5 weeks to go, please advise on a study plan

[moonshine]

Hi!

I am taking my GMAT on August 25th, 2009 and started prep about two weeks ago - so that's a 7 week study plan. (I gathered I won't be able to take the test any later due to my projects and hectic work schedule and I want to apply before the October 1st deadline to the top 15 MBA programs.)

Here's the thing, I'm pretty okay at Quant and Verbal per se (as in I'm not terrified of it) but not that hot on test taking strategies. I took a few diagnostics:

26th June: Some random online CAT 675

9th July: Kaplan CD 550 (which really killed my confidence, interest etc.)

11th July: Powerprep 640 [Q41, V38] (but I finished it about 40 minutes early so obviously, didn't utilize time well)

Please let me know what you think of this diagnostic score.

I'm studying the Kaplan 2009 and OG 12th Ed but have only done quant fundamentals so far. I also have the Kaplan 800. Do I need to buy Princeton?

Also I need advice on study strategy - since I can put in about 2-3 hours a day after work. I'm seriously aiming high - but very confused about all the kinds of material available to study and now I have 5 weeks - what do you recommend?

Also, I have now 8 years of work ex (currently working with a top5 consulting firm), a PG Diploma in communications (with 1st position) and excellent school scores. But my Grad was pretty pathetic - I seriously messed it up - though I did have good extra curriculars.

How do you think it may hinder me?

Please guide me, I don't know where to find answers!
Many many thanks!

Moonshine

[VP_Jim]

The thing you need to watch out for is doing too many problems - don't go overboard. The best thing you can do to study is to really break down and analyze the problems in the OG. Go through it slowly and methodically until you can explain every single problem in the book. For math, find the most efficient method to solve each problem - this may not be the way the OG explains it. For verbal, be able to explain why every wrong answer choice is wrong. You should virtually have that book memorized by test day.

Personally, I studied about 2 hours per day for 6-8 weeks (I forget exactly) and just made it through OG11. That's all. I went really slowly, sometimes taking up to 30 minutes to really "get" a problem and find a fast/easy way to do it. I think if you've "finished" the OG much more quickly than that, you've probably gone too fast. If you can't randomly flip to a page and get every question right within a couple minutes, you didn't study enough.

As for the prep tests, have you taken a GMAT Prep test? Your scores are all over the place, so it might be a good idea to take one of the more accurate tests just to gauge where you really are.

[moonshine]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the advice - honestly I was going into panic over how many books I need to go through before the test and your post sort of brought my focus back to the real issue - which is to actually understand what and how of these questions.

I am studying on my own though so sometimes I take pretty long to solve a few problems. Is there some place to find useful test strategies?

Will take the GMAT Prep test today and post my score to you. Would be great if you can let me know your impression of where I stand. Many thanks Jim

[moonshine]

Hi Jim,

So I took the GMAT Prep test today just as you suggested.
I got 640 (Q 43, V 35)

This score is close to the Powerprep one I took yesterday but I found the GMAT Prep Quant much tougher than what I expected. I ran out of time and rushed through the last 12 questions. I think the last 5 were blind guesses.

On Verbal, I finished 30mins early. I think this has a lot to do with getting tired and impatient by the time I reach Verbal. I do the full test (incl AWA). I'm going to analyze what types I got wrong but it's a mix.

What strategy do you suggest?

Thanks a ton!
moonshine

[VP_Jim]

Well - and I promise I'm not being sarcastic - here's what you need to do:

1. Practice your math so you get faster. As you do more problems, things will start to look "familiar" so you know how to approach problems instantly.
2. Slow down on verbal and force yourself to pay attention, even when you're tired.

There's no magic bullet - your score improvement is proportional to your effort.

[sreak1089]

Hi Jim,

I have been preparing for GMAT for about 3 months so far and I have my GMAT on Aug 8th. I have taken couple of Kaplan tests and scored 540 (Q35, V25). I have not taken GMATPrep so far, I plan to take it this wk end.

Where I am struggling I feel is finishing on time on Quant. The pattern that I find is that my first 12-16 qns go very well with about 65-75% accuracy and then I get stuck in 1 or two problems where I end up spending 5-8 minutes and I run out time and have to guess nearly last 8-10 questions.

In Verbal, I am nearly finishing on time but SC is weak area. I nearly always find two questions closer to the answer and I end up selecting the wrong one. Very frustrating indeed.

What are your suggestions on how I can improve?

[VP_Jim]

The solution to your problem on quant is simply: stop spending 5-8 minutes on problems. It's perfectly okay to get a few problems wrong. If you've spent 3 minutes and you're still no closer to getting the right answer, guess and move on.

On SC, that's tougher. Like I said above, there's no magic bullet. It comes with practice - lots and lots of practice. When you study SC, never go by what "sounds good". Always have a grammatical reason. Eventually, you should get good at spotting these grammatical errors.

[sreak1089]

Thanks a lot Jim.