Please critique my 3 month study plan

Question

Hello everyone, Long time lurker here. My 1st attempt at the GMAT was back in Nov 2011 without any studying whatsoever. I got a 430 (29Q, 21V)

. I'm aiming to get my score as high as possible so I put together this 11 week study plan on the Excel doc I attached below. I grabbed info and suggestions from the previous posts I've read on here. I have 2 kids (aged 2 & 1) so my study time is after they go to sleep. my study materials: - 8 Manhattan GMAT guides, online test bank, & 6 CAT exams - GMAT OG 12 - GMAT quant & verbal review 2nd editions - GMAT club tests Do you have any feedback? what do you think I should change? Thanks in advance. Carlos

Yekrut · Answer

Looks very detailed! If you can stick to what you have outlined you should do pretty well. I have three suggestions:

It looks like you may be scheduling too many CAT exams at the end of your studying/consecutively. I don't know how you work but I personally know that I would burn out at that rate. I would suggest taking one after you finish your quant section to see how you've improved and which areas are still weak.

Another important note is to remain flexible. I'm finding some material from the MGMAT guides much more difficult than others. Instead of sticking to my schedule, I've adapted some to spend more time on these problem areas. Just an aspect to keep in mind.

Finally I would suggest to get the OG12 book. They are official questions and are great to practice what you've learned in the MGMAT guides.

All in all it looks like a solid plan.

Best of luck.

fulano79 · Answer

I forgot to list the OG guides. I'm definitely gonna take some exams after I finish Quant to see where I'm at. thanks for replying.

andih · Answer

hey. how much time do you plan to study every day? are you studying full-time or also working? just curious since i'm sitting in the same boat time-wise...

fulano79 · Answer

andih,

I work full time and have 2 kids. During the week, I'm shooting for 2-3 hours. Sat-Sun, I'm trying to do double that; as much time as I can dedicate to it, basically.

wallstreetbarbie · Answer

I would suggest that you take a cat exam prior to begining. Then look where you are weak. MGMAT's CATS are great about pinpointing that. Any area you score below 50% is a weakness. I would say do another CAT a month in. Then another in month 2. This way you are constantly gauging whether you are making progress. Your second cat should have a significant increase. This is because it is much easier to improve from 430 than from 630.

As you complete each chapter of each strategy guide do the in action problems. So say each day you go through one chapter. By the end of the week you have gone through roughly 5. Take 2 hours to review them. Then turn around and look at the corresponding problems in OG for each chapter. I believe at the end of each book they list them out for you.

OG will show you whether you got the material or you need more studying. It is imperative to get the fundamentals down packed. If you are so focused on going through your schedule you may start missing the point of the studying... which is to master the material.

Best of luck

fulano79 · Answer

good stuff.

Right now, I'm doing the In Action problems after completing each section and I planned to do exactly as you said in regards to going back to the OG to work the corresponding problems in each MGMAT Guide. I will take a CAT exam today and every month there after as you suggested to measure my progress to ensure I'm learning and not just speeding through chapters.

Thanks for your feedback.

budablasta · Answer

Hi ctovar, excellent excel sheet! Love it. But no way are you going to be able to stick to it! There, I said it. But I will also tell you that that's not a bad thing at all. I can't imagine anyone can stick to such a rigorous schedule as the one you have drawn up. Because as you progress in your prep schedule and as you read stuff on this forum, you are going to figure out that you need to spend more time on a particular area. Or maybe you are going to find a bunch of material that is so good you are going to delete a few blocks off your excel sheet and put this new material in there. (Talking about stuff from Bunuel, Whiplash, et al here ;-)

)! Or maybe you reach a plateau and mindlessly continuing to cover more and more topics is just not the answer. Mohater, Yerkut, and others will advice you to stop, soak in the material, learn from your mistakes and then move on. Create error logs and maintain them religiously. All of this will rip holes in your excel plan but for the better :-D

!

fulano79 · Answer

No need to sugarcoat anything. I welcome posts that are brutally honest. :-D

That said, what is the stuff from Bunuel, Whiplash, etc you are referring to? link(s)? btw, I have an error log to review concepts I missed and silly mistakes I made. I know that the schedule looks a bit rigorous but I don't cover more than 2 chapters per day. IMO, I think I can handle it.

Yekrut · Answer

Completely agree with wallstreetbarbie, it's very similar to the my study plan.

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Please critique my 3 month study plan

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