Strategy - Study Quant then Verbal or both together ?

[Henry2015]

Hi,
I read in Manhattan books that we should alternate between quant and verbal, for instance 1hour of quant 1 hour of verbal, or 1 day quant, 1 day verbal ? Yet, several other websites (ex : GMATClub forum study plan post) recommend to do 1 month of quant, 1 month verbal (or other way around), then 1 month both/practice tests... Would you recommend studying both in parallel or one after the other ?
Many thanks for your help.
Emmanuel

[StaceyKoprince]

I would strongly recommend against studying quant or verbal only for 1 month straight. Learning science (yes, the actual science of learning!) has demonstrated clearly that mixed study is superior to what is called "blocked" study (doing only one thing for a long period of time).

You can read more about this idea here:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/07/ ... s-say-what

This is a standard / well-accepted theory among those who study learning - not new-fangled or controversial. Every article or book I read that touches on this topic agrees that interleaving is superior to blocked study (even when it may not feel that way, as the article says).

That doesn't mean that you can't do more than 1 hour of the same topic at a time. You can interleave in other ways, as the article says - you can mix different quant content areas, you can mix different types of study activities, and so on. But just quant for a month - no way. Have multiple quant and verbal sessions every week. I personally wouldn't go more than about 3 days doing only quant or only verbal.