OG Guides and Study Strategy

[nuwalt]

Stacey,

With a goal of obtaining atleast a 700 in GMAT, do you think that working through the OG 12th Edition along with MGMAT Strategy Guides and Online Labs enough? The reason I ask is that I only have 2 months to prepare and maximum I can allocate around 300 hours of study from start to finish. This will include Reading Strategy Guides, Working through all the problems in the OG 12th edition, take atleast 6 practice exams (4 MGMAT CAT and 2 GMAT Prep). I will also watch all the online labs.

DO I need to do any advanced sections, challenge problems or the Verbal/Quant (Blue-Green) book to get me to a score of 700?

Pleae help me understand the strategy to study for the next two months so that I can reach my goal and get admitted to the top Executive MBA program I am applying for this year. The average for the school is 700 with a median of 710.

Thanks and I appreciate your help.

[StaceyKoprince]

You do need to do the Strategy Guides and OG12, yes. Note that there are advanced chapters in the strategy guides - you will need to do some but not necessarily all of them.

For a 700, you need to master all of the main material (not in the advanced chapters) and then you will also need to master some of the advanced material (in your areas of strength). You will also need to learn how to think your way through official-format questions (and that's what you'll practice out of OG).

Most people have one area that's stronger than the other (either quant or verbal). If that's the case, then you may also want to try to push that stronger area via some additional advanced material (eg, if quant is your stronger area, then you might consider also using something like our Advanced Quant guide - but only after you've mastered the strategy guides).

You don't need the challenge problems, no. You may want the verbal or quant supplements, but you don't absolutely have to have them. Depends on your strengths and weaknesses and whether you have a need for additional practice questions in certain areas.

Have you read this?
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ould-i-do/

That'll help you set up your plan as well. That article links to a number of other articles. Make sure to read In It To Win It and the articles on Time Management and analyzing your practice tests (the link to the last article can be found in the Develop a Study Plan article linked in the above article... follow the links :)

So go take a look at that stuff, set up a plan, then come back here and tell us your plan (along with your strengths and weaknesses). We'll tell you whether we think it's the right one for you, given your goal and your strengths and weaknesses!

[nuwalt]

Thanks for your reply Stacey.

As I mentioned in my first post, I can allocate 300 hours of study. Now, you will be a bit surprised to know (and also probably not recommended, but thats the only choice I have) that I am gonna clock in around 300 hours in 1.5 months. My exam is March 17th and I just submitted my EMBA application. All I have now it GMAT for 1.5 months which I diligently want to study for. I know that you recommend 300 hours or so in 3 months time frame, but I just need to double my efforts in the time given. Can this be done? Can I finish Strategy Guides, Labs, and OG 12 plus maybe some OG SUpplements including MGMAT onlne labs in 300 hours or less. How much do people prepare for to get 700. Assume that I am at 600 level at this time. Please really help, maybe your motivation will kick up a notch for me.

To study effectively, should I follow the MGMAT class routine? How can I study everything in 1.5 months (~300 hours). Please advise. Please help me in devising a plan and strategy as to what I need to do. I know I am asking a bit too much, but I think with your help, I may get what I need to get into the top EMBA program this year and not waste another year. I have submitted a very strong application otherwise.


Specific Question: What do you suggest that I do for CR? MGMAT or Powerscore guide? I am worried abotu CRs.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

[StaceyKoprince]

You're right - I don't recommend 300 hours in 6 weeks. :)

You need to be VERY careful about burnout. If you try to do too much, you will not learn the material as well as you could - you'll actually hurt yourself. Your brain can only make so many new, good memories in a certain period of time - try to load too much more on top, and you'll end up having none of it get "entered into your brain" very well.

2 hours max for one sitting, break of at least 1 hour in between every 2 hours. (This is true for everyone, but especially important to you.) Also pay attention to your mental fatigue - listen to it. Mental fatigue does NOT feel like physical fatigue. It manifest more as reduced comprehension (having to read something 2 or 3 times) and decision fatigue (having trouble making decisions, or not caring anymore and starting to make faster / more snap decisions). Read this:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... you-crazy/

It's crucial to make sure that you're using your time effectively right from the start because you won't have much time to redirect if you discover major problems.

Are you doing our self-study program? Do you have access to the course videos? If so, you'll also have access to our syllabus, and you should follow that (but you'll have to accelerate, because you don't have 9 weeks + 3 more weeks for review!).

If you don't have access to our syllabus, read this to get help in setting up your own:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ould-i-do/

That article links to a bunch of others; follow all the links. And, of course, make use of us here. Once you've set up a plan, for example, you can come back and share it with us to see what we think. When you take a practice test and analyze your results, you can share your analysis here. Etc.

Good luck!

[nuwalt]

Hi Stacey, thanks for your message. I agree that I could possibly have mental fatigue. I will be carefuly but I can very easily devote 4 hous per day and atleast 5-6 hours on weekends each day. I have no choice. I have 45 days left and need to get a good score, target 700, could be a few oint lower or higher, I am not concerned about that as long as it is an acceptable score that demonstrates that I am able to handle the work during the first year. The median of that school is 700.

So, having said that, how should I study. I was enrolled in MGMAT live class and attended all 9 sessions. However, I was not able to do the homework due to personal, and extensive business travels durign the week. I have access to all the material, including videos, labs etc.

I want to make sure that I am done with OG 12 once, take 4 pratice tests and do some advanced sections to attain a high score around 700.

What should I target, I hate to ask you to develop a study plan for me but a any help in some detail would really assist me. Thanks and I look forward to your response.

Assuming, I am at 600, how many hours do you need to get to 700?
Regards
Tushar

[StaceyKoprince]

Assuming, I am at 600, how many hours do you need to get to 700?

There isn't an answer to that question that applies to all people. It's going to be a decent number of hours, because 100 points is a big jump, but there isn't one number I can give you.

Keep an eye out for signs of mental fatigue. If you need to take a day off, do so. Don't stress out about taking that day off - then you won't come back refreshed the next day!

When was the last time you took a practice test? If more than a month, or if you took it under very non-official conditions, then take another (under 100% official conditions, including essays).

Then go look at that article I gave you last time (setting up a study plan). That has a link to an article that you can use to assess your performance, which will help you to set up your plan.

Because you have access to the class lectures, you may want to set up a modified version of the course - basically doing it again, in the same order (and with the homework this time :) but modified in the sense that you go faster on your strengths (or move on to harder material) and spend a bit more time on your weaknesses.

Given the timeframe, you may also need to decide that there are certain weaknesses you're going to just leave. That's fine as long as the weaknesses are not commonly tested (eg, combinatorics and probability). You can't, though, just "leave" exponents and roots or algebraic equations (if those are weaknesses) because they're very commonly tested.

If you'd like, after you've assessed your test, you can tell us your strengths and weaknesses and we'll tell you which are more vs. less commonly tested. Then, you're basically going to follow the main syllabus, but you're going to adjust how much time you spend on various things based upon your strengths and weaknesses.

[nuwalt]

Hi Stacey, earlier you had mentioned that for a 700, I do not need to go through the Advanced Sections in the Strategy Guides. Is that true? How will I be able to attack the advanced questions then when I am practicing the OG questions. I would like to atleast finish up the OG12 before taking me real test.

Is it ok to completely skip the readings from the Manhattan Strategy Guides on Advanced sections? What about Advanced Quant guide? My target is 700+ (close to 700). Any clear advice on this? Thanks so much.

Regards,

[StaceyKoprince]

You don't need to master ALL of the advanced material, but you do need to study is and master *some* of it. Plan to try to master the material in your areas of strength. In your areas of weakness, focus on the general material and don't worry as much about the advanced material.

Re: Advanced Quant, that depends on your quant score goal in particular. Are you stronger in quant or verbal? Which one's going to be the higher contributor to your overall score? If you want your quant score alone to be 80th percentile or higher, then you should consider doing the Advanced Quant book, and if you want your quant score to be 90th+ percentile, then you should almost certainly do the Advanced Quant book (though again you're still going to have some areas of weakness, so you don't have to master every last thing in that book unless you you're going for a 99th percentile quant score).

[nuwalt]

Dear Stacey,

Yes, I do plan to hit atleast a raw score of 50 in Quant. I am going to rely more on quant to push me to a 700+. Given this information, how much of advanced material I need to work on from the advanced sections of the strategy guides as well as advanced quant book? Also, where can I get advanced quant questions as OG does not seem to have higher level of problems. Thanks for your continued help!

Regards,

[StaceyKoprince]

There are definitely advanced quant questions in OG. You can also try GMATPrep and GMAT Focus. If you have already used GMATPrep enough that you can't use it as a diagnostic test anymore (because you see too many question repeats), then you may want to go through my article archive on Beat The GMAT and look for hard quant problems. (Don't do this if you are still using GMATPrep, though, because then you'll "spoil" yourself for your practice tests!)

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/manhattan-gmat

If you're going for a 50+ (meaning 50 or 51, or 92nd and 98th percentile, respectively), then you need to review all of the advanced material in the 8 regular guides and you need to do the entire Advanced Quant book. Again, you'll likely still have some weaknesses, but you need to try to learn everything as best you can. Good luck!

[nuwalt]

Stacey,

How important is it to also go through the Quant and Verbal Supplements OGs. I don't have much time and I do not think that I will get to that. I just want to focus on the OG12. However, my target score is 700+, so I really need to do only that will help me without taking any additional time. Is OG 12 (main book), MGMAT Strategy guides and some advanced material good enough to study and be ready for that score? Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

The level of material in OG12 and the two supplements (quant and verbal) is the same, so no, you don't have to do all three. You just do as many as you need to do till you get to your target. :)