New Member and the Ultimate Study Plan I have put together.

Hello everyone, this is only my second post but I have been familiarizing myself with this site and reading many of the "classic" threads for a few weeks now. I have gained so much in the short time I have been here and wanted to give back and summarize all of the reading I have done in an "Ultimate Study Guide/Plan" type post. First a little background:

I first took the GMAT in November 2004. I had a crappy Barron's GMAT book that I read over the course of Thanksgiving Break (my senior year of undergrad) and took the test the following Monday. I am a very quantitative person and scored very well as I worked my way through that book. It was my verbal that I expected to be my demise on test day. When I took the actual test I had zero familiarity with the sort of math questions I kept getting (I could solve them, but due to my lack of familiarity it often took longer than it should have causing me to rush at the end). After that, I had my weak section and I was highly depressed by my dismal quant performance so by the end I was sure I had completely bombed the exam. To my chagrin I ended up with a 700 (Q44, V41), and AWA of 6. Verbal saved me! I have no idea how to this day!

I never retook the GMAT or gave it much more thought because the score was "good enough" coupled with my GPA (although having read a lot of the posts/threads on here I now know exactly why I bombed the quant section, a section that was supposed to be my strength!). I went to grad school got two MS degrees and have been working in asset management for four years now.

Lately I have thought more and more about pursuing an MBA from a top-5 type school only. I feel like this is one of the things I truly want to accomplish in my life and that in the current environment it could be useful to opening some VC and M&A type work that I am particularly interested in.

With that in mind I figured out that I wanted to matriculate in Fall 2013 (so that I'd have 5+ years of experience) and started working backwards so I can apply early decision to the schools I am interested in (i.e. apps have to be in by Fall 2012). I wanted to the summer to work on my apps, essays, and recs. So I figured take it by late May (as it turns out once I started reading this was perfect since I wouldn't have to study for the new section being added in June). I wanted at least 3 good months of study I figured I'd start studying right after I got back from a big vacation I have planned at the start of February.

So I started doing some planning so I could jump right in when I got home. Good thing, I did because I came across this site and quickly figured out that getting and earlier start, especially in regard to planning and gathering materials may be wise. So for the past few weeks I have been reading, gathering the knowledge of those that came before me and putting together what I consider to be the Ultimate Study Plan for the GMAT which I now present for your perusal:

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that this is based on having quite a bit of time to devote to the GMAT and focuses ultimately on the highest level of achievement (my target score is a 760 or above). I am accustomed to studying for tests that cover a substantial amount of information and take months to prepare for (I got a CFA and FRM over the course of 18 months), if you aren't feel free to adapt the plan to your particular needs or pick and choose based on your own particular needs, goals and constraints.

Timeline: Now through late May (I will schedule the GMAT once I feel like I am fully prepared and confident, but before the new section is introduced in June; I don't want to restrict myself to a specific drop-dead date as I feel it would be counterproductive and stressful. Hence, by starting this process now I feel that I have given myself ample time to cover everything I need to before the changes kick in.

Math
General Outline: I plan to cover #1 to refresh myself prior to beginning my studies in earnest in early January.
1. Foundations of GMAT Math: GMAT Strategy Supplement by MGMAT (complete this between now and New Year's)
2. MGMAT Guides 1-4
3. Advanced GMAT Quant: GMAT Strategy Supplement by MGMAT
Supplement with:
4. The Official Guide for GMAT Review 10th and 12th Ed. (skip 11th ed minimize overlap; yes I know OG10 has overlap with questions on the software provided, I feel the benefit of the ones that don't overlap is greater than the cost of seeing a few familiar questions on practice exams); questions in these get more difficult as you move through them
5. The Official Guide for GMAT Quant Review 1st Ed. (I already have the first which greatly overlaps with the 2nd so I am not going to waste my money since this book mostly has easy and average difficulty level questions; if you wish feel free to substitute with the 2nd Ed., if I had it i would use it)
If still scoring poorly after covering all these materials get:
6. Jeff Sackmann's Total GMAT Math
Finish out practice with:
7. GMAT Club Tests and Jeff Sackmann's Challenge Sets (hardest quant questions around)

Verbal
General Outline: I plan to cover #1 to refresh myself prior to beginning my studies in earnest in early January.
1. Foundations of GMAT Verbal: GMAT Strategy Supplement by MGMAT (complete this between now and New Year's)
2. MGMAT Guides 5-8
Supplement with:
4. The Official Guide for GMAT Review 10th and 12th Ed.
5. The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Ed. (I have the 2nd Ed. of this book, hence I am using it;)
If still scoring poorly on:
a) SC-get The PowerScore SC Bible or GMAT Ultimate Grammar (or both)
b) CR-get The PowerScore CR Bible

Tests/CATs
1. GMATPrep and PowerPrep Software Test (with software re-install to use everything in the question bank!)
2. MGMAT CATs (6, available with purchase of any of the eight guidebooks, even if you buy on Amazon for what is essentially half price!)
3. GMAT Club tests and exercise sets
4. Jeff Sackmann's Challenge Sets

Additional tips/tools to use as you work through this material:
1. Take notes in a notebook as you read and work through questions. Write down anything you don't know, need to work on or look back over
2. Keep an error log of EVERY SINGLE QUESTION YOU ANSWER! I don't care where you find it write it down and keep track of it for review!
3. Review ALL questions and their explanation, EVEN THOSE YOU ANSWER CORRECTLY!
4. Utilize these forums, they are your best resource (I can't tell you how helpful the forum community was to me when I was taking my CFA and FRM exams!). Get engaged and post often (whether to answer the questions of others or to post your own).

Well I think that about sums up the distillation of the best of the best of what I have learned and read about GMAT Club and Amazon book reviews over the last two weeks. I hope this helps someone, as much as the stuff that has been posted here has already helped me! Nothing really new here, more like my own subjective synthesis of what seems to be THE BEST OF of a lot of the really long and useful threads on this site.

Apologies for the length of this post and congratulations on making it through!

AD