GMAT Study Plan

The Definitive GMAT Study Plan - 2024 Edition

Updated Sept 2024. Hope you find this study plan helpful - please PM me any of your tips or suggestions for those just starting out on their GMAT Journey
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The decision to go for an MBA is a big one in itself. However, immediately upon decision, the big hurdle that most people face (unless you are applying for some certain Indian schools or a few online universities) is the GMAT. Unfortunately, GMAT is a beast that may need more than one attempt. However, crafting a systematic study plan with an objective focus to do better progressively will surely lead to success on the test day, and as a result the entire MBA application. The GMAT is also important for numerous other reasons

• Recruiters, especially consultants, use GMAT scores as indicators of future performance.
• The recently included IR section has shown to be somewhat correlated with B School GPA.
• In the last few years, the average GMAT scores of top B Schools have risen steadily.
• A high score on the GMAT often gets you into interesting conversation in dinner parties

Step 1: First, You should familiarize yourself with the GMAT structure and principles
if you have not done so already - see GMAT FAQ for details. You can also visit https://www.mba.com and poke around. mba.com has something very special - 2 free official practice tests. These 2 tests contain real GMAT questions, follow real GMAT principles, and are the best at estimating your GMAT score at any point in time.


Step 2: Take a practice test to find out how far you are from your target.
Many believe it is a good use of one of the free GMAT Prep tests (I'll tell you to actually get more than 2 tests out of the package later). The main reason it is a good use is that you can see your starting point (now) and then compare it against the ending (taking GMAT). Alternatively you can use any other computer adaptive tests to find your close GMAT equivalent. GMAT Club offers one free practice test (not many others). For listing of all available GMAT tests - see https://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-pra ... 28289.html


Step 3: Find out what GMAT score you actually need.
Just to give you an idea - You need at least 675 for Top 10 schools, 655 for Top 20, and 605 for Top 50 to pass - meaning your score should not be an issue and you will need something 30-50 points higher to actually stand out. Most people are able to improve between 50 and 150 points - that should give you an estimate of what you can count on based on the diagnostic test you just took. The best tool is the What are My Chances Automatic Profile Evaluation. You will get an answer within 2 mins.


Step 4: Identify your weaknesses
Take a look at your practice test score and note the raw score distribution (you will get one three-digit score such as 625 and 3 two-digit scores such as 75, 82, 90 - those three are your raw scores for each of the sections. They have corresponding percentiles). See how you rank in each. Also, do a basic mistake analysis and understand which question types are the most challenging for you. The options are PS, CR, RC, DI (DS, GI, MSR, TPA) and potentially even more detailed such as probability, or assumption questions, etc. Don't only look at what questions you got wrong, but also why. Why did you make a mistake? You can also take a diagnostic test; use this information to build your study plan. Here are some options:

• TTP Quant Diagnostic Test
• GMAT Club offers Full Focus Test
• You can find more free tests here

Step 5: Design your study plan - finally!
You need to build up your toolkit and get some ammo for the GMAT. You will need books or a course (online or in-person) to refresh/learn fundamentals and then test-taking strategies. You will also need GMAT tests to practice those strategies and also evaluate your prep level. See these links for: GMAT course reviews, GMAT Math Books reviews and GMAT Verbal Books
Finally - chart/plot/graph your study plan - use this calendar format


Step 6: Avoid typical GMAT prep mistakes and pitfalls.
Here is the most common one I see - jumping into questions and tests completely unprepared and expecting results/miracles. GMAT consists of several layers and it is important to master each one before moving on to the next - think of it as of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. There is no use in satisfying your social needs before you can take care of basic needs such as safety and food. The same is here, if you don't know the underlying principles that GMAT is testing (such as grammar, arithmetic, etc) there is no use in solving hundreds of questions or taking multiple GMAT tests. This means that if English is not your native language, you should not work on the RC strategies if you can't understand half of the passage - you need to get comfortable reading long passages of text before moving on. To illustrate this principle, consider the following hierarchy for the GMAT:



In the Foundational Knowledge stage cover basics for each section using a book or a course or whatever helps you refresh or learn these skills
In the Question Strategies stage start practicing questions. You can start with unlimited time but always keep track of it and gradually start enforcing time limits.
In the Test Strategies start taking sectional or full-length tests and practice on putting questions and knowledge together. Timing is the most important portion here.


Step 7: Commit to excellence and doing the best job possible.
Think about what you can do to improve your score – is it creating your own notes? Is it not moving to the next chapter until you are able to get 90% of the questions right? Is it reading a lot of fiction to get comfortable reading? Is it shifting your schedule to wake up at 5 AM and study till 8 before work? Is it investing in the right books, courses, and tests? You get the idea...

Study Plan Resources
Level	Math Resources	Verbal Resources	Practice Resources	Test Resources
Beginner	Offline: Manhattan GMAT Guides - 8th Edition (Latest) or GMAT Club's Free Math Book. Online Resources: Magoosh, e-GMAT, Target Test Prep, GMAT Whiz, and Experts' Global and all offer online courses, which are comprehensive and come with a study schedule by itself.	Offline: Manhattan GMAT Verbal books, PowerScore CR (in case you do not like MGMAT’s approach), or Aristotle SC, CR, and RC bible books. Online Resources: Magoosh, e-GMAT, Target Test Prep, and GMAT Whiz, and Experts' Global all offer online courses, which are comprehensive and come with a study schedule by itself.	Official Guide, OG Quantitative and OG Verbal, GMAT Club Forum Quiz, Official Practice Questions	GMAT Prep Tests 1&2 (free) and Paid GMAT Prep Exams 3&4 and 5&6 (you are able to take these twice after a reset).
Advanced	In addition to the books mentioned above, you may want to go through the following: Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant	Take a look at the articles from GMAT Club Verbal Resource Forum as well	Bunuel's Signature Quant Questions' Collection, Official Verbal problems on GMAT Club, Hardest Questions on the forum	GMAT Club Tests, Experts' Global's 15 Mocks ($50)

Offline Study Plans

Beginner and Advanced Study Guide (Quant)

• You may want to start off with Math guides from either Manhattan or Veritas, and as these guides are numbered, you can just follow along the progression they have. As you progress through different guides, make sure you are on top of homework problems (concept specific) in the Official Guides and the GMAT Club forum.
• Start using an error log. An error log is one of the most crucial steps to problem solving, and it is imperative that you go back to the problems that you have missed or have gotten correctly with some level of difficulty. Error logs can range from complicated macros on the excel, or just a simple notepad. it really depends on your taste but we wouldn't recommend going overboard with the structure.
• As you get more confident with the content of the Math portion, start familiarizing yourself with the GMAT Club Math Forum. You will find thousands of people with the same problems as yours, and they just may end up becoming your business school buddies. Don't forget to follow Bunuel and his sets (mentioned in the resource table), as he will definitely add 5-10 points to your quant scaled score.
• Optional Step: If you are feeling the load is too heavy and you are really weak in Quant get MGMAT Math Foundations; it is great in providing a more general overview of math concepts.
• After you are done with the math section - start taking the math portion of the tests you have. (The GMAT Club tests provide ideal sectional quiz resources.
• Evaluate results and decided if you need to spend more time in Math and patch up certain weak areas or move on to Verbal. This decision will be based on your target GMAT score. If you are looking for high 600's and 700's, I would not move past Quant unless I was able to score around Q44 and possibly higher. Quant scores have been inflated recently with Q51 (highest possible quant score clocking a mere 97th percentile and Q49 is 81st), so make sure you are up there. Do not leave a chapter or a section unless you were able to solve 90% of the questions correctly in the allotted time. Don’t run away from your mistakes – sooner or later they will catch up; the better strategy is to address them right there and then and make sure you never see them again.
• If you need additional help in Quant - refer to the Math Resources on GMAT Club or the GMAT Math Books section.
• If you are comfortable with Quant but want to get to Q50+, use the GMAT Club Tests - they contain only hard questions and were designed as practice for high-level math scorers. You can purchase them, earn a free subscription by earning 25 Kudos, or sign up with a partner course (almost all come with GMAT Club tests as a bonus)
• Another worthwhile resource for you may be this quant-focused discussion: how to get from Q44 to Q50

Beginner and Advanced Study Guide (Verbal)

• Start working on the Verbal section. You can start with any question type, but my suggestion would be to tackle Critical Reasoning first as it is usually easier than RC.
• Error Log!
• Critical Reasoning Optional Step: If you need additional help with Critical Reasoning - Do not get both PowerScore CR and Manhattan GMAT CR - the books are virtually identical (not really but kind of). Instead, you can get a 1-month subscription to a full course for $99 and use only specific section (e.g. Quant or Verbal) with Target Test Prep or Magoosh - these tools are great since they allow you to use them only for a short period of time.
• Reading Comprehension is often the hardest area to conquer. Unless you strongly feel that Reading is your forte, I would recommend you pick up a reading habit for the time being. I have written a large post on what I call GMAT Fiction and its benefits - take a look. I felt that reading books was a big contributor to my RC abilities and gave me a 96th percentile in Verbal (not too shabby for a person who spoke zero English until 12). There are no downsides to this really - the worst thing possible is that you would have read some great books. And yes - make sure you read them during your low productivity time (at night, during transit, etc).
• Verbal forum should be your hobby by now and we have a great feature – GMAT Club Forum Timer. Use it! If you have not discovered it yet, you should – the timer will keep track of all your practice and even more – it will suggest you questions (every day Monday through Friday) that are at your level, and after about 10 questions in CR, it will even give you a daily estimated GMAT score.
• Reading Comprehension Optional Step: If you are not a native speaker, you will need a good grammar book or a verbal-intensive course. Several grammar books are recommended on the Forum (https://gmatclub.com/forum/best-gmat-gr ... 79934.html). Other books to consider are Kaplan Verbal Foundations and MGMAT Verbal Foundations. This is for you to decide how much help you need or how much time you have. Also, take a look at GMAT Club's Verbal Resources for many copies of study notes.
• Take the verbal-only portion of the tests to evaluate your progress (compare to how you did in the diagnostic test).
• Another worthwhile resource for you may be this quant-focused discussion: how to get from V30 to V40

Last Month: Test Prep

• This month should be spent on 2 things: taking full-length tests (polishing your test-taking techniques, timing, stamina) and Reviewing your error log (going through your weaknesses, making sure you understand why you keep making mistakes and how to solve every problem you encountered). You can start using Error log earlier than this by the way - the earlier the better.
• You can also use this time to prolong your prep (we assume most will run about 4 weeks late and will need this time) or you can use it to spend on digging deeper in some areas.
• Schedule your test if you have not done so already.
• Start taking full-length tests (including AWA and IR ) - this is important for your test stamina. Plan to spend a Saturday on this and then subsequent test review.
• Spend a few weeks taking tests and drilling down into your areas of weakness. Create a "blacklist of questions" that you continue to struggle with and find a way to solve them with minimal mental effort.
• For IR, there is always the big question of, how important is IR really, and the answer, clearly, is – nobody knows.

Online Study Plan:

You can get online access to almost anything these days and self-paced options among prep companies have really gone down in price.

Step 1: Foundation Most Online courses have modules that teach the fundamentals and that will quickly help you build the foundation and come up to speed. These modules can be particularly useful for students who have not studied quant for quite some time or who are not particularly strong in Quant.

Step 2: Core concepts Once you have built a foundation, focus on mastering the concepts. Solve OG during this time and maintain an error log. Keep track of your mistakes and guesses - this will become your study guide in Month 3. This is also the time to get involved in GMAT Club’s math forum.
Determine where you stand: almost all online courses come provide plenty of CAT's. Start taking the math portion of the tests you have.
Move to Verbal only after reaching at a certain Level: Evaluate results and decide if you need to spend more time in Math and patch up certain weak areas or move on to Verbal. This decision will be based on your target GMAT score. If you are looking for high 600's and 700's, I would not move past Quant unless I was able to score around Q44 and possibly higher. Quant scores have been inflated recently with Q51 (highest possible quant score clocking a mere 97th percentile and Q49 is 79th), so make sure you are up there. Do not leave a section unless you were able to solve 90% of the questions correctly in the allotted time. Don’t run away from your mistakes – sooner or later they will catch up; the better strategy is to address them right there and then and make sure you never see them again.

If you prefer the online study option, use the eGMAT, Magoosh, Target Tests Prep, or Experts' Global online courses. They come with everything you need, including practice tests and quizzes. You can compare them all in the Marketplace. Online courses also provide constant feedback. Most also come with Free access to GMAT Club tests. Many self-study courses offer free trials so you can test drive them before you buy, and for most no credit card is needed. Your cost may even be less than with books ($99 - $300).



The BIG Day and Final Thoughts
Make sure you take a look at these before you take the GMAT:

• What to do 30-14-7-1 days before the GMAT?
• GMAT Online - latest reports, issues, and questions
• What to expect at the test center and 8 things not to do
• The best of GMAT Club’s debriefs – get inspired!

!

Common Mistakes with GMAT preparation 1: Rushing to take tests before learning anything - waste of tests 2: Starting with the Official Guide - waste of official GMAT questions 3: Giving GMAT the worst time of the day - studying after a long day 4: Skipping basics and rushing to advanced topics 5: Moving through material too fast or too slow 6: Starting to prepare with poor English proficiency

Sidebar
At this time you will probably be wondering about questions such as “how many can I get wrong and still get a Q50?” and other questions which really do not have answers. If you find yourself wondering about these things at night, head over to the following discussions:

• GMAT Focus Algorithm and What-If analysis of the GMAT Prep
• Alternative ways to increase your score (i.e. not by studying)
• How are GMAT scores calculated and what is a raw score?
• Has anyone scored an 805? A few people have. There are some debriefs with verified scores

How long should you prep really?

The study plan above suggests 3 months, and that's probably 10-15 hours per week (2 hrs/work day and 5 hours on the weekend).
Over 3 months, that's about 120 - 180 hours, which includes reading some books, so the true study time is probably 80 - 120 hrs.
What if you study 2x or 3x of that and take 9 months instead of 3, can you triple your improvement? No, actually, your performance will be MUCH worse if you spread out your prep over a time period great than 5 months. Long study stretches are demotivating, hard to keep fresh, and ultimately ineffective as after 6 months, you start forgetting material faster than you can learn it and the time you will have to spend 75% of your time on refresh. It is much more effective to spend 3-4 months, and that’s what I would encourage you to do.

How do you Measure Improvement and what if you are not seeing any?

Many test-takers waste a lot of tests and precious time by taking un-needed CAT’s. As a matter of fact, you should be able to get away by taking no more than 10 CAT’s during your GMAT love affair. The question you may ask then is – how do I measure improvement and keep track of my score?
A number of ways actually:

• Make sure you are hitting a certain percentage of the questions in each topic/subject. Set a goal such as 90% of questions have to be right in exercises, OG, or wherever. E.g. if you just covered Geometry, there is no reason to take a whole quant CAT since you will only hit 3-4 Geometry questions tops (perhaps as few as 1-2) and it will be a minimal impact on the score, while you will waste a few hours, waste a test, and more importantly, grow discouraged.
• Use short quizzes and exercise. Let’s say you covered that same Geometry chapter in the book and only hit 50% on the quiz at the end of the chapter. Do 2 things: 1) Analyze your mistakes, read the explanations how to solve questions, and make sure you can solve each one of them 2) Go back to the chapter and using the mistakes you just made re-read/learn (make notes, create PPT, etc) of the areas you are still lacking. Then you can use OG, GMAT Club tests, Forum Quiz, or whatever you want to do real short/quick checks to see if you have improved.
• At this point in time, it does not matter what your overall Quant score is, it only matters what percentage of the types of questions ALREADY covered is.
• You can use the GMAT Club Forum timer. As long as you take about 10 questions in PS, you will get a quant raw score estimate and as soon as you do the same in CR, you will get a verbal score estimate (note that RC is not evaluated). Learn more about the amazing and free GMAT Club Forum Timer and Error Log here.
• Finally, once you have covered ALL of the quant topics, it is time to take the Quant CAT and similarly when you have finished the Verbal section, it is time to take the full Verbal CAT. (This is the reason GMAT Club tests have split quant and verbal CAT’s – we don’t think you really need to take a Full CAT until the very end when you are working on improving your stamina and test-day strategy, and at that point, you can just Quant and Verbal CAT’s with an 8 minute break).
• What if No improvement? My suggestion would be to understand why, what needs to change, and how. You need to answer this yourself. If you can’t, post it on the forum, though I have to warn you, it is a hard one to answer from afar. A much better option is to get a tutor for an hour or two (that’s all you should need) to get you back on track. Any decent tutor can spot most of the issues after one session and you can use the second session to answer any questions and draft a personalized plan for the rest of your prep. You can also take a course – that’s become an especially popular and cheap alternative with the online offerings from EGMAT, Magoosh, Target Test Prep, Experts Global, many of which have courses for less than the cost of books (as low as $79). Many of the courses are interactive and adapt to your needs. Online adaptive courses often are much more effective than books since they are audio visual, provide constant feedback, and provide instructor support.

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