Need Help Creating Study Plan

[preptobismol]

Hi Everyone,

I've just started getting ready for the GMAT, but am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I am taking my GMAT on April 23 (gives me a little more than 3 months) and have purchased the Manhattan GMAT Complete Set. The MGMAT complete set comes with 3 official guides, 6 CATs, the MGMAT complete strategy guide, and a number of online resources. Additionally I have the free material provided by mba.com. With all of this material, I don't really know where to start. Can anyone help me plan out a basic 3 month study schedule to get me rolling?

I really appreciate the help!

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Hi preptobismol (great name, by the way!),

Instead of creating a study plan from scratch, you might want t consider signing up for Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide). Over 40,000 Beat The GMAT students have already done so.
Each day, you'll receive an email with a series of learning activities that guide you, step-by-step, from Day 1 to test day. This will ensure that you will cover everything that the GMAT tests.

Here's an outline of all 60 emails: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide-outline

Cheers,
Brent

[[email protected]]

Hi peptobismol,

You've given yourself the right amount of time to study. Most Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) on their studies; during that time, it's common to spend 10-15 hours per week (or more) on the process.

Before you commit to a particular study plan or emphasize a particular study resource, it's important to get a sense of your current abilities and define your goals. To that end, you should plan on taking a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT - the test will take about 4 hours to complete, so you should be sure to set aside enough time so that you can do it all in one sitting. With that score data, we'll have a better sense of your strengths and weaknesses and can build an appropriate study plan.

1) What is your score goal?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[preptobismol]

Brent,

Thanks for the reply! I just signed up for the 60-day guide. More specifically, though, I'm trying to set up a game plan that works in conjunction with the materials I've purchased. Any help with this would be appreciated!

Thanks all!

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Brent,

Thanks for the reply! I just signed up for the 60-day guide. More specifically, though, I'm trying to set up a game plan that works in conjunction with the materials I've purchased. Any help with this would be appreciated!

Thanks all!

The bulk of the Study Guide is built around two resources. You can use either the GMAT Prep Now videos or the MGMAT books (which you have), as each day's learning activities reference both resources.

So, for example, on Day 8, the learning activities include watching all of the videos in GMAT Prep Now's Powers and Roots module or reading the Exponents and Roots chapters in the MGMAT Strategy Guide.
Then, for reinforcement, you're assigned Powers and Roots practice questions from the Official Guide (OG13)

Cheers,
Brent

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

As Rich points out, it's important to take a practice test early in one's studies. In fact, in BTG's 60-Day study guide, students are directed to take a full-length practice test on Day 3 (once you've familiarized yourself a little with the GMAT).

If you're interested, I wrote an article for BTG on the importance of taking a practice test early in one's studies: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/05/ ... st-already

Cheers,
Brent

[preptobismol]

Hi Rich, thanks for the input!

I'm currently a senior in college and plan to apply to business school in 2-4 years. I want to gain some work experience until then. I'm shooting for a 730+ so I will be devoting a lot of time to the gmat over the next 3 months.

As for the diagnostic test, should I review prep material first to get a little bit familiar with the format? Also, should I start with the Official GMAT CAT or the MGMAT CAT?

Thanks again!

[MartyMurray]

As far as taking a test in order to assess where you stand goes, I say prepare for at least a week first. Get very comfortable with the format, the question types and some of the basic concepts upon which the questions are based. Then take a GMAT Prep CAT.

The purpose of taking this first practice CAT is to see what a CAT is like and how ready you are, and test prep company CATs such the the MGMAT CAT, while they are similar to the real thing, are not exactly like the real thing and tend to score a little differently from how the real thing does. The GMAT Prep CATs on the other hand, are almost exactly like the real thing and score pretty much the same. So for your first assessment, use one of those.

The other thing I would add to this discussion is that whatever plan you use, make sure that you tailor what you are doing to you and to your perception of what you need to work on to increase your score. This is not a math test that's focused on testing knowledge of certain math principles, or a grammar test that mostly tests your knowledge of certain rules. While knowledge of certain concepts is necessary for answering the questions, the GMAT is more a test of skill in noticing things, solving things, figuring things out and other things along those lines. In other words, be careful about thinking that just learning about or memorizing a bunch of "stuff" is the path to rocking this test. The thing that needs to drive your preparation is the relationship between you and your skills and the test. So your ongoing assessment of that is key.

[[email protected]]

Hi peptobismol,

A bit of general review before your first practice CAT is fine but you shouldn't do too much; you can use the practice questions that come with the 2 CATs from www.mba.com or a sampling of questions from the OG. Regardless, you'll likely find the CAT to difficult - there will be content areas that you don't know and you'll probably have pacing problems - but it's important to experience all of those issues and start to "define" them. In that way, you'll have an idea of some of the specific things that you'll have to work on during your studies.

Since there are plenty of practice CATs from the major sources, you use either CAT you mentioned (I tend to advise using one of the Official CATs at the beginning, since those CATs are the most realistic).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[MartyMurray]

If you don't want to burn one of the good GMAT Prep CATs as your first one, maybe use one of the older PowerPrep CATs, which are the practice CATs GMAC put out before they put out GMAT Prep. The PowerPrep CATs don't have IR sections, but they are realistic. Then you could get a sense of how IR works either by using the practice IR questions that are on mba.com, or by using the Veritas IR practice problem set, which is great set.

PowerPrep is available here. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/resources

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

The GMATPrep test software is a fantastic resource, but when students see that it contains two practice tests, they assume that they can take each test only once, and if they do take them a second time, the questions will be the same.

This is not true. The GMAT is computer adaptive, and questions are drawn from a large pool of questions. So, while you will see duplicate questions (about 6 or 7 per section), the majority of questions will be new to you. When/if you see a duplicate question, you can minimize score inflation by waiting 2 minutes before you enter your response (otherwise, you'll gain undeserved time that you wouldn't normally have had.)

If anyone is interested, I wrote an article for BTG on this topic: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... iple-times

Cheers,
Brent

[manyaabroadtpr]

Hi Everyone,

I've just started getting ready for the GMAT, but am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I am taking my GMAT on April 23 (gives me a little more than 3 months) and have purchased the Manhattan GMAT Complete Set. The MGMAT complete set comes with 3 official guides, 6 CATs, the MGMAT complete strategy guide, and a number of online resources. Additionally I have the free material provided by mba.com. With all of this material, I don't really know where to start. Can anyone help me plan out a basic 3 month study schedule to get me rolling?

I really appreciate the help!

Hi preptobismol,

We would advise you to follow the below steps to score well in your GMAT.

1. Start with a mock test. This will help you identify your strong and weak areas
2. If you plan to do self study, get your hands on the best preparatory material available in the market. You can speak to your seniors, get feedback on forums like pagalguy to seek out the best in the market
3. Joining a coaching institute or a study group is recommended because it gives a structure to your preparation and keeps you motivated all the time. Remember cracking GMAT is not just about working hard but working smart as well
4. Make a study time table for yourself that suits you best. You can start with spending 2 hours every day and as you move closer to your test date, start increasing your study hours
5. Keep taking mock tests in real test taking situations. However, more important than taking a mock test is to analyse your performance in the same. If you spend 2 hours on a mock test, spend 6 hours in analyzing the same.
6. Figure out ways by which you can continuously keep improving your score
7. Make sure you stay consistent with your schedule. This is extremely important

Go through our blog on the link below containing all the relevant information for students who are planning to take GMAT/GRE and Study Abroad.

https://blog.manyagroup.com/index.html?url=Tips-Info

Feel free to comment and post here anything further you want to know from us and we are there to guide you.

www.manyagroup.com

[preptobismol]

Thanks again for the help everyone. I think I will start with the PowerPrep CAT and then work through the MGMAT material in accordance with the Beat The GMAT 60 day course. I appreciate all of the help!

[digvijayk]

Wow! So much knowledge in one conversation...

Just remember to have fun and rest too. Don't work on a billion problems, burning yourself out in the process. You have time, so try to analyze each and every question you answer.

Good Luck....

[preptobismol]

Hi all,

Again, thank you for the help so far! It's made the jump into studying a lot easier for me.

I recently took one official GMAT test as a diagnostic and am hoping for a little feedback on how I should proceed. I scored a 600 (30Q, 42V). Clearly quant is where I need to focus my energy. On the quant I was only able to answer 23 questions before running out of time (10 DS and 13 other) and missed 8 out of 10 data sufficiency questions. I also spent the most time on DS.

How can I improve on DS and will this be enough to bring me into the 700 range? I was surprised by my low quant score as I'm currently an engineering student and am pretty proficient in math.