Time allocation for studying - new complete course student?

[MichaelB241]

Hi,

I just began the in-person complete course 1 week ago and am trying to determine the best way to allocate my time in terms of studying. The course is set to end towards the middle of December since I have to miss a few classes and make them up later. I have not set a date for my GMAT exam and am willing to study for essentially as long as it takes to get a 700+, including 20hrs/week.

My initial CAT was a 580 (66% V, 44% Q) after working through all of Foundations of Math. Going through week 1's homework, all verbal and 'harder verbal' problems were quite easy, whereas the Quant and especially Advanced Quant questions took much more time. I got about half of the Advanced Quant correct and 65-75% of regular Quant. After reading through the explanations of Advanced Quant, I can generally understand the principles and replicate the problem but am not confident if I got a different problem testing those same principles that I could accomplish them in 2mins. For Strategy Guide 1, that's weighted averages etc.

My question is pretty broad: I had plenty of time to complete all of the homework (I did not do all of the extra questions from the OG guide listed at the back of Strategy Guide 1: FDP) including Quant, Basic Quant, Advanced Quant, Verbal, and Advanced Verbal. Since I sort of "ran out" of Quant questions to test, with the exception of those extra OG questions, where should I be focusing my study hours or how can I really try to keep pushing my quant abilities? I was (perhaps foolishly) avoiding some of the OG problems so I could have them in the coming months to use to study. I was also planning on watching the video recordings of the 'Sections' for Advanced Quant...

Any guidance appreciated, and thank you.

Mike

[StaceyKoprince]

My first thought is: have you spoken with your instructor? Definitely talk to him/her so that s/he can advise you as the program goes along.

We try to get to class early to set up, so that's often a good time to ask questions. You can also ask afterwards, of course - though there may be other people also waiting to talk to your instructor. Or you can email. :)

Given what you're describing, I wouldn't do any of the Advanced Quant assignments for now. Build your "main" level first and you can come back to the Advanced material later on.

Instead, spend that time really digging into the "main" level questions and analyzing both your own work / thought processes and the problem itself.

Read this:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

A large part of your brain is preoccupied with level 1 right now, but you do also want to make sure that you're getting to level 2. That means spending more time analyzing the problems that aren't too hard for you now. (Again, as you lift your level - later - you can come back to those harder ones.)

Follow the link in the above article to the list of 10 questions. Analyze EVERY GMAT-format problem using those 10 questions, even the ones you answer correctly. Seriously, it should take you a minimum of 5 minutes to review every problem, and some may eat up 15 or 30 minutes.

At that pace, you will never run out of problems to do. (In fact, when someone tells me they have "run out" of problems, I know that they're approaching the material too superficially. The goal is not to do a bunch of problems. The goal is to learn from a bunch of problems - two very different things. :)

So go take a look through that material and then come back here and tell me how you need to change your approach to reviewing these problems. Also, let me know if you have any questions. And talk to your teacher. :)

p.s. Yes, do save some OG problems for later! Don't plow through huge numbers of problems now - that's not how you learn!