Study and Strategy questions relating to the GMAT.
togsarin
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Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 8:18 am
 

GMAT Plan - Kindly Review.

by togsarin Sun May 13, 2012 8:35 am

Hello All,

This is my first post on this wonderful site.

My Profile : Indian Male IT with more than 12.5 Yrs exp which includes 131 weeks of Intl exp - UK & France.

I have appeared for GMAT twice -

Oct 09 - > 500 [Q 40, V - 19] - With preparation but could not complete quant section, was slated to score >= 48 in quant but eventually scored 40 only.

Dec 10 - > 490 [Q 42, V - 16] - Without preparation, was quite busy with office work.

I gave GMAT Prep 1 test on 12th May 12 and only scored 540 [Q - 44, V - 21].

I want to score >= 650. I am planning to give my exam on 28th Sep 12.

Here is my plan -

Material Name Days Required To Complete Planned Closure Date

441 Quant - 1 Time [In Reverse Order] 5 21st May 12
Manhattan CR - 1 Time 7 26th May 12
OG 13 Quant - 1 Time [In Reverse Order] 5 31st May 12
Manhattan SC Old Version - 1 Time 2 2nd Jun 12
Quant Red - 1st Time 15 17th Jun 12
OG 10 - 1st Time 15 2nd Jul 12
Project GMAT Quant 7 9th Jul 12
OG 13 - 1st Time 15 24th Jul 12
OG 10 - 2nd Time 15 8th Aug 12
Quant Red - 2nd Time 15 23rd Aug 12
OG 13 - 2nd Time 15 7th Sep 12
OG 12 Verbal - 1 Time 7 14th Sep 12
10 Best Tests [Include 6 Manhattan, Prep 1 & 2] & Review 10 24th Sep 12
Final revision for Formulas, Flashcards, English Rules & Idioms 2 26th Sep 12
Exam 28th Sep 12

* 441 Quant is a collection of 441 PS questions from a decent training company in India.
* Quant Red is a collection of 700-800 level questions from a decent training company in India.

Pls provide me your valuable inputs soon.
It will be really nice on your part.

Thanks

TOGSARIN.
togsarin
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Re: GMAT Plan - Kindly Review.

by togsarin Mon May 14, 2012 7:26 am

Stacey kindly help. I am need of some urgent advice.
StaceyKoprince
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Location: Montreal
 

Re: GMAT Plan - Kindly Review.

by StaceyKoprince Tue May 15, 2012 11:24 am

Please don't "bump" your own post; you will wait longer for a reply if you do (we answer oldest first based on the date of the LAST post in the thread).

Also, I noticed that you bumped your post after only 1 day. It typically takes 3-5 business days to get a response in this thread (though sometimes you get lucky and get an answer more quickly!). This service is free and open to the public - which means there are often waiting times to get advice. Someone in a truly urgent situation can always get advice by signing up for tutoring... which is very expensive, and is why so many people are willing to wait for free advice. :)

Okay, on to your post. Your study plan seems to be focused on making sure that you get through the maximum amount of material possible - or what we call the "quantity over quality" approach. Generally speaking, this is a very inefficient (and frustrating!) way to study.

Next, your study plan seems to be focused almost exclusively on doing practice problems. Again, a very inefficient way to study.

Most of your learning comes from the *analysis* that you do on problems after you've finished doing them. Further, you don't list many materials that teach you how to get better - that's a big gap in your list of materials. Your best approach does not involve doing thousands of GMAT problems.

Cut down the practice problems by half (or more!). Focus more on *learning how to think* - that's what you're really doing when you study these materials and do practice problems. What do I mean by that? Read this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

Do you do what this article says when you're studying? If not, then you're wasting a lot of your valuable time, because you're not actually extracting maximum value from the problems that you do study.

Here's a resource to help you develop a better study plan:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

Try it again, then come back here and run the new plan by us. We'll discuss. :)
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep