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Best Way to Study with GMAT Books Already Purchased?

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Is This A Good Plan?

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Best Way to Study with GMAT Books Already Purchased?

by andyaf » Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:00 am
Hi all,

I just took an Official GMAT Practice Test and scored a 500 (28 Verbal , 30 in Quant). My target score is 750 - I realize I'll need to study hard over the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to avoid purchasing a GMAT Prep course, however, I do have all the books currently used by Manhattan Prep for their standard GMAT course + the Official GMAT 2017 Guide.

My plan is to study for the next 4 weeks and see if I can nudge my score up by 60 points, then decide if a prep course is needed. I've outlined my study plan below and am open to suggestions, comments, feedback on this approach.

(4 Week Timeline):
1. Review all Questions answered incorrectly on GMAT Practice Test
2. Review the "Math Review" Section of the Official GMAT Guide + do practice problems
3. Review the "Problem Solving" Section of the Official GMAT Guide + do practice problems
4. Review the "Data Sufficiency" Section of the Official GMAT Guide + do practice problems
5. Time Permitting - Focus on Verbal

Thanks so much! :)
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Sep 21, 2018 1:59 pm
No, I'm afraid this is not a good plan. There are several problems:

- there is absolutely no way that you can get a 750 by focusing on quant alone. You have to maximize both quant and verbal. See the score calculator here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/gmat ... alculator/

- you're focusing entirely on doing OG practice problems, but not on learning the content & strategy behind them. You have to read the prep books to learn the material!

- you're doing it in blocks, not mixing it up enough.

- you're not doing regular practice exams.

Here's what you SHOULD be doing:

1. Analyze the practice test you've taken in a lot of depth. Which areas were you weakest? Strongest? Fastest? Slowest? Decide which topics and question types need more of your time and attention. Be very aware of timing issues as well.

2. Study topic-by-topic, going chapter by chapter in the Mprep guides, then practice each topic with OG problems. For example, read the chapter on SC subject/verb agreement, then go do a set of 8-10 problems in the OGs that relate to that subject. You can find problems by topic using GMAT Navigator: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... navigator/
Do this for each chapter in the Quant and Verbal strategy guides. It's probably unrealistic to do this in 4 weeks; you should give yourself more time.

3. Make sure you are tracking all of the OG questions you do, and timing yourself while you practice. Hold yourself to strict 2-min time limits per question! (I highly recommend using Navigator to track your OG problems)

4. Alternate between Quant and Verbal. Don't just focus all on quant! A lot of students make this mistake. You can't get a top score by only focusing on quant. You might think your quant score from the 1st CAT is lower based on percentiles, but this is a misinterpretation - your verbal was actually lower! https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/

5. Keep a detailed record of the mistakes you make in addition to just tracking right and wrong answers, so you can locate patterns in your errors: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -studying/

6. Take a practice test at least every 2 weeks. You need to practice timing & decision-making on adaptive exams. The OG is not adaptive.

7. Practice your skills with random timed sets out of the OGs once you've covered all of the content in the strategy guides . Set the timer for 20 minutes, for example, and do questions 1-10. The OG problems generally get harder as the question # increases (within a given question type), so questions 1-10 will be easier on average than 101-110. Start in the middle of the section if you want more challenging questions.

8. Analyze your data from the random sets and practice tests, and go back to any topics that need extra work.

9. Take GMATPrep CATs. You'll find them at mba.com. They won't have answer explanations or metrics, so we recommend using Mprep CATs for most of your study time, and saving these for last. (They're less helpful for analysis, but arguably most predictive of your real score, since they're written by the actual test-makers).

Good luck!
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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