4 weeks left to study for GMAT

[PeterU863]

Hi,

I have been studying for the last 2 months (very lightly) for the GMAT. After taking it and getting a 650, I determined to buythe strategy guides, official guides and take studying seriously. I now have 4 weeks until my test day (July 11th) and have taken two CATs from Manhattan Prep (640 and 600 respectively). My general plan is as follows, studying a comfortable 4-5 hours a day, with breaks:

Wednesday - Practice Exam & do analysis as outlined in Manhattan books using score reports, and create new study plan for the week based on top 5 weaknesses

Thursday - Review Entire Exam - using this article as a guide - https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/arti ... roblem.cfm

Friday through next Monday - Read strategy guides to target my weakness, practice problems from strategy guide, OG guide, and OG Quant review, reviewing each problem as I go using the same article and logging my errors on an error log

Tuesday - Review what new things I've learned for the week and create and do problem sets using OG guide, OG Quant review, and reviewing each set I create as I go.



My question is, is this the optimal way you'd approach studying if you're trying to raise your score to at least a 700 in the next 4 weeks?


Thank you in advance for all your help! I'm very sorry if this is too vague or needs clarification!

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi! Welcome to the forums.

I'm going to jump to your last question first. You're at a 650. You want to get to 700 in 4 weeks. That's a 50-point jump—not small but not unreasonable for a month. (It's also possible you may need a little more time. Be flexible.)

Here's the great thing: You already have some strengths. And you don't need to have ALL of the strengths in order to get a 700. (Or even an 800—everyone can have weaknesses. That's how this test works!)

So your goal is really to figure out your "low-hanging fruit": What are the things that are the easiest for you to improve in the time that you have? Use those things to pick up your 50 points and don't worry about the rest.

I like your overall process but would tweak some things.

First, start your overall CAT analysis (before you even get to individual problems) with this:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2018/05 ... ats-part-1

This will take you a couple of hours at minimum, but it will help you to put together your study plan for the week. Focus on bucket 2 (you'll understand when you read the series).

Speaking of your study plan for the "week"... most of the time, you'll find that you can extract enough to study for at least 1.5 to 2 weeks from a single test. So don't think that you need to hold yourself to the arbitrary time of "1 week," just because that was the plan. Go where the data tells you to go. You may find that you only do two tests and two rounds of study in a month. That may get you to your 700. Or maybe you need to do three rounds of study over 5 weeks, so you need to push your test back a little. That's okay too.

A few other resources I recommend:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
Seriously watch / read that multiple times and actually think about how you're implementing that mindset when you review your work. People "know" this but still don't actually internalize / use it during the test.

blog/2016/08/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gmat-time-management-part-1-of-3/
Because, really, everybody has time management issues. They just differ a bit from person to person.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-score/
This stuff helps you to learn better when you're studying and to perform / concentrate better when taking the exam. And it's useful for life, too.

Keep us posted as to your progress! Good luck!

[PeterU863]

Hi! Thank you so much for such a quick reply! You guys are awesome.

Just one followup question - by "targeting low hanging fruit" - I'm considering planning to simply strengthen my Verbal score ( currently a 35) because that's actually a natural strongpoint for me (which is why I honestly haven't studied it much at all). This is also because my last quant score was so low, so I've been focusing on that ( it was a 37). I'm thinking about doing this, but I know my quant score is so low that it may be a bad idea to have an "unbalanced" quant and verbal score for admissions.

Do you think it is unwise to shift my focus mainly to Verbal just to get my overall score up? Or should I still focus on trying to get my quant score up to balance my sub-scores out more?

Thank you so much in advance! I've read a ton of your articles, multiple times and they are EXCELLENT. Now I've just got to put them into practice!

[StaceyKoprince]

It depends on the schools that you're targeting, but if you're going for a 700 total score, then those kinds of schools will generally want to see a Q score in the 40s, yes.

The top-10-type schools are generally looking (ideally) for a Q45+. That doesn't mean they won't let someone in who has a Q score under 45, but the lower you go, the more of an issue you're likely to have for that kind of school. The "next tier" (about 10 to 20-ish in rankings, say), still want to see something starting with a 4, ideally.

So let's assume that you will at least need to aim to get that Q score up into the low 40s—ie, yes, you do need to study both Q and V.

[Black5879]

It depends on the schools that you're targeting, but if you're going for a 700 total score, then those kinds of schools will generally want to see a Q score in the 40s, yes.

The top-10-type schools are generally looking (ideally) for a Q45+. That doesn't mean they won't let someone in who has a Q score under 45, but the lower you go, the more of an issue you're likely to have for that kind of school. The "next tier" (about 10 to 20-ish in rankings, say), still want to see something starting with a 4, ideally.

So let's assume that you will at least need to aim to get that Q score up into the low 40s—ie, yes, you do need to study both Q and V.

hi stacey, does it mean that these school's place a greater emphasis on Q rather than V?

[StaceyKoprince]

The top schools (the ones that would like to see Q45+) also typically want to see V35+—so they are looking at both scores.

Some schools do pay more attention to one side vs. the other, yes, though more of the time, the schools are looking based on your personal details. If you're a non-native speaker who did your undergrad in a language other than English, they may scrutinize the V score a little more closely. If you're a native speaker but your undergrad degree was in communications and your job experience doesn't include any quantitative-focused work, they're going to scrutinize your Q score more.

In the US, a majority of applicants fall into that latter example group, so many US schools do tend to look at Q more closely.