GMAT Study Schedule Strategy

[DavidS195]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the Manhattan Prep GMAT, recently purchased the interactive program, but I am struggling to understand how to set up an effective schedule. For example, should I alternate between Quant and Verbal studies every day, when do I practice OG problems, etc.

Thank you for the help!

[StaceyKoprince]

Good question! I'm glad you're reaching out early.

You're on the GMAT Interact syllabus in Atlas, yes? Take a look at Session 1 / General. There are two specific tasks I want to mention:
The third one down the list: Making the most of your GMAT homework
The fifth one down the list: Setting up a study calendar

The first one gives some guidelines around prioritizing your homework, doing reading assignments and OG problems, etc.

The second one is a gdrive spreadsheet that lays out a template for setting up your study calendar and discusses the kinds of things to take into account as you plan things out.

Take a look through those to get a sense of what you think will and won't work for you, then come back here to tell me what additional questions you have. Also, if those docs answer all of your questions but you want to just vet your plan with me, feel free—tell me how you're going to set things up and I'll tell you what I think.

One more thing: On some days, do some Q and some V yes—but it depends how much time you have that day. If you only have an hour, it's probably best to focus on just one or the other. But if you're going to do 2-3 hours, split it between the two. Your brain is going to get tired and bored if you do too much of the same thing on the same day, and when your brain is tired, it doesn't retain new info as well.

[DavidS195]

Thank you for the help! I've looked through and found that, for me, it'll be easier to alternate between Quant and Verbal each day. Do you have any recommendations for how to implement the GMAT Official Guide Problem List in my study schedule? Do you think it's best to turn those questions into a weekly quiz?

Thank you again.

[StaceyKoprince]

The syllabus assigns OG homework for both Q and V every week—I would stick with these assignments alone for the first few weeks to see how that goes. (There are also easier and harder OG homework assignments so that, if you find the "main" set either too hard or too easy, you can move up or down accordingly.)

Most of the rest of the OG you'll want to save for mixed problem sets after you're done with the main syllabus. Of course, you can go and cherry-pick as needed—if you realize you want to try one more exponents problem right now, go ahead and look one up. Don't, though, do all of the exponents problems at once (eg, this week). You actually do want to space this out—give your brain time to forget and then have to recall again.

And you also want to do as much practice as possible under mixed, random conditions—that is, you don't know what's coming next. Just like the real thing: Anything's possible, so you have to look at each new problem and figure out what it is. That's why you're saving the "extra" / non-assigned OGs for after you make it through the base syllabus. (Early on in your studies, of course, you don't want to do random sets because you'll be giving yourself a bunch of problems you haven't studied yet. So that's why we "curate" the OG homework for you as you work through the syllabus.)