If you read any of the blogs about people taking the GMAT, and the debriefs they give after they’ve completed the exam, you get a sense of the amount of studying required to do well on the test. It varies to a large degree, but on average, it seems people spend about 3 months doing intensive study, sometimes with the help of a course and sometimes without. This is the best case scenario as there are many people who spend years studying for this exam.
Even though I’ve set out a plan that is in line with the many debreifs I’ve seen online, I’m starting to get worried about whether I’m working hard enough. My 630 Practice GMAT score was a real wake up call for me: there were a number of Math questions where I got nervous, felt pressed for time, and simply guessed. I do not want to be in this mindset during the actual test day.
Looking back at my schedule this week, I see some holes in my abilitity to sit down and make progress on my studies. Even though I spent 9 hours studying last Saturday, 4 of those hours were for the Practice CAT Exam and 3 of those hours were represented by my Manhattan GMAT course. That’s leaves only 2 hours of content study.
The past few days I’ve been missing study time simply because I’ve been too tired or wanted to go to a gym class instead. Now, I’m not going to scarfice my health completely, but sacrifices do need to be made. My Xbox 360 should get much less use in the next 3 months. I’ll probably also limit myself to only 2 Hulu videos per night. Hulu definitely takes up a lot of my free time.
From now on, I will track my GMAT studies on a weekly basis and assess both the amount and the effectiveness of my studies. I’m really afraid that I’m not studying enough to reach my goal of 720. If there’s a need for a course correction I better make it sooner rather than later.
