If you came here, it is probably because you want to improve yourself on GMAT.
Don't bother if you've finished the material
Don't worry if you've been struggling


Ohk I'll be upfront with you. Don't waste time in making excel sheet of the hours you've spent studying. It truly is a waste of time given that you get online access to all the OG material, on gmat.wiley.com. The metric option takes care of that for you.
Secondly, AWA is a cut off factor, if you have an AWA of 4.5 or 5, good enough, no one cares even if you get a 6. Something like that goes for IR, the rejection factor, if it comes to the Adcom that a tie between few candidates is creating an issue, they do use IR as a rejecting factor. I've seen two 720 scorers dinged for the same reason. I can say that you can get at least 5 in IR with decent prep. IR 6-8 is good.


Now regarding the practice.
Make sure that you learn every concept in OG properly, Sentence correction can be an issue in which you could benefit from courses such as Jamboree, Empowergmat, manhattan, or magoosh, or any other courses that you prefer.

DONOT USE THE REVIEW

Wait, don't get me wrong, what I'm trying to say is that it is the official material that you'll need to attain momentum before test. So after you're done with OG, take GMAT Prep test 1, remember, you have 6 tests ( empowergmat gives you all the tests codes for free for subscription, jamboree gives 2(test 5&6)). Make sure before you give the test to pace yourself and not to pause anywhere in between the tests, breaks included, take only 8 mins (or less) for break. As soon as you get the score, You'll receive a sectional score and the chart of all questions (I'd not suggest you to see solution if your score is less than 600). If your score is above 600, buy the practice questions from the mba store(official site). It will help you prepare more from official questions. Then after 5-6 days, as soon as you're finished with question pack, give test 2, check your progress. If the score goes near 660- 680 (or more), time to gain the momentum; START THE REVIEW BOOKS, keep practising and finish it within a week or so, best use the online access to pace yourself and to save time. After it's over take test 5, don't be disappointed if you get a lower score than 700, the quant is essentially more daunting than test 1. Brush up your concepts in 2-3 days, give test 6, you'll probably reach a 700.

Now before giving test 3&4, give all the unofficial mocks, not to improve score but to improve speed. DO NOT CARE ABOUT UNOFFICIAL TEST SCORES.

If you're not confident revise the review phase again
Give test 3 and see where you stand.
If you're happy with the scores book a test date 7 days from then
Brush up for two days give test 4.
If you're near your target score. Give the test.
If you're not, practice where you're weak, or feeling weak, gain momentum again and repeat the process.

Now if you're ready to give the tests, just review all the questions of the tests, see where you went wrong, you can practice the EP questions on GMAT Club too.
I suggested not to see solutions of tests initially because you might repeat those tests again if you're still not ready. And when questions repeat, your score inflates. So its better to be safe than sorry.

Sorry for a long post.
If you really think that my post has helped you even partly, a gratitude in form of like would mean a lot to me.

P.S.
Stick to official material during the momentum phase, no outside material should hinder your test prep.
You can/should refer to the other material in practice phase i.e along with OG.
2-3 hours for quant and 2 hours for verbal will be sufficient.

Disclaimer- Technique worked for a sample of individuals; GMAT has experimental questions too that can inflate/deflate your score on actual test day; luck factor is not covered in this strategy. However, if you're doing all the official material with care, you'll get a score good enough for an ivy league. Score may vary with IQ of an individual.

The following individuals have always helped me during my preparation, check out their posts for extra material
souvik101990 bb SajjadAhmad carcass
Bunuel Narenn EMPOWERgmatRichC
_________________

Hahahahaha, Does indeed sound like it

Thanks pal.
I want to help anyone who is struggling as I did.
_________________

YazedMA you can try Manhattanprep CATs. While their Quant is quite hard, Verbal is realistic and comparable to a real thing. Tests from Veritas might be another good option. Good luck.

Hi mykrasovski - thank you for the piece of advice. Unfortunately, I used all 6 Manhattan Prep tests. My next option may be Veritas or GMAT club CATs.

Hi Rich- thank you very much for your detailed answer. Here is my story.

1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?

I have been studying GMAT over a year from August 2018 until now and I have been struggling with GMAT. It has been really tough since I have been stuck at 470 for a long time.
I typically study about 15 hours a week.

2) What study materials have you used so far?

I used all Manhattan 10 books and e-gmat for SC and RC. I am currently using powerscore for CR and may buy powerscore for RC.

3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

I took all 6 Manhattan prep tests twice (12 in total) and I took all GMAC practice tests 1 to 6. I also took the first two twice. I took the real GMAT four times so far. The list below shows my scores along with their splits.

Manhattan Prep:

CAT 5A Completed 5/5/2019 550 (Q35, V31)
CAT 4A Completed 4/14/2019 550 (Q35, V31)
CAT 3A Completed 4/7/2019 570 (Q37, V31)
CAT 2A Completed 3/10/2019 580 (Q38, V31)
CAT 1A Completed 3/4/2019 580 (Q39, V31)
CAT 6 Completed 2/17/2019 440 (Q28, V24)
CAT 5 Completed 12/23/2018 500 (Q39, V20)
CAT 4 Completed 11/11/2018 510 (Q38, V22)
CAT 3 Completed 10/28/2018 500 (Q38, V21)
CAT 2 Completed 10/7/2018 550 (Q37, V29)
CAT 1 Completed 8/19/2018 530 (Q38 ,V25)

GMAC Practice tests:

GMAC practice test 1 Completed Aug 11 2018 340 (Q25, V12)
GMAC practice test 1 Completed Jul 21 2019 480 (Q37, V20) (second time)
GMAC practice test 2 Completed Jun 07 2019 460 (Q34, V20)
GMAC practice test 2 Completed Jun 15 2019 570 (Q45, V23) (second time)
GMAC practice test 3 Completed Sep 01 2019 550 (Q40, V25)
GMAC practice test 4 Completed Sep 21 2019 490 (Q31, V26)
GMAC practice test 5 Completed Oct 05 2019 460 (Q35, V18)
GMAC practice test 6 Completed Oct 19 2019 470 (Q35, V20)


Real GMAT:

GMAT Completed Nov 11 2018 Cancelled but score was under 400
GMAT Completed Jul 03 2019 460 (Q39, V16)
GMAT Completed Jul 31 2019 470 (Q35, V20)
GMAT Completed Nov 04 2019 480 (Q37, V19)


4) What is your overall goal score?

My goal is to get at least 650.


Overall, I think I did not extract all the possible lessons from all the practice questions I solved whether I answered them correctly or not. I just noticed that I have a time management problem in the verbal section. RC consumes so much time from me during the test. I may skip one of the 4 RCs in the future and probably the third one to save some time and not to rush through the last 10 questions. I also did not take my review log seriously. I mean I typed in all the questions I was not able to answer under 2 min, but I never reviewed the log.

Rich- any help from you or the GMAT club community members will be greatly appreciated as this GMAT journey turned out harder than I expected.

Thank you,
Yazed

Hi Yazed,

I've sent you a PM with some additional notes and questions.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
_________________