![\"gmat-self-study\"](\"\/\/manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2014\/06\/gmat-self-study.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!\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n You\u2019ve been thinking for a while now about going back to business school. You\u2019ll go sometime<\/i> in the future\u2026but you haven\u2019t started to do much about it yet.<\/p>\n Well, break out your pencils* and get ready to take advantage of your new membership in the GMAT Exercise Club! We\u2019re going to set up a custom program for you to get the score you need by summer\u2019s end\u2014and then you can decide whether to apply this fall or to wait a year or two.<\/p>\n *Okay, okay, you don\u2019t use pencils for this test anymore, nor is there an actual GMAT Exercise Club, and I can\u2019t really give each and every one of you a completely customized, individual study program. But I can tell you what to start doing today<\/i> to get yourself ready to take the GMAT by the end of the summer, as long as you make the commitment to get your brain in gear, do a little bit every day, and conquer Mount Everest\u2026er, the GMAT.<\/p>\n This article will assume that you plan to study on your own. If you are still deciding whether to study on your own, take a class, or work with a tutor, the following article discusses the pros and cons of each approach: How to Choose an Approach: Self-study, Class, or Tutor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to develop a study plan that\u2019s appropriate for you.<\/p>\n Your first step is to take a practice CAT under official testing conditions (including all 4 sections: essay, IR, Quant, Verbal).<\/p>\n It\u2019s best to use a test-prep company CAT for this, not GMATPrep (the official practice test from the makers of the GMAT), as the purpose for taking this practice CAT is to gain insight into your strengths and weaknesses. While GMATPrep is the closest thing to the real test, it provides no data with which to evaluate your performance. Save GMATPrep for later in your study.<\/p>\n Right now, you might be protesting: but I haven\u2019t studied anything yet! That\u2019s okay. In fact, that\u2019s the point! You need to determine what you do already know or understand and what you don\u2019t so that you can set up an effective study plan for yourself. Don\u2019t stress about your first score\u2014use it as a study tool.<\/p>\n It is smart, though, to make sure that you learn a little bit about one particular question type before you take that test. Unless you\u2019ve studied for the GMAT before, you probably haven\u2019t seen anything like Data Sufficiency<\/a>, so review that question type before your first CAT.<\/p>\n If you take a\u00a0Manhattan Prep CAT<\/a>, use this two-part article to analyze your results: Evaluating Your Practice Tests<\/a>. (The link given here is to the first part of the article; you can find the link to the second part at the end of the first part.)<\/p>\n Next, you need a study plan. To start, figure out what materials you\u2019ll use to study on your own. At the least, you will need two things:<\/p>\n (1) Material that teaches you how to take the test<\/p>\n (2) Material that allows you to practice your skills<\/p>\n The first category includes test preparation materials\u2014books, flash cards, interactive lessons\u2014basically, materials that teach you strategies, facts, rules, and techniques for taking the GMAT.<\/p>\n The best source material for the second category includes official test questions that have been released by the test makers. There are three Official Guide<\/i> (OG<\/i>) books full of questions, the previously-mentioned GMATPrep software, GMAT Focus, and more. (You can find descriptions of all of these products at www.mba.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I want to talk a little bit more about one item from category 1: interactive lessons. These kinds of lessons fall in between static books and live classes or tutoring (the price, the amount of material, the level of engagement, everything).<\/p>\n Many (if not most) companies are moving forward with pre-prepared lessons that are still customizable (to some extent) to an individual student. These types of lessons are typically more dynamic<\/i>, incorporating video, audio, and interactive components, and they\u2019re adaptive<\/i>: as you work through a lesson, you may be offered something harder if you\u2019re breezing through or something easier if you\u2019re struggling with a concept.<\/p>\n These types of programs should offer some kind of structure: an order to the lessons, recommendations for what to do each week for some number of weeks, and so on. Do follow the structure in general\u2014the lessons and recommendations were made that way for a reason\u2014but customize to fit your particular strengths and weaknesses (as determined by your first CAT). More on this in the next section.<\/p>\n Now that you\u2019re ready to start studying, we have to discuss the next critical component: how to study on your own in a way that gets you the most out of your hard work. Studying a great quantity of stuff doesn\u2019t necessarily accomplish that goal.<\/p>\n You will, of course, need to learn all of the facts and rules (Quant and grammar) tested on the GMAT. You\u2019ll also need to learn the major strategies necessary for the six different question types (Integrated Reasoning, Problem Solving, Data Sufficiency, Sentence Correction, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Reasoning). All of this constitutes the first<\/i> level of your GMAT learning.<\/p>\n But wait! There is a second<\/i> level. You\u2019ll need to learn how the test writers put these (sometimes infuriating!) questions together and how you can translate GMAT-speak into normal language that you can tackle efficiently and effectively.<\/p>\n Luckily, I\u2019ve already got an entire article for you on the 2nd<\/sup> Level of GMAT Learning<\/a>. Read it (including the other articles linked in it\u2014they\u2019re very important!) and start practicing what it preaches.<\/p>\n Next, customize your plan. If you\u2019re working from books, start with the most fundamental material that is giving you trouble (based on your CAT results) and work your way up from there.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using interactive lessons, adjust the standard plan according to your strengths and weaknesses. For example, Manhattan Prep’s interactive program (GMAT Interact\u2122<\/a>) starts out in week 1 with an overview of GMAT scoring, and lessons on Data Sufficiency (DS) and Sentence Correction (SC). If, on your first practice test, you bombed DS but SC went pretty well, then you\u2019re going to adjust accordingly. Plan to take more time than the syllabus recommends for DS, and either take less time on SC or push yourself to work on some harder practice problems.<\/p>\n If you were pretty unfamiliar with DS, you might try just the first part of the interactive lesson (which explains the basics), then go practice those skills on some easy OG<\/i> DS problems, and then come back and finish the main DS lesson.<\/p>\n Because the lessons are interactive, you can sometimes \u201cunlock\u201d harder material by doing well in the lesson. As a result, you might even return to the lesson in a few weeks to try it again\u2014you might see some harder questions now that your skills have matured. (And, even if the lesson doesn\u2019t have harder questions available, you\u2019ll still solidify the strategies and get some solid review under your belt.)<\/p>\n Do the above for approximately the first 6 weeks and then take another practice CAT. Analyze it again\u2014your skills will have changed!\u2014and use those new priorities as you continue with your lessons.<\/p>\n At some point, you will have worked your way through the main lessons of whatever program or books you\u2019re using. Then, you\u2019ll start your review.<\/p>\n There are two broad scenarios:<\/p>\n (1) Your practice CATs are<\/i> in your desired score range<\/p>\n (2) Your practice CATs are not<\/i> in your desired score range<\/p>\n If your CATs are where you want them to be, plan to take the test within a few weeks, after doing a comprehensive review across the main content areas, question types, and strategies.<\/p>\n If your CATs are not<\/i> where you want them to be, you\u2019re going to go back to your program material, but this time, don\u2019t just start from the beginning. Use your most recent CAT to figure out your priorities and selectively return to those lessons that are the most important for you to learn. When you feel that you have made significant progress in whatever those areas are, take another CAT and repeat the process until your scores get into the range that you want.<\/p>\n (Note: your analysis of one CAT should provide you with at least<\/i> two weeks\u2019 worth of study material. If you\u2019re tempted to take a CAT earlier than that, then you\u2019re in danger of falling into the trap of taking CATs too frequently because you\u2019re hoping<\/i> your score has gone up. If you haven\u2019t really put in the work, don\u2019t expect much to change on your next CAT.)<\/p>\n If your scores aren\u2019t getting into the range that you want, then you may have to revisit either your goal score or your decision to study on your own (that is, you may need outside help in the form of a teacher\/tutor). Let\u2019s hope that doesn\u2019t apply in your case but, if it does, take a look at the How to Choose an Approach article linked at the beginning of this post.<\/p>\n Take your first step today. Decide whether you\u2019re going to study on your own, take a class, or work with a tutor. Start researching the materials, programs, or tutors available and make a decision one week from today (put an actual deadline on your calendar!). Sign up\/order\/do what you need to do in order to get started.<\/p>\n Next, mark off study times on your calendar. Plan to study 5 or 6 days a week for 30 minutes to 3 hours a day. You can break sessions up into smaller chunks (in fact, I wouldn\u2019t recommend sitting down for more than about 1 to 1.5 hours at a stretch). If you\u2019re going to use an interactive learning program that lets you set your own \u201cclass\u201d schedule, block off regular class times at the same time every week (even though you\u2019ll be the only student in attendance).<\/p>\n Go!\u00a0?<\/p>\n Studying for the GMAT? Take our free GMAT practice exam<\/a> or sign up for a free GMAT trial class<\/a> running all the time near you, or online. And, be sure to\u00a0find us on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Google+<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, and\u00a0follow us on Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/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!\u00a0Check out our upcoming courses here. You\u2019ve been thinking for a while now about going back to business school. You\u2019ll go sometime in the future\u2026but you haven\u2019t started to do much about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[340,53135],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-study","tag-gmat-self-study","tag-study-on-your-own"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7310","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=7310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14430,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7310\/revisions\/14430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7310"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWeek 1: Take a CAT<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Week 1: Choose Your Materials or Program<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Weeks 2 through 10-ish: Study Smart<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Weeks 10-ish to 13+ish: Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n
On Your Mark, Get Set\u2026<\/strong><\/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>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong>\u00a0Stacey 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.\u00a0Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"