Advice needed on study-plan

[ashishaggarwal91]

Hi Instructors,

I'm planning to give the GMAT this June. Since last week, I've been hunting for prep material and bought the MGMAT guides. While browsing through your articles, I found it's necessary to take an assessment CAT before starting the prep and developing the study-plan. In MGMAT assessment CAT I took both the essays and tried to keep th timing constraints as much as possible. I scored 600 with:
Maths: 46 (79%)
Verbal: 28 (59%)
In maths, Problem solving was my strong area with 70% accuracy and DS was my weak area with just 40% accuracy.

Clearly I've to work hard on verbal. All my RC,CR and SC had 50% accuracy.

Now this assessment test was given without any preparation, and since I scored 600, by how much should I think to improve, provided I've 3 months to go?

Ideally I'm thinking of getting around 730+, is it possible? How should I prepare to hit this target?

I can work a bit in maths and get to 53-54 score with 75% accuracy in both Ps and DS, but I'm not sure on how much time will take to achieve thie 75% accuracy in verbal.

Thanks,
Ashish

[StaceyKoprince]

That's a really good startign point - with 3 to 4 months of prep, you have a shot at breaking the 700 barrier.

First things first: don't start planning to increase your overall accuracy. You're not going to, much - that's not how the test works. Instead, you'll be increasing the difficulty levels of the questions you're capable of answering correctly - but then the test will just give you a harder mix of questions, so you're percentage correct won't change a ton. :)

Log into your student account and read your copy of The GMAT Uncovered (our free e-book). It's already right there in your account. Pay particular attention to the scoring section - once you understand how the scoring works, that will help you to take the test (and study for it) in the optimal way.

Next, use this article to analyze your test results:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm

That will give you a TON of data to work with - basically, that will tell you what you need to do. :) Because you have our guides, you can also use our syllabus, which you can either find in your student center, depending upon what you bought, or here: http://www.manhattangmat.com/freegmatlearningforum.cfm
Under the highlights section, click on "Official Manhattan GMAT Course Syllabus [pdf]"

As a general rule, follow the syllabus, but adjust how much time you spend and how in-depth you go based upon your strengths and weaknesses (which you know from that test review that you did up above).

It sounds like you have bought the books but either aren't taking a class or haven't decided yet whether to take a class. If you're still deciding, this article can help:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/06/ ... s-or-tutor

If you already know you want to study on your own, then make use of the forums for help (as you're doing already!). This article can help for that (note: it was written for another set of forums, but it applies to any forums on which you participate):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/05/ ... the-forums

After you've analyzed your test, you can come back here to share your thoughts or ask for more specific help on certain areas - just let us know, and we can point you toward additional resources. But if you just got the books, that should be your primary focus to start.

Good luck - let us know how it goes! :)