BREAK IT DOWN.PLAN YOUR STUDYING WEEK BY WEEK WITH SPECIFIC INTERIM...

5.Break it down.Plan your studying week by week with specific interim goals. For example, “learn every-thing by April 1” is not a useful plan. But if you plot specific learning goals for each type of question inthe Verbal and Quantitative sections throughout the month, then your study plan will be a truly usefulstudy guide.Let’s say, for example, you have ten weeks until your test date. One way to set up your study sched-ule is shown on the next page.

When Life Gets in the Way . . .

It’s important to stick to your study plan, but sometimes life will get in the way, and you will get off schedule.When this happens—and it almost certainly will—don’t despair. Don’t let the fact that you have fallen a littlebehind cripple you so that you fall even more behind. Instead, just keep going. Adjust your schedule to fit yournew time frame and do what you can to make up for lost time by squeezing in another hour of study here orthere. It may mean you will have to sacrifice some leisure time, but remember what you are working for. A lit-tle more sacrifice now can get you much closer to your ultimate goal.

Week One

Learn about and practice reading comprehension skills.

Week Two

Learn about and practice critical reasoning skills.

Week Three

Continue with critical reasoning. Do extra work in 501 Challenging Logic and Reason-

ing Problems.

Week Four

Learn about and practice sentence correction skills. Continue with critical reasoning.

Week Five

Learn about the AWA section and review effective writing skills. Practice writing

Analysis of Argument essays.

Week Six

Practice writing Analysis of Issue essays. Review all Verbal section skills.

Week Seven

Learn about and practice problem solving skills.

Week Eight

Learn about and practice data sufficiency skills.

Week Nine

Do two practice tests from the Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition.

Week Ten

Review any question types you do not understand. Get lots of rest!

Naturally, if you have longer than ten weeks to prepare, your weekly schedule will be broken up dif-ferently. (And good for you for starting ahead of time!) You may want to work on all your skills eachweek, making progress simultaneously on all fronts. That is fine too. Adjust the schedule accordingly.Your schedule will also be different if you have less than ten weeks, or if you are a whiz with numbers,but have trouble with analytical writing.