GMAT Strategy for 90 Days

Question

Hello All,

I have registered my GMAT test for Nov 17, 2007. I just received OG 11 guide and waiting for arrival of following books from Amazon.

1. KAPLAN 800 2008 edition
2. KAPLAN Premier edition 2007-2008 edition
3. Princeton Review Crack GMAT 2008 edition
4. KAPLAN MATH workshop 

I am working professional and I have around 90+ days to go (2-3 hours per day). I am really confused how do I start? How much time to brush up (10 years away from school) and when should I take practice tests (which one first).

Any help in this matter is appreciated!

Thanks...Atul

ioiio · Answer

None of the 4 books mentioned here have a lot of admirers in this forum. Though it's very subjective, the MGMAT books are the favorites here.

OG is brilliant. MGMAT is great, Kaplan is not bad and princeton is a good starter

CrazyHorse · Answer

I used Princeton Review and the official materials and both were really useful. The PR book offers a great introduction to the test, so I would read through it first.

Since you've been out of school for 10 years, I would start by brushing up on your fundamentals. Use the math workbook you bought, definitely. If you don't need intensive verbal prep, more than what's in the overall review guides, then I would use the PR book for verbal. They're strong on verbal.

Start just with review and practice questions. Don't take a full test until you've spent a good 2-3 hours on each question type. Then do a practice test (GMATPrep, free from https://www.mba.com, and PR's tests were the most accurate for me). I would strongly recommend the Official Guide, 11th edition, for practice questions.

After you've taken a first practice test, compare your results to how you were doing on untimed questions. That should give you some ideas about how to plan your prep.

Also, be sure you don't study every single day. You'll burn out!

kryzak · Answer

Here's my suggestion, but I strongly recommend you check out the "stickied" posts at the top of "Share your GMAT Experience" board. It has some VERY good and detailed study methods there. That's where I started.

Anyway, I can only recommend the PR book (but NOT the PR CATs), as it does give you very good intros and refreshers for math and verbal. 1. Read through the PR book on how to take the test for each section, watch the DVD, and review your math. This should take 1 week if you do 2-3 hours a day. 2. Go to the OG11, and take the diagnostic test at the beginning of the book, untimed, and see how you do. This should give you a good idea on how to take the test and answer the quesitons. 3. Download GMATPrep from mba.com. Download PowerPrep by doing a search for "PowerPrep download" in GMATClub forums or on Google. PowerPrep is the older version of GMATPrep. It has a lot of problems from OG11, so now looking back, I would actually suggest you take PowerPrep Test 1 first and see how you do. That will give you a good idea of A. How good you are on the test, thus how much you need to study, and B. Which section(s) you're weakest in. 4. Now if you score 650+ in PowerPrep1, you probably don't need *too* much studying, so start doing the OG11 quesitons from the 1/2 way point on in each section (if there are 100 questions, start from question 51). Keep track of which ones you miss and your "hit rate". Try to time yourself and keep to 2 minutes per problem. 5. If you get 650 and under, I would suggest you get Manhattan books for the sections you're weak on. Their books are a good structured way to study questions through the OG. 6. If you run out of problems to do and your practice scores are still somewhat low, get the Verbal and Quant review also from OG. 7. Take PowerPrep2 after a couple weeks of studying. You'll see some repeat questions from OG, but it'll give you a good idea of how you're doing. 8. Take GMATPrep1 after a month of studying. This will give you a very accurate indicator of what you may get on the real GMAT. 9. I don't recommend any CATs except for Manhattan GMAT CAT, and even then, beware of the math section. 10. Keep reporting your progress here on GMATClub and we'll all help out! Good luck!

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