First, I remember having read about the
error log on gmatclub, and did not understand quite well what it was at the beginning. But after a while, I realized that from the beginning I had done one: an excel file where:
- I gathered all the points I had maken a mistake on for SC. I found several idiom lists but I actually never used it, too long and too messy to learn. This has to be learnt with practice.
- I summarized the techniques to approach each verbal question in the way which was the best for me. I mean
Kaplan has an approach, Princeton another,
Veritas also, but after some practice I found out which was the best for me.
- I built a vocabulary list that I reviewed daily, and where I would daily add all the unknown words found in SC, CR and RC questions. There was quite a lot a t the beginning, but daily review helped etching their meanings inside my head and reducing the list of the words I could not remember.
- I summarized all the quant points I had difficulty to learn (definition of mutliple, factor, mode, and so on)
- I also included my schedule on this file, with my daily objectives.
Error log is definitely a personal thing, I can send mine to whoever wants it, but you have to start your own and check it daily, so that after a month or so, the
error log is actually in your head.
After that, I guess there is no secret:
practice, practice, practice and practice. Of course practice must be smartly done and well followed-up. After reading the answer of a question, read thoroughly the answer and make absolutely sure that you understand it. Then gather all the question you got wrong on a file, and a month after, you should come back to this file (let some time between the moment you make the file and the moment you come back to it, to be sure not to remember the answer).
Then for international students, reading english books can help a lot. Of course difficult ones like F. Scott Fitzgerald are the best, but the Economist, of the Harvard Political Review on the net, or anything that is not too simple and easy to read are quite good to practice.
Finally, and I really regret not having done it enough:
be active in gmatclub forum, post your answers with commentary (I hate these posts where you have the question, 6 different answers saying "Answer is B", "Yep, B it is", and so on, then "OA is B". What is the point ????? Explain your choices in detail, it helps both yourself and the person who will read it!), and after you reach 200 posts, make some quant challenge, I did only the 25 (in free access) 5 days before my last trial, and I definitely regretted not having reached more than 20 posts...
For other details about my experience check
http://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=213529#213529
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