Hope you’re settling into the flow by now.
This week is not about anything being individually difficult, but things can go wrong quickly if you lose track midway. You’ll see multiple groups, multiple conditions, and questions where a lot is happening at once. If you try to hold everything in your head, it usually falls apart.
So the focus this week is simple: stay structured. Draw things out, organize information, and don’t rush into solving.
Also, plan to take your
second official mock at the end of this week. This one is important, it will give you a much clearer picture of your progress and where you still need to improve.
Weekly time budget: 15 to 20 hours total
Week 6 rules (so the group stays aligned)- Quant: no calculator
- Timing ramp still applies
- Error log continues
- New rule: If the problem has more than two moving parts, draw something before solving. Head math will betray you here.
Week 6: Overlapping Sets | Mixtures (Weighted Averages) | Sequences This is the week where putting things on paper actually makes life easier. Circles, arrows, diagrams, or any structure that helps you keep track.
None of these topics are too hard individually. It just gets messy when you try to mentally calculate everything.
What this week is really aboutBy the end of Week 6, you should be able to:
- Automatically draw Venn diagrams for overlapping sets
- Stop guessing overlaps and start defining them
- Treat mixtures as weighted averages, not algebra puzzles
- Recognize sequences early instead of brute-forcing terms
- Know when formulas help and when they don’t
Core reads:Overlapping sets (Venn diagrams):Weighted averages:Series and sequences:Book reference (if you have it):- Manhattan GMAT Quant + DI
- Chapter 15: Formulas
- Chapter 23: Overlapping Sets
- Chapter 20: Weighted Averages
- Chapter 25: Consecutive Integers
Videos:Overlapping Sets
GMAT Club
|
GMAT Ninja
|
Manhattan
|
Mixtures/Weighted AveragesSequences
You don’t need every video. One clear explanation per topic is enough.
Practice Sets:Phase 1: Easy-mode practice Target:
- Either reach 80% accuracy on 20 questions, or
- Build a clean streak of 15 correct
You have two ways to do this. Pick the one that fits how you usually study.
Option A: Manual practice (no Forum Quiz subscription needed)Click the links below, sort by Kudos and solve questions directly on the forum.
Option B: Forum Quiz mode (recommended if you have the subscription)- Build 3 quizzes - (1) Overlapping Sets, (2) Mixture, (3) Sequences
- Goal is the same as Option A: 80% on 20 or a streak of 15
- Do small sets (15 questions). Review after each set.
Timing ramp for Phase 1- Set 1: Untimed (focus on setup and accuracy)
- Set 2: Soft-timed (generous time, still process-focused)
- Set 3: Normal pacing only after accuracy is stable
Phase 2: Official-style questions (only after Phase 1 feels comfortable)Once the practice sets feel comfortable, it's good to start testing yourself on official-style questions:
Target:
- Either reach 90% accuracy on 30 questions, or
- Build a clean streak of 20 correct
Common traps to actively watch for- Trying to 'see' overlaps instead of drawing them
- Forgetting that totals include overlaps
- Treating mixtures as simple averages
- Forcing formulas onto sequences that don’t need them
Structure beats speed here. Every time.
What’s coming next weekCombinations, Probability and Min-Max
Reading Comprehension – Main PurposeThis week, RC is about zooming out and understanding the overall idea.
Don’t worry too much about details or traps. The main question you should keep asking is, why did the author write this?
What you should get out of this weekBy the end of the week, you should be able to:
- You’ll identify the author’s intent more quickly
- You’ll stop confusing tone with purpose
- You’ll eliminate answer choices that are too narrow or too extreme
- You’ll feel more comfortable summarizing passages in one line
Core Reads:Book ReadingManhattan Prep – GMAT All the Verbal- Chapter 13: General Questions
Videos:Choose whichever style clicks for you.
GMAT Club
|
GMAT Ninja
|
The Tested Tutor
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Practice Sets:Phase 1: Easy-mode practice Target:
- Either reach 80% accuracy on 20 questions, or
- Build a clean streak of 15 correct
You have two ways to do this. Pick the one that fits how you usually study.
Option A: Manual practice (no Forum Quiz subscription needed)Click the links below, sort by Kudos and solve only main purpose questions on the forum.
Option B: Forum Quiz mode (recommended if you have the subscription)- Build one quiz - RC (only solve main purpose questions)
- Goal is the same as Option A: 80% on 20 or a streak of 15
- Do small sets (15 questions). Review after each set.
- Focus only on main purpose questions for this week.
Timing ramp for Phase 1- Set 1: Untimed (focus on setup and accuracy)
- Set 2: Soft-timed (generous time, still process-focused)
- Set 3: Normal pacing only after accuracy is stable
Phase 2: Official-style questions (only after Phase 1 feels comfortable)We’ll pick up official-style questions next week once we’ve gone through the common RC question types. For now, just focus on getting the basics right.
Focus OnFor each passage:
- Write one sentence on why the passage exists
- Ignore tempting detail-heavy answer choices
- Check if the answer matches the entire passage, not one paragraph
What's Coming NextNext Verbal update, we’ll move into reading comprehension specific questions.
Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) We now come to the nemesis of many test takers, MSR. Lots of data, multiple tabs, charts everywhere, and questions that feel heavier than they look. It’s also one of the biggest time sinks in DI.
This is not about speed reading. It’s more about how you navigate the information.
If you try to read everything, you’ll run out of time. If you jump between tabs without a plan, you’ll miss context.
Core Reads:GMAT Club GuidesBook Reading Manhattan Prep: GMAT All the Quant + DI- Chapter 18: Multi-Source Reasoning
Videos:
GMAT Club
|
GMAT Ninja
|
Manhattan
|
Practice Sets:Phase 1: Easy-mode practice Target:
- Either reach 80% accuracy on 20 questions, or
- Build a clean streak of 15 correct
You have two ways to do this. Pick the one that fits how you usually study.
Option A: Manual practice (no Forum Quiz subscription needed)Click the links below, sort by Kudos and solve questions directly on the forum.
Option B: Forum Quiz mode (recommended if you have the subscription)- Build MSR Quiz
- Goal is the same as Option A: 80% on 3 sets or a streak of 3 sets
- Do small sets (3 sets). Review after each set.
Timing ramp for Phase 1- Set 1: Untimed (focus on setup and accuracy)
- Set 2: Soft-timed (generous time, still process-focused)
- Set 3: Normal pacing only after accuracy is stable
Phase 2: Official-style questions (only after Phase 1 feels comfortable)Once the practice sets feel comfortable, it's good to start testing yourself on official-style questions:
Target:
- Either reach 90% accuracy on 5 sets, or
- Build a clean streak of 5 sets
End-of-week self-checkFocus on:
- Reading the question first
- Opening only relevant tabs
- Tracking claims across sources
MSR punishes wandering. Be intentional.
By the end of this week, plan to take your
second official mock.
At this point, we are far enough into the prep that the mock should not just be used for experience. It should help you understand your gap areas properly and show you where your next few weeks need to go after wrapping up the basics. After the test, do not just look at the total score and move on. Spend proper time analyzing it.
Track the following in your
error log:
Overall performance- Total score
- Sectional scores
- Target score vs current score
- Gap remaining overall and section-wise
Timing analysis- Were you able to finish all questions in each section?
- On which questions did you overspend time?
- Did you rush at the end of any section?
- Did you guess because of lack of time or lack of clarity?
Accuracy analysis- Easy questions missed
- Medium questions missed
- Hard questions missed
- Questions you got right but were not confident about
- Questions you got wrong even after spending a lot of time
Question type / topic analysisFor Quant:- Which topics are still leaking points?
- Are you losing marks more in setup-heavy questions or calculation-heavy questions?
For Verbal:- Are you struggling more with CR or RC?
- In CR, which question types are hurting you?
- In RC, is the issue understanding passage structure, main point, or detail questions?
For DI:- Which formats are taking the most time?
- Are mistakes coming from logic, calculations, or missing conditions?
Behavioral analysis- Did you blank out at any point?
- Did stress affect your reading or judgment?
- Did you keep changing answers too often?
- Were you mentally tired by the last section?
- Was your section order working for you or not?
Takeaways to write downAfter analysis, write 4 things clearly:
- Top 3 score blockers right now
- Topics that need the most work over the next few weeks
- One timing habit you need to fix
- One thing that actually went well and should be continued
That way, the next few weeks of prep become much more targeted and you stop improving randomly.
Continue the same structure from Week 1, and also capture your analysis from Official Mock 2.
GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDELINES+ How to post your Week 6 update in the group (copy/paste template)- Reading sources & Time spent:
- Quant questions solved:
- Quant accuracy: overlapping sets __% | mixtures __% | weighted averages __%
- Verbal questions solved:
- Verbal accuracy: rc __%
- DI questions solved:
- DI accuracy: msr __%
- One question link I want discussed (include your full attempt):