6 Best Steps on How to Make a GMAT Study Plan

If you want to get a high band score in the GMAT exam, you must create a proper study plan. You must take the GMAT or GRE to study business courses at a top institute to do this. Most of the students choose to take the GMAT exam as its score is valid across the world.

GMAT is a computer-based exam that assesses students’ mathematical, verbal, integrated reasoning, and analytical writing skills. These are the most common skills that are developed while you are studying.

However, every student is not capable of making their study plan, some need guidance on how to make a GMAT study plan. 

Don’t worry in this blog, you will get step-wise guidance on how to make a GMAT study plant. Moreover, according to your convenience, you can also create a study plan for yourself.

Should You Follow Pre-Existing Study Plans?

Before discussing how to make a GMAT study plan you must know that should you choose a pre-existing study plan.

Most students look for premade study plans for the GMAT and follow those blindly without considering their level. The problem with following someone else’s study plan is that they have made the plan by considering their positives and negatives. 

They might be able to catch the Quantitative section in just a few days, while you might require more time for it, but if you followed the study plan blindly, you would have been left being underconfident and tensed. 

Thus, I will suggest you make your study plan. The plan should be your personalized guide to study to ensure you follow your own pace. 

6 steps on How to Make a GMAT Study Plan

Below are the steps for making a GMAT study plan that you must follow to get a high score in the exam.

1. Determine Your Target Score

This is the first step on how to make a GMAT Study Plan. The GMAT tests your aptitude for management studies based on various aspects, including grammar and qualitative concepts like arithmetic, algebra, statistics, geometry, and other basic math concepts. 

The GMAT exam aims to test your critical thinking and problem-solving skills specifically. It tests your ability to understand data, make opinions, give arguments, think logically, and solve problems under limited conditions. 

The two main aspects of the GMAT exam are quantitative and Verbal. These two parts are the biggest and have a greater score share. Rarely a student is equally good in both quantitative and verbal sections. Most students are good at either one of them. However, you do not need to be the best at both. You need to find out your strengths and weaknesses. 

For instance, Suppose you are good at a verbal section and fail to solve the quant problems efficiently. In this case, if you focus more on your strength, the Verbal section, and in return, if you score high. Then even if your score is less on quant, the overall score will get balanced. 

So the first step in making a GMAT study plan is to identify your strengths: Quant or Verbal. You can do this by looking at your previous test scores if you are a re-test taker. 

If you are attempting the exam for the first time, you should give some mock tests after preparing equally for both sections, then analyze the score, identify your strengths, and practice it more to make it perfect. Whatever your strength, try to give at least 70% of your study time each week. 

To know the Best GMAT Books to prepare, read our other blog.

2. Estimate the Time you Need

This is the second step on how to make a GMAT study plan. The GMAT has a vast syllabus as it tests various skills. Thus you need to divide your time among these topics and pre-schedule the hours you will give to each section. I would suggest you take 3 months to prepare for the GMAT fully. 

This time period is more than enough if you give the required dedication and hours. These three months can be divided into two parts, first the preparation part and the second is the revision and mock test part. 

The first two months denote the first part, which is preparing for the GMAT exam. The last month should be reserved for revision and giving mock tests. 

On the basis of the strength that you have identified by the first step of how to make a GMAT study plan, try to distribute your daily hours effectively. Many of you might be working individuals preparing for the GMAT, so you need to design your study plan in a feasible way. 

For instance, you can spend 1-2 hours on weekdays while working, and on the weekends, you can study 6-7 hours. 

In this way, you can make a good study plan by managing your time effectively. Now let’s move to the third step of how to make a GMAT study plan.

Read our other blog to know about the Colleges That Accept GMAT Score In India.

3. Create A Study Flow And Follow It

Creating a Study Flow and following it will be the third step on how to make a GMAT study plan. The main problem with the syllabus of GMAT is that it is quite vast. Thus, if you do not plan the correct flow of your studies, you will get a lot in the sea of topics and end up studying everything halfway. To avoid this, set a specific time for each section. 

Start with the section that is your strength; this will help you gain good momentum at the start of your studies. You will also be excited about your preparation, and thus you will improve your score in your strength section. 

If you are starting with the verbal section, then try to start with the SC (Sentence correction) questions, the Sentence correction questions are fun to solve and a major technique of score improvement. 

Then move to the critical reasoning questions, as they will require you to have a good grammar understanding which you have already acquired in the SC preparation. Lastly, move to the comprehension-type questions as they test your grammar and critical thinking skills together. 

If you start with the quant section, try to solve the word problem type questions first, then solve some easy topics like algebra and geometry, and move to advanced questions. 

4. Gather Your Study Materials

Another important step in how to make a GMAT study plan is choosing the best study material. To get the best result, you are required to prepare from the best, so you are required to choose your study material wisely.

You must choose the study material according to your strengths and weaknesses. The study material you choose must have proper strategies to improve your weaknesses. 

Your priority in choosing the study material must be from the GMAT officials because, in those study materials, you will find the proper information about each section and tips to score high.

The official material will also provide the test sample based on the previous test and follow the same format and pattern of the exam.

There is a list of study materials you can choose to prepare for the GMAT;

• The GMAT Official Guide 
• The Critical Reasoning Bible (PowerScore)
• The GMAT Sentence Correction Strategy Guide (Manhattan Prep)
• Total GMAT Math (Jeff Sackmann) 
• GMAT Advanced Quant (Manhattan Prep) 

These are the most popular and best books for the GMAT exam, and to know about these GMAT books in detail, you can read our other blog.

You can choose any of them according to your weak and strong points and after reading which section these books focus on more.

5. Prepare For GMAT 760 

Now that you are already clear with the 4 steps of how to make a GMAT study plan, it is time to scale up and refine yourself. After completing the first four steps given above, you will be 70% prepared for each section, I say this because when we are involved in a topic for too long, we tend to lose interest and switch topics, which leaves us with a low score. 

You will need to refine yourself to avoid this and get a full 760 on the GMAT. Go through each topic again and identify the sub-topics you might have left or topics in which you are weak. 

This will make you even more confident for the exam and will work as a brush-up for the rest syllabus.  For this, you should ensure that you only leave a topic once you have started to get the desired score for that particular section. 

This will ensure that you are working on developing your score wholly. This is the fifth step on how to make a GMAT study plan. This can be a game changer for selecting your preferred business school. 

If you are confused and want to know How Long Does It Take To Prepare For GMAT, read our other blog.

6. Take Mock Tests And Analyze Your Results

Now that you are clear about the five steps for how to make a GMAT study plan, you are capable of devising the perfect study plan for you, but there is a last step left. 

This step is probably the most underrated and the most important. The last month of your preparation should be exclusively kept for taking mock tests. 

Many students take mock tests but never even analyze their test results. Tests are only beneficial if you learn from them. This is only possible if you analyze your result question-by-question after every mock test you take. 

This will give you incredible insights into what you are doing wrong and how to improve it. These mock tests are available on various platforms, but you should try to find a platform that offers the most competitive so that you are also sure about your place among your fellow competitors. 

Read our other blog to learn about GMAT Exam Date.

Conclusion

In this blog, we discussed 6 major steps on how to make a GMAT study plan. These 6 steps will empower you to make your personalized GMAT study plan. 

The GMAT is a difficult exam to crack as it is given by millions of students worldwide, and not all students get their desired scores. But with a good study plan that is effective and personalized, you can easily increase your score by a larger factor. 

The preparation may seem hard at times, but you must remember that getting a good score can land you in the top business schools like the Harvard Business School, so keep hustling and follow your GMAT study plan.

If you still have any questions or queries on how to make a GMAT study plan or how to prepare for GMAT, contact our experts or let us know through comments.

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