GMAT retake - some help needed

Question

Hello GMAT club members,
I'm here asking for some suggestions for my GMAT study plans.I took the GMA?T in sept 2010 and scored 490,although was getting 550-580 in prep tests. I need a 600-650 for my target schools..
I'm retaking the GMAT in march 2011 last week. I just booked the test because I got a time of my preference,12 PM. LAst time I gave the test at 8 AM, and that was also a reason why I messed up the test(I had to wake up by 6 am and was still sleepy when I started the test). The 12 PM slot is rarely available in my city. I've just started warming up to the GMAT again. I want to focus more on strategy/concepts thi time. Following are the books that I plan to use

1.OG 12,11,OG quant,OG verbal
2. Kaplan premier book - 2008 edition
3.kaplan math work book and kaplan verbal work book
4. powerscore CR
5.I'm confused if I should go with the mgmat guides or veritas guides. I want to buy either one of the guides for the concepts.
I have got a couple of fiction books,as lsted here on this website, for verbal reading as I need to improve in verbal .
Which ones would you guys suggest? Also,I don't know know where to start..Can any one help me with some pointers on a study plan? I have 3 months to go..
I took the TOEFL iBT recently and scored 102. So,that's some good news for me

I have MGMAT prep classes in my city but not sure if I should enrol in one. are there people here who have self studied and scored good?
Any other books/resources?
thanks for taking the time to read through my post.

I have MGMAT prep classes in my city but not sure if I should enrol in one. are there people here who have self studied and scored good? Any other books/resources? thanks for taking the time to read through my post.

rishiraj · Answer

You'll see many members here who score well on the GMAT without taking any prep course.However, you'll have to be disciplined and diligent if you're planning to go on your own. 
Regarding the books,the problem with all the test prep companies is not all of their books are great.
So instead of going for an entire set of books of one company, you may selectively wanna pick books for each of the areas.
For example, MGMAT Math Guides are quite good but you can do without MGMAT CR and RC Guides .For CR, PowerScore CR Guide and for RC,  RC99  are probably, in my opinion,the best books.
I have used Kaplan books also and again found them very average.

VictoryMBA · Answer

I'll just throw in my $0.02. I took the MGMAT Course and found it to be a waste of money unless you are incredibly unmotivated to study yourself. You're basically paying somebody to read out of the book and tell you to do your homework. The MGMAT books themselves however are worth investing in.

heygirl · Answer

Rishiraj and VictoryMBA, thanks for your inputs. Rishiraj, I do have the discipline but I get stuck on a few verbal concepts like grammar(I am not a native speaker). I am improving my Verbal skills by the list provided here by bb on fiction read :-D

. Hope that helps me. I think I will go with powerscore for CR. But, I’m still wondering if Veritas will be a better option for the rest as compared to MGMAT. RC 99 is a new book that I’m hearing now. Will check it out. I used Kaplan too, for my last attempt and found the questions to be non-GMAT type, but ok for practice. VictoryMBA, Exactly the same thing was told to me by a couple of friends - most prep companies only read out what is in their books. One plus is ,however, we get disciplined and motivated to study better by taking a class. Anyway, I think I’m going to stick to self study this time too. I'm still wondering though, what strategy guides are better for me.

shovitdhar · Answer

I think the books in the "GMAT Fiction" forum should be of help in improving the comprehension level and the familiarity with myraid areas.
I agree with rishiraj, you may want to get the MGMAT books for Maths. I have heard that they're really worth buying . I used RC99 and can vouch that it is the best book . The only drawback I see with the book is that it doesn't provide you strategies for RC. So for that, you may go through the strategies on RC forum, and then practice the passages from there.

heygirl · Answer

shovitdhar, thanks for your inputs.

I'm going to order a couple of books from GMAT fiction and start reading. I think within a month's time I can expect to see some improvement, isn't it; assuming that I read regularly? I have ordered the MGMAT Quant books. In my last attempt, I only vaguely went through number properties book. So, obviously, it did not help me. RC 99 is also something that I'm going to consider buying after a few weeks.
kudos +1

heygirl · Answer

Hello again,

After some planning, I have framed a GMAT strategy for myself. My test is somewhere in the middle of March 2011.
Following is the outline:

Week 1:Get familiar with GMAT Quant/MGMAT Strategy Guide 1
Week 2:Continue with Quant. Go through other MGMAT guides
Week 3:Again,MGMAT Quant guides and problem solving from OG
Week 4:Start CR strategy using Powerscore CR and/or MGMAT CR guide
Week 5:Develop Strategy for RC and go through some passages
Week 6:Dive into MGMAT SC guides and problems
Week 7:Work on Verbal problem sovling
Week8:Take many practise CATs and review weaknesses/error logs/strengths

In addition to this, I plan to spend 30 mins daily on RC,fiction/non-fiction material, and 30 mins on some basic grammar stuff(I have picked up a basic book from my library). I want to make sure that I gradually move up the curve on VErbal(I know that I am weak!!)

Please post your inputs. I will be more than happy to read your posts.
Thanks.

astalaa · Answer

I believe you have a sound selection of books but instead of seperating your weeks based on different GMAT parts (RC,CR,Quantitative etc.), you may wish to include part of each subject to each week so that you can develop in all parts simultaneously. This could enable you to make most out of your practice CATs. Also, I believe it will be better to start taking CATs as early as possible (i.e. in 3rd or 4th week) so that you get familiar with your exam-specific weakness in case you have any. (i.e. any pace problem on any specific part) This way, you will have enough time to improve yourself. Hope this helps

heygirl · Answer

Astalaa,Thank you for your inputs. I think that's a good suggestion - to incorporate parts of differnt sections in parallel. Will re-work my plan

More Inputs, welcome :-D

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GMAT retake - some help needed

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