760

I thought I should post here because this forum has been immensely helpful to me. I greatly believe in giving back, and this is my contribution. This debrief is probably not brief, but during my preparation I found that the longer the debrief, the more helpful it tended to be.

I have listed some general strategies below that worked for me. I encourage you to read debriefs during your free time time to motivate yourself and also to get ideas from. I did not take any coaching or tuition classes, and all the ideas that I got about which mocks to take and and which books to follow were from debriefs I read here. I hope this is helpful to you.

Strategies:

Check if the erasable notepad and pens work or not.

AWA: Keep an eye on the clock. Finish 2-3 minutes before time so that you can reread and edit for spelling and grammatical mistakes. Try to write at least 500 words.

Material:
Chinese Burned
MGMAT CATs
GMAT Prep Free CATs
GMAT Prep Exam Pack 1

IR: 30 minutes for 12 questions. Try to do swiftly. If the question seems too complicated, skip it. Remember that you can use the calculator.

Material:
MGMAT CATs
GMAT Prep Free CATs
GMAT Prep Exam Pack 1

After the AWA and IR section, get a new notepad.

QA:
PS: Read the question, understand what is going on, then solve it. Write even the simplest of equations to completion to avoid making silly mistakes. Try not to make mistakes in the first ten questions. If too complicated, skip.

DS: write down part 1, solve, check with question stem. Next to it, write NS or Suff. Write down part 2 solve, check with question stem. Next to it, write NS or Suff. If both not suff., then solve using both and then mark answer. Try not to make mistakes in the first ten questions. If too complicated, skip.

Time distribution:
0 questions 75 mins
10 questions 55 mins
20 questions 35 mins
30 questions 15 mins
37 questions 1 min

Material:
OG 16
Manhattan Advanced Quant
MGMAT CATs
GMATClub
GMAT Prep Software Questions
GMAT Prep Free CATs
GMAT Prep Exam Pack 1

I got a fresh notepad after this section too, but many people may not need one. My handwriting is really big and cursive.

VA:
CR: Read the question stem, understand the stem and what it is asking for, go through the answers. If the answers look close, write down abcde on note pad and strike out. After choosing the answer, reread the stem and the question to make sure that your option makes sense. If you are stuck in an assumption question, use the negation technique.

RC: Read the passage and then go to the questions. Understand what the question is asking for. Even if the answer seems obvious, go back to the passage to verify the answer that you have chosen.

SC: When you have chosen an answer, put it back in the main statement and make sure it is grammatically correct as a whole.

Time distribution:
0 questions 75 mins
10 questions 57 mins
20 questions 39 mins
30 questions 21 mins
40 questions 3 mins
1 question 1.2 min

Material:
OG 16
OG Verbal 12 (except RC)
Manhattan SC
PowerPrep CR Bible
MGMAT CATs
GMAT Prep Software Questions
GMAT Prep Free CATs
GMAT Prep Exam Pack 1

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am open to editing my answer to add anything I might have missed.