As I stated in my last post, I have chosen the Manhattan GMAT Self Study Guide for my GMAT preparation this time around. They provide your with a study plan that should have me ready to take the test sometime at the end of September…depending how quickly I can move through the material. The study plan does a nice job of alternating between Verbal and Quant, something I always had trouble doing when studying on my own. So far I have almost finished the Number Properties book and I have just started the massive text that is the Sentence Correction book. In all their books, MGMAT provides practice problems for you, and then tells you what problems to do in the Official Guide.
So far it has been going pretty well for me, as I have remembered quite a bit from the little time I have studied so far. I am devoting about 2 hours per day to studying/doing problems. That would have me at 80 hours studied by the time the test rolls around. I think that is a solid amount of time. One thing I think I learned from my previous attempts is that taking the GMAT is a lot like being an Olympic athlete. You have to train just the right amount, so that you are peaking when test time rolls around. Hopefully this study guide will help me do that. Another thing I learned from reviewing my past prep was that I didn’t do enough verbal in the weeks before the test. My verbal scores on practice tests went from 50 to 43 to 38. That is a huge drop…my test day performance was a 36, so I fell even more from my last practice test. I will not make this mistake again!
One of the things I found curious was that MGMAT only schedules you for 3 CAT tests during the 8 week prep. They give you more tests, but only schedule 3 of them. I don’t really think that 3 is enough, so I will be amending the schedule to add 2 more tests. I probably won’t take my first test until the 22nd of August. That would allow me to take 5 tests and be on schedule to take this exam at the end of September or the 1st weekend in October. I am not happy about having to take this again, but I just can’t believe that I can’t do better in verbal than a 36. My goal is a score of 40+. I know I can do it, I just have to do it on test day!
Hope everyone’s studying is going well and that you are starting to think about applications. My next post will probably outline the schools I am applying to and the rounds in which I am applying to them.
P.S. No word from Cornell…do they ever have to send me a letter telling me that I was rejected or can I be like 45 years old and they can call me out of the blue to let me know that I just got off the wait-list?
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