4 Steps to Your Complete GMAT Study Plan - Part 2
Welcome back! In the first part of our series, we talked about determining your starting point and your goal. Now that youve got those pieces, its time to plan your overall timeline and gather your study resources.
Step 2: Plan your timeline and gather resources
First, in my experience, its more common for people to underestimate the amount of time theyll need than to overestimate. So be aware that you may end up needing more time than you think you will today.
Second, most people study for 2 months or longer; its very unlikely that you can pick an exact official test date (or even an exact week) so far ahead of time. You can come up with a decent estimate, though.
If you don't have an upcoming school application deadline, then you have the luxury of setting a general timeframe / deadline that works best with your schedule, needs, and desired score improvement. If it turns out that you need more time, youll be able to take it.
If, on the other hand, you are working against a deadline, then you have to plan more carefully. Be aware that you may also have to decide, at some point, to lower your goal score in order to take the test by a certain date (or to postpone your application to give yourself more time).
As you do the below research and planning, keep notes in your Journal. Were going to split up the timeline into two distinct phases.
Primary Study Phase
Youll set a rough amount of time that you're likely going to need for primary studying (that is, the time you take to master the material, not including a comprehensive final review). Be aware that this rough timeframe is likely to change as you see how fast you make progress.
For most people, primary study will take 8 to 16 weeks, though it may be a bit shorter if youve taken the test before and youre not aiming for a significant (> 50 points) improvement. If, on the other hand, youre starting from scratch and you want an extra-high improvement (>150 points), or you have a crazy schedule and cant study very much or very often, you may need more than 16 weeks.
Note: if you take a class, your primary study will be at least the length of the class plus some additional time, maybe about 1 to 3 weeks, to make up any missed assignments when the class is over.
During your primary study phase, plan to study 5 or 6 days a week but do also plan to take at least 1 day a week completely off (from the GMAT, anyway). Your brain will work better on the other days if you give it a rest.
Well talk more in a later installment of this series about how to study during this phase.
Review Phase
You will also need to set aside time for review and practice after you finish your primary study. Most people spend 2 to 6 weeks on a comprehensive review after they finish their primary study. If youre going to review in just 2 weeks, youll need to be able to spend at minimum 10 hours per week. Pick a rough target based on what you know of your schedule for now but, again, be aware that this could change in future. When you get towards the end of the primary study phase, you can revisit your plans for this phase.
Anything else for my timeline?
Why, yes; Im glad you asked. :) Two other factors may also affect your study timeframe.
- Buffer Time
You may not get the test score that you wantyou might get sick on test day or be extra nervous or just not be ready yet to get your target score. Its smart to leave time to take the test a second time, if necessary. You are only allowed to take the GMAT once in a 16-day period (and 5 times in any 12-month period), so plan this buffer time into your prep schedule. (Theres nothing wrong with taking the test more than once, by the way. B-schools dont look down on that at all!)
You may also want to include a couple of extra weeks of study time as an additional buffer, just in case. Work gets busy, people get sick, we procrastinate things happen.
- Hard Deadlines
You will, of course, have to meet the application deadlines of your selected schools. If you can plan ahead, it's preferable to get the test out of the way well before you have to start filling out the applications themselves. (Keep in mind that your GMAT score is valid for 5 years, so you can get started very early!)
Gather your resources
There are tons of resources available to help you get ready for the GMAT. If you take a course or work with some structured program, all or most of your materials will already be determined for you. Otherwise, youll have to figure out what works best for you.
In general, there are three major categories of necessary resources:
1. Test content and methodology.
These materials will teach you the what and the how: whats on the test and how to take the test. These materials will come from a test prep company (this is what test prep companies do!). You may decide to choose different materials from different companies, but I do recommend sticking with sets of materials whenever possible. For example, if youre going to use the algebra study materials from one company, its probably best to use that companys quant materials in general. Likewise on verbal.
Preview whatever you can for free. Amazon allows you to preview portions of books; most companies will allow you to preview some part of their online materials. Attend free classes or info sessions. Take a week or two to do this, a little bit every day, and decide what you want to use.
2. Practice questions.
As youre studying the material tested on the exam and learning how to handle the different types of GMAT questions, youll also need to test yourself on GMAT-format problems. The best practice questions are the officially released past test questions from GMAC (the makers of the GMAT). Here is a short-list of their best materials:
(a) The Official Guide books. There are three: a big one, with approximately 900 questions across all areas, and two smaller ones, one with about 300 Verbal questions and another with about 300 Quant questions.
(b) GMATPrep software (downloadable from www.mba.com). This software contains 2 free practice exams and 90 free practice problems, so definitely take advantage of that. You can also buy up to 4 additional practice exams and 200+ additional practice problems.
(c) GMAT Focus (quant only), also known as my favorite of the official resources. These are sets of 24 practice problems given in an adaptive format (ie, like the real test). Dont use this at the beginning; save this for your Review Phase.
3. Practice tests.
Youll want a mix of practice tests: GMATPrep (from the real makers of the test) and some tests from a test prep company. The GMATPrep test is the closest to the real thing, but doesnt offer explanations or in-depth analysis of your results. A test prep companys CAT will give you explanations and analysis.
Note: A good practice test should give you per-question timing data. If youre not sure, see whether the company offers a free practice test and try that first. If, afterwards, the score report doesnt tell you how much time you spent on each question, dont buy those tests.
Youre almost ready to get started! Join us next time, when well discuss how to study for this test.