GMAT Focus - Summit Push 1 - How to allocate study time?

Question

Hey everyone,I'm new to GMAT Club and am seeking some advice from the community. I've signed up for the official GMAT test on July 23rd and just completed covering the material on Target Test Prep. I'm planning to take my first mock exam tomorrow, but since I'm studying alone, I would greatly appreciate any feedback on how to best allocate my time leading up to the test.
 
 How would you go about a global review of the material? 
 Should I start with some drills using the official guidebooks and online questions? If yes, how would you sequence the training? For instance, would you recommend focusing on 5-10 questions each of Quant, Verbal, and Data Interpretation in a specific order? 
 How would you split your day between solving problems, reviewing answers, and revising material? 
 I'm taking some vacation days to prepare, so my routine will be: waking up at 6 am, hitting the gym, and then studying from 8 am onward.  
In terms of strengths and weaknesses:
 
 Quant is relatively straightforward for me. 
 Reading Comprehension (RC) is alright. 
 Critical Reasoning (CR) needs significant improvement. 
 Data Interpretation (DI) is hit or miss; I excel at some types but struggle with others.  
I'm aiming for at least a 655 on the GMAT Focus and plan to take the official test 2-3 times, although I'm hopeful to achieve my goal on the first try.

Any tips or strategies would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi ArcticTiger,

I normally ask my students to start taking practice tests 4-6 weeks before the actual test. I'm not sure whether the official practice test you're taking tomorrow will be your first practice test, but I wouldn't make any major changes at this stage.

Post your practice test score here if you can. That will give us an (initial) idea about how close you are to your target score.

ArcticTiger · Answer

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bb · Answer

HI and welcome to GMAT Club!

I think TTP has some of the advice for their course and how they recommend handling it perhaps more specifically with the aspects of the course, so I will just stay quite high picture and hopefully reinforce it:

1. I recommend striking a balance between learning and practice questions. In my experience most practice questions I took 80% I did correctly so if you believe you only learn from mistakes, then your ROI on learning is 20%. Instead I focused more on the theory and material in the book (in your case it is course) and making sure you get as much of that INTO your mind as possible and to make it stick there as LONG as possible. Biggest reason for failure -either preparing TOO LONG or not keeping the important stuff in your mind long enough.

2. Do exercises after each chapter/every day but don't try to game the system. Take a pack of questions and aim to solve 90% correctly if you are looking for a 99th percentile and 80% correctly if you are looking for 90th percentile. (mix of easy, medium, and hard). Ifyou did not hit your target, figure out why you did not hit your target and go deep into that area/problem. don't take another set hoping you get 90%, and so on until you do. That's gaming the system. Use questions to check your ability, rather than learning (you will learn) but if you ASSUME that you will be learning from questions, that's a 20% ROI on your time as mentioned above, and it will take a LOT of your time so find a balance of how many questions you need to take to remember something and check your skills.

3. Review today what you leanred yesterday. Review this week what you learned last week - teach yourself, explain to yourself chapters, hard concepts, etc. Can't do it? Make notes - make notes, use colors, etc so you remember and if you are not able to, slow down.

4. Use your best time to study NEW MATERIAL. if you have to study something new and something hard, don't do it after dinner on a friday night. Do this on a Monday morning or Tuesday morning or whenver is your best and most premium time. You can't because you are working? Figure out a way to incorporate work and studying and figure out what's more important to you. If GMAT is more important, you have to prioritize it.

In terms of global review, you should have been doing reviewing all along. That is my suggestion, so start your review ASAP if you have not been doing it. Hit your mistakes, areas of weakness you know you have, etc.

You want to manage your time as best as you can and actually force yourself to guess questions if you are not on time. Imagine a train waiting for every passenger who was late. That would be the worst train. don't be the worst train. If you are not able to answer the question on time, you must move on. Create a schedule and stay on top of it.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi ArcticTiger,

This practice test has given you an idea about time management on the GMAT. That's a good thing! However, you should also take an official practice test sometime.

americansad · Answer

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