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MGMAT SC: Study plan/tight schedule, advice is appreciated!

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MGMAT SC: Study plan/tight schedule, advice is appreciated!

by C » Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:00 am
Hi guys,

My GMAT appointment is May 3rd, in 10 days.

This far I have reviewed my weak areas in quant, solved some OG problems, and taken some practice tests. My weakest area on the verbal part seems to be Sentence Correction.

I have started working on MGMAT SC 4th ed. and just finished chapter two, including practice problems (not the suggested OG problems). I am planning on using 10 more effective hours working on this guide, but in the pace I am working, I am afraid I will need at least 20 hours! In particular, I tend to use a lot of time on solving and understanding the practice problems.

I would really appreciate if someone who has worked through the MGMAT SC could help me device a study plan that laid emphasis on "the most important" chapters and practice problems. In other words, what chapters or set of practice problems are less important? :)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

C
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:11 am
In order to answer this I need to know whether or not you are a native English speaker.

If you are, I would say the main things to focus on would be parallelism, and modifiers.

If you are not, I would suggest that you find the time and focus on the entire guide.
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by C » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:24 am
osirus0830 wrote:In order to answer this I need to know whether or not you are a native English speaker.

If you are, I would say the main things to focus on would be parallelism, and modifiers.

If you are not, I would suggest that you find the time and focus on the entire guide.
Hi osirus0830,

Thank you for your reply.

I am a Norwegian, and not a native English speaker.
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by Stacey Koprince » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:14 pm
Received a PM asking me to reply.

You don't mention your current scoring level or goal score, but 10 days is not a lot of time. In general, I recommend that people stop trying to learn from new material about a week before the official test. The final week is best used to review what you have already learned / used.

You're at the beginning of this book, though - and this is a book that we take the entire 9 weeks to cover during our class.

What is your current scoring level on practice tests taken under 100% official testing conditions? What score are you hoping to get on the real test?

In most cases, your scoring level on a practice test taken with 7-14 days of the real test (and taken under official conditions) will reflect the general range in which you should expect to score on the real test. If your current scoring level is well under your expected goal score, then it would be a good idea at this point to either postpone your test or lower your goal score. (People may not want to hear that, but better to take action now than have a disappointing experience on the real test.)

So, give us a little more info about your situation and we'll figure out the best course of action for now.
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by C » Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:54 pm
Hi Stacey,

Thank you for your reply, and I am sorry for not providing the necessary details!

When taking the MGMAT practice exams, I average just under 600. SC is my weakest, where I score in the range of 30-40 percent correct. My plan is to stop learning new things (SC) on Sunday (official test is next Monday), and then focus only on OG problems and MGMAT/GMAT Prep practice exams. My aim is to score 650+ on the real thing.

This weekend I will devote as much time as possible to the MGMAT SC guide. I am planning on taking the test in ten days, no matter what score I get, because of my application deadlines. If I am not admitted, my plan is to retake the test in 2-3 months with an aim of scoring 700+.

Again, I really value your time. Thank you for helping out!
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:03 am
Got it - if you have deadlines, then you just have to go full steam ahead and hope for the best!

I agree that you should stop trying to learn a bunch of new things about a week before. The final week should be for high-level review of the most commonly-tested things, as well as strategies for various things. So:

1) review all major quant formulas and rules
2) review all major SC rules
3) review techniques / strategies for all major question types
--> DS and PS; theoretical problems vs. real number problems (and how you choose when to use theory vs. real numbers, when you have that choice); translating words to math; and so on
--> SC, CR, and RC; process for working through each type; major CR types (strengthen, weaken, find assumption, draw conclusion); major RC types (main idea, specific detail / lookup, inference); how to read / extract info efficiently on CR and RC; and so on
4) educated guessing strategies (specific to each question type)
5) pacing strategies: by section and by different type of question; how to know when to let go; etc
6) effective usage of scrap paper, including transferring info accurately and efficiently from screen to paper; writing all math work down; keeping track of answer choice elimination (especially on verbal); and so on

You can do the above using a mix of your books, old questions you've already done, and new questions.

You're already past your "new stuff" timeframe, but I'll also answer your question on the MGMAT SC "most important" stuff for future readers of this thread.

In terms of the frequency with which material gets tested, the below chapters are the most important. Keep in mind, though, that if you have very limited time to study, you are usually better off studying things that are easier for you - whatever those things might be.

(1) Most frequently tested: parallelism, modifiers, comparisons
(2) Frequently tested: subject-verb, verb tenses, pronouns
(3) Less worth your time: idioms*, odds & ends

* In terms of frequency, idioms probably fall in category 2, BUT there are so many idioms (and there are, by definition, no set "rules" to follow for large sets of idioms) that they are less worth your time to study unless you have a lot of time - at least 4 to 6 weeks, preferably longer.
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