Advice on prep plan

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Advice on prep plan

by Brandon.Meloche » Sun Aug 26, 2012 11:25 pm
Dear All,

I'd like to get your opinion on an approach to prep.

I started studying three weeks ago today. Until now I've been using the MGMAT study guides exclusively. I've gone through 2.5 (all quant-related) out of the 8. During this time, I've done a maximum of 40-50 questions from OG12.

My main question is whether it's a reasonable strategy to go through all the Manhattan guides doing almost no OG questions in order to save them for once I've got a stronger grasp on the fundamentals. I find the Manhattan guides extremely well structured and even their questions to be effective in reinforcing the topics, however, only a small fraction of them are similar to actual GMAT questions in structure.

The reason I've been avoiding the OG questions is that the study guides point the reader to specific OG questions related to the topic at hand; doing, say, 20 straight questions of the same topic becomes quite simple; but not representative of the real GMAT where all topics are interspersed randomly. I feel it would be a better use of the OG questions to take them on once I have the fundamentals down, rather than trying to learn fundamentals and GMAT question strategy simultaneously.

So, to sum up: your opinion, MGMAT 8 study guides + OG12 -> in series or in parallel?


Side note: At the end of my second week of studying, I took the GMATPrep1 to see where I stand and scored 720 (Q47, V42); I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the result. I had a hard time believing I was already at my target score, so took MGMAT1 yesterday out of curiosity and scored 670 (Q47, V34). On the second test, I got the first 15 verbal questions correct, then did quite poorly on the last 21. Is it likely that I was affected by the lack of focus or that fatigue kicked in; or is V34 probably just more representative of my actual current score considering I have yet to glance at a single verbal-related question or guide.

I'm new to the site, but have fallen addicted all too quickly. Nevertheless, I'm happy to join the community!

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Regards,

B
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:11 am
It is better to work with the OG after you have finished with the theory. This way you will not waste the great resource containing questions from the real GMAT and you will have a chance to check which subjects you should revise.
Kasia
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