I work anything between 6-7 days a week so for me making time to study is pretty difficult. I am also taking the GMAXONLINE course so I get up real early in the morning ( 5am to be precise) and sit for a class. That's 2hrs of studying straightaway.I'm usually in bed anytime between 11 and 12. The advantage of taking a course is that its structured and you know before hand how much you have to complete. i'm sure if i wasnt taking the course i'd be struggling too. I get about 5-6hrs done on a holiday.
I would recommend making a study plan and sticking to it. Dont be too rigid about it but dont be so flexible as to not follow it completely.
Working full time, living a life, and studying for the GMAT?
This topic has expert replies
-
Icemastr
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:06 pm
- Location: Federal Way, WA
I work 40 hours/week and go to college full time, including taking classes this summer, which are out for 6 weeks before class starts again. Not to mention I am married. Not only do I have to take the GMAT but I also must take the LSAT because I am applying to do a JD/MBA. I am applying to University of Chicago and Northwestern so am shooting for scores in the 700+ and 170+ ranges.
When I first took diagnostic tests about a month and half ago I was a little disheartened because I scored 590 and 149. I decided that to meet my goals I would need to find the best books and develop a structured study plan and stick to it. Since I am taking the LSAT first and it is considered the harder test and more of its sections overlap with the GMAT I have studied for that first. I set aside 4 hours each weekday except Friday and 12 hours on the weekend to study and purchased 5 of the highest recommended books targeting different areas and studied for about 6-10 hours for each of the 4 sections of the test, I then wrote notes of everything covered in the material that I wanted to internalize to use on the test and reviewed by going through a different book that covered all sections of the test. I then started doing 1-2 practice tests every day, focusing on using what I had learned and then gradually taking the tests under timed conditions.
After three and a half weeks of serious studying I have been scoring in the 168-170 range on practice tests now, which would be about like going from a 540 to a 720 on the GMAT. I haven’t taken a sample GMAT recently, but plan to in about one or two weeks as I change to studying for the GMAT to make sure I am scoring highly on the verbal from practicing for the LSAT.
Getting into studying was really hard at first, but once I got into the habit of studying for 4-5 hours every day it was easy to study more and more. There hasn't been time to do much else, but I at least do something fun every Friday or Saturday, and it will all be over in 5 more weeks.
I do not think studying for a few hours on the weekend. If you really want to improve I think you need to study at least 4 days per week, try and cover studying for a single section of the test in 1-3 days together and do many practice problems for that section so you understand how the section works well, then move on to a different section.
When I first took diagnostic tests about a month and half ago I was a little disheartened because I scored 590 and 149. I decided that to meet my goals I would need to find the best books and develop a structured study plan and stick to it. Since I am taking the LSAT first and it is considered the harder test and more of its sections overlap with the GMAT I have studied for that first. I set aside 4 hours each weekday except Friday and 12 hours on the weekend to study and purchased 5 of the highest recommended books targeting different areas and studied for about 6-10 hours for each of the 4 sections of the test, I then wrote notes of everything covered in the material that I wanted to internalize to use on the test and reviewed by going through a different book that covered all sections of the test. I then started doing 1-2 practice tests every day, focusing on using what I had learned and then gradually taking the tests under timed conditions.
After three and a half weeks of serious studying I have been scoring in the 168-170 range on practice tests now, which would be about like going from a 540 to a 720 on the GMAT. I haven’t taken a sample GMAT recently, but plan to in about one or two weeks as I change to studying for the GMAT to make sure I am scoring highly on the verbal from practicing for the LSAT.
Getting into studying was really hard at first, but once I got into the habit of studying for 4-5 hours every day it was easy to study more and more. There hasn't been time to do much else, but I at least do something fun every Friday or Saturday, and it will all be over in 5 more weeks.
I do not think studying for a few hours on the weekend. If you really want to improve I think you need to study at least 4 days per week, try and cover studying for a single section of the test in 1-3 days together and do many practice problems for that section so you understand how the section works well, then move on to a different section.
