Phase I
Phase I - Self Evaluation
Here is the schedule for phase 1 - the first 10 days of the month. The group names will make sense to you later on in the chapter.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Phase I:
1st Practice Test, Setting Priorities
Scheduling, Test Review
Group D
Practice Test, Review
Group D
Group C
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Group B
Group A, Rest
Group D
Group C
Group A, Group B
Note: If you have more or less than 30 days to study, then you can adopt this schedule accordingly. For example, with 60 days to study***, reduce the work load by half;*** with 15 days***, double it.***
DAY 1 (1st Practice Test, Setting Priorities)
My first mistake when preparing for the GMAT was not knowing what to study. Like most people, on the first day of studies, I opened a study guide and started reading. At the end of that day, I felt clueless and lost, and had no idea what I had just learned and what I should study the next day.To avoid confusion and wasting time, let’s first define our direction before starting our journey.
Before you do any studying, take a practice test today. The goal here is not to get a high score – great if you do, but that’s not the point. The goal here is to find out your weaknesses. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. You may already be good at parts of the test and need more time preparing for other parts. Today, the goal is to identify what you find most difficult and plan your study accordingly. This will maximize your study return on investment (ROI). Don’t worry about not knowing anything about the GMAT yet. The more problems and difficulties that we you can identify today, the better. So get out your stop timer and the Official GMAT Guide, set aside 75 minutes for the verbal section and 75 minutes for the math section, turn off your cell phone, and find a place where you will not be interrupted. Later on you’ll take full length practice tests with the Analytical Writing Assessment and the Integrated Reasoning Sections, but for now, just focus on what you need to do to reach your target score on the 800 scale.
Constructing the Test
If the practice question material you have contains fully constructed tests, you can skip this paragraph. The Official GMAT Guide series of books (which I recommend using for your practice questions) have many practice questions but do not come with full tests, so you will need to construct full sets of practice tests yourself with the questions supplied in these books. It’s fairly straightforward - simply pick the number of questions according to the test structure:
37 Quantitative questions:
• 24-25 Problem Solving questions
• 13-14 Data Sufficiency questions
41 Verbal questions:
• 14-15 Sentence Correction questions
• 4 passages - 12-14 Reading Comprehension questions
• 14-15 Critical Reasoning questions
Remember to mark down on your books which questions you’ve used.
Alternatively, you can take a free practice test on the websites of reputable test preparation companies. Some good options are:
www.princetonreview.com/business
These established businesses produce high-quality practice content, but be cautious about pulling practice resources off random websites. There is a lot of GMAT content on the web that doesn’t represent realistic questions.
Come back to this section after you take the test but before you check your answers. We want to discuss your test-taking experience before you check your answers.
Go ahead and take the practice exam now. And remember to time yourself.
------ take the full test ----- 2.5 hr
or
------ take either the full verbal or math test ----- 1 hr and 15 min
and take the other test on day 2
----- return here after the test -----