Need Help : GMAT Prep using Manhattan GMAT 8 guides

[bharathdarsh]

Hi,

I am taking my GMAT end of May'12. I had started my preparation after buying the Manhattan GMAT 8 Strategy Guides ( 5 Quant and 3 Verbal).

I started with the 1st guide Number Properties. It's giving me an excellent foundation to understand and practice the basics and concepts.At the same time; its too detailed and the information is too much!

My problem is the following:

After seeing the contents of the 8 strategy guides; I feel that I need to invest almost my full time for the next 2-3 months; to complete the Manhattan 8 strategy guides.

I don't have so much time on hand since I am also working and have 2 kids. I can invest daily 2 hrs on a week day and 5hrs on weekends.

In line with this :

1) Can you please advice how I should use the Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides so that I can focus better and optimize my preparation time.

2) My main problem is that : I feel that the content of Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides are too detail oriented and I am very overwhelmed. If I total all the pages in the 5 quant strategy guides it comes to ~840 pages. Plus in addition to this I also have the 3 verbal books. I don't think I can complete reading such huge content in the time-frame that I have on hand.

Please give your guidance and valuable inputs on how I should re-orient my preparation using the Manhattan GMAT 8 strategy guides.

At the same time I don't want to cut corners during my preparation.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best Regards,
Bharath S

[StaceyKoprince]

Your initial focus should be just the main chapters, not the advanced chapters. Save that for later (and possibly never). That cuts down on quite a bit of the volume. :)

Next, you should be prioritizing based upon your strengths and weaknesses. For areas of strength, go through the material more quickly and don't do all of the practice drills and problems, or only do the harder ones. For areas of weakness, spend more time making sure you master the basics, and don't worry as much when you hit something that makes your head spin - everybody has to have weaknesses, so you've just found one of yours, that's all.

Number Properties is an especially tough book, especially certain chapters (like divis and primes). You're going to find that some of the other books and chapters will be much faster for you (perhaps algebra or geometry).

Finally, know that some material is not as commonly tested. Geometry is the least commonly tested of the 5 main categories. Within Word Translations, the following categories are not commonly tested: combinatorics, probability, overlapping sets. Within algebra, functions and sequences are less common. So you can afford to study these less and not worry about mastering them so much - even if you do get them wrong, there won't be that many.

Also read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... to-win-it/

And this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

That will help you to understand what I'm about to say next: you are not trying to study enough that you will be able to answer absolutely everything correctly. Nobody answers every last question correctly - that's just how the test works!

[bharathdarsh]

Hello Stacey,

Wow ! Thanks very much for that advice...It really helped to pull up my spirits. I would be grateful if you can clarify or confirm the following confusions that I still have in my mind:

1) I'll save the advanced chapters for later..but if I don't read/practice it..will it hurt my score or rather my confidence?

2) I'll focus less on the areas that you mentioned : Geometry,combinatorics, probability, overlapping sets,functions and sequences.( Thanks for this cool advice). Is this OK?

3) As you said I am finding "Number Properties" very tough - especially prime factors,integers etc..It's giving me a hard time; especially the data sufficieny part. Is it worthwhile to go through some chapters again, before starting the other quant books - so get better on data sufficiency?

4) Very Important : Should I do the OG12 referenced probs at the end of each book now( so that I can better re-inforce the concepts learnt) or should I do it at the last after studying all the Manhattan Guides...

Please guide me, your feedback gave me so much more confidence.

Thanks again for all and I look forward to your fast feedback - as it will help me to re-orient my study strategy.

Thanks again for your valuable inputs & feedback.

Best Regards,
Bharath S

[StaceyKoprince]

1) What's your goal score? The importance of the advanced chapters varies depending upon what score you're trying to get.

In general someone looking for a 750+ needs to master everything. Someone looking for a 700+ needs to review much of the advanced material, but will still have some weaknesses and may not review it all. Someone looking for a 650+ doesn't need to do much of the advanced material (but will likely do a little). 600+/- doesn't require the advanced material at all.

In general (unless you're in the 750+ category), you won't review it all, so you'll choose what to review based upon your strengths and weaknesses.

2) yes, that's good

3) DS is taught in every book, so you may want to go through one of the other books / topic areas that is stronger for you in order to get better at DS without also having to worry about the NP stuff. But, yes, you'll need to come back to the problematic areas at some point.

4) OG should be a mix. Do some after finishing a particular chapter, but also save some for later - you want to be able to do "mixed" review sets, since the real test will never cluster the problems in one area or tell you what topic a question is covering. You have to jump around, so you're going to want to practice that yourself.

[Jkashyap]

Thanks bharatdarsh for opening this thread, and stacey your thoughts are valuable as always.

On a given day, could you provide a sense of how many chapters are to be covered?

For example, if im able to cover SV agreement and Parallelism (including drills and og problems) today, is that a steady pace towards finishing the main chapters?

[bharathdarsh]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks.

1) My target score is >700, but <750. With that in mind, please advice how much of the advanced material should I read and practice?

2) I many of the OG12 problems referenced in the MGMAT Advanced Chapters in the Geometry guide. It took me a long time to complete it and for many problems I was stuck( especially the DS part). For e.g to do around 10 problems it took me more an hour. I can clearly see this as one of my prime weak areas. How should I tackle this?

3) Also with the Number properties guide, I finished all the main chapters. Even here the OD 12 probs that I did took me a long time, especially the DS part. So I am seeing a weak pattern both in my speed and accuracy with the DS part. I am yet to read the advanced chapters in the Number Properties guide.

4) Please advice, how I should tackle( read & understand) the advanced chapters? Should I practice all the OG12 problems referenced in the MGMAT advanced chapters?

Thanks a ton for all your help. I look up to you for your valuable guidance.

Best Regards,
Bharath S

[StaceyKoprince]

Jkashyap, in a given study session (about 2 hours), it's appropriate to finish anywhere from half a chapter to 2 chapters, depending upon the topic and how you feel about it (whether it's a stronger or weaker area for you). Don't do all of the OG questions - save some (at least half) for later. Just do a few from each chapter to start.

Also, when I say "finish," I mean "go through once" - but you won't necessarily master everything on that first time through, of course.

bharathdarsh, you need to look through most of the advanced material. You can skip one or two chapters that cover your biggest weaknesses. You will need to master some of the advanced material, but you can also have other areas where you are only so-so on the advanced material.

Until you have mastered the general chapter material for a certain topic, you aren't going to have much success with that material's advanced chapter.

For e.g to do around 10 problems it took me more an hour. I can clearly see this as one of my prime weak areas. How should I tackle this?

In terms of *doing* 10 quant problems, it should take you 20 minutes. You should time yourself and pick an answer even if you can't figure it out, just like the real test.

In terms of reviewing, you should spend anywhere from 2x to 5x as long reviewing. On 10 problems, that would mean a minimum of 40 minutes' worth of review! Have you read this article?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

And here are 5 more articles that show the above technique using 5 different problems:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/GMATprep-SC.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... estion.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

That kind of analysis will help you to better understand what you were learning in both the general and advanced chapters, which will help you then to go back and learn more about the advanced topics that were giving you trouble the first time around.