A timeline of three months is considered ideal for aspirants to prepare for the GMAT. It is neither too long a time, nor too short, so you will have adequate time and opportunity to score well. However, the challenging part is conserving the tenacity or motivation to carry on with the preps in this period.
The three months duration is your preparatory phase, and to utilize it to the fullest, there can be two segments to your study sessions. To begin with, you can concentrate on the strategies, concepts, approaches, etcetera required to handle each type of question. You have to pay attention to grammar and mathematics. Continue doing so for at least two months, and then you can move on to building your skills to answer questions fast. This can only be achieved when you take the GMAT mock tests at regular intervals and challenge yourself continually to solve hard or tricky problems.
Before starting with your you might wonder where to start from and how to go about with a robust prep plan. Well, let us help you chalk out a guideline, so you can build on that for a streamlined preparation.
Collect all the study materials
You will need a GMAT handbook that includes important information about the GMAT that you must know. Next is getting ahold of full-length practice sets along with proper practice questions, preparation books, an online calendar, to look at the rate of improvement throughout, and lastly, tuition from experienced teachers for in-depth knowledge and understanding.
Evaluate where you stand
You have to sit for a diagnostic test to understand your ability level. That will offer the best idea of where to begin. These tests are usually like CATs, similar to the actual GMAT. The results obtained from taking the test will help you set a GMAT goal score. In this manner, you will also understand which areas you must concentrate on to fetch more marks.
Be well aware of your weaknesses as well as your strengths
The diagnostic test will put forward a few questions, and those are: What is the pattern like? Which topics you have a problem handling? What are the question types you came across in the sections? Are you being able to identify and be specific about the difficulties you are facing? And so on. Now, the bottom line is you have to understand the sections where sharpening is needed. You must also pay attention to the emotions you felt while solving the paper such as; were you having panic attacks, or were you pretty calm? Did ? Could you complete the quant calculations, or were you having a tough time handling those? Were you able to complete all the sections on time? What benefits can you get from pacing the drills or timing those? Did you get all weary after the completion of the test? Could you finish reading the passages and the questions properly? So, what we are trying to suggest here is to understand all the angles and prepare accordingly; so that you can kill it on the day of the real test. Analysis of what went wrong or your shortcomings will help you go a long way. Moreover, the answers will also help you design a three-month study plan that best suits your requirements.
Prepare and follow a schedule, no matter what
straightway and know your priorities. Usually, students study for a few hours like say for three or four hours. Instead, you can concentrate more on particular drills, like solving the integrated reasoning practice quiz that consists of fifteen questions. Furthermore, you can take up reading assignments, and familiarize yourself with the basics of grammar and passage reading. Then, you can try to solve ten practice questions on sentence correction within ten minutes. Basically, the trick is to channelize your energy and concentration efficiently to achieve the target score without trouble.
Try to quantify the rate of progress so that the numbers can motivate you to do better
Track all the study sessions, jot down your scores and areas where you are struggling the most. These three months are critical for you, so try to be a little observant. You might have to adjust your study plan according to your requirements because it is evident that some areas will be simple for you to grip, whereas some might be a little difficult.