Best use of time? (Can only study on weekends)

[jm577843]

Took the GMAT on Saturday and scored a disappointing 640 (37Q, 40V). Shooting for a min of 680, so I'm happy with the verbal score, but need to dramatically improve quant. On practice tests quant has been anywhere from 37 to 41, verbal has remained consistently in the low 40s. I probably put in around 50 hours of studying prior to Saturday. Materials used:

- Ran through the MGMAT guides (doing all end-of-chapter problems)
- Only used and practiced with OG15 problems (did too many problems in the beginning, not enough learning)
- Took 2 MGMAT practice tests (both 590), and 1 GMATPrep test (650)

I work in banking, so weekends will most likely be the only time I can study. Signed up to test again 9 weeks from this past Saturday, so I will have 8 weekends to study - what is the best use of my time? Planning on taking a GMATPrep test every other week during this period. Usually feel so drained that I can't do much more than the test on those days. Meaning there are 12 remaining "free" weekend days to study.

- Should I focus on a particular subject each of those twelve days?

- Should I do mixed sets each of those twelve days?

- I need to study quant the most, so what percentage of my time should be dedicated to quant? I obviously don't want to forget about verbal and then end up with a lower than expected score.

- The MGMAT Roadmap guide emphasized mastery vs. quantity, how many problems should I be mastering each day?

- What's the best way to develop an error log? Some say make a flashcard for literally every problem you miss, but that seems almost too time consuming? Thus far I've made some cheat sheets for each MGMAT book, but that obviously isn't enough. I use Navigator, but is it detailed enough to use as an error log (can't make notes as to how you were tricked or why you missed something)?

All contributions are greatly appreciated,
Chagrined in Chelsea

[jm577843]

bump

[StaceyKoprince]

Please remember to read (and follow!) the forum guidelines before posting.

Please don't "bump" your posts! We answer every single post and we do so oldest first. The time stamp on a thread is based on the most recent post - so all you do when you "bump" your post is put yourself later in line. You waited at least 2 days longer for a response as a result of bumping your post.

Your brain can only make so many new memories in a day - so studying only 2 out of 7 days in the week is very far from ideal. You're not super far from your goal, so it's okay that the bulk of your study will happen on the week-ends, but you're going to need to do some stuff during the week, too.

Here's the good news: you don't need to sit down and study for 2 hours in order to learn something / get good value out of your study. You can study for 15 or 30 minutes and still make good progress. (You can't, of course, only have short study sessions...but you'll get your long sessions in on the week-ends.)

Okay, we need to start by coming up with a study plan, and that study plan is going to be based on your current strengths and weaknesses.

First, read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat
Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly.

Then, use the below to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour):
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Based on all of that, figure out your strengths and weaknesses as well as any ideas you have for what you think you should do. Then come back here and tell us; we'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Your analysis should include a discussion of your buckets - you'll understand what that means when you read the last article. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

Your study process is mostly going to be driven by the results of that analysis and the Level 2 article above. You're going to target your study based upon your specific needs; you're not just going to review everything.

For quant, start with Foundations of Math. Make sure that there aren’t any holes in your foundation by trying problems at the ends of the relevant chapters
eg, let's say you need to study exponents & roots. Find that chapter in FoM and diagnose yourself via end-of-chapter problems. Anything wrong, long, or feels funny? Then go into that chapter and learn the material, then do the rest of the end-of-chapter problems.
When ready, go to the main strategy guide chapter and re-do it. Then do (or re-do) those end of chapter problems. Then try a couple of OG problems. Basically, keep building up in that area.

Then move onto another topic. After you’ve done a few topics, start doing mini-sets of 3 to 5 OG problems (eventually building up to 8 to 12). These sets will contain problems you’ve selected based on what you’ve studied in the past week, but also some randomly chosen problems from the book (because you never know what you’re about to get on the real test!). Here’s where you’ll practice your timing and decision-making, and also get a review of things you haven’t directly been studying (this is via the randomly-chosen problems).

When analyzing OG or GMAT-format problems, do what the 2nd Level article says. That will drive you to look up things in various books, ask a question on the forums, look in Navigator for a more efficient solution or a better explanation, etc - basically, it will drive how you review.

Eventually, you'll get to the point where you think, "Yes, I've got a takeaway!" of the "When I see X, I'll think / do Y" variety (as described in the 2nd level article). This is where your flashcards come in. Don't put an entire problem on a flashcard. The goal is not to memorize this problem - you're not going to see it on the test! The goal is to figure out what takeaway(s) from this problem will help you on future, different-but-similar-in-some-aspect problems.

Bring those flashcards to work with you. When you've got 10 minutes between meetings or you're eating lunch at your desk, whip them out and review. You can also make flashcards for things you're trying to memorize (formulas, rules).

Do some verbal every 3rd or 4th study session. Just do mixed problem sets to keep your skills up, then analyze when done. Add this to your verbal problem analysis:

1) why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible; also, now you know this is not a good reason to pick an answer)
2) why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
3) why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay; what was my error in thinking that they were wrong? (also, now you know that this is not a good reason to eliminate an answer)
4) why was it actually right?

Do the above for approx 2-3 weeks, until you feel that you’ve made decent progress on a number of the bucket 2 items (your practice sets will help you to know this). Then it’s time for another CAT. Then you analyze that CAT, come up with new bucket 2 items and start all over again.

Re: an error log, I don't make one for everything because I find that it just gets overwhelming fast. You need one file in which you log your careless mistakes, because you then need to figure out what new habits / processes to implement in order to minimize repeats of those specific types of careless mistakes. (Keep that log in an electronic file so you can call it up at work - again, you can sit there when you have 5 minutes and think about how to minimize the chances of, say, solving for the wrong thing - eg, they ask you for X but you solved for Y. Etc.)

Re: other types of errors, those will get addressed in your When I see X, I'll think do Y flashcards as well as in your general knowledge of what you need to study / review based on the errors you're making. If you realize that you messed up a problem because you don't feel totally comfortable with sequences, then you're going to go review sequences.