Detailed day-to-day study schedule?

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mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

by mayonnai5e » Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:39 am

Hi,

I was wondering how people have actually created a day-to-day detailed schedule/plan. What I am considering is creating a 3 month study plan that breaks down exactly what topics should be covered each day as well as what days CATs should be taken etc etc. In addition, I have found that my main weakness is pacing so I was thinking about a daily study plan along these lines:

1) Sample problems - 1 hour
2) Review ALL solutions for sample problems - 30 mins
3) Timed practice with old sample problems - 30 mins
4) Timed educated guessing (educated guess within 30 seconds each) - 30 mins

What kind of detailed schedules have other members created? In particular, I'm interested in possible practice tips for pacing.

Thanks.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:39 am

GCHall840: Community Manager; Posts: 111; Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:57 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: San Jose CA

A detailed study plan

by GCHall840 » Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:10 am

Hi Mayonnai5e,
What study materials do you have right now? I am asking you that because Manhattan GMAT sells 8 strategy guides. There are 5 MGMAT math strategy guides and 3 MGMAT verbal strategy guides on the market that sell for $26 each. If you have a Barnes and Noble bookstore near you, they carry those MGMAT guides there, too. In my opinion, Manhattan GMAT is really the only GMAT test prep company that includes the Official Guide to the GMAT 11th edition, and the Official Guide Quantitative and Verbal Reviews as one of the main components of their preparation program. Each one of those 8 strategy guides includes a complete breakdown of questions and problems into subject areas covered in those 3 separate Official Guides. In addition, you can e-mail student services at Manhattan GMAT and ask them for a copy of their 9 week course syllabus. If you buy those 8 strategy guides and use their course syllabus as a guide, you could make up a detailed, day-by-day study plan. In fact, I took that MGMAT course, myself. That course syllabus was my idea of the perfect study plan because it gave me something very concrete and structured to go on while I was working through that material for the class.

You could also ask student services at Manhattan GMAT about what they have available to help you with tips about pacing strategies when you are practicing questions and problems in your preparation process. They also have a lot of online practice material available that might help you, too. If you want to, you can register on that site because they send out weekly e-mails to registered users about some important tips for people like you who are studying for the GMAT.

Greg

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mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

Re: A detailed study plan

by mayonnai5e » Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:41 am

GCHall840 wrote:Hi Mayonnai5e,
What study materials do you have right now? I am asking you that because Manhattan GMAT sells 8 strategy guides. There are 5 MGMAT math strategy guides and 3 MGMAT verbal strategy guides on the market that sell for $26 each. If you have a Barnes and Noble bookstore near you, they carry those MGMAT guides there, too. In my opinion, Manhattan GMAT is really the only GMAT test prep company that includes the Official Guide to the GMAT 11th edition, and the Official Guide Quantitative and Verbal Reviews as one of the main components of their preparation program. Each one of those 8 strategy guides includes a complete breakdown of questions and problems into subject areas covered in those 3 separate Official Guides. In addition, you can e-mail student services at Manhattan GMAT and ask them for a copy of their 9 week course syllabus. If you buy those 8 strategy guides and use their course syllabus as a guide, you could make up a detailed, day-by-day study plan. In fact, I took that MGMAT course, myself. That course syllabus was my idea of the perfect study plan because it gave me something very concrete and structured to go on while I was working through that material for the class.

You could also ask student services at Manhattan GMAT about what they have available to help you with tips about pacing strategies when you are practicing questions and problems in your preparation process. They also have a lot of online practice material available that might help you, too. If you want to, you can register on that site because they send out weekly e-mails to registered users about some important tips for people like you who are studying for the GMAT.

Greg

Greg,

Thanks for the reply. I actually signed for Veritas' program. I haven't heard too much about them on this forum, but I am located in Paris right now and they were the only course available not including Kaplan which I wasn't really interested in judging from the reviews online. I have something similar with the Veritas program - a large collection of Veritas books (though not as well known as MGMAT books) with online recorded video lessons and a course syllabus. However, the course syllabus is just a basic syllabus (e.g. 1st week - CAT 1, CAT 2, arguments, etc). But what I want is a plan to allocate my time a little better.

As for materials, I have all the PR books and all the Kap books as well as the OG books and all the Veritas books.

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GCHall840: Community Manager; Posts: 111; Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:57 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: San Jose CA

Study plan

by GCHall840 » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:03 pm

Hi Mayonnai5e,
Actually, Manhattan GMAT offers a virtual online course for anybody who has a PC and an internet connection. Their course syllabus is just like a structured study plan. I don't want to make any comments about Veritas because I know about their program and my opinion might be different than someone else's opinion. I am not sure how to help you with that particular course because it is structured differently than the MGMAT course is. However, I do know that Veritas covers all of the basics through the more advanced material. They use the Official Guide questions and problems in a different format. They put them all together in a problem set where there is no order when it comes to the different subject areas that are in the Official Guide itself. I know that when I was going through the MGMAT Number Properties Guide when I was taking the class, they had the individual parts of number property subjects broken down so that you could pick and choose what you wanted to work on. For example, if I was studying divisbility and primes, there was a corresponding list of divisibility and primes questions to practice from the Official Guide, in the back of the Number Properties Guide.

If you are going to take the Veritas course, then you should use only their materials. They do cover everything that you need for the test. However, I am not sure what they might have to say about pacing tips. I do know that you should spend only two minutes on a math problem. For verbal problems, it is more difficult to give an accurate amount of time to take for the critical reasoning and reading comprehension problems because they vary in length. I would say that two minutes for sentence correction questions would be sufficient. I am sure that you have a timer? You should get into the habit of timing yourself with anything that you do when it comes to practicing questions and problems.

I am trying to think of a way to help you with a study plan. First, study in 90 minute intervals. No more than that. I also think that you should study up to about five hours a day at the most. But, the amount of time that you study would be up to you. If you have to read a section about number properties, for example..and then answer 50 questions from the corresponding problem set like I remember that Veritas did, you can make up a time schedule for that. Say that you need to spend an hour on the content material for number properties first. Then you need about 100 minutes for each question in that 50 question problem set. 100 minutes=one hour and 40 minutes. I would break the content material down to 60 minutes(1 hour). Then, you would need to break the practicing of that problem set into a 90 minute session plus the 10 minutes. Of course, you should take the time to go over those questions in the problem set after you finish doing them. Maybe 30 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour?

Let me know what you want to do and I will do my best to help you with whatever I can?

Greg

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mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

by mayonnai5e » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:37 pm

I took a look through the Veritas material and I do not believe there is a reference to the OG for more practice and specific examples about a certain topic. That would be quite useful, but since the veritas material does not provide the OG book, it probably wouldn't make sense to include that in their package. Do you know if there is a similar resource out there that lists the problems found in the OG11 by topic (number properties, geometry, etc)? I haven't found anything like that online yet.

Veritas recommends similar pacing tips as you've mentioned (roughly 2 minutes per problem on Q, but a little faster on V). I just purchased a timer recently, but I was not planning on using it on all my studies - instead I was considering breaking it down into a fundamentals proportion where I do not time myself and work on understanding the underlying concepts and a separate timed section where I do old practice problems timed.

You mentioned some very good ideas about how to break down the study sessions. I was wondering - when you say 50 question blocks, do you mean 50 question blocks from the OG11? I like the idea of having a review session of the material then a problem session for that topic.

Thanks for your long, thought out responses.

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GCHall840: Community Manager; Posts: 111; Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:57 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: San Jose CA

Official Guide topics

by GCHall840 » Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:26 pm

I do have that kind of Official Guide questions schematic, but it is from each one of the MGMAT strategy guides that I used for the course. I wouldn't be able to copy and paste those using my scanner because that wouldn't work on here. You could ask Eric, the person who runs beatthegmat.com. He might know of a resource for you. I used to know another guy who had a blog where he posted a lot of useful information about how he practiced for the GMAT. But, I don't see him around anymore. I might be able to find the website he used before, so I will let you know if I find something today.

I was talking about the way that Veritas assigns problem sets in blocks of 50, 60, or 80 questions after they went over certain content material. Their problem sets are questions from the Official Guide, but they are not in order according to content material. They are all mixed up the way that the test is.
Greg

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GCHall840: Community Manager; Posts: 111; Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:57 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: San Jose CA

Official Guide Problem question grid.

by GCHall840 » Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:01 pm

I couldn't find anything about an Official Guide to the GMAT, 11th edition question grid on that website that I told you about. I also went to the resource wiki on this website, but Eric told someone else that he had not been able to find something like that, yet.

Greg

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mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

by mayonnai5e » Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:30 am

Thanks for your responses Greg. That would be a great resource to have someday if someone takes the time to go out and categorize OG11. It might be interesting to create a wish list forum for resources that people would like to have...possibly a shareable document that individuals could update. For example, as people work the OG11 problems, they could update this OG11 categories document and eventually every problem would be categorized - might take a while though.

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GCHall840: Community Manager; Posts: 111; Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:57 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: San Jose CA

Pre Study plan

by GCHall840 » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:21 pm

Hi Mayonnai5e,
I don't have the Veritas materials anymore, so I don't really have a way to help you develop a day by day study plan using their materials. However, there is a certain way that they presented their material where I could think of a way to help you.

Here are my thoughts based on what I remember from the course that I took from Veritas:

1. The Veritas Prep program is basically a 7 week, 42 hour course. Those are the number of hours that they used to present their materials. Each session included a math topic and a verbal topic. The course met two days a week for those seven weeks. Normally, the instructor would have a question period for 30 minutes. Then, he would lecture on the content material for about one hour and 15 minutes. Once he finished with the lecture, we would have a 15 minute break. The last hour, he prompted the class to work on the practice material that was a part of the booklets that we got for those particular subjects that he covered that night. He timed every single question and problem that we went over. Finally, he would call on students for the answers that they got. The homework always consisted of doing questions and problems from the problem set that corresponded with the subjects covered each class session.

2.It would be good to set up your study plan according to what the instructor assigned for homework. You should keep in mind that it would also be good to review the content material in the Veritas booklets and what the instructor went over in class, first. Then, you can do as many of the questions and problems that you can in those problem sets once you reviewed the content material. Of course, you won't be able to do all of them given the time that it takes to do them.

Before I can make up a day-by-day study plan for you, I need to know if you work and how many hours do you work? That way, I will have an idea about how you could use your time to study. Most people I knew in the Veritas class, did a lot of homework on the weekends. Of course, they would work on some of it during the week, but they did complete most all of the rest of the work on Saturday and Sunday.

I just wanted to let you know that 25 hours a week would be the most amount of time that I would spend on studying. That includes studying the content material from the Veritas booklets and from the class lectures. And, it also includes the amount of time that you need to complete the problem sets and as well as the number of practice tests that you will want to take. Actually, 25 hours a week is really a lot of time, but to do well on the GMAT, you need to put in the that kind of time.

How long do you have access to the Veritas online material? That is something that I would want to know in order to come up with a plan, too. You said something about studying for three months? Then, you could spread out things some more as well.

That's it for today.

Greg

Last edited by GCHall840 on Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

Re: Pre Study plan

by mayonnai5e » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:38 am

GCHall840 wrote:Hi Mayonnai5e,
1. The Veritas Prep program is basically a 7 week, 42 hour course. Those are the number of hours that they used to present their materials. Each session included a math topic and a verbal topic. The course met two days a week for those seven weeks. Normally, the instructor would have a question period for 30 minutes. Then, he would lecture on the content material for about one hour and 15 minutes. Once he finished with the lecture, we would have a 15 minute break. The last hour, he prompted the class to work on the practice material that was a part of the booklets that we got for those particular subjects that he covered that night. He timed every single question and problem that we went over. Finally, he would call on students for the answers that they got. The homework always consisted of doing questions and problems from the problem set that corresponded with the subjects covered each class session.

interesting. so the in class problems were all timed. and what if the students could not finish the problem within the time limit? were they told to repeat the problem at home and complete it? or just listen to another student explain the answer?

GCHall840 wrote:2.It would be good to set up your study plan according to what the instructor assigned for homework. You should keep in mind that it would also be good to review the content material in the Veritas booklets and what the instructor went over in class, first. Then, you can do as many of the questions and problems that you can in those problem sets once you reviewed the content material. Of course, you won't be able to do all of them given the time that it takes to do them.

yes, i was planning to just follow the prescribed study plan including doing exactly what you have mentioned - reviewing the previous the content first then starting on the problems. why do you say it's not possible to complete all the material? is it because of the sheer number or because you are suggesting doing the material in a timed format?

GCHall840 wrote:Before I can make up a day-by-day study plan for you, I need to know if you work and how many hours do you work? That way, I will have an idea about how you could use your time to study. Most people I knew in the Veritas class, did a lot of homework on the weekends. Of course, they would work on some of it during the week, but they did complete most all of the rest of the work on Saturday and Sunday.

I just wanted to let you know that 25 hours a week would be the most amount of time that I would spend on studying. That includes studying the content material from the Veritas booklets and from the class lectures. And, it also includes the amount of time that you need to complete the problem sets and as well as the number of practice tests that you will want to take. Actually, 25 hours a week is really a lot of time, but to do well on the GMAT, you need to put in the that kind of time.

How long do you have access to the Veritas online material? That is something that I would want to know in order to come up with a plan, too. You said something about studying for three months? Then, you could spread out things some more as well.

i have a full time 40 hr/week job, but intend to study at least 2 hours per day, preferably more. as it is right now, i think i will spend 3 hours, 2 days a week to go over the veritas lessons for the week, spend 5 hours per week (probably saturday and sunday) doing 2 cats (i wont be doing the practice essays because i plan to do that as the last part of my studying), and also 6 hours to review the veritas material and do the homework problems. that's roughly 17 hours/week.

i do not know how long i will have access to the veritas material - i should find out actually.

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GCHall840: Community Manager; Posts: 111; Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:57 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: San Jose CA

Timing and practicing

by GCHall840 » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:29 pm

Hi Mayonnai5e,

The instructor called on the students to see whether on not that they knew how to do the problem that he gave us. It wasn't a really big deal about the timing, but he used that as a benchmark to help us with the timing issue for the test. Usually, the first person he called on knew how to do the problem. If not, someone else did. Usually, if I didn't know how to do that problem, I would mark it for review when I did the homework.

In regards to doing the problem sets that were assigned for homework, there could be an 80 problem set that was assigned. I was supposed to complete that before the next class session because the instructor gave a 30 minute question period in the beginning of class. 80 problems times 2 minutes=160 minutes. But, if I couldn't finish all of them in one study session, that would put me behind. And, those problem sets were supposed to be timed as well. I think that I told you about that situation because of the amount of material that the instructor went over each time. It was a lot of material to cover, I might add. And, if I got behind, it would have snowballed on me.

I am honest when I say that I had a difficult time with that kind of very faced paced course. If you look at all of the Veritas material, I am sure that you will understand what I mean. I am also sure that the recorded class sessions will present the same material that I had in the same way. The only difference will be that there won't be any class interaction because you will be watching a recorded video of the class material. It still will be a whole lot of information to digest if you follow the class recordings and what they tell you to do at home for your prep work. If you have more than 7 weeks of access to the course, then you could spread things out some more so that you won't get overwhelmed by what you have to do.

Greg

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mayonnai5e: Legendary Member; Posts: 1018; Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:19 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 86 times

by mayonnai5e » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:24 pm

awesome. so you're basically suggestion is to take it just a little bit slower than the real in-class course so i can absorb the material better. that sounds like a good idea to me.

thanks again for all the helpful advice and suggestions you've given me.

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