How to Study with all the books

[beyiyi]

Hi,
I just purchased the MGMAT complete prep set, but I donot know where to start. Should I use the 8 MGMAT Guides first or should I practice questions in the 3 Official Guides to start? And when do I start using the extra supplement books that came with the set (Foundations and Advanced)?

Best Regards,

Beryl.

[messi10]

Hi Beryl,

Have you taken any practice exams? Do you have a fair idea of your strengths, weaknesses? It would help to give one first just to understand the type of questions and get an idea of your current level.

I would start with the Verbal foundation and the math guides. I got the verbal foundation after I had already gone through the 3 main verbal guides but I still find some stuff very use in the foundation book. I think the advanced maths is for those who have either done the strategy guides or consistently score around the 45 mark on the practice exams. So keep that one for the end

My personal opinion is not to start with the official guide (OG) until you have started reading the strategy guides. Particularly with topics such as SC, CR and some math topics, it is better to approach the questions with a strategy, which you may not know before doing the guides. The OG and the supplements are the best source of questions from the test takers so do not exhaust those without a good approach.

Most guides have a general and advanced chapters. In one of the posts, I think Stacey says that you should work your way through the general chapters first and when you are comfortable with the topics and the exercises at the end, you can move on to the advanced chapters.

Hope this helps

Regards

Sunil

[StaceyKoprince]

If you have not done so already, take the Quant Diagnostic found on your student center. Your results on that will tell you whether you need to start with the Foundations of Math book or the Math Strategy Guides.

If you need to start with Foundations, do that first, then move on to the strategy guides. If you are able to start with the Strategy Guides, then keep the Foundations of Math book handy whenever you hit something that you find particularly challenging in the Strategy Guides.

When using the Strategy Guides, start with a particular chapter. Read it carefully, take notes, make flash cards, highlight things, and do the problems in the chapter to test your understanding. After you feel comfortable with that chapter, try some of the OG problems that go along with that chapter (these are listed right in the Strategy Guide). Don't do them all - just do a few to test yourself. Then try some more chapters. When you're done with a book, do a set of "mixed" problems that come from all of the chapters. (But still don't do ALL of the problems associated with that book!) When you're done with two books, do a "mixed" set that includes problems from the first two books. And so on.

In the strategy guides, do the general chapters first. If you find a general chapter pretty easy, you can try the equivalent advanced chapter. If you don't, then don't worry about that advanced chapter for now.

What is your goal score? Depending on your score goal, you may or may not have to learn much of the advanced material.

The Advanced Quant book is appropriate for someone who has already completed the strategy guides (including most or all of the advanced chapters) and is currently scoring in the 80th percentile or higher on the quant section.

Good luck!