GMAT Strategy Guides

[CJRauh]

Hi,

I plan on entering an executive MBA program in the Fall of 2013 with an anticipated first official GMAT test date of late March 2013. (MBA application deadline is June 30th and I wanted to give myself some time in case I had to take it again.)

I've purchased the Manhattan GMAT Complete Strategy Guide Set as well as the official guides (overall, quantitative, verbal) from GMAC and the 2 Manhattan foundations books just for quick reviews. To get myself up to par again, I plan on reviewing the 2 foundation books from now until mid-August. From there, I plan on going through a strategy guide a week for the next 11 weeks. (Devoting 2 weeks to review the GMAT roadmap again and then the 9 strategy guides which would carry me roughly into early November.)

In general, I plan to study 1 hour a night during weekdays and then several 2 hour study sessions during weekends.

From there until I actually enroll in a 9-week Manhattan class in January of 2013, the idea is the knock out the official GMAC reviews. Given that I'm trying to create a lot of time between now and when I actually take the GMAT, I was planning on taking an initial CAT after I completed the first 15 weeks or so of study (so the foundaion books plus the entire strategy guide series).

Should I just go ahead and swallow my pride and take the initial CAT now? I feel I would really underperform at this point however, if I prepared beween now and November, it'd be a better representation of where I was at after my first initial wave of studying. Then I could use the GMAC books in conjunction with re-using the Manhattan strategy guides and the subsequent 9-week course to really hone in on my skills from November till my test date in March.

Thoughts? Could this be overkill given I won't be taking the GMAT for another 7-8 months?

[StaceyKoprince]

If you don't take the CAT soon, then how will you know how to prioritize your study? Where should you spend more time? Where can you move on to harder material more quickly and where do you need to spend more time on the fundamentals? Are you struggling with timing? (Everybody does.) Where - on all kinds of questions / content areas or only certain ones?

Where are you getting questions right but taking too long, vs. getting questions wrong but going too quickly, vs. getting questions wrong and going too slowly? How you study a particular thing depends upon what's actually happening when you do those kinds of questions.

Your CAT performance will help you figure all of that out. The overall score does not matter at this point. What matters is the data. Get the data. :)

Next, I would NOT plan to do all of the OG problems before you take the course. Doing the Foundations Guides ahead of time is a great idea, as is going through the regular chapters in the 8 Strategy Guides. The Extra chapters - maybe, maybe not - just depends how the studying is going.

I'd recommend starting the class in December (or even Nov), not January, for two reasons. One, give yourself a little more time after the class ends and before you take the real test - most people need a minimum of 2-3 weeks for review after the class ends.

Also, if you start in Dec (or Nov), you will have a week or two off for the holidays. That gives you more time to do homework / spreads the class out over more weeks, while still in general having access to a teacher (you can email if you're having problems studying something). Basically, it spreads out the benefits of your time in class.

Also, given that you now won't be doing all the OG problems in advance (since I advised not to... :), you may even find that you're ready to take the class (and possibly even the test!) earlier than you'd planned. Win-win situation!

After you take your CAT, use the below to analyze it:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. 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!)