GMAT Strategy help

[Goog629]

Hello all,

I attended my Manhattan GMAT practice test-1 to establish my base score and to understand where i stand.

My score is 460. Quant (Score-39, Estimated percentile-39%), Verbal (Score-15, Estimated Percentile-10%)

From assessment report, I could see, i am able to attend all 500-600 range questions correctly and my verbal was inconsistent and bad.

I have the below mentioned books:
1. OG 2016
2. OG Quant Review
3. OG Verbal Review
4. Manhattan 10 strategy guides
5. Manhattan GMAT foundations books (Q and V)
6. Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible
7. Manhattan Advanced Quant

Below is my plan:

First 2 weeks:

Complete All Quant Manhattan guides and corresponding OG 2016 (Non-timed), OG Quant Review 2016 (Timed). This involves going through Fundamentals, Solving Problem sets in strategy Guides. After complketeing first guide , i will solve OG 2016 and OG Quant review 2016 (Timed) and then move on to next Manhattan guide. I am planning to complete the advanced (Part-II) also along with it. Cover to cover completion and then next guide.

My priorities:
1. FDP
2.Algebra
3.Word Problems
4.Geometry
5. Number Props

After completing this I will take Manhattan's GMAT pracrtice test-II. (CAT-2)

i will maintain error log
i will also make flash cards daily
based on everday studies

If i reach 70% in CAT -2 then, i will take up solving Manhattan Advanced Quant book. Because that book tells initially that 70% is rewuired in quant to go ahead with that book comfortably.

If i reach 70%, then i will practice advanced quant book, KEEPING vERBAL in focus.

I will start the Verbal from foundations book, because my verbal score is very very less than 40 %.

Then i will move to strategy guides. I will 3 to 4 weeks time to complete everything in verbal and then take CAT-3.

My CAT plans:
CAT-1 Jan 22
CAT-2 Feb 4 or Feb 11.......................Quant only focus -should complete strategy guides and OG
CAT-3 Mar 4 or Mar 11....................Quant + verbal focus

After CAT 3 ... will decide based on score.

Planning to take GMAT exam on June 15.

Please Guide and help.

Doubts:
1. Should i take OG Quant Review also in non timed conditions?
2. Is advanced part in each strategy guide same as Advanced Quat book?
3.Should i do advanced part in each strategy guide after achieving 70 % in CAT?
4. Is this plan ok or any better suggestions like blend of QUANT+VERBAL is preferred in the first two weeks before CAT-2?

Pls guide

Planning to take MGMAT Roadmap book so that I can get 6 practice tets from Manhattan. Other books i borrowed from my friend.

I have doubt on Navigator..

i have got basic version............
but when to use it

Regards
Sruti

[StaceyKoprince]

Hello! You've done a lot of good work to put your study plan together—I'm glad to see that you're taking your studies so seriously. We do need to talk about some overall principles that will likely change your plan.

First, we're going to make a distinction between "doing" and "learning." The goal is not to "get through" tons of books and practice problems as fast as possible (and two weeks is definitely not enough time to really learn this material). This isn't a school test, where you can cram a bunch of material and then just spit it back on the test.

Rather, your goal is to learn how to think your way through these kinds of weird questions that the GMAT gives us. You're training your brain. And you won't train your brain very well if you do tons and tons of problems or reading without really analyzing what you're learning.

Read this (right now, then come back here):
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... lly-tests/

Next, do not plan to do any OG or official format problems untimed. You will be training yourself in exactly the opposite way of what you need for the real test. The goal is not to get things right no matter how long it takes. The goal is to figure out what you can do to answer or to make your best guess given very limited time. And to recognize when you can't even make a good guess and to let that problem go before you've gone over your allotted time for that question.

So, when you try an OG, give yourself the appropriate block of time (eg, if you're doing 4 quant questions, give yourself 8 minutes), and finish the problems in that period of time, even if you have to guess to finish.

Now, afterwards, if you want to spend 10 additional minutes trying one of those problems on your own, without looking up the answer or anything else, feel free. Feel free to spend 30 minutes. Feel free to look up anything you want in your reference books, to try to help you figure out what to do. In this case, you are no longer "doing" the problem. You are learning how to do it. Alternatively, feel free to put that too-hard-for-now question aside and include it in a problem set that you do a couple of weeks or a couple of months from now.

When you are learning, spend all the time you want. But when you are doing, hold yourself to official test conditions, because part of what you need to practice is how to know when to move to educated guessing and when to guess randomly and move on.

Next, let's say that you do a set of 10 practice problems. Expect to spend at least twice as long analyzing and learning from those problems as you spent doing them in the first place. And that 2x figure is the bare minimum. I can easily spend 5x as long learning / analyzing as I spent doing in the first place.

So just do a little more research into how to study for this test and apply that to your current plan. Here are some resources to help you.

Take a look at this article about how to devise a study plan (follow the various links in the article, too):
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... our-score/

Pay particular attention to this article (linked in the earlier one):
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Here's more on learning how to think / make decisions for the GMAT:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

Finally, when you feel ready after thinking about the above, you can look here for more detailed info on how to set up and learn from practice sets of questions:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2017/01/ ... est-part-1

I also strongly recommend not doing all of quant and then moving to verbal. You will learn and retain material far better if you mix it up, sometimes even during the same study period.
blog/2016/01/06/heres-why-you-should-interleave-your-gmat-studies-and-what-that-means/

The advanced sections of the individual strategy guides are not the same as the Advanced Quant book. The Advanced Quant book, though, assumes that you know most or all of the material in those advanced chapters of the strategy guides. I would start with the regular chapters and work your way up to the advanced chapters when you think you've mastered the relevant regular material for that area. You may or may not need the Advanced Quant book; it's perfectly possible to get yourself into the high 40s (score-wise) on quant with just the regular strategy guides, and you may not need to go higher than that.

Let me know if you have any questions—and please feel free to share your revised plan / ask for more feedback!

[Goog629]

Hello Stacey Koprince,

Happy to see your response for my post. Thank you very much for spending time replying for my doubts, inspite of your busy schedules.

I have purchased the book GMAT Roadmap by Manhattan. It's really awesome. Got great ideas.

I am also planning to purchase Manhattan GMAT official guide companion, so that, I can layer each and every question in official guide and unwind the test creators intentions and expectations from each and every question in quant.

As you said, it is a good practice to have a blend of quant and verbal while preparing.

Keeping verbal in focus, for the next six weeks, I am planning to complete quant strategy guides and corresponding official guide probs. Meanwhile I will also complete foundations of verbal book, practice 4 RC and 2 CR everyday.

Thanks.

Will post my strategic doubts, if any, in future.

[StaceyKoprince]

Note on OG Companion: If you buy access to our online GMAT Navigator program you will get all of our OG explanations (you can choose which edition of OG you have) and other functionality besides. I would do that over buying the older books (which are for the OG2015 edition).

Note that we don't have 100% coverage of all OG problems—but you'll still find hundreds of explanations in the software.

Happy studying!

[Goog629]

Hello Mam,

Welcome back.

Gone are these days with a very less prep for GMAT.

Planning to take 1 month gap from my routine and dedicate for GMAT.

OG+ Strategy Books completed: FDPR and Algebra.

Word Probs book related OG probs solving.

Can anyone pls help me devicing plan such that i can complete my GMAT prep in this month studying effectively. I am ready to prepare for 8 hours a day.

My score: Algebra OG probs (Correct ans: 71qns , wrong ans:16 qns)
My score: FDPR OG probs (Correct ans: 76qns , wrong ans:31 qns)

Kindly pls suggest effective study plans to go ahead and prepare for GMAT to utilize this 1 month full days more effectively.

Thanks

[Goog629]

Hello All,

In continuation with the above post, My OG Word Problems Score (Correct Ans 91 Qns, Wrong Ans: 46 Qns).

Kindly pls suggest a way how should i go forward with the preparation..

Regards

[StaceyKoprince]

The number right / number wrong doesn't actually tell us what you need to study. Have you taken a practice test? If not, that should be on your to-do list very soon.

First, re-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, take one of our CATs and use the below to analyze (this should take you a minimum of 1 hour—probably longer):
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 result—figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)

One last thing: don't study for 8 hours a day. Your brain can only learn and remember so much new information a day. If you try to put too much in at one time, then your brain will remember only some of it (and, even then, it won't remember the material very well). I would say that most people can't study effectively for more than about 4-ish hours a day, split up into at least 2 different sittings. Maybe some days you can hit 5 or 6 hours, but not every day for days on end.