Advice on Study Plan

[miss.t.gould]

Hi,

I have enrolled in one of the GMAT live 9 week courses, however it does not start until Feb 13th and I would like to / have the time to start doing some prep prior to then.

I have already done the following (in order of completion):
1) Taken 12th Ed OG Diagnostic Test
- which identified PS and DS as the areas I needed to work on most
2) Taken FREE Kaplan Practice Test
- AWA assessment was not included in this test
- Scaled score: 550 (Quant = 30, Verbal = 38)
- % correct by section was as follows:
DS = 29%, PS 48%, CR = 91%, RC = 79%, SC = 50%
3) Taken Manhattan GMAT Basic Math Diagnostic
- Overall accuracy = 80%
4) Sat ALL the Manahattan GMAT Online HW Banks for Foundations of Math I and II

Given this, what do you think I should look to cover before the course begins? I should be able to put in ~ 20-30 hours before by first Manhattan GMAT session.

Many thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

Good start! Okay, your quant score is starting out much lower than verbal, so you would benefit from spending most of your time before the class starts on quant.

I like that you did so well on the Foundations test, but there are some holes in the foundation there, so review the particular things on which you fell short in that test. You already have the books, right? (Or will soon, since you already signed up?) Start with the Foundations of Math book, but only do the areas that you actually need based upon the diagnostic. You may also want to watch the two Foundations of Math workshop tapes located in your student center - I'd do the bookwork first, and then you can watch the tapes to confirm (hopefully!) that you're good with all of the foundational material.

Also, read the free e-book The GMAT Uncovered in the Extras section of your student center. The first 30 pages talk about the GMAT; the last 10 pages are about applications. You don't need to read the last part now unless you want to. :)

Next, one of the things that kills people during the course is the amount of homework, so we're going to have you get a head-start on quant. Read the General (not Advanced) chapters of the Number Properties book. Do some of the problems printed in the book but do not do the problem sets from the Official Guide books until after the class starts (the syllabus will tell you when to do those). Make flashcards, memorize terms, and just generally start getting yourself up to speed on the terminology and the solving processes.

Finally, one of the syllabus assignments is to take a full-length MGMAT CAT by class 2; you might as well get that out of the way prior to the start of the course. I know you already took a Kaplan test, but the MGMAT CAT is one of the requirements to qualify for a post-course test review from your teacher - so you still want to do it. Do actually do the essays on this one and try to make it as GMAT-like as possible (don't take longer breaks than allowed, don't eat or drink during the test sections, etc.).

After you've taken it, you can use this article to help analyze your results:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm

Okay, all of that is at least 20h of work, probably more. If you want to do more than that, you can also read the first two chapters of your Sentence Correction guide. And you can always come back here to ask for more advice!

[miss.t.gould]

Thanks Stacy! I'll get started now.

[StaceyKoprince]

have fun in class!

[miss.t.gould]

Hi Stacey,

I followed your advice (read #Properties & SC books) and just sat my 2nd CAT. However, I had an absolute mare and totally bombed my second CAT. In fact, my score was even worse than my first CAT.

I scored 480 overall; 29 quant / 28 verbal. Essentially, I totally stuffed up my timing on the quant section; spending between 3.5 -7 minutes on 7 of the first 24 questions. Stupid, I know but next thing I know I'm almost an hour in and have 15 questions left to answer. As a result I panic, end up guessing most of the remaining questions (not even making 'informed guesses) and end up getting only 3 of the last 15 questions right.

I run into a similar problem on the verbal section, not quite as bad, but still end up spending 8 - 60 seconds on the last 7 questions; I don't even get a chance to answer the last one and get the six prior to that all wrong.

I know I totally stuffed the timing on this, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to go from here. I am booked in to sit the test in just over 3 months time and wish to score 720+, but am wondering whether this is totally unrealistic. Given my online course starts this week and I can only probably spend 10-12 hours per week from now on studying (mostly on the weekend), I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I should be focusing on i.e., should I simply follow the course syllabus OR focus purely on my weaknesses?

Also, do you have some advice with regard to timing strategy etc. I generally find it hard to just let problems go, but know this trait will be the death of me if I don't 'learn which battles to fight'.

Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

Good! It happened on a practice test and not the real thing. This is exactly why you take practice tests.

I know you're not thrilled, of course, but you are learning what NOT to do, and that's really important. I've talked to a lot of students who have messed up the timing badly on the real test - vow not to be one of them. :)

Given what you described with the timing, my guess is that the score you received is pretty seriously deflated - 50 to 100 points. Now, that doesn't mean that your true scoring level is already that much higher, because of course timing is a major issue, but it's easier to improve from a 480 to the 700 range if a big part of the initial problem is simply timing. (And that doesn't mean, of course, that it'll be easy.)

So. Timing. First, you need to change your mindset. From now on, this as a tennis match, not a test. You're going to win some points and the other guy is going to win some points; you're not going to win them all, right? Your goal is to put yourself into position to win the LAST point. Translated, that means you have to put yourself in position to answer the last question - you have to have time to address it. Otherwise, you've lost the last point, and by extension the match. When the other guy hits a winner, don't go running after it so fast that you hit the fence and injure yourself, thereby hurting your chances on the later points. (Translation: don't go way over when the problem is too hard.)

And you will ALWAYS hit problems that are too hard. It doesn't matter how much you study - they'll just give you something harder. That's how an adaptive test works.

Read this article and follow the advice:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... management

Time yourself on all OG problems from now on and stick to the timing guidelines.

I think you would also benefit from a timing exercise: learning about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think you're one minute into a new problem, push the lap button. When you're done with that problem, push the lap button again, then repeat the process for the next problem. When you're done with the set, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec). Also check your timing for the entire question, of course.

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute*, make an educated guess** and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

* For SC, 1min is well beyond the half-way mark (we're supposed to average about 1m15s here), but you can almost always eliminate at least some choices on SC in that timeframe. Once you've got that "I'm around the 1min mark and I'm struggling" feeling, go through any remaining choices ONCE more. Pick one. Move on.

** This also requires you to know HOW to make an educated guess depending upon the type of problem and the content being tested. So that's something else to add to your study: how to make educated guesses on different kinds of problems.

Here are two articles that can get you started on educated guessing:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/07/ ... s-on-quant

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/08/ ... -on-verbal

Re: your syllabus questions, do generally follow the syllabus, yes, but adjust the time you spend and how you spend it based upon your strengths and weaknesses. And pay HUGE attention to the timing. Know where you have strictly timing problems (I can get it right but I take way too long) and where you have timing + content problems (I'm taking way too long and I'm getting it wrong anyway). Then address what you need to address when you get to that area during the course.

Use this article to analyze your test so that you know what those strengths and weaknesses are:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/e ... -part1.cfm

Good luck!