Study plan

[RG781]

Do you advise with a study plan or schedule to cover up self preparing within 2 months?
I do have the MGMAT study guide 10 books set, MGMAT quantitative and verbal foundation, the OG review, OG quantitative, OG verbal books.
My target score is 600
My diagnostic Q30, V29

[StaceyKoprince]

I think there might be a typo in your first sentence - I'm not quite sure what you're asking.

If you're asking whether 2 months is enough time, it might be. I'd say most people take more like 3 to 5 months, but some people do reach their goal in 2 months. Your goal is to lift from 500 to 600. I'd say that most people would need more than 2 months for a 100-point increase, but some people could get there in that time.

If you're asking whether we have a set study plan for you, we do have a Guided Self Study program that includes Interact (our interactive series of class lessons) - but there's a charge for it. If that's of interest to you, you can check out the website.

Alternatively, I can point you towards some free resources that can help you to devise your own study plan. And you can use the forums (here) to tell us what that study plan is and ask us to critique it - tell you whether we think it's good or whether we think you should be doing some things differently.

If you want to devise your own plan, start here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... our-score/

That article includes links to other articles; follow them.

After you've learned more about executive reasoning and timing, review these two articles and keep them handy (you'll want to keep coming back to them - they're not linked in the above article because I wrote them afterwards):
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2016/02/ ... n-the-gmat

Finally, here's one more that is not in that first article (also because I wrote it later in time):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/07/ ... s-say-what

That broad learning theory (interleaving) should permeate your study plan!

[RG781]

Thanks for your reply. The articles are really beneficial.
What I meant if there is a specific study plan that you recommend.
I found beat the GMAT 60 days plan guide that recommended MGMAT study guide set, but the plan starts the quantitative first for 20 days then work on the verbal for 20 days and practice exams for the rest, the only thing concerning is to start the verbal after the quantitative which was not advised in MGMAT books.
So do you recommend a specific study plan besides what you mentioned up above.

Thanks a lot

[StaceyKoprince]

We do have specific study plans for our classes and our guided self-study programs, yes - but we don't give them out for free, unfortunately. That's part of how we're able to keep the company running.

We're happy to help you to devise your own study plan, though. Use the resources from my first post to come up with your plan, and then you can check the details with us here - we'll tell you if we think you should do anything differently than you've planned.

The interleaving article from my first post explains why we don't recommend spending 20 days studying only quant (or something similar). If you'd like to read more about this learning theory, take a look at this article from Scientific American:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -learning/

I've been sending that second one to my colleagues - I think it should inform how any teacher teaches and how any student studies!

[RG781]

Thank you Stacy for your reply. It helped me a lot in creating my plan. I would like to share it with you and know your opinion.

Week 1: (Took GMAT PREP 1, Scored Q36, and V15, I slept during the Verbal section , so I had to change my GMAT exam time to evening to make sure this would not happen in the real exam) + Finishing Algebra and Word Problems + Some Quant practice from OG + Chapers 1 - 7 in FoV

Week 2: Finishing Geometry and Number Properties + Some Quant practice from OG + Chapters 8 - 15 in FoV
I already finished the FDP and I will work on the Vocabulary in FoV through the whole 2 weeks

Week 3: (Take Cat 1 on Monday as the GMAT exam is on Monday to find out where am I in the Quant and the Verbal as well) + Finishing the SC + Some Verbal practice from OG + 10 DS and 15 PS from the OG (daily) in order not to stop practicing the quant, and to cover up all the OG questions

Week 4: (Take MGMAT CAT 2 on Monday, analyze it, work on my weak areas during the week) + Finishing the CR + Some Verbal practice from OG + 10 DS and 15 PS from the OG (daily) + 10 SC from OG daily

Week 5: (Take MGMAT CAT 3 on Monday, analyze it, work on my weak areas during the week) + Finishing the RC + Some Verbal practice from OG + 10 DS and 15 PS from the OG (daily) + 5 SC and 5 CR from OG daily

Week 6: Take MGMAT CAT 4 on Monday, analyze it and work on my weak areas for the week, taking 10 questions from each section in the verbal and 2 RC daily

Week 7: Take MGMAT CAT 5 on Monday, analyze it + IR + practicing 10 questions from each section daily in both Verbal and Quant

Week 8: Take MGMAT CAT 6, analyze it + AWA + practicing 10 questions from each section daily in both Verbal and Quant (depends on the weak areas of the exam) + Take GMAT PREP exam 2 on Friday, analyze it and work on weak areas

Week 9: Take GMAT PREP 3 on Monday, reviewing weak areas, finish the rest of questions in the OG + Take GMAT PREP 4 on Friday, analyze and review

Week 10: Take GMAT PREP 5 on Monday, reviewing weak areas, finish the rest of questions in the OG + Take GMAT PREP 6 on Friday, analyze and review

Week 11: THE GMAT EXAM (on Monday)

I am not sure if I am taking many exams, should I practice more on these days? I would like to solve all the MGMAT CATS and the GMAT PREP CATS, and that is why I put the schedule like that, do you think it is okay?

Thank you Stacy for everything.
RG

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, that's too many tests.
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... many-cats/

First, let's take a step back. Your goal shouldn't be based on taking a certain number of tests or doing a certain number of problems - that is, your goal shouldn't be to do a certain quantity of work. Then, you're just plowing through stuff to check off a box, but who knows whether you're actually getting better? Rather, your goals should be based more on learning what you need to learn - the quality of your work, not the quantity.

Also, you're going to need to adjust as you go based upon the strengths and weaknesses that you uncover while you study. You don't know how long it's going to take you to work through one particular book or set of chapters; if you've already decided you must do 2 books this week, and then you struggle with one of those books, you want to have the flexibility to spend more time there.

Think of it as: you're a doctor and you're diagnosing yourself, and then treating yourself according to the current diagnosis. Your condition changes over time, so you have to keep re-diagnosing yourself and adjusting accordingly.

In general, your study plan should have this structure:
1. Take a practice test. Analyze it and come up with a list of strengths and weaknesses. If you are studying for the test for the first time, then do plan to work through all of your books (regular chapters only + FoM and FoV; skip the "extra" chapters for now), but spend more or less time in particular areas depending upon the strengths and weaknesses you discovered during that first test. Your first goal is to get to a "pretty good" level across most of the areas.

http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

2. While doing the above, test your skills via OG problems (sometimes individually, sometimes in sets). Analyze those problems to learn how to learn more. Do start to pay attention to timing as well (worry about sections 1 through 4 of the time management article for now).

http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat
http://tinyurl.com/GMATTimeManagement

3. After about 3 to 4 weeks of that, learn more about how to manage time in an entire test section and then take another practice test. Analyze that test, come up with a new list of priorities, and go back to step 1 - but this time, don't do everything in the books. Just go back to practice / learn what you need based on your analysis of the most recent CAT. As you get further into your studies, do your OG problems more exclusively in sets, not individually.
http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/ ... tch-paper/

Note: as the very first article linked in my post discusses, you want to make sure that you are doing enough work between CATs to learn a lot and actually get better before you take another CAT. Anyone should be able to find at least 2 weeks' worth of things to do from the analysis of one CAT. The goal is not to take a bunch of CATs; it's to learn what you need to learn to get better.

(4) Continue that cycle, with at least 2 weeks between tests, until your score gets into the range that you want to score on the real test.

(5) Do this for the last 2 weeks:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... game-plan/

(If you are taking the test for the 2nd+ time, you can reduce that last one to about 7-14 days.)

What do you think?

[AlfieM34]

Ur plan looks nice!

[ChristianS477]

Dear Stacey,

i am currently in a similar situation. I have sat my GMAT last summer and scored 490. I am currently on a 2 - months vacation to score my 600pts target.

In your post you are talking about Interact. Does MHPrep offers an individual study schedule for the 2 months? Moreover, is it possible to acquire the interact service & videos separately when I've already bought the MHPrep Book series?

Regards,

Chris

I think there might be a typo in your first sentence - I'm not quite sure what you're asking.

If you're asking whether 2 months is enough time, it might be. I'd say most people take more like 3 to 5 months, but some people do reach their goal in 2 months. Your goal is to lift from 500 to 600. I'd say that most people would need more than 2 months for a 100-point increase, but some people could get there in that time.

If you're asking whether we have a set study plan for you, we do have a Guided Self Study program that includes Interact (our interactive series of class lessons) - but there's a charge for it. If that's of interest to you, you can check out the website.

Alternatively, I can point you towards some free resources that can help you to devise your own study plan. And you can use the forums (here) to tell us what that study plan is and ask us to critique it - tell you whether we think it's good or whether we think you should be doing some things differently.

If you want to devise your own plan, start here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... our-score/

That article includes links to other articles; follow them.

After you've learned more about executive reasoning and timing, review these two articles and keep them handy (you'll want to keep coming back to them - they're not linked in the above article because I wrote them afterwards):
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2016/02/ ... n-the-gmat

Finally, here's one more that is not in that first article (also because I wrote it later in time):
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2015/07/ ... s-say-what

That broad learning theory (interleaving) should permeate your study plan!

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, Chris

Interact is self-paced—so you'll be given a full study plan and you can work through it at whatever pace you like. Most people take about 2 to 4 months, so your timeframe is reasonable.

There are three different Interact programs—Full, Quant only, and Verbal only. Full includes all four sections (Q, V, IR, and essay), while the two other programs concentrate just on the one section named.

I'm not sure what the procedure is if you've already bought the books (I'm just a teacher!). Our Student Services team would be able to tell you anything about pricing, logistics, etc.; you can contact them at gmat@manhattanprep.com or 800.576.GMAT. (There is an Ask Student Services folder here on the forums as well, but it seems to be getting overrun with spam posts at the moment, so I would just email or call them directly to make sure your question doesn't get lost.)

If you have any other questions about your study plan or that sort of thing, let me know. And good luck!