Do I have a realistic goal?

[StayStrong]

Yeah, there really is a lot of stuff in the Study Organizer, so I'll adhere to your advice, Stacey.

As far as review goes, I definitely review the material using the MGMAT method; and although I think it takes too much time (when I'm actually doing it), I think it'll help me tremendously in the long run. But I'll tell you this, I can't say that I review the problems I got right in much detail. I typically determine whether a different technique was used. If so, I determine whether it's more efficient than my technique. If so, I use that method instead. That's it. But I'll try it your way.

BTW, thanks so much for the quick reply! I thought I was going to wait a week and a half, if not more. I know you and the other instructors get so busy. :D

[StaceyKoprince]

I usually try to keep on top of this thread (the general thread) b/c a lot of people are asking last minute questions before their tests. But the other threads are much more behind... :)

Re: reviewing problems you get right, the three most important things to review are:
- is there a better way? (which you're already reviewing)
- how could I make an educated guess? (it's easier to learn how to make educated guesses from problems you can already do)
- how will I recognize a problem of the same type in the future? (this one is something to ask yourself on every single problem)

[GP]

I finished the class in early May. Since then I've studied off and on and am now prepared to study with full steam. For most of the class material, I was only able to read the material and do a few problems.

During the first 1.5 weeks of study, I went through one book that was a general area of weekness by re-reading the material and then the 15 problems at the end. Then during week 2, I only did OG problems that related to this book and that I incorrectly answered on my CAT exam. Should I continue this method of going through a book ( I can reduce this down to a week) and then taking another week to focus on OG problems? Is this the right method for getting through this material?

I would like to take this exam in December.

Thanks for the assistance.

[GMAT Eater]

It appears OG questions are hopelessly out of date. Most of the OG questions are sub 650 questions. The scant number of 650+ questions are not a representative of the type of questions you will see even in GMAT Prep.

The best list of tough 650+ GMAT questions are from GMAT Focus and EZ Solutions Advance GMAT Math. I particularly recommend the latter.

My quant on GMAT focus has been 49-51 thanks to EZ Solutions. The problems are tough, but it is a good sample of what you will see if you are shooting for 45+ in Quant.

Also, my score jumped in 40 point increments. So one day, my score jumped to 640, and then after 40 more hours of studying, it jumped to 680. Now I fully expect a 700+ score.

[StaceyKoprince]

Generally, I would do a loop that consists of a chapter, the in-action problems at the end of that chapter, and then some of the related OG questions, before moving on to another chapter. Then, when you finish that book, do a set consisting of OG problems from all chapters (but still save some so that, later on, you can do mixed sets of questions from across all of the books).

OG does, in fact, have a full range of difficulties in its questions, including 700+. There just aren't as many as some people would like to see because, of course, if you are scoring in that range, then most of your questions will be up there and the lower level OG questions won't be as useful to you. GMATPrep and GMAT Focus (quant only) are also good sources of additional questions.

I've never heard of EZ Solutions, so I can't comment on that.

When reviewing, don't just review the ones you got wrong. Review the ones you got right, too. Did you get them right for the right reason? Or did you get a little lucky? Even if you did get it right for the right reason, there may be a better way to do the problem than the way you first did it. (This is true in a surprising number of cases!) Also, it's easier to look for shortcuts, spot traps, and learn how to make educated guesses on problems you got right, because you actually understand how they work. Then you apply those lessons to harder problems of the same type or content area.