Please help with the self guided Study Schedule

[YogeshV824]

Hello,
I will appreciate if I can have some guidance on how to plan a schedule for GMAT preparation. I have recently purchased the Manhattan Strategy Guides. Please excuse if I am sounding naive to you.
Many Thanks
Yash

[StaceyKoprince]

That's a great question; I'm glad you asked it.

First, read this article just to make sure that you have the right overall mindset when preparing for the GMAT:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... lly-tests/

Next, this 2-part article can help you to set up your study plan:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... our-score/
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... re-part-2/

Also, read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

It'll take you a while to get through all of that, and even longer to figure out what you want your study plan to be. Feel free to check in here with any questions - and let us know about your plan, once you figure it out!

[YogeshV114]

Thanks, Stacey for your reply :).
I have gone through the above links. These links were very useful and have helped me to plan my study.
Please assess my study approach as highlighted below.
I have purchased the complete strategy guide set from Manhattan. I have decided to spend 2 hours every day while alternating each day between Quantitative & Verbal topics. On the weekends I plan to put in 7-8 hours study on these sections; again alternating between Quantitative & Verbal to ensure I avoid the burnout that focusing every day on one topic may cause.
I have planned to first complete relevant Strategy Guide topics from the "˜Foundations of GMAT ’guide (Quantitative & Verbal) and then moving on to complete the corresponding Strategy Guide.
Quantitative Section
For instance in the Quantitative section in the first 2 weeks, I aim to complete FDP topics from "˜Foundation of GMAT Math’ guide. I plan to complete all Drill questions at the end of each chapter also logging failure questions. Subsequent to this I plan to finish the FDP strategy guide. I plan to finish the Drill questions at the end of each chapter and randomly picking 3-4 reference questions from the OG 13 edition. This will ensure that I have a good mix of questions to assess my knowledge when finished with all the strategy guides.
I plan to extend this approach across to other Quantitative strategy guides (Algebra, Word Problems, Geometry and Number Properties) as well.
Can you please advise whether I need to purchase a Data Sufficiency Strategy Guide separately? This is because I could not locate a DS Strategy Guide in the complete strategy guide set that I have purchased.
Verbal Section
This is the section that I find to be a struggle for me as you would have figured out by now.
For instance in the Verbal section in the first 2 weeks, I aim to complete the SC topics from the Foundation of GMAT Verbal. I plan to complete all Drill questions at the end of each chapter also logging failure questions. Subsequent to this I plan to finish the SC strategy guide. I plan to finish the Drill questions at the end of each chapter and randomly picking 3-4 reference questions from the OG 13 edition. This will ensure that I have a good mix of questions to assess my knowledge when finished with all the strategy guides.
I plan to extend this approach across to other Verbal strategy guides (Critical Reasoning & Reading Comprehension) as well.
Please correct my approach where appropriate.
Best Regards
Yash

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for telling me your plan. If I don't comment on something, that means I like it and don't see any need to change it or give you more advice. :)

On the weekends I plan to put in 7-8 hours study

Do you mean 7-8 hours per day? Or 7-8 hours over two days? If the former, you will burn out and not make very good memories. Your brain can only learn so much in one day. If the latter (3-4 hours a day on non-work days), that's okay as long as you spread the time over 2 to 4 study sessions throughout the day and evening. That is, don't study for 4 hours straight or, again, you won't make very good memories and your study will be inefficient.

When doing end-of-chapter problem sets, don't do ALL of the problems at once. Do about half. Save the others to do later, for review. When you review, you'll also want to make problems and topics from different chapters or problem sets. The real test will never give you 5 fractions questions in a row - or even 5 FDP questions in a row.

You don't need to buy a separate book for DS, no. Each of our 5 quant strategy guides contains a strategies chapter and the first topic in each of those chapters is DS. Note that the first few pages of that lesson are similar across all 5 books, but after that, the material is different (so don't do only one strategy chapter in one book).

Other than that, I like your approach! When do you plan (roughly) to take practice tests?

In our course, we assign 3 practice tests over the length of 9 weeks (the time when people are learning all of the material in the books): at week 1, week 6, and week 9.

The first one is so that you know your strengths and weaknesses before you begin. That way, you can adjust your studies accordingly. The second one is to begin to get practice with timing and putting everything together under testing conditions. Don't be surprised if your score stays the same or even goes down on this test - that's quite common.

The third test is done after you finish your initial review of all of the books so that you can see what your strengths and weaknesses are at that point. You'll need to come up with a plan for what to review and how much to review it, and you'll base that on your specific weaknesses at that stage of the game.

That's about it - dive in and let us know how it's going!

[mensah83]

hello Stacey and MGMAT team,

I saw this thread and figured I would post in here rather than create a new thread (my apologies in advance if I should've created one).

I took the Manhattan GMAT class 4 years ago but took a break due to work. I am now ready to start studying again. Last week I took the GMAT Prep Test and got:

Quantitative: 31 (26th percentile)
Verbal: 37 (81st percentile)
Total Score: 560

I am delighted by my Verbal Score, but I need to get my Quant score up to at least the 70th percentile by September because that is when I plan to take the test (October will also be scheduled in case I do badly). Since my math was so rusty, I just took the whole week to read the Foundations of Math 4th Edition book and I did all the Drill Sets. Should I now go through the FDP book next, followed by the Algebra, Geometry, and Number Properties in that order per the Class guide or should I do it a different way since I am not going to the in-person class?

Thanks!

-Dave

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi! I actually would prefer for you to post in your own new thread - if we start to discuss your case back and forth, then I will mix up the details of the different students in the thread.

I'll answer you here, but if you'd like to continue the discussion, please start your own thread (you can copy and paste our discussion over to the new thread).

The book order is almost right, but there's one book missing: Word Problems. (Note: the titles may have been a bit different for 4th Ed - I can't remember any longer!)

So the order from class is: FDP, Algebra, Word Problems, Geo, NP.

Also, I don't know whether you have any interest in retaking the class, but there are significant discounts available for people who've taken the class before - contact our office if you want to know the details (I don't know them, sorry!).
800.576.GMAT or gmat@manhattanprep.com

Good luck with your prep!