You’ve decided to take the GMAT, but to do that, you need a thorough study plan. This posting will show you how.

Developing a GMAT study plan

You have collected materials you need to study for the test, and learned all about your strong and weak sides. You even know what score you need to enter a university.

You have learned what the process of studying should look like: memorizing and analyzing – but also remembering how to tackle specific GMAT problems.

All these things lead up to making your own study plan. Of course, if you are currently enrolled in a GMAT course, listen to your teacher and do all the tasks, or let your tutor make a plan for you. If you’re determined to prepare on your own, that’s what you should do.

The primary step

Here you learn all the basics, like using modifiers, answering Data Sufficiency questions etc. This step requires you to look through all the materials you have to get acquainted with all GMAT fundamentals, although it doesn’t mean you have to cover all the official study guide books.

This step mostly takes 8 to 16 weeks – usually it’s the duration of a GMAT course.

Put studying on the calendar

Allocate some time, from 30 to 120 minutes 5 or 6 days during one week. This time can be split, for instance an hour before lunch and an hour in the evening.

On busy days, it can even be up to 15 minutes. The thing is, even if it’s only five, don’t skip a day. Some other days, like the weekend, can yield up to 4 hours of studies.

But remember that it’s unwise to study for more than 2 hours at once. Take a journal and make notes of what you are going to concentrate on this week.

At the very beginning, you will have to allocate time to reviewing different parts of the material and solving problems according to them. Depending on your strengths and weaknesses, it may take more or less time. The last day of this week will be given to overall reviewing. Do some random tasks, look through everything that requires additional preparation, refresh some older material in your memory, and so on.

How do you split your primary studying?

It should have two parts including the following activities:

1.  Study some part of your material
2.  Take a test
3.  Analyze your result, adjust your plans accordingly
4.  Repeat Primary study, part 1

A half, or even more, of you remaining weeks should be dedicated to review the most important material. Your mock test results will be a good guide for that, as they show your strengths and weaknesses.

During this period you should:

• Practice doing all types of problems and learn solving them efficiently.
• Memorize verbal and math content, meaning the things you have to learn by heart, like rules, facts and formulas.
• Learn test-taking approaches, especially for math problems.
• Make flash cards.
• Fill in the preparation journal and analyze your data and results constantly.

How to teach yourself

Don’t forget to focus on a certain type of problem when covering new material.

First, you have to learn what a Find the Assumption question is, them try some practical tasks, making them more complicated towards the end. If you have problems with harder questions, then move to an easier one, then try again. Note your results in your study journal to analyze what studying technique was best for you and which material requires a more thorough approach.

If you are noticing that some problems take more time than anticipated, adjust your plan. When a week ends, make the plan for the next week. Don’t do one activity for a long time – always mix up learning and practice. Read up on the different types of GMAT problems, but don’t forget to solve the corresponding tasks.

In official guide books, every lesson contains practice questions which you should take. After learning the theory, try doing some tasks concerning what you’ve just learned. It’s better to also do several problems from earlier parts of the material.

If a need to look something up arises, don’t hesitate and put it away for later – do so right now. It will help you to develop a better strategy. Take time to review or make your flash cards during breaks.

Remember that half of your time should be allotted to learning, and the other half to doing practical tasks.

The first few weeks of your studies will be dedicated to the underlying material: how to solve certain types of tasks, what’s a modifier etc.

Later, you’ll learn how to combine this information and create reliable problem-solving techniques. The first segment of your studies won’t cover all of your material, just 50% or 60%. The rest will be studied after you’ve covered all the basics.