Just joined this forum -- need help

Hello

Thanks for the suggestion.
I am neither a big genius or a small one actually. My IQ is pretty much Ok and my score in some sample diagonistic tests is about 560(not of Kaplan).
Tutoring is ok but I also time and money for the same.
If for example I start with the Kaplans and read on. How do I sharpen my skills on verbal then on.
I am planning to take the test after say 8 months of preparation.
Is an hour a day not enough to acheive a good score of 700 +.

If I asking for too much, I am sorry

Thanks anyway for your advices
Appreciate your response

No, you are not asking for too much, actually most people ask for too little, as I see it, and then of course, I make the same mistake on my own when I try to contact employers, etc. Anyway, I can go on about this for a while, but I will get back to your question, which you will probably appreciate a whole lot more. :D

There several weaknesses as I see them in yoru plan. I will try to be specific:
1. 8 months seems too long to me. My memory is not as good as it used to be (I am in mid twennies). So, if you spend that much studying, most probably you will forget part of the skills/tricks that you gain while studying. At least I would have. I studied for about 3 months but pretty hard. I got sick of the whole thing by the end, real sick. I did not even bother taking extra practice tests.
2. No tutor is a little worse, but Kaplan will do most of work for you. Math usually is not as hard to prepare to as Verbal is. You can just solve a few thousand questions and pretty much you are ready for the math.
3. Verbal - I believe several things add to success here:
a. good language skills - esp reading and undestanding
b. ability to concentrate and stay focused
c. Strategy for the verbal part, practicing it and using it.
Many people make a mistake of following a strategy for RC/CR with exercises but drop them when they take a timed test - that's sad.

I picked up most of my reading skills from the Verbal workbook by Kaplan. I improved from 50% correct to about 75% in just a few minutes. Of course, before day came I had 2 months of frustration, but when I finally trusted and did as Kaplan said - stop to sum up, write down important parts, words, summarize after each paragraph, etc. it worked. It was a pretty fast change, which usually you dont' get with GMAT. Hardly ever there things that you can say A-HA...... that was the one for me.

With CR I would use Kaplan and also concentrate on things such as Paraphrase and Assumption. I have the first lesson on CR posted on the website and I will try to post another (though time is working against me). I have tried to explain both Assumptions and Paraphrases there as well as the importance of them.. There are also practice problems you can download and I have posted answers to those - Assumptions and Paraphrases. I would not bother actually answering the quesions, just work on A and P. They are important esp for International students because logic gets different across borders, believe or not

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Thanks again

This reply was really satisfying. I will take the Kaplan Verbal book for preparation. Let me see if I could do some good preparation and have a better score.