Hi,
I am a PhD candidate in Computer Science at a university in Colorado.
I plan to take GMAT sometime in Sep. this year. I plan to take advantage of this coming summer break and spend at least two months (full time) on the preparation.
To gauge my level, I took one PowerPrep sample test this morning, and finished the Math section with 25 minutes left (I guess I went too fast

, but had lots of problems with the sentence construction sections. Here is a rough outline of the result:
Screwed a few Math problems.
Screwed 7 out of 15 for sentence replacement/construction problems.
4 out of 14 for reading comprehension problems.
3 out of 11 for CR problems.
So the total score comes out as something close to 630.
I am from China originally, and have been working towards PhD in CS for the past six years. (Will get it this Dec. hopefully). I think I have strong reading and analytical abilities because I took a lot of graduate math classes and have read a lot of English books.
The biggest problem for me is the sentence replacement problems. They are too tricky and I am simply not good at grammar since I first started learning English as a second language.
I just surfed this site and followed suggestions of a few posts and have purchased
Schaum's Outline of English Grammar AND
Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook
Also, I plan to take GMAT training class offered by a small local firm called
Gorilla Test Prep
https://www.gorillatestprep.comPersonally, the most effective way to prepare for any exam is to find another person who are equally motivated and work together closely. The synergy derived from it is just amazing. I remember I took GRE while I was a junior in College back in China. Never read an English book seriously but I had a very smart partner. We worked together for three months. I had a fever the night before the test thus couldnтАЩt sleep well. Guess how much I got? 2110. I got admitted into the PhD program, and my test-partner got into the PhD program in Washington State University.
I think my general language ability has improved a LOT during this past 6 years of intensive study in the States. However, the sad news is that I cannot find a test partner this timeтАж
I really want to get a high score (>750) out of this test.
Can you offer your valuable suggestions on how to achieve this goal given my background?