GMAT Strategy

Hey guys!

Ok so I'm planning to take the GMAT in about 6 months or so and have started the prep.
This morning I took the first test on GMATprep and got a 530. Mind you my mum kept coming into my room and my dog kept barking lol. I haven't had any prep till now and wasn0t familiar with the GMAT test at all. All I have to say is I think it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Anyway, this week I'm going to start one of those prep courses at Kaplan.
My planned strategy is to go to all the Kaplan classes and come home and take prep tests and see how I improve while I study. I also read somewhere that I should take notes of the weak links I find on every question and pay close attention to that.
Should I do anything else besides this or is it ok to just take the course (I suppose I get books and stuff) and take the prep tests?
Oh and by the way is 530 too bad for someone who wasn't familiar and had no prep or is it like ok?
My goal is to be above 700 cause I want to get in a top B school.
Ok let me know what you guys think.

you have plenty of time, keep chipping along

530 isn't too bad. What was your split in Quant and Verbal? That would be a better indicator of where you are going wrong, and where you need more help. Here is what I recommend:

1. Take the Official Guide and go through all quant concepts. If you use Kaplan ensure you are very clear on the concepts first.

2. Solve all the questions from OG.

3. Pick up a good book like Kaplan/Manhattan for SC and do it along with OG.

4. For CR and RC, I personally recommend Kaplan Verbal Workbook. For questions always stick to OG.

The above should take about 1 month if you make a good study plan and stick to about 1-2 hours everyday (more on weekends). At the end of it take another GMATPrep and see how much you have progressed. If I can guess correctly you will end up in the mid to higher 600 range.

At that point you need to pin point exact areas where you are going wrong (idioms in SC, BF in CR, Probability in quant etc) and then have specific action items to solve them.

HTH,

Arun

Cool I got the books already. I'm guessing I will have them sometime between the end of this week and next week.
I will let you guys know how it goes!
Thanks!!!!