avoid studying strong areas for fear of overanalyzing?

[EmilyJ]

Hi all -

So I am about 2 weeks into my studying - I'm using all 8 MGMAT Books - planning on taking the GMAT the beginning of June (however I'm pretty flexible so am willing to speed up the date or push it back if needs be - so I'm not really on a huge time constraint). I've began studying the quant first and am planning on moving onto verbal when I am done with that (while continuing to do quant practice questions so that I don't get rusty).

Without doing any prior studying, on first on my diagnostic test, I received a 580 - 35 on Quant (including the fact that I didn't have time to finish 10 questions) and 35 on Verbal, so figured I'd focus my studies on Q first. My intent is to get at least a 720 (I'm usually pretty good at standardized tests after I study...in high school getting 700+ on AP tests, but it's been a while as I'm 5 yrs out of college - it kind of made me nervous to get a 580 but I guess a 720 is doable after I study the books? Input on this is appreciated as well!)

ANYWAY...the original point of my post is that I received 10 questions wrong all together on Verbal -- 5 SC, 4 RC, and 1 CR. My question is...is it even worth cracking open the CR book? I've found that with math, for some very easy questions I tend to start overanalyzing them by using strategies provided in the book (whereas when I take a step back, I can just do the problems more easily in my head - not sure if anyone else has encountered this? Could just be though because my brain is fried from studying sometimes so if I come back to the question with a fresh mind then don't necessarily encounter the same issue :) ).

Anyway, I'm afraid that if I read through and take notes on the CR book, I may end up memorizing and learn strategies that I don't even need to know, since it appears that I am already strong on CR to begin with. Is it even worth reading through the book?

Any thoughts/comments on the above is much appreciated! Thanks to all!

[StaceyKoprince]

Are you aware that the test is changing in early June? They are going to add a new section to the test (and drop one of the essays). I just want to make sure you're aware of that, because that might change your timeframe - if you wait until after 2 June, you'll have to take the new section too, which means you'll have to study for the new section.

Yes, going from 580 to 720 is doable with good study and adequate time. Obviously there's no guarantee that everyone will achieve a certain score increase, but it's not unreasonable to go for that. :)

For now, no, I wouldn't bother cracking open the CR book. Tackle a bunch of math stuff and some grammar, maybe some RC. After a few weeks (and especially after doing something about that timing issue on quant!), take another practice test and see whether your CR performance holds up. As you lift your score, you'll start getting harder CR questions, so at some point, you may have to dive into that book - but not right now.

Also, you can use this article to analyze your test results:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

And this one will help with your time management issues:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

It often takes a good 4-6 weeks to really fix timing issues, so get started on that right away. Good luck!