Will be studying for GMAT the next 5 months!What to do to hit that 700

Question

Hello Everyone,

And thank you for your time. I have recently graduated from college and was planning to study for the GMAT 5 months straight. I have a business I’m running at the moment, so I won’t be looking for a full time until after the GMAT exam is done. My exam will be August 3rd 2019. My reason to hit over 700+ is to take my exam early now since the exam score lasts for 5 years. (On a side note is it possible with top brand name internships (6 done), 3 entrepreneurships businesses (self-made) and 2-3 years of future work experience plus a 3.35 GPA,700+ Gmat score, get into a top 5 MBA USA School? Asking because my grades aren’t that strong but I do have a good amount of experience. Attended a well known finance/accounting college in NYC )

I thought it would be a great idea to get it over with now instead of later, for then I can focus on my recommendations and essays later down the road when working full time. I know I have a long way to go since I took an OG Exam #1 for the first time and scored a 340 (horrible I know) where my quant was a 10, verbal was a 24 and ir a 2. Therefore, I have been looking around and prepped myself to buying TTP for quant (have been practicing every day and it looks like I’m improving), Manhattan Prep 5th edition bundle, OG 2018 + quant review + verbal review, Veristas 1-7 CAT, OG 2-6 exam, MGMAT 1-6 Exam and GMAT Club 1560+ questions.

Now, the question is I have all these books available how should I pace myself? Should I be working quant 2 hours a day and then 1 hour of verbal then reviewing the mistakes I made? Writing down the mistakes and answers and reviewing it until I get it? ( I keep an error log) How many CAT exams should I be taking? Should I be taking it on a weekly basis? I have only been practicing with TTP the past 4 days reviewing the videos and taking the exam in the end. I have not touched any of the other books yet. It has been a while since I took an exam like this so just thinking about this has been giving me quite some stress. So, users here who achieved over 700+ what are some guidance or recommendations that you can give me? Thank you for your time. Looking forward to your responses.

cfc198 · Answer

My only advice would be to keep it simple. Abundance of material can do more harm than good as it can get daunting and stressful to cover all the mentioned material.

Stick to TTP's organised plan and tackle the verbal section whenever possible. Remember, it is better to practice x questions twice than to solve 2x questions once.

Best wishes!

u1983 · Answer

Hello spark1496 ... welcome to the community. Below is what I would generally do ( I have mentioned the same to some other new users

). Hope the same works well for you as well. For Verbal: 1. For RC I would use of the link below to make a habbit to do atleast 2 RC each day and going through the discussions therein. https://gmatclub.com/forum/project-rc-b ... l#p2110839 https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-project- ... 87783.html **Donot forget to thank workout & SajjadAhmad .

2. For CR .... try to master 1 topic at a time ( 1 golden rule : know why the wrong choice is wrong) 3. For SC .... Try to cover the basic rules & GMATNinja vedios before practice ( 1 golden rule : know why the wrong choice is wrong) For Quant : 1. Use GMAT Club pdf (free !!

)to refresh and/or learn the concepts tested in the exam. 2. Start practicing 500 level Qs at the links below, and once I reach 90% accuracy I would move to 600 level. 3. Similarly at 600 level I would strive for 80-85% accuracy and then move to 700 level. 4. And then continue with 700 level ..... more the merrier !! 5. Finally use GMAT Club Q-Tests if you are targetting Q48++

DS : https://gmatclub.com/forum/ds-question- ... 28728.html PS : https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-ps-ques ... 27957.html According to your target timeline ...... you have time at your side. All the best !!

TheGraceful · Answer

TTP is a great choice for Quant preparations. It almost takes 180 hours to finish the course. It's up to you to split those hours in days and months (2 hrs per day means 90 days and 3 hours per day means 60 days). Do NOT rush - it may take 3-5 months to complete the course, but once you are done with it - you will have strong foundation built and will be proud of your own quant skills improvement.
Your goal should be the date but the mastery over the subject - and consistency in study is the key. GMAT is like a marathon, so persistence and core strengths matter more than pace.

Second round should be Jeff Sacksmann's challenge sets or GMATclub tests (tests or chapter/topic wise quizes) and then OG problems and OGQR problems. And yes, the best error log/OG tracker is GMATclub's guide to OG2019 (you will find that in bb's signature)

For verbal you can begin with Wiley's Aristotle CR grail, RC grails SC grail (this should be used along with Manhattan guide for SC) .
Then you can practice here on GMAT club. check bb's posts (thanks to bb, the founder of this club, who has not just created this forum but helping us all in using it more effectively) :
https://gmatclub.com/forum/critical-rea ... l#p1056423
https://gmatclub.com/forum/150-hardest- ... l#p1564177

And yes, Ninja videos and Thursdays with Ron videos should be helpful too - although I personally have not used it yet.
Hope this helps.

Pleeease press kudos if this has helped you in some way.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi spark1496,

I agree with  TheGraceful  and  cfc198 . The Target Test Prep course has everything you need for quant success; however, your success is not based on how quickly you move through the course but rather on how well you master the material. The course provides you with everything (literally) that you’ll need to earn whatever GMAT quant score you’d like. The sky is the limit … You just need to follow the study plan, which will guide you through the process. If you can complete the course IN FULL, I’m confident you’ll be able to dominate GMAT quant on test day.

Regarding practice exams, as we say in the TTP study plan, you should wait to take any further practice exams until you’ve fully developed your GMAT quant and verbal skills. Remember, GMAT practice tests serve two main purposes: to provide diagnostic information and to get you accustomed to the test-taking experience. In other words, by taking a practice test, you can get a sense of what types of GMAT questions you are comfortable answering, arrive at a reasonable estimation of how you would score on the GMAT at that point in time, and practice taking the GMAT and handling its various challenges, such as time pressure and the varying difficulty of the questions presented.

Can practice tests be valuable tools for learning and continued score improvement? Yes, if they are used properly and at optimal times in your preparation. However, you should not use practice tests as primary learning vehicles because they don’t really provide the kind of practice that you need to increase your score. To improve your score, you need to learn the basics of answering various types of GMAT questions (as you will in the TTP course), and then practice applying what you have learned by carefully answering practice questions in order to learn to answer them correctly.

If you have any further questions regarding how to progress through TTP, feel free to reach out to me directly.

Good luck!

egmat · Answer

Hi spark1496 , I'm glad you reached out for suggestions. A score of 340 (and a Q10, around 6th percentile) would indicate that you may need to first take a math refresher course before you jump into your GMAT preparation. The GMAT tests fundamental heavily, even in the more advanced problems, hence it is absolutely crucial that you don't rush your preparation. On the other hand, five months is plenty for you to reach your target score of 700 (89th percentile). First things first I would suggest avoiding the biggest mistake most test takers commit: jumping straight into the OGs. The OGs are a set of retired GMAT questions and are a wonderful resource, but they are not a learning device. I would suggest developing core skills and strategies to tackle different types of questions, to focus of mastering easy and medium difficulty level questions before moving on to the harder ones, and then finally using the OGs as a question bank. This way, you'd be approaching the OGs having already worked on all the concepts and skills and this would help you make the most out of them. What next? Planning I understand that you're looking for a place to start your preparation and are wondering where you must dedicate your preparation time. We've created a free tool for you to provide a clear and efficient path to your target score. This Personalized Study Planner will give you track-able milestones and help you understand exactly where you must spend your preparation time over the next month. Execution You may learn from our chat with Gabriel , our student who scored a 700 (an astonishing 270 point improvement) by following a structured study plan and by solely focusing on the development of core skills. Finally, since the Verbal score is the hardest to improve, you might attend a Free Critical Reasoning Live Session this weekend with our resident CR expert. In this session, you will learn “pre-thinking”, a critical skill that will help you master 700+ level CR problems. I hope this helped! Please feel free to reach out to me at support@e-gmat.com if you'd like to talk. Regards, Shaarang

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hey  spark1496 , here are my thoughts: 
You have 5 months. This is actually  more  than I usually recommend to prepare for the GMAT. Depending on your level of English, 100 to 120 hours of effective learning should suffice.The optimal time is between 6 to 8 weeks, but this amount of hours can alternately be spread out over a longer amount of time. Less is not sufficient, and, on the other hand, if you give yourself too long, like 4-5 months, the danger is you’ll start forgetting what you learned at the beginning. This is important, because all the knowledge is interconnected.
3 months is is really the longest study plan I would suggest - if that's what you decide to go for, you may want to check this out:  =https://exampal.com/gmat/blog/how-to-prepare-for-the-gmat-in-3-months/read this

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