How to Study for the GMAT in 1 Month
Studying for the GMAT in 30 days is an extremely difficult task, and is not one that is recommended. That said, some people find themselves forced into this difficult situation. If you are such a person, following the plans below will help.
To achieve a significant score improvement on the GMAT in 30 days, you will need to use your time very efficiently. First, you need to know what your GMAT strengths and weaknesses are. Then, you need to target your weaknesses while also building on your strengths: For example, you may be strong in quant and verbal skills but need help with data analysis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Taking Diagnostic Tests
- Choosing a Study Schedule
- Preparing a Study Plan
- Two Sample Study Plans
- Practicing Time Management
- Prep Essentials
Step 1: Take a GMAT Practice Test
Before anything else, familiarize yourself with the test structure and timing.
Take a full-length, realistic GMAT practice test to find out what your baseline Quantitative, Verbal, and Data Insights scores are. Your practice test results will include not just your scores but also information about which types of problems you did well on and which ones gave you trouble. Additionally, the practice test will give you valuable information about which question types took you longer to solve. This information will help you design your study plan.
Another benefit of taking a GMAT practice test is that you will become familiar with the test’s format and timing. Your review of the individual questions will help you to know what you need to prioritize in order to improve. As you study, you will know exactly how you’ll use what you’re learning to ace test problems.
Taking GMAT practice tests under conditions as similar as possible to those you will experience on Test Day is important. For example, don’t take longer breaks than allowed (on the real test, you’ll get one 10-minute break), and don’t eat or drink, except as would be allowed during your official test. If possible, take the test in one sitting, and take it at the same time of day that you intend to take the real test.
Finally, plan to spend at least 1.5 hours reviewing your test in depth within 2 days of taking it. Practice tests generate a lot of great data to help you in your studies; take the time to analyze it.
[GOOD TO KNOW: What’s a Good GMAT Score?]
Step 2: Set Up Your GMAT Study Schedule
Studying most days of the week will improve your score more than studying the same total amount of time but just on one or two days a week. Many students find that studying 5 days a week in three 30-minute segments, for a total of an hour and a half each day, helps them make significant progress. Because your test is in 30 days, there will be some days where you need to devote 6 hours a day to your studies. Trying to do this in one long, marathon study session is counterproductive. Make sure you break this up into hour-long or 90 minute-long sessions, giving yourself 20 or 30 minutes to mentally rest between each session.
Do not study the exact same material in sequential study sessions. For example, if you do one study session on Ratios, make the next study session on Exponents. You can then do more work in Ratios in a later study session.
A GMAT mobile app gives you flexibility and convenience to create small study sessions throughout the day. But you will still require some dedicated 30+ minute study sessions when you can work on focused content from a resource such as a GMAT book. Make sure you build these study sessions into a workable schedule.
Finally, do not study new material the day before any practice test. Studying on such a compressed timeline, you will need to study on those days. But make those study sessions re-reviews of previous problems. Practice questions that you missed in your initial attempt but that you now know how to solve, solidifying the good habits that will get you correct answers on similar problems.
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Block out time to take four total full-length practice tests. Take the first test at the very beginning of your study schedule, and take the second test one week later. The final two practice tests should be taken one week apart from each other, ideally on the same day of the week and time of day that you plan to take the official test. If you have exactly 30 days until your test, this schedule puts practice tests on days 1, 8, 15, and 23 of your study plan. This is intentional: You do not want to take a full-length practice test too close to your official test. While you can build some flexibility into this practice test regimen, under no circumstances do you want to take a full-length practice test within four days of your official test.
Practice tests measure your progress, make you more familiar with the test’s timing and format, and build your mental endurance. After each test, invest at least 1.5 hours reviewing the test—after you’ve given yourself a mental break of at least 30 minutes.
Schedule your study time and practice tests on your calendar and then keep those appointments with yourself. The same way you show up for class or work on time, you are going to “show up” for GMAT studying on time.
Step 3: Develop Your 1-Month GMAT Study Plan
How should you study? An effective approach is to first use a resource such as a GMAT book in conjunction with the GMAT Official Guide to learn some strategies and content, and then follow up by practicing what you just learned with test-like problems. Applying what you learn right away to the types of problems you’ll see on Test Day will help you solidify your knowledge so it sticks with you.
Before anything else, if you struggle with aspects of pen-on-paper math (most likely because you have not done this in years), consider completing the Foundations of GMAT Math program in the first week of your studies. Although this will put more pressure on learning more advanced content in the final three weeks of your studies, any flaws in your math foundations make all your more advanced knowledge unreliable. For example, even if you have a solid understanding of how to translate a ratio problem, if you cannot work with fractions correctly, you will still likely get the problem wrong.
What should you study after Foundations of GMAT Math, or what should you study if you do not struggle with pen-and-paper math? That depends on the results of your practice test. Focus on material that is a “weakness opportunity” for you, prioritizing the content that is most often tested.
A “weakness opportunity” is something that you’re struggling with right now, but you also think you have the opportunity to improve. Maybe you know how to do it but you’re slower than is necessary for the GMAT. Or maybe you did well on this topic in school, but you need to practice to get your skills back. Don’t focus on your “worst” weaknesses—go after the lower-hanging fruit first. For example, people all too often decide to work on probability questions, even though this content area is one of the most time-consuming to master and is not as commonly tested—don’t start here.
An example of a better decision is to focus on linear equations and exponents first. These are more frequently tested than many other topics. In addition, these form a foundation for the math mechanics needed to solve many other questions. So if these are a weakness for you, start with linear equations and exponents; worry about other content later.
Additionally, statistics topics are very common on the GMAT. Average and median are far more commonly tested than standard deviation, so again, start with the material that is more commonly tested.
On the Verbal side, “Critical Reasoning: Find the Assumption” questions form a foundation that you can use to master many other question types. If Reading Comprehension questions are a weakness, invest time in them early in your study plan.
During one or two study sessions in the two days before each practice test, add in some general review of strengths that you have not practiced that week. For example, if you’re great at Critical Reasoning (and therefore haven’t been prioritizing it in your studies), do some CR problems in a 30-minute study session to solidify your approach one or two days before the next practice test.
Finally, there is the issue of Data Insights questions. The actual content tested in this section largely mimics the content tested in the Quantitative and Verbal sections, so improving content from these two sections will itself generate improvement in Data Insights. After that, you will want one week of study sessions to master the peculiarities of the Data Insights question types.
Sample Study Plans for 1-Month GMAT Studying
Below are two examples of real study plans: one for Casey, who self-studies, and one for Ayo, who takes a Bootcamp class and is aiming for a very high score.
| Future MBA | Casey | Ayo |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | Plans to earn an MBA while working full-time as a product manager and wants to attend the best-ranked program in his city. His target score is a 605. | Will take leave from her engineering job to earn an MBA from a school with a top national ranking. Her target score is a 695. Ayo takes a Bootcamp Class in addition to self-study. |
| Diagnostic Score | 545 | 615 |
| Week 1 | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Study 4 days × 1.5 hours/day – Study 1 day × 6 hours/day – Study 1 day × 1.5 hours/day | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Class 3 days × 3.5 hours – Study 3 days × 3 hours/da |
| Week 2 | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Study 4 days × 1.5 hours/day – Study 1 day × 6 hours/day – Study 1 day × 1.5 hours/day | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Class 3 days × 3.5 hours – Study 3 days × 3 hours/day |
| Week 3 | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Study 4 days × 1.5 hours/day – Study 1 day × 6 hours/day – Study 1 day × 1.5 hours/day | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Class 4 days × 3.5 hours – Study 3 days × 3 hours/day |
| Week 4 | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Study 4 days × 1.5 hours/day – Study 1 day × 6 hours/day | – Practice Test + Review (4.5 hours total) – Study 5 days × 3 hours/day |
| Day Before the Test | Nothing | Nothing |
| Total Prep Hours | 70.5 Hours | 94 Hours |
You may notice that Casey’s study plan, although not as intense as Ayo’s, is still very demanding. This reflects a hard truth: Most people who study for the GMAT need approximately 100 hours of prep time, and doing that in one month is very difficult.
Ayo’s plan is particularly aggressive. In fact, Ayo’s plan is likely not possible for most people; a study plan this aggressive will likely create counterproductive levels of mental and physical exhaustion. As you build your study plan, maintain a realistic assessment of how many hours you can study each week, and adjust the plan and your goal as necessary.
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Step 4: Practice Time Management
The GMAT is scored differently from a traditional exam: The score is not based on the number of problems you get right, but rather on the difficulty of the problems that you get right vs. wrong. Accordingly, time management strategy is crucial. If you spend too much time on the hardest questions, trying to get them right, you’ll have to rush on easier ones, and making careless mistakes on easier problems will cost you far more than the boost you can earn by getting hard problems right.
If you are planning on taking the GMAT in a testing center, you can develop special note-taking techniques using a GMAT test simulation booklet. This preparation tool can help you become comfortable with the laminated scratch paper that you’ll use on an Official GMAT administered in a testing center.
If you are planning on taking the GMAT Online exam, you can use both a digital and a physical whiteboard for your scratch work. Having a plan for when to use each type can help you optimize your question times.
[NEXT: GMAT Time Management]
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