Building the plan

A plan is three numbers and a calendar. Anything more elaborate doesn't survive contact with a school term.

#The three numbers

1. Your target. Not "as high as possible". Look up the middle 50% score range for the schools you actually want — every US university publishes it — and take the 75th percentile of your top choice. That's the number. Write it down with a section split, because a 1450 built as 780M/670RW is a completely different training plan from one built as 700M/750RW.

2. Your gap. Target minus diagnostic. A gap under 60 points is a few weeks of method work. A gap of 100–150 is a serious term's work. A gap over 200 is a year, and pretending otherwise is how people burn out in month two.

3. Your weeks. Count backwards from your test date. Subtract exam weeks, holidays you won't work through, and the last week before the test (which is taper, not training). What's left is what you have.

#The week

Three blocks a week beats seven days of twenty minutes. The unit that works:

• Block A — content. One lesson from this course, plus 15–20 questions of that exact type. 45–60 minutes.
• Block B — content. Same, different domain. Alternate Reading and Writing with Math so neither goes cold. 45–60 minutes.
• Block C — review. No new material. Re-do every question you missed since the last review block, from scratch, without looking at your previous answer. 30–45 minutes.

Block C is the one people skip and the one that does the work. A question you got wrong and then read the explanation for is not learned; it's recognised. You only know it when you can do it cold a week later.

#Sequencing the domains

Work in this order unless your diagnostic says otherwise:

1. Standard English Conventions first. It's ~26% of Reading and Writing, it's a closed set of rules, and it's the fastest points on the whole test. A student who genuinely knows the boundary rules gets every one of these right, every time.
2. Algebra next, for the same reason: high weight, finite content, fully learnable.
3. Advanced Math, which is the other 35% and where most of the ceiling lives.
4. The rest, in whatever order your error log ranks them.

#The last two weeks

Stop learning new content. Two weeks out, everything is review, timing, and sleep. See The last two weeks.