My Study Plan.Thoughts??

[gujukrish]

Hello!
I am new to posting on this forum; however, I have been reading many posts while gearing up to study for the GMAT. I wanted to outline my study plan, which will probably last roughly 4 months, and see if you guys had any tips for me.

Target Score: 720-740

Study Length: Planning 4 months

Materials:
Official Guide Book, OG Quant Book, OG Verbal Book
Manhattan Set (10 Books)
Veritas Videos
Potentially Target Test Prep

The Plan:

So I have already begun my studies at a leisurely pace and have basically finished going through the Manhattan Set of books. I have taken notes, made flashcards and done the related problems within the OG book (also have an error log).

For the next 4 months I plan to ramp up and start studying vigorously for the GMAT. Using the resources and knowledge gained from the Manhattan Set, I plan on watching the Veritas videos and performing practice problems on Target Test Prep in conjunction to find, and eliminate, my weaknesses.

After finishing the Quant section, I will move onto the Verbal section continuing to use Veritas; although, I'm not sure if I should purchase other study resources to improve my Verbal score (I am a native speaker).

After completing my overview studies of the Quant and Verbal sections I plan on moving to the problems in the OG Quant and OG Verbal books, and soon after take as many GMAC CATs as I can get my hands on.

Conclusion:

Basically, I began leisurely studying a few months back, now I plan on vigorously studying the Quant (Veritas/TTP) and Verbal sections (Veritas) ending with review through OG problems and CATs.

I would love to hear your opinions on my plan (good/bad), any other resources I should consider (especially verbal) and overall thoughts.

Thanks for your time!

[ceilidh.erickson]

I generally don't recommend that students "finish" studying for one section before they start another, as you're suggesting with Quant and Verbal. Think of GMAT skills like a foreign language test: if you were taking a test in Latin and Greek at the end of 4 months, you wouldn't study only Latin first, then switch to Greek. You'd likely forget a lot of the Latin you learned while studying Greek.

You should INTERLEAVE your studies: Quant one day, Verbal the next. It's harder work to switch back and forth, but that's a good thing! Harder work = stronger neural connections = better memory.

You should make sure that when you're practicing problems, you're doing them TIMED, so you can also practice decision-making. You'll need to knock out most questions in 2 minutes on game day, and you'll need to skip others. If you're practicing untimed, it will be much harder to balance your time on the real test.

Don't wait until you've "covered" all of the content in strategy guides and videos before practicing with timed OG questions. It's a good idea to do sets of OG questions every week, even as you're learning. You should also be taking CATs every 2-3 weeks as you go along. For any content that you haven't covered yet, tell yourself - it's ok to skip this question. But don't wait until the end of your process to hone time management and decision-making.

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

Hello!
I am new to posting on this forum; however, I have been reading many posts while gearing up to study for the GMAT. I wanted to outline my study plan, which will probably last roughly 4 months, and see if you guys had any tips for me.

Target Score: 720-740

Study Length: Planning 4 months

Materials:
Official Guide Book, OG Quant Book, OG Verbal Book
Manhattan Set (10 Books)
Veritas Videos
Potentially Target Test Prep

The Plan:

So I have already begun my studies at a leisurely pace and have basically finished going through the Manhattan Set of books. I have taken notes, made flashcards and done the related problems within the OG book (also have an error log).

For the next 4 months I plan to ramp up and start studying vigorously for the GMAT. Using the resources and knowledge gained from the Manhattan Set, I plan on watching the Veritas videos and performing practice problems on Target Test Prep in conjunction to find, and eliminate, my weaknesses.

After finishing the Quant section, I will move onto the Verbal section continuing to use Veritas; although, I'm not sure if I should purchase other study resources to improve my Verbal score (I am a native speaker).

After completing my overview studies of the Quant and Verbal sections I plan on moving to the problems in the OG Quant and OG Verbal books, and soon after take as many GMAC CATs as I can get my hands on.

Conclusion:

Basically, I began leisurely studying a few months back, now I plan on vigorously studying the Quant (Veritas/TTP) and Verbal sections (Veritas) ending with review through OG problems and CATs.

I would love to hear your opinions on my plan (good/bad), any other resources I should consider (especially verbal) and overall thoughts.

Thanks for your time!

In addition to Ceilidh's wise words, I'll add this: take your first practice exam sooner rather than later. There's no platonic ideal for a study plan that works best for everyone. Different test-takers will have different needs, both in terms of how long it will take for them to hit their target score and in terms of how to allocate study time between quant and verbal. A student who starts at 60th percentile in both quant and verbal will prepare differently than one who starts at 20th percentile quant and 95th percentile verbal or one who starts at 85th percentile quant and 35th percentile verbal, etc.

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Hi gujukrish,

Since it sounds like you've done some studying already, it would be a good idea to take a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT Test; you can download 2 for free from www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). That score will give us a good sense of your natural strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. A FULL CAT takes about 4 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have those scores, you should report back here.

Based on what you've described, I can recommend two adjustments to your study plan:

1) You would likely find it beneficial to study "some Quant" and "some Verbal" each week, instead of taking an "all of one, then all of another" approach.
2) In that same way, you'll benefit more by taking CATs at regular intervals (1 FULL CAT every 1-2 weeks) than by taking them all at the "end" of your studies.

When are you planning to apply to Business School?
What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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