Hey folks,
I have been using gmatclub for 2 3 years now. Here is my story:
I am a full time employee working for 12 hours (including commutation + 9.5 hours actual work) with a reputed IT company in India as Senior Specialist. My domain of work is Backup and Storage. I have a work experience of 5 years. In 2010, I started with the prep for GMAT and gave it about 5 months of studies (July to December 2010). I used to even study at work for at least 4 5 hours (don't ask), plus 4 hours at home after work + ~16 hours a day every weekend. Yeah, I was talking in GMAT, I was sleeping in GMAT, and I was breathing in GMAT.... I followed a study plan (which I dont have now), and took 6 or 7 CATs. (2 GMAT preps, + Kaplan +princeton). But, inspite of all this studying, I used to get a score of around 590 (more or less) everytime. I had taken GMAT prep 1 after 2 weeks from starting the preparation and had scored a 560. Maximum was a 610 in one of Kaplan's test. GMAT prep 2 was 600 at the end of 5 months. I was unrealistically ambitious at that time and my stupid heart would not settle for anything less than 700. So, before I knew it, I cancelled GMAT and got my $80 back... Reasons:
1) I thought I'd give more time to GMAT, score more and get a better school in US to do MBA from. Plus, whatever time I take to finally take GMAT would be added to my total work experience and would better my application
2) I had to switch my company of work due to monetary reasons and that took like 2 3 months after that 5 month GMAT period. Then with shifting cities and all, I spend another 6 months at this company, after which I was forced to change the company again because of the hostile work environment in this one (November 2011). Now, I am at the current company (Nov 2011 to now)
Now, I have decided to not get my hopes high and settle for a lesser known school which provides a better chance of getting a job in US than any other at its level. I zeroed in on Purdue Calumet (or Krannert, if I could make it). A score of 590-610 would be enough to get me in, although I am aiming for at least a 630 so as not to have any hiccups in the selection process. The last application date is March 1 2013 for the August session. Tentative date of GMAT: January 20th.
So, could you nice folks please look at the following study plan and find out any shortcomings/additions/subractions
I started on 10/20/2012 again and went thru this forum to find out the best books to study. The books that I zeroed on are:
1) Quant: GMATclub free ebook. I also have all the 4th edition
Manhattan GMAT books. Apart from this,
I would need suggestions from you guys.2) SC, CR, IR, RC, essays: Manhattan.
Only Manhattan books are available in India (both retail +kindle edition, I have a kindle touch). Question is that I have all the 4th edition books (except IR of course) lying around from the last time of preparation. Should I go for 5th edition? Are they similar? Too much different? I tried a few samples from Amazon's kindle shop and found differences in terms of writing style. Could you guys please let me know if overall the 4th edition is too much different from the 5th?For practice, I have all the OGs from 10th ed to 13th, so that would not be a problem. Plus, I just received Manhattan IR in the mail and so I have access to 6 CATs now. Plus, I have already ordered Kaplan New GMAT Premier 2013 with 5 Computer Adaptive Practice Tests (Paperback)
https://www.flipkart.com/kaplan-new-gmat-premier-2013-5-computer-adaptive-practice-tests-1609780930/p/itmdfgdfhdz6atw9?pid=9781609780937, so that gives me a book worth of practice questions + 5 CATs.
Now, I am looking at you guys again to suggest what else should I get for practicing. Please keep in mind that this time, I wont need as much time reading, so most of my time would be gone in doing practice questions. The more the better.