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GMAT Battle Plan

by Steve4090 » Sun Aug 09, 2015 6:33 pm
Hello All,

I've done quite of a bit of browsing over the past few hours and am impressed with the depth of knowledge here. I'm a GMAT newcomer and and hopeful to learn from you all.

I recently made the decision to pursue MBA school in the short-term and GMAT is my top priority. I am at the very beginning of a 1-1.5 month sabbatical between jobs and plan to use this time to take the GMAT. I believe I'm a bit too late for the 2016 first round deadline, but the Jan-Feb second round should be reasonable.

Today I took the Princeton Review free diagnostic exam cold turkey and scored a 620 (31V 45Q). I have some lofty aspirations and am aiming for a score in the 700s. Below I've listed some key points followed by key questions.

Key Points:
- I hope to take the GMAT in 6 weeks or less
- I have no other obligations during this timeframe
- I scored a 620 on the Princeton Review diagnostic exam with no previous preparation
- My goal is 700+
- I've read excellent things about the official GMAT prep book and Manhattan guides and initially plan to use these

Questions:
1. Is 6 weeks a reasonable timeframe for my goals? Are my goals reasonable?
2. What sort of schedule do you recommend? How often should I take practice exams?
3. How many hours a day should I study, and what is an efficient way to allocate my time each day?
4. It is indeed too late to hit the first round application deadline, right?
5. Should I study the official GMAT book first, or begin with Manhattan, perhaps both at the same time?

Thanks a ton for your time! Let the challenge begin...

Steve
Last edited by Steve4090 on Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Aug 10, 2015 6:40 am
To address your questions:

1) 6 weeks is definitely on the short end of the time you should spend studying. That doesn't mean you can't do it, but there is just so much content to cover that it takes time to get through everything. See how it goes as you progress, but if you aren't going to apply until January, consider spending more time studying.

2) & 3) Take an exam a week if you can and save the GMAT Prep exams until the end. I would encourage you to spend several hours a day if you are looking at a short time horizon - be careful of burnout though.

4) It would be a lot to get done in that period of time - round 2 is probably better to ensure that you put together a quality application and GMAT score.

5) Any quality program will integrate the Official guide in the plan. So, pick your program and they will guide you to when you should be doing specific questions.

Good luck!
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by [email protected] » Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:37 am
Hi Steve,

Before I can offer any advice, I have a couple of questions about this practice Test that you took:

1) Is the information you provided correct? A Q45/V41 would NOT be a 620, so I think that at least one of these numbers is 'off.'
2) Did you take the ENTIRE Test (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) Was this a pencil-and-paper Test or a CAT?
4) Have you taken either of the free CATs available from www.mba.com? If you have, then how did you score?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Last edited by [email protected] on Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Steve4090 » Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:51 am
Jim,

Good point about burnout. I think I'll start a study schedule and adjust if I feel too burned out. Today I purchased the Official Guide and Manhattan Strategy Guides online. At this moment I don't plan to enroll in any other sort of course.

Rich, I appreciate your reply. Below are the responses to your questions:

1. It was incorrect indeed, the correct scores were Q45/V31. Does that sound more reasonable?
2. I did take the entire test. The essay of course was ungraded and I scored a 5 on the IR
3. It was an online assessment timed according to GMAT standards. I finished both the quantitative and verbal sections with around 20-30 minutes to spare. I probably need to make some adjustments here.
4. I have not taken either of these CATs. Do you see them as more reliable than the Princeton Review CAT I took?

Thanks,

Steve
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by [email protected] » Mon Aug 10, 2015 9:24 am
Hi Steve,

Yes, those Quant and Verbal Scaled scores are more 'in line' with a 620. Given these scores, you have to the potential to pick up points in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. If what you say about your pacing is true (that you finished each of those two sections 20-30 minutes EARLY), then you have the freedom to SLOW DOWN, take more notes, do more work, etc. and likely pick up a number of points in the process.

All things being equal, 6 weeks of study is relatively short (many Test Takers spend 3+ months on their studies), but your baseline score and the extra time that you have in each section give you a better chance (than most) to hit your score goals in that time.

The CATs that are available from www.mba.com (the 2 free ones and the 2 additional ones that you can purchase) are the Official CATs available from GMAC - and are arguably the most accurate CATs on the market - so you should take advantage of them.

At this point, it's just a matter of how you choose to proceed. 6 weeks doesn't allow for a lot of 'backtracking' if you get stuck, so you need to think about how YOU best learn, then study accordingly.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by Ian Stewart » Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:21 am
You really can't rely on prep company tests to give you an accurate estimate of your level. If you can take an official test, you'll get a clearer idea of how close you are to your goal, and how much time you'll need to get there. If you were 650+ now, then a six-week timeframe is perfectly realistic. If you're below that level, you might want to take a bit longer. I think eight weeks is a good amount of time for test takers aiming to get close to their peak level, but if you're just trying to reach the 700 threshold, it's very possible you'll be able to do that more quickly.

It's good to take one official test early on, so you know what it is you're preparing for, and so you know how best to apportion your time between Q and V prep. But after that initial test, there really isn't any reason to take a lot of diagnostic tests until you've reviewed the test content. The main reason to take practice tests is to work on test-taking - mainly pacing strategy - and you can't accurately judge your pacing until you know all the methods you'll be using on a real test. So there's little to gain by taking lots of practice tests when you're in the middle of learning content. Instead, I'd plan to take your next practice test about 2-3 weeks before the real thing, and then decide from there whether you'll benefit more from test-taking practice, or from content review. If your pacing is very good (able to reach the end of the test, with very few careless errors caused by rushing), you likely won't need many practice tests. If your pacing is not good, you'll need to take more. It does sound as though you're going too quickly now, and if that is causing careless errors, you'll improve a lot just by slowing down. You should still have at least four official tests you can use (assuming you buy the two additional ones) - if you take one test now, you should be able to reset it and get a realistic experience if you wait a month, since you'll see a lot of new questions anyway, and won't likely remember exactly the questions that repeat.
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by Steve4090 » Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:35 am
Thanks for all of your advise. Based on the comments, I will take an official CAT test either today or early tomorrow morning. Then I'll be able to better gauge how far I am from my goal and isolate trouble areas (Looking at the Princeton Review exam, I scored only 3/8 on parallel construction sentence correction).

I set the 6 week deadline as I expect to be starting a new job around that time. I could extend to 8 weeks or even 10, but I hope to have taken the exam before starting my new job. I suppose this will all be more clear after I take the official CAT.

I'm not exactly sure why I went so fast. I just looked and I finished the verbal in 47 minutes and the quantitative in 59. So 28 and 16 minutes to better use respectively. I think I was afraid of not finishing in time as I struggled finishing the IR within the time limit.

Anyways, I'll report back once I've taken the official CAT.

Steve
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by Steve4090 » Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:52 am
Hello all,

Base on your advise a took the official GMAT CAT from mba.com this morning and scored as follows:

- 47Q, 39V, 8IR
- 700 composite score

Assuming the official GMAT CAT is representative of the real thing, the Princeton Review CATs understate their scores. Also, as this was taken without any preparation, I need to adjust my previous goal of a 700. This time I finished the quantitative with just 3 minutes to spare but still had 17 minutes left for the verbal.

Considering my timeframe of 6-8 weeks, I am setting a goal of 740 as that will place me above the average for all programs. Recall that I am able to prepare for this exam full-time as I have a break between jobs.

Below is my planned daily study schedule for the coming weeks:

8am-11am - Study MGMAT strategy guides (even split between quant and verbal)
Lunch hour - Work out, eat lunch
1pm-3pm - Reading (economist, business books, novels)
3pm-6pm - Study MGMAT strategy guides again, pacing exercises
After 6pm - job hunting and relax

As I finish the MGMAT guides, I will place them with the official GMAT review guide. How do you all view this schedule? I don't want to burn myself out, but also want to maximize my time.

Also, for the GMAT CAT is there a way to see which category the questions I miss fall into, or must I categorize them myself?

Thanks all for your time!

Steve
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by Rich@EconomistGMAT » Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:14 am
Hi Steve,

I'm glad to see you've scheduled some time to relax as part of your study plan. Your 700 on the mba.com practice exam is a great baseline, and considering that students enrolled in Economist GMAT Tutor typically see scores fluctuate +/- 30 points between any given exam, you're not far off from your target of 740. It also sounds like you have a good mix of general practice and specific work to target verbal, without being too GMAT "book heavy." Keep us posted throughout, but it sounds like you're on the right track.

Best,
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:25 am
Also, for the GMAT CAT is there a way to see which category the questions I miss fall into, or must I categorize them myself?
The GMATPrep practice tests, unfortunately, do not have a tool that allows you to sort the questions you've missed by category, but you'll find it's simple enough to dissect the exam on your own.

That said, your starting point is very strong. Getting to 740 is a very reasonable goal. My one suggestion is to pick up the additional practice materials from mba.com: https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ction.aspx
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by Steve4090 » Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:28 am
Hello all,

I'm checking in here after a solid week of studying (4.5 days to be exact). I haven't been able to stick to my exact schedule, but have fit in the 6 hours of bookwork each day. My 2 hours of reading has suffered, however. Its averaged to only 1 hour. Room for improvement...

Per David's suggestion, I reviewed and categorized my missed questions on the GMAT CAT. Of the 9 verbal questions I missed, 7 were sentence correction. These results are further validated by the previous Princeton Review CAT I took, so I've identified a clear area of weakness.I spent the first 3 full days reviewing the Manhattan SC Strategy Guide. My approach was as follows:

1. Briefly skim the section. If its already intuitive, I don't read in-depth as this risks harming my intuitive ability (per the strategy guide). If I'm not clear, I read in detail.

2. I do 7-10 of the Official Guide problems linked to that chapter. >75% is a "pass", below a "review". I then review all wrong answers. This functions as a litmus of my knowledge of the material. If I score a "pass," I review the material lightly. If I score a "review," I study the material in-depth.

3. I do the mid-book Official Guide quiz (medium difficulty) after completing the strategy guide. Then review again areas I made mistakes.

4. Finally I do the final quiz

This seems to be working alright, but I still feel like I'm making the same mistakes. Should I continue to review the same problems again and again? Is it really critical to understand each grammatical subtlety that makes an answer right or wrong? I'm concerned I'll harm my engrained intuition if I do this too much.

Overall I'm getting 72% of problems correct. The range is an even mix between easy, medium and difficult.

Btw, I've learned about the risks of overstudying. I studied for 4 hours straight yesterday and and scored a 5/12 on the FDP mid-book exam with 4 of the mistakes being truly stupid ones.
Last edited by Steve4090 on Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by MartyMurray » Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:50 am
First off, I don't really believe in "the risks of overstudying". While I will concede that totally burned out is maybe not the optimal state for taking the actual GMAT, what I find is that a little worn out is a great way to be when practicing, at times anyway. I actually like the feeling of having to fight to stay on target and when I am worn out I really have to be careful to do the right and logical things to get right answers. Also when I am tired, the silly things I do that result in silly errors are magnified. So I have a great opportunity to practice not doing them.

Regarding losing your natural intuition, that actually seems to be a theme related to the theme of overstudying, as if if you take something too far by working too hard or learning too much, you will lose something. So maybe the goal for you is to learn to use your intuition AND also know about many of those nit picking rules that are in guides. In other words, your winning strategy cannot hinge on your remaining ignorant. You have to learn to be knowledgeable and still intuitive.

As a matter of fact, I have seen this done, and yes, at first people often do get way too caught up in all the little rules and subtleties and they don't do very well at SC. As they keep at it though, they learn to integrate the information into their thinking and then their SC hit rates soar.

Overall, I would say that clarity is good, and with SC, when you really see what is going on, generally you don't guess or kinda figure or bet which answer choice is best. Rather, you know with pretty much absolute clarity which answer choice is the best. So don't be afraid of clarity. Go for it.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Mon Aug 17, 2015 6:36 am
This seems to be working alright, but I still feel like I'm making the same mistakes. Should I continue to review the same problems again and again? Is it really critical to understand each grammatical subtlety that makes an answer right or wrong? I'm concerned I'll harm my engrained intuition if I do this too much.
I'll second what Marty said. The purpose of the test, in theory, is to evaluate your ability to make good/logical decisions under pressure. It's not to test your mastery of grammar. (It takes no more than a few minutes of leafing through a good usage guide to realize that, while there are some universal rules, many other 'rules' are simply recommendations, and these recommendations not only evolve over time but are often subject to debate .) The only rules that you want to fixate on are the ones that show up in multiple questions that you've missed. Miss four questions on one test because you didn't recognize that a modifier was misplaced? Certainly something to note. Miss multiple questions because you didn't recognize a marker that indicated a parallel construction was required? Absolutely, spend some time mastering that concept. But memorizing every single rule that might arise isn't a good use of your time, particularly in light of the fact that so many sentence correction questions come down to the intended logic or meaning of the sentence, rather than grammatical minutia.

If Sentence Correction, generally, is a problem, I'd suggest working through the entire section in the Official Guide. Note any conspicuous trends in terms of why you miss questions. Put the book aside for a few days. Then redo the section. Post specific questions here.
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by Steve4090 » Mon Aug 31, 2015 5:56 pm
Hello All,

Thanks for the SC advise. I've gone through the entire book and am starting to see with clarity which answers are correct as you all mentioned. On the final SC problem prep set I scored 11/12, so I can see my results improving as well.

I've now been studying for 3 weeks and have worked through in detail all of the Manhattan books except CR RC guides. These areas, at least at the moment, are naturally strong for me.

I signed up for the GMAT on September 19th. From now until then I'm going to focus on doing practice problems with the below goals in mind:

1. Timing
2. Efficiency - did I do the problem the most efficient way?
3. Error tracking
4. Further honing down areas of weakness

I'm also going to begin regularly taking CATs. I've still only taken my original CAT prior to studying, so I need to begin simulating exam conditions. How many CATs do you recommend I take before the exam? The number I currently have in my mind is 4.

Thanks again for all of your guidance! I welcome any suggestion you all have.

Steve
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by [email protected] » Mon Aug 31, 2015 9:16 pm
Hi Steve,

You should plan to take a FULL CAT relatively soon, so that we can see how far you've progressed. With less than 3 weeks to go, you could plan for up to 3-4 CATs, but a good chunk of your time also needs to be spent on analyzing your results and getting in the extra reps you might need to hone your skills.

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