GMAT One month Study Plan
A common question in the minds of GMAT aspirants is “How much time does it take to prepare for GMAT” In this article we will discuss a study plan that can help a student to prepare for GMAT in one month. There are two aspects of GMAT preparation. The first aspect is to gain the knowledge about concepts tested in GMAT and the second aspect is to learn the right approach to apply the knowledge to get right answer in minimum time. Now we can divide our preparation in 3 stages.
Stage 1: Divide you day in two parts. In first part, study quant and Second part study verbal. In verbal start with Sentence correction. Don’t start with all sections of verbal in one go. Quant syllabus is divided in topics. Take first topic (I normally recommend to start with Number system, memorize the theory and formulas on the topic, then pick questions related to number system and start doing them. The main struggle students face is in handling data sufficiency question. To understand the basic of data sufficiency, you can watch DS Introduction
You can practice questions from GMAT official guide. When you start practicing questions , you will get some questions wrong. For wrong questions do not look for solution from any source. Invest time to solve every question yourself. If we seek solution from any other source, our aptitude level will not increase. Initially. it requires lot of patience to stick to one question for long time but if stick to each wrong question till we get it right, in long run we will be able to solve each question related to that particular concept that we got wrong earlier. This way complete each chapter of Quant. Few topics may take more than two days but most topics can be done in a day. It will take almost 10 days to complete quant.
For verbal sentence correction question start by going through the basic grammar rules. For grammar rules, you can refer manhattan guide but concept are explained in too much detail and a student cannot decide which information is relevant or which information is extra. For this you can take private coaching from GMAT Mantra | Home
At gmatmantra, we have created SC course in which only relevant information is taught. Once you have learnt basic grammar rules, you need an approach to solve SC questions in minimum time. To learn best approach to handle SC questions you can watch solutions of official guide questions at GMAT Mantra
In first 2–3 days you can memorize basic grammar rules and than practice those rules on questions given in GMAT official guide. You can do 20 question per day of SC. For questions that you get wrong, again do not look out for solution from any other source. Once you know the correct answer choice, compare right answer with each wrong choice and find out the difference between right and wrong. Once you identify this difference, you will get to know the areas where you are struggling and you can go over those concepts once again. This way each practice session will improve you. Once you are done with grammar basic rules, start with reading comprehension from 4th day. For reading comprehension, its important to understand the passage in detail. I normally advise my students to invest around 5 minutes to understand the passage and than give 1 minute to solve each question. This way we can answer one RC passage in 8–10 mins. We sometimes struggle to understand passage. The best way to understand the passage is to converted each sentence of passage in our own words. This way we can understand the complete meaning of the passage. When you start answer questions in RC, first understand the question well then think what could be the answer to that question, once you have a thought process about what can be the answer, read the options and choose the one that match with your thought process. This way you will never be confused between any two options. Practice two passage everyday for 7–8 days. From 5th day on wards, start with critical reasoning. In critical reasoning, start with strengthen and weaken type questions. In critical reasoning questions, start by understanding the passage. Again for better understanding, convert each sentence of passage in your own words. Once you understand the passage, then read the question and create the goal. To understand how to solve CR questions, you can read How can I improve my performance on the GMAT Critical Reasoning Questions?
You can complete verbal part in 10 days, After completing basic practice of quant and verbal, we go to second stage. In second stage of preparation, we do timed practice of questions. Take 20 questions of quant and try to do them in 30 minutes. You can create these tests with online version of GMAT official guide. Similarly create such test for verbal as well. Again, after every such 20 question quiz, analysis is important. To analyse, again go over every question of the quiz, for right question, see if there is a better approach to solve that question in less time. For wrong questions, spent time with each question and find out the reason for getting that question wrong. This stage will prepare a student to work under time pressure. This stage can take 7–10 days.
In the third stage , we focus on the stamina to sit and focus for almost 3.5 hours. Start with full length mock test. There are six GMAT preps. Six GMAT preps are sufficient to practice stamina. Again analysis of each GMAT prep is essential. Again analysis is done in the same manner as we discussed in the previous paragraph.
This plan looks simple but it requires lot of effort in limited amount of time. But some of my students have followed this routine and scored well.