I’m finally, seriously getting into GMAT mode. I am even probably withdrawing from my bare knuckle karate tournament (I find it difficult to focus mentally after practice, especially if you get roundhouse kicked in the face). One week into my plan, I am doing ok but I feel the need to change my gameplan.
Here is the original plan.
Books that I bought:
- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition (OG11)
- Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program (PP)
- Kaplan GMAT 800 2008-2009 Edition
- Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook
Some principles I follow:
- Target each section for 1 or 2 weeks, reserve 2 weeks to do all at once before the real test.
- Put in 4-6hrs during the week, 8-10 on weekends (A bit tough with my work schedule but doing my best).
- Do 10 questions each day of sections I am not actively working on but studied before.
- Do 2 weeks on each section, but 1 week only on my 2 best verbal sections (4 weeks for quant first then 4 weeks for verbal total).
- Do 40 questions at once with 80 mins on the clock for pacing, keeping an excel sheet to track my answers wether they where right or wrong, and wether I was slow, careless or if I made a concept error (I got the idea from Beat the GMAT blog).
- I also keep track of hit rates on any given 40-question run.
- I plan to keep a error log of questions I failed and go through them the final 2 weeks.
- I write flashcards.
I plan to take a test at the end of each week:
Week 1: OG Diagnostic test
Week 2: Kaplan paper test
Week 3: Kaplan online test
Week 4: GPrep #1 from mba.com
Week 5: Kaplan CD test 1
Week 6: Kaplan CD test 2
Week 7: Kaplan CD test 3
Week 8: Kaplan CD test 4
Week 9: GPrep #2 from mba.com
I posted this plan on the Beath the GMAT forum to have it critiqued so I can go forward a bit more confident I’m doing the right thing. I’m not sure I am taking tests in the best order, or whether working through all of the OG excercises before moving to other material is ideal or the other way around for example.
Meanwhile I started for a week already, even though I definitely didnt study nearly enough (less than 10 hours this week). Preparing for the GMAT can be a social life killer. I am targetting a 730+ score. My GPA as a undergrad wasnt the best of the class (I had a 3.5) but if I want to argue that doing research and not always being dedicated to my studies prevented me from having a much better one, I got to have that score up there.
Anyways, suggestions are appreciated.
Cheers.
Filed under: gmat
