Since my score is definitely attributable to the gmatclub website and resources, want to contribute back by sharing my journey for whoever's interested and hopefully provide motivation for some.
Myself: Working a full time job with a heavy workload, no luxury of spending dedicated days to study ( I wish I was back in university undergrad days! ) Decided to start prep 8 months ago and the plan was to slowly grind my way through.
Given my limited time and bandwidth, I decided not to waste too much time analyzing the test structure and question type. This is perhaps unconventional given the amount of strategising taking place on this website and many others, but I didn't want to waste brainspace.
Till now, I have no clear idea what CR, V, AWA, RC etc etc and all these acronyms mean and I only read up timing strategies the night before the test (for those who are taking my path, perhaps its good to remember the most efficient data point: Quant 5 questions in 10 minutes, Verbal 5 questions in 9 minutes)
So with all these clutter kept out of my head, I just started practicing from day 1. Again unconventionally, I did not care about timing (as consistent with the above fact that I did not know timing strategies till the night before). I figure that if I'm good and proficient enough through practice, timing will be a secondary issue. Hence,
I also did no bother doing full tests and had never done one before the real exam (I also did not have the luxury of having 2-3 hour blocks of time, I was and am still that busy)
Since I knew Quant was my weakness, I spent each day for the past 8 months doing 10 questions each night. Just 10, and understanding where I went wrong (or falling asleep at the computer while doing so late at night) I just went from one test database to another,
official guide, princeton guide, kaplan books, gmatclub, veritas prep and
magoosh. It doesn't need to cost much as you can get second hand books off ebay/amazon/local resellers.
Of the lot,
1)
The official guide was essential to understand the question type and structure. You gotta start somewhere! Both for quant and verbal
2) Once you get the hang of the questions, quickly proceed to doing the testbank questions and don't waste time studying theory.
3) gmatclub was the best for Quant - there is no alternative. I did the entire gmatclub quant bank twice.
4)
magoosh is best for verbal. I also did the entire
magoosh verbal testbank twice.
The usual learning discipline must apply - learn from your mistakes. Again I emphasis here that I focused much less on timing that understanding how to do the question
efficiently.
Doing all the above brought me pretty much to the test date itself. During the actual examination, I focused on the questions and only once in a while checked the timing. In sequence, Quant timing was tight (I guessed 1 question), while I finished verbal with 12 minutes to spare (U will learn to read fast after doing the
magoosh testbank 2 times over). I didn't even know what was intergrated reasoning before I saw the actual questions but those are just basic intelligence tests. Analytic writing was my last section and I just let the words loose (with proper argument flow and structure of course).
So I hope this presents an alternative approach to the test --> Practice makes perfect, keep out the distractions and clutter, and practice. Be consistent, make up for quantity with quality practice. Keep at it, chip away at it. And you will get there.
Cheers!