Ready to beat my nemesis, the GMAT. Please advise on plan

[kristopher.bass]

Hi Stacy.
I would greatly appreciate your advice on how to hone in my study plan . My background is I am in IT for a large bank. After several years as a restaurant manager, I knew what my calling in life was not:). I graduated with a BSBA in 2006. I am more than ready to earn my MBA. I scored a horrific 350 on the GMAT in May 2011. That is what I scored in 2007 after graduation. I am ready to put years of GMAT disappointment behind me:) I took MGMAT course in January 2012. MGMAT certainly offers a great course. However, it seems I have not reached near my potential. I postponed my test this past May (2012) since I was not ready. I took a practice test August 1st, 2012 and scored a 420. I feel as if there is so much that I need to learn that is slightly overwhelming.
Here is my plan.....I would be very grateful if you would reply with any suggestions to modify my plan
Work through the entire Foundation of Quant 1 chapter per day, (10 days)
Work through the entire Foundations of Verbal (I5 days)
Work through the new course syllabus (5th edition books) (9 weeks) beginning 25 days from now.
Enroll in a Course in October.....for full re-fresher. (9 weeks)
It seems that working the problems in the OG are the most beneficial to recognizing the pattern of the same problem type on test day. When I start working problems in the OG, I easily get a several which takes me much more than 2 mins to solve (which can also be overwhelming).
So, after I complete each of the strategy guides....then work the corresponding problem type in the OG? Following the MGMAT Doc "Master Official Guide Problems List"
What suggestions do you have to modify my plan? Plan on working for OG problems? Thank you for your time. I am very very grateful. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Kristopher Bass

[StaceyKoprince]

Love the idea of doing the Foundations work before starting a course. Give yourself a little bit of leeway for life / other issues to intervene, so that you don't feel pressured before the start of the class. Also, there are a couple of Foundations workshops that you can take - do those after working through the books.

I'm a little confused about your strategy guide item - are you starting that before you re-take the course? I think it can be a good idea to get a jump start on several of the areas - the course is so fast-paced that it can be easy to fall behind. So if you're not working against some kind of a deadline, you may want to consider pushing off the course start date by a month or so to allow yourself time to start doing some work / reading in the strategy guides.

Don't do the OG problems before the course starts though (or only the low-numbered ones). The books teach you material and technique; the course teaches you how to study and analyze the OG problems. You don't want to "use up" your OG problems before you get the benefit of discussing these things in class.

Take a look through the resources here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Make sure that you have a few things done before you start the course:
(1) you feel comfortable with all or the vast majority of the material in the Foundations books
(2) you understand HOW to study (described in the article I linked above)
(3) if you have timing problems, you have started to address them and develop a pretty good 1 minute time sense (though you will still have a ways to go); take a look at the In It To Win It and Time Management articles linked in the above article.

Also read this (a new article that isn't yet linked in the above article):
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... abilities/

And, of course, come back here to tell us how things are going and ask other questions. :)

[kristopher.bass]

Hi Stacey
Thank you for your response. I worked through most of the FOV. I hit a tough stretch at work that took away from my GMAT.....which (unfortunately) is hurting me in the long run. I cannot let this test get in the way of my Graduate school dreams. I am ready to give the GMAT my all. I took a practice GMAT Cat and scored a horrendous 350.. about 2 weeks ago. I almost ready to enroll in the 9 week course on March 17 as the 7 am Sunday am shift seems to work for my schedule. However, the more I think about it, the more a tutor may help. I took the course in Jan 2012 and at the time seemed to help...but I cannot get over the hump. I have a "pending" class since I paid the re-take fee in November 2012 and due to work.....did not have the time to commit to I am ready to use that ....Just wanted to get your thoughts on class vs tutor. PS One more thing about the class.....the 5th edition has come out since I took the course previously, so I am currently working the syllabus and doing the even problems (as the syllabus advises to work the odd, I plan to work those during the actual class) I am currently on week 2...so may be pushing it for the tentative March 17 deadline. Look forward to hearing your suggestions.
Thank you in advance for your time.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hmm... we need to do some analysis on that 350 score to figure out what exactly is going on.

For example, let's say that we discover that you do actually know the material "better" than that, but you really messed up the timing and so that brought your score way down. Maybe you ran out of time and your score dropped significantly - or maybe you rushed way too much and finished with a bunch of time left over and lots of careless mistakes. If that's the case, then you may be fine to start on 17 March, as long as you recognize that you really have to start hammering away at the timing - today!

Alternatively, let's say that you did have some timing issues (everyone does!) but that wasn't the major issue. If the major issue is something more on the content side - you're really struggling to learn, say, algebra via the self-study route, then you're right that you might want to get some outside help via tutoring to work out the major issues before you dive back into the full course.

(Just an aside: I normally try to avoid recommending tutoring because I know how very expensive it is, but you mentioned it yourself... so I usually consider that "license" to talk about it. :)

Use this article to analyze that practice test:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Then come back here and tell us the results of your analysis and what you think you should do based on that analysis. We'll tell you whether we agree and advise you further. (Note: do share an analysis with us, not just the raw data. Part of getting better is developing your ability to analyze your results - figure out what they mean and what you think you should do about them!)