation for the GMAT, I have never take the test.

I ordered the following books and should get them early january 2010:

--> GMAT Verbal Review: The Official Guide
--> The Official Guide for GMAT Review
--> GMAT Quantitative Review

Should I purchase any other book to complete this list? If yes which one(s)?

I must admit I am a bit confused by all the book peope are using.

I am aiming to pass the test on end of march and would like to score 750.

Thanks in advance!

I am using Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction. It's a really good book if you want to learn the rules for SC. It has good rating from members in our club too. https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-verbal-prep-books-reviews-recommendations-78094.html

This question is for gmatclub moderators. When do you think someone should get private tutoring? I'm asking because it's something I'm considering. I recognize that there are many things that I can teach myself and learn from the forums but I also see things that I probably shouldn't work on alone, so I think.

hi, I am a new member of GMAT club. I did my BBA in 2005 then I got busy with my little daughter.Now I am planning to get admitted to a good business school. I did sit for GMAT once without any preparation. I got 470. 22in QT and 39 in VB. I totally ran out of time while answering the quantitative section. 10 questions where left when I has 2 minutes so I randomly picked answers for them and I guess I got all of them wrong.

Can you help me with some advice on how to manage the time properly.

Naurin

Oh dear, I do need to increase an embarrassing score in the low 500s to 700+ because I'm planning to get into a Top 20 school. I decided to embark on that 3 month study plan until i came across this post and you're saying 3 months is already too late?. How else and how much time should I devote to preparing then? I have about 10 more months before 2011 Round 1 applications. My schedule in the early months would involve strengthening my personal profile, researching on schools and working full time, on top of GMAT preparation. I plan to use the last 2 months for writing essays.

I know it is arrogant of me to think so, but I initially thought that the GMAT was easy, and merely a summary of what you've learn in college. I ignorantly based that assumption on what I've heard from my friends. One of my friends scored a 760 on his first try without any preparation work. He advised me not too study too much so I won't bog my mind down with too much info. Also I started off with Princeton Review (which i only just found out is not a very useful guide from this forum). After reading what is on here, I begin to recognize that I have been doing all the wrong things (including wasting GMATPrep Tests and OG SC and PS questions, and listening to the wrong, although well-intended, advice.

bb, you mentioned in your study plan that those plans are for a 50 to 150 points increase. But as you can see in my case, I need to increase my score by at least 200+. Any guidance or reference to the right resources after making the wrong moves would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Fellows!

I would like to share my study plan with you. It is in MS Excell, so you may use it for yourself as well (in case it is a good one )
And of course your comments are welcome.

I have spent around 1 month studying the GMAT Club and want to say it is great! Based on this I've build my plan, made some shopping on Amazon (some books are still coming) and hope to avoid mistakes other fellows did and kindly shared their experience.

During my preparation I will also share my experience and report any success/mistakes I will make

Regards,
Krivoy Rog

Thanks. This is great. There is also another GMAT Calendar around, just FYI.

I'd recommend putting the premium on the gmat and identifying what you don't know regarding the exam content. The reality is that you can write essays anytime but can't always study. The gmat is the most constrained aspect of the process. So I encourage you to study as best you can and strengthen your profile as time allows you to do so. When it's time for your essays, I'm sure you'll find plenty of people willing to critique them, myself included.

Good plan. I'm going through the Manhattan materials as well. I have about 2.5 months left and intend to get to OG's asap. I feel like the Manhattan materials have helped me see areas to work on so I intend to use them along with my error log for addressing growth areas.