I just Beat The GMAT!

So after three weeks of intensive full time study, I ended up with 760 (Q49, V44). So far so good.

Some thoughts on
Books
- The ManhattanGMAT books really are very good at the content, especially the quant and the SC one, I dont see much value in RC and CR though
- The series sorely misses an overall strategy book, that is much better covered by Kaplan and PrincetonReview (who's cheater's guide approach is valuable, but not on its own)
- Kaplan 800/Advanced book seems to have only limited relevance to actual GMAT questions. Especially CR and RC are way out there
- Going through the OG and the companions as well as the 198 700+ guide posted here is invaluable, but should be done after studying the MGMAT books and possibly also the Kaplan exercises (I did not bother to check the referenced OG problems at the time)

CATs
- The ManhattanGMAT CATs have very nice solutions but esp. quant is by far too hard. I scored between 650 and 710 on those but 730 and 760 on GMATprep (ironically usually better on verbal than quant). I don't believe a second that the estimated scores are unbiased, for that the quant problems are much too hard
- Don't use GMATprep too early. For damn sure, don't use it as initial diagnostic test - it's much too valuable for that
- Kaplan CATs are a mixed boat. I would not consider them to be bad, but neither are they particularly good - if you need more practice, by all means go for it

Other
- Beat the GMAT and MGMAT forums are invaluable for the discussion of OG/GMATprep problems


Now I'm back to considering schools. I have a Masters in Econ/Finance and work for one of the top three strategy consulting firms in Europe, so I'm quite sure that a 2 year program won't bring me much (aside of it being very high on opportunity costs) but I find it hard to decide on the 1 year programs (otherwise Stanford would probably be my number 1 choice), INSEAD looks good (esp. SG), Kellogg ok and Cambridge ok too. I'm also wondering about the 15month track at LBS though - is that very stressful? Somehow, I'm a little lost here

nupnup wrote: - The ManhattanGMAT books really are very good at the content, especially the quant and the SC one, I dont see much value in RC and CR though
- The series sorely misses an overall strategy book, that is much better covered by Kaplan and PrincetonReview (who's cheater's guide approach is valuable, but not on its own)
- Kaplan 800/Advanced book seems to have only limited relevance to actual GMAT questions. Especially CR and RC are way out there

Doesn't sound like you found anything you thought to be mind provoking for either CR or RC. Is there something else you supplemented or can recommend? I'm putting together my prep list today and making the necessary purchases.

Well I had skimmed both the Princeton Guide and Kaplan Premier, but honestly, I found RC and CR to be by far the easiest part of the GMAT. I have always been a very analytical person but known to get bogged down in details when doing algebra (sign mistakes have haunted me forever) so that's probably to be expected.

I have not read the Powerscore book but from all I gather, it is the place to go for CR. One point about both CR and RC coming from Princeton Review has stuck with me: do not think to far. Inference is nearly always very very basic (think rephrasing a part of the passage). For CR and RC, that may have been the single most important lesson for me. I did not initially belive it, but after working through a bunch of OG problems, I sure got convinced that it's true.

Kaplan 800/Advanced is very hard (I would also say out there) wrt to CR and RC, so if you really feel you need a challenge, that's a good option. Do not expect anything in the line of strategy or actual guidance from the book, though. It is mostly a glorified collection of edge cases.

Comprehension has always been a "red flag" for me simply because I lose focus or interest in the material subject. If the subject were half-way interesting, which I'm sure they are probably not, then I would not find an inkling of worry. However, that not being the case, anything that might help give both examples and explanations would be a good start. I'm most certainly not looking for a collection of "edge cases" without any sort of explanation.

I picked up all 8 manhattan guides today as well as the OG books with Powersource CR bible on the way. By the mere looks of things, I'm going to have my work cut out if I plan to approach each guide front to back. And we haven't even considered CAT's yet...

Thank you for your debrief.

I would suggest to do the first MGMAT CAT upfront to see where you strenghts and weaknesses are. You may not need to do all of them front to back. As for losing interest, I think convincing yourself it is interesting is tantamount. It's not like on the TOEFL where you can answer the questions without actually reading (much less understanding) the passage...