OK here are some of my thoughts on the whole process, I hope at least some of it is helpful!
Resources:
Use:
Official Guide
Power Prep
Kaplan premier program CD ROM
GMAT Club for Quant practise/discussion
This is plenty resource wise I think!
There is a post in the forum about getting new questions in GMATPREP:
https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=28548
I probably did 6 of these tests in total. There is a temptation to "save" GMAT Prep tests because there are only two. My advice is don't!
Squeeze as many questions as possible out of it! There are a lot of them in there even after 5 or 6 tests I was only getting 2 or 3 repeat Qs in the quant.
Don't use:
800 score materials, or at least don't start with them.
It is only my opinion but I started with these and it wasn't a good place to start. The tests are too difficult relative to the real thing and were a real demotivational factor for me.The quant sections are tough, time-wise it feels like you have less time because there are more tough questions and will run out of time.
Good practise when you're on top of the quant section though but stay away until you're ready. Also the material in GMAT Club challenges is just as challenging and of high quality.
Starting Point:
I recommend starting with the Kaplan 100 point math review, do all the OG math questions, a power prep test then the kaplan cd tests, practise on GMAT Club and then do lots of power prep leading up to D day.
My prep was mainly quant focussed because I scored high on the verbal stuff from the outset, English is my native language and I do a lot of reading. But for the Verbal section I think it's all technique, I didn't do any sentence correction study just reviewed the 8 error types and did OG practise questions.
For RC I'm a very fast reader and could often read the whole passage two or three times which made the questions much easier.
For CR I reviewed the last 10-20 in the OG these are good to switch on the type of thinking required in these questions.
For RC and CR I would go through every answer A,B,C,D,E and look very carefully at the wording and ask does it always hold based on information in the passage. Always read the last answers even if another one looks good (unless you're time constrained)!
I know it's controversial as to whether getting the first questions wrong impacts your score significantly but I did find in Power prep verbal one time that 2 consecutive wrong answers (Q2,Q3) dropped my score out of the usual range even though later performance was fine. So my advice is to be careful on the early ones!
One additional important piece of advice is not to get psyched out by low scores!
It's hard to ignore them but really they're just not accurate unless they're from Power Prep. I got a 580 in Kaplan tz!
Power prep scores at the end were 760 - 780 and I got 760 in the real deal.
Test Day:
Bring ear plugs, they really help with focus. Wear them doing practise tests to get used to the feeling.
Get a good nights sleep the evening before the test. I think a couple of raw points are up for grabs on the day depending on your performance if you're sharp you'll get them if you're not you won't.
I was scoring in the range 49-51 in practise in quant so there were 2 performance points up for grabs but on the day I was very tired after only 4 hours sleep and I didn't get those "performance points" that I was hoping for
!
But I'm still happy with my score!
All the best to those of you still studying, keep it up and you'll get there!
A big thanks to everyone at GMATClub for all the help along the way in my preparation!
Cheers!
[/b]
In the end it was all there and they could print it out.
