I took the GMAT after working in industry for 12 years. Just gave it all up and took a break of three months and ten days for preparation. My previous GMAT of 670 (Q48, V34) in 2002 did not prepare me for this encounter and I could'nt manage a good score on the Quant. However, I would like to share some "best practices" which helped me avoid a much lower score.
1.
e-GMAT individual course in sentence correction helped me gain a lot of confidence before the exam
2.
Manhattan Prep Critical Reasoning was adequate for CR preparation. Princeton Review Verbal Review for the GMAT - Critical Reasoning - helped me with additional preparation that was very useful for both the AWA and the TOEFL
Note: Princeton Review Verbal Review is part of the classroom course
3. GMAC Practice Test #1 (640 - V35, Q42), #2 (640 - V31, Q47), #3 (590 - V34, Q37), and #4 (690 - V36, Q48) in the last ten days helped me build stamina, plan the last 3-minute guessing strategy (very important), and time management.
As you can see my Quant scores were yo-yoing and I probably needed some more fundamental practice but my 3-month timeframe was used up and I had to do the best I could with my current level of prep.
4.
Manhattan Prep Reading Comprehension gave me enough confidence to tackle GMAT RC.
5. Princeton Review, Gurgaon provided adequate training to score up to 650 and no more. However, the peer group discussions are useful to pace yourself and measure progress on an otherwise, lonely endeavour. I probably needed another month of additional math tutorials to reach my target score of 680.
6. Needless to say, the gmatclub list of GMAC Prep questions, explanations, and blogs about the real exam helped me a lot. In hindsight, I should have invested more time on
gmatclub tests and/or
e-GMAT Quant online.
7. I found
Bunuel analysis of score based on first 10 questions correct, next 10 questions correct, etc. helpful in my strategy.
That is all I can remember. I hope you find these tips useful to your own preparation.