I don't normally post to this website very much, but I can tell all of you that I have been a frequent lurker for the past nine months. I took my GMAT yesterday, October 24, and thank God it was the last time. I originaly took the test in March and I received a 630 (M46 V31) and I was pretty upset. I knew it wasn't a horrible score, but it wouldn't even get me in the door for the elite schools I hoped to apply to. My orginal study plan went as follows...
Kaplan GMAT classroom based course
OG 9th edition
OG 10th edition
Princeton Review, 2004
I think my biggest waste of time was the Kaplan course. The methods they teach are wonderful for moving from a 550 to a 600, but if you want a serious increase in scores, then you have to know the concepts. After I came to realize this, and after I blew a ton of money on the course. I changed my study plan to the following.
GMATCLUB forum math and verbal posts everyday.
GMATCLUB challenges everyday.
LSAT reading comp, and logical reasoning everyday.
Intensive probability study online.
I chose probability because it was my weakest point in math. The last thing I did that I really think boosted my score was that I took practice tests everyday for two weeks before the tests. I focused on pace, and timing. I came to realize I was putting too much energy on my essays, and consequently I faded during the real meat of the test, math and verbal.
As for the actual test. It was really fine, I thought I did fairly well, but I didn't think I had a chance at anything above a 700. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw my score 710 M47 V40 pop up on the screen. I was in heaven! The math section was pretty standard, one hard probability I was cursing myself for not knowing. Then other strange number properties questions I knew I couldn't answer. The verbal had a huge amount of sentence correction. I didn't even get to a critical reasoning question until my 16th question! But I just stuck with the test, and did my best. I really think the LSAT questions helped me here.
I guess my advice is to keep on truckin' and never give up. The test can seem invincible at times, but I promise you it can be beat. Now I'm on to my essays, it seems like this process will never end! Thanks for everything guys.