Hi,
I am currently taking the MGMAT online course and just completed class 6 last week (I'll be taking class 7 on Wednesday, August 10). I scheduled my actual GMAT exam for Wednesday, September 14, which is exactly 3 weeks after the end of my course and 5 weeks away. I took my second CAT exam after class 6 and scored a 530 (32 in Quant and a 31 in Verbal). Can you please provide suggestions on the best way to maximize the next 5 weeks leading up to my exam considering I still have course material to work through (for example we have not covered geometry yet) and considerable work to do to improve my score? I have about 20 hours per week availble for studying. Please help me understand:
1. When I should plan to take the remaining CAT exams (after the course is over)
2. When I should plan to take the 2 free GMAC exams
3. How I should prioritize reviewing my exam questions vs. doing OG practice problems and reading the strat guide
There are so many resources and material available that it is a little overwhelming. Your help is appreciated!
Many thanks!
GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- begeiger
- Course Students
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9361
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: Best way to study with 5 weeks to go
There is a lot - everyone feels a bit overwhelmed!
While the course is still going on, you should mostly just be following the syllabus - we give you a lot to do every week. If you have extra time during any day or week, you can go back to previous lessons that you feel you didn't learn as well and review those.
Once the course is over, people typically want to do two things:
(1) go back and re-do some lessons that they missed or didn't finish or didn't understand as well as they wanted, and
(2) review everything
The final 10 days to 2 weeks of study are typically almost 100% review; you don't want to have to learn a bunch of new things for the final couple of weeks. So, given your timeline, that would mean you need to be done or almost done learning new material by 1 week after your course ends. Is that going to happen, or do you need more time?
Next, you want your practice test scores to be in your goal score range about 2 weeks out from the real test. If there's a big discrepancy between your goal score and your practice scores at that point, then you also need more time. You don't mention your goal score, so I can't evaluate this for you.
In general, after the course is over, you're going to continue your "I'm learning new stuff" activities until you've been through all of the material you want to cover at least once. (I say "the material you want to cover" because you don't necessarily want to cover all of the material. For example, the advanced chapter material start to kick in around 650+. If your goal score is lower than that, then you don't need to worry about the advanced material.)
Then, in an I-have-no-deadline world, you say: okay, I've learned this stuff all once now. I'm going to take a practice test to see where I am. And then use this article to analyze my progress:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... tudy-plan/
Then use that analysis to set up a study plan for the next 2 weeks or so, then take another practice test. And I keep doing that until I'm in range of my goal score, at which point I go into final review mode (using the 2 articles below), and then I take my test.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... game-plan/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-review/
If you have a specific deadline, then you will have to factor that in, which might mean studying more if you feel you're not making enough progress, or even lowering your goal score if you have a hard deadline that you can't miss. If you've set a deadline for yourself, but no school is telling you the deadline, then you have the flexibility to take more time if you think you need it.
So... what's your goal score? And is that deadline one you gave yourself or did you pick it based upon some school's deadline? (That second question might not matter if you're not too far already from your goal score. If you're going for a 600, 5 weeks might be enough. If you're going for a 700, you will almost certainly need longer than 5 weks.)
While the course is still going on, you should mostly just be following the syllabus - we give you a lot to do every week. If you have extra time during any day or week, you can go back to previous lessons that you feel you didn't learn as well and review those.
Once the course is over, people typically want to do two things:
(1) go back and re-do some lessons that they missed or didn't finish or didn't understand as well as they wanted, and
(2) review everything
The final 10 days to 2 weeks of study are typically almost 100% review; you don't want to have to learn a bunch of new things for the final couple of weeks. So, given your timeline, that would mean you need to be done or almost done learning new material by 1 week after your course ends. Is that going to happen, or do you need more time?
Next, you want your practice test scores to be in your goal score range about 2 weeks out from the real test. If there's a big discrepancy between your goal score and your practice scores at that point, then you also need more time. You don't mention your goal score, so I can't evaluate this for you.
In general, after the course is over, you're going to continue your "I'm learning new stuff" activities until you've been through all of the material you want to cover at least once. (I say "the material you want to cover" because you don't necessarily want to cover all of the material. For example, the advanced chapter material start to kick in around 650+. If your goal score is lower than that, then you don't need to worry about the advanced material.)
Then, in an I-have-no-deadline world, you say: okay, I've learned this stuff all once now. I'm going to take a practice test to see where I am. And then use this article to analyze my progress:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... tudy-plan/
Then use that analysis to set up a study plan for the next 2 weeks or so, then take another practice test. And I keep doing that until I'm in range of my goal score, at which point I go into final review mode (using the 2 articles below), and then I take my test.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... game-plan/
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-review/
If you have a specific deadline, then you will have to factor that in, which might mean studying more if you feel you're not making enough progress, or even lowering your goal score if you have a hard deadline that you can't miss. If you've set a deadline for yourself, but no school is telling you the deadline, then you have the flexibility to take more time if you think you need it.
So... what's your goal score? And is that deadline one you gave yourself or did you pick it based upon some school's deadline? (That second question might not matter if you're not too far already from your goal score. If you're going for a 600, 5 weeks might be enough. If you're going for a 700, you will almost certainly need longer than 5 weks.)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
2 posts Page 1 of 1