![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/get-most-out-gmat-study-group-part-1-stacey-koprince.png\")
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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Recently, one of my fellow instructors, Jamie Nelson<\/a>, got a great question from one of her students: What should I do to get the most out of my time with my GMAT study group? In the process of answering her student, Jamie checked with me to see whether we had anything on our blog that contained more formal recommendations or resources. We didn\u2019t at the time, but now we do! Read on.<\/span><\/p>\n I really think so, yes. (And I\u2019m saying this as an introvert who generally prefers to study home alone.) I also polled my fellow teachers and it turns out we all agree: If at all possible, get a GMAT study group going!<\/span><\/p>\n There are two primary benefits you can gain by studying regularly with at least one other person.<\/span><\/p>\n (1) You\u2019ll keep yourself motivated. It\u2019s harder to procrastinate when you know you need to be ready to meet with the group by a certain day.<\/span><\/p>\n (2) You will learn more than you can on your own. Other members of the group will be better at something than you are and can teach you. In addition, you will sometimes teach something to others\u2014and teaching helps you to understand a concept much better than just learning it in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n If friends of yours are also studying for the GMAT, then that part is relatively easy\u2014though, ideally, you want at least one person in the group who is stronger at Quant and one who is stronger at Verbal. So if you and your friend are both Verbal whizzes, expand your search to find someone who is better at Quant.<\/span><\/p>\n If you are taking a class, go out on a limb and announce to the class that you want to set up a GMAT study group and ask who is interested. If you want to maintain a level of control over the group, then decide certain details in advance. \u201cI\u2019m looking for people who can meet on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at XYZ library or on Zoom.\u201d (And you can do a lot meeting online! You can take a photo of your scratch work on a math problem, for example, and then share screen to show the photo to the others.)<\/span><\/p>\n I do think it\u2019s a good idea to have 3 or more people in the group, if possible. Circumstances change\u2014your study buddy could get sick or decide to postpone her studies for some reason. People go on vacation for a week. Ideally, the group is large enough that it can weather the temporary or permanent absence of 1 or 2 people.<\/span><\/p>\n All right, now we\u2019re getting to the real heart of the matter! Let\u2019s start with the first reason that study groups are so beneficial: You\u2019re going to keep each other honest.<\/span><\/p>\n Scheduling<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Set up a schedule with one or two steady appointments every week. (If your schedule needs to change from week to week, then have a set schedule about one month out.) For instance, you might meet Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. (Or you might just meet once a week.)<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re allowed to miss a study session\u2014for good reason. You have a deadline at work\u2026you\u2019re sick or dealing with a challenging personal situation\u2026you have a prior commitment to a family member or other important person in your life. When you absolutely do have to miss, you will give your GMAT study group as early notice as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are some reasons you\u2019re not allowed to miss the study session: “I’m tired \/ not feeling it.” “I didn\u2019t get my homework done.” “I\u2019d rather (have brunch with a friend\/stay home and binge watch my favorite show\/clean my bathroom).” Your team members are counting on you. Go.<\/span><\/p>\n Commitment<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Next, you\u2019re going to plan out your own private studies from now until that next meeting. Set certain goals. (\u201cI\u2019m going to do the Exponents and Roots chapters of the Algebra study unit. Then I\u2019m going to do and review Official Guide (OG) problems in those areas. And I\u2019m going to do the Comparisons chapter in Sentence Correction and also do OG problems to test myself there.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n Now, tell your GMAT study group what your goals are.<\/span><\/p>\n Why did I center that text? To catch your attention. (Did it work? <\/span>) This is a really important step, one that I learned from my fellow instructor Noah Teitelbaum<\/a>. If you make an advance commitment to your group, you are much more likely to stay motivated and do your work.<\/span><\/p>\n One more note: You all have to check in to make sure you\u2019re actually sticking with your commitments\u2014that\u2019s where accountability comes in. When you start your study session, go around the group. Everyone reports what they did and whether they fulfilled their commitment. If you didn\u2019t get to it all, then be prepared to make another commitment: When will you get to this stuff in the coming week?<\/span><\/p>\n Noah has also shared with me a website\/app called <\/span>StickK<\/span><\/a>, a free resource that allows you to set commitments and share them with your selected GMAT study group. Consider using this together to keep track of your commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n Your study group will help you learn more than you would learn on your own. Here’s how.<\/span><\/p>\n Any productive meeting has a plan\u2014you will accomplish more when you know specifically what you want to do. You can either have one person manage the group (and always establish the plan for each meeting) or you can rotate. Here are some things to include in your plan:<\/span><\/p>\n For example, an agenda for a 2-hour meeting might look like this:<\/span><\/p>\n This agenda would require the group members to prepare certain things in advance. For \u201cReview homework,\u201d you would each need to have completed the same homework assignment in advance. Perhaps this is a specific set of Official Guide problems or certain chapters and problems from your Manhattan Prep books.<\/p>\n For \u201cTeach a problem,\u201d you would each come prepared to teach one problem to the others in the group\u2014more on this below.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a great idea to leave the last 15 to 30 minutes free for open questions\u2014What has been driving you crazy? Are you struggling with something that your GMAT study group might help you to remedy?<\/span><\/p>\n Alternatively, if nobody has anything to discuss, you could use the time for quiet study\u2014but with your study buddies available in case a question does come up while you work. This extra time also provides a buffer, in case one of your earlier activities takes more time than planned.<\/span><\/p>\n One last thing: Did somebody forget to put together an agenda? Were you all too busy this week to get to the homework or prepare problems to teach? Don\u2019t cancel your meeting! Get together anyway. Study quietly for 30 minutes (or 60 minutes), then check in with each other. Did anyone get stuck on something? Can you help? Then study quietly for another length of time and repeat. <\/span><\/p>\n And, yes, even do this online! I know it sounds silly to all be in Zoom while quietly studying\u2026but do it! You even have more flexibility online. For example, let\u2019s say you have a question about something now, but everyone else is working and you don\u2019t want to interrupt. Type your question in the chat. When someone else gets to a good stopping point, the two of you can discuss (jump to another room, if others are still studying quietly).<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, let\u2019s talk a little more about each of the elements in the table above.<\/span><\/p>\n If you all do the same homework ahead of time, then you can compare notes when you get together. (And Noah suggests taking it one step further: If you know a certain problem is driving you crazy, let your GMAT study group know before you get together so they can spend some extra time thinking about that one. You can also do this with other problems\u2014ones that weren\u2019t part of the group homework.)<\/span><\/p>\n Which problems did you find the most annoying? Does someone else have a better way of approaching that problem? Or a good way to narrow down the answers to make an educated guess?<\/span><\/p>\n Did you just get totally stumped with something? One of your study partners might be able to explain something to you in a way that gets you unstuck. And you might be able to return the favor on another problem. <\/span>\u263a<\/span><\/p>\n Did you make a mistake on something but now you think you understand what to do next time? Prove it! Articulate three things out loud to the group:<\/span><\/p>\n If you can clearly articulate all of these, then you will be putting into place the specific habits you need to minimize that category of mistake in the future. You might even help a friend who has been making the same kind of mistake but hasn\u2019t realized it yet or hasn\u2019t figured out how to fix it. And if you can\u2019t clearly articulate these steps, then your study buddies are going to tell you that your explanation is unconvincing\u2014and they\u2019ll push you harder to make sure you get this fixed for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n One caveat: Don’t always do the same homework as the GMAT study group, because you each want to customize to your own strengths and weaknesses. But do some<\/em> of the same homework so that you can then learn from each other and help to lift each other up.<\/span><\/p>\n My colleagues Chris Gentry<\/a> and Noah Teitelbaum both strongly advocate putting yourself in the teacher role. If you think you know how to do something well, then (once again!) prove it by teaching it to your study group.<\/span><\/p>\n Chris calls this exercise \u201cYou\u2019re the Teacher!\u201d and here\u2019s what he says to do. Before you get together, each person chooses one problem to prepare. Choose something that you think will be at least somewhat challenging for the group\u2014but not so challenging that you\u2019ll struggle to teach it.<\/span><\/p>\n You can give people the problem to try in advance of your meeting or you can give it to them to try during the meeting. If it\u2019s during the meeting, give them whatever the average amount of time is to do that kind of problem on the real test. <\/span><\/p>\n Now, here\u2019s what you\u2019re NOT going to do: You\u2019re not just going to tell them how to do the problem. Rather, you\u2019re going to lead a discussion with the goal of getting them to figure out how to do the problem and tell you what that is. That\u2019s what a good teacher does\u2014teaches his\/her students how to think for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n Start asking questions. What did you think was straightforward about this problem? Which parts were challenging? Does the group all agree on the straightforward stuff? If not, hash that out first. Then, start brainstorming what to do about the challenging parts. When the group gets stuck, give them clues\u2014but don\u2019t give them too much at once. The best clues will be enough to get the group unstuck and allow them to move themselves further through the problem until they either finish it or get stuck at a different part and need another clue.<\/span><\/p>\n What are the big takeaways? Next time you see something like this, what do you want to be able to recognize? And what steps are you going to take when you recognize that thing? Try to frame the answer in the form \u201cWhen I see X, I\u2019ll think\/do Y.\u201d When you’re the teacher (and when you’re not!), help the GMAT study group to articulate these takeaways.<\/span><\/p>\n The buffer part is self-explanatory, but I\u2019d like to talk a bit more about open questions and quiet study.<\/span><\/p>\n You will be studying a lot more in a week than you plan specifically to address with your GMAT study group\u2014so you will all likely have additional questions or areas that need help. Tell the group what you\u2019re struggling with most and see who else might be good at that area and able to help you. You might even set up a one-hour exchange on some other day\u2014you spend 30 minutes helping the other person with some topic, question type, or strategy and then they spend 30 minutes helping you with whatever you need.<\/span><\/p>\n Start a discussion board where you can all post questions throughout the week while you\u2019re studying separately. People can answer questions when they have time, and you can also pull up the discussion board when you get together to help you figure out what you might want to discuss during the Open Questions portion of your study session.<\/span><\/p>\n The Quiet Study portion might sound the least helpful in a group setting, but I think it\u2019s actually super useful. First of all, it just helps to keep you on track. I\u2019ve had students meet twice a week, but one of those meetings is pure quiet study. It keeps you honest. If your GMAT study group is meeting for quiet study on Wednesday, you aren\u2019t going to blow off your Wednesday study time because you had a long day at work (or whatever\u2026we\u2019ve all been there!)\u2014because your group will want to know where you are.<\/span><\/p>\n When you are studying on your own, there are tons of times that you get stuck. In general, it\u2019s true that it\u2019s good to push through and try to figure things out on your own\u2014but, if you get really stuck, it\u2019s incredibly helpful to be able to toss out a question and get an immediate answer\/insight from the group. Then you don\u2019t have to set aside that lesson and come back to it later when you do finally get help to unstick yourself; you can keep pushing through right now.<\/span><\/p>\n (1) Set up a GMAT study group of 3 to 5 people, online or in-person. Try to have a mix of skills\/strengths and weaknesses so that you can help each other and learn from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n (2) Commit! Plan a schedule and stick to it\u2014no absences without a legitimate excuse. Set study goals from week to week. Share the goals with your group members and make sure that you\u2019re updating them on your progress.<\/span><\/p>\n (3) Plan meeting agendas in advance and engage in a variety of activities to help you stay motivated and learn from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n Happy studying!<\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Recently, one of my fellow instructors, Jamie Nelson, got a great question from one of her students: What should I do to get the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,52871,930,2],"tags":[53060,53061],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","tag-gmat-study-group","tag-study-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13845"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19511,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions\/19511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13845"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI\u2019m already really busy. Is a\u00a0GMAT\u00a0study group worth the effort?<\/b><\/h4>\n
How do I set up the GMAT study group?<\/b><\/h4>\n
What do we actually do when we get together? (Reason #1)<\/b><\/h4>\n
What about Reason #2 (learning from each other)?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Have an Agenda\/Plan for Your GMAT Study Group<\/b><\/h4>\n
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![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/05\/sk-425-image-1.png\")
<\/p>\nReview Homework<\/b><\/h4>\n
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Teach a Problem<\/b><\/h4>\n
Open Questions\/Quiet Study\/Buffer<\/b><\/h4>\n
Takeaways for\u00a0Your GMAT Study Group<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT \u00a0for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"