This forum has been really helpful, especially the post by ngufo here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-720-95- ... t7227.html
This post made me realize that if I studied long enough, I can get a good score. I did end up taking 10 practice tests...
Material used:
The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
Kaplan GMAT 2005 with CD-ROM (Kaplan GMAT (Book & CD-Rom))
The PowerScore GMAT Sentence Correction Bible
Manhattan GMAT Test Simulation Booklet w/ Marker (Spiral-bound)
Mental Case software (for all you Mac users out there https://www.maccoremac.com/)
I first started studying in January 2008, but took it much more seriously around December 2008. I went through the Kaplan book twice to get concepts, and went through the Sentence Correction Bible twice. I wanted to waste all my concept learning on non-official questions.
I then went through the entire OG11. One thing that really helped me is I kept a list running of every question I missed, and starred really good question. In the last month before my test, I reviewed every problem I ever missed.
At this point I felt very comfortable with the material and started to emphasize on practice tests. I made sure to take them with two full essays and with the slotted breaks. I suggest 5 minute breaks so you get use to not much resting. I took two practice tests every weekend for a few weeks before the test.
I then started going through the official Quant and Verbal reviews. I found these super helpful. Like the OG11, I made notes of every problem I missed and went through them again in the last few weeks.
The weekend before the test I did nothing. The night before I went to a spa for an hour, went out to dinner, and got 10 hrs of sleep. The morning of I made pancakes and relaxed
Random things:
I used the Mental Case software quite a bit to store lists of idioms and random problems and concepts I missed along the way. I liked it since it synced to my iPhone for studying on the go.
I really liked the Manhattan GMAT Test Simulation Booklet. It's just like you get on the test day (perhaps the paper is a bit thicker on test day). Makes you feel comfortable.
Above all, the thing that got me my score was taking tons of practice tests. I really sucked at sentence correction, so going through them with practice tests helped a lot. Here are my practice test scores:
Date Source Type Score Q V
June Kaplan Paper 610 39 36
Jan 17, 2009 PowerPrep CAT 1 730 49 40
Jan 24, 2009 Kaplan 800 CAT 1 560 35 32
Jan 25, 2009 Princeton Review CAT 1 650 42 39
Jan 31, 2009 GMAT Prep CAT 1 740 49 42
Feb 7, 2009 PowerPrep CAT 2 760 49 45
Feb 14, 2009 GMAT Prep CAT 2 730 48 41
Feb 16, 2009 GMAT Prep CAT 1 700 47 40
Feb 21, 2008 GMAT Prep CAT 2 720 47 41
Feb 22, 2009 GMAT Prep CAT 1 740 49 42
Mar 3, 2009 Official N/A 760 48 47
As you can see, I think Kaplan tests are crap (very poorly written). It really makes you appreciate the real GMAT questions after you take a few practice tests.
One last detail. I found prepfortests (https://www.prepfortests.com/) useful for math rate problems. I wasn't particularly good at them, but their examples helped me ace them today. I didn't pay for the site though, just the freebie questions.
