What is the best self-prep course of action?

Partagas150-J

What is th best way to prep without taking an expensive test prep course?

beatthegmat · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:30 pm Post subject:

I'd start by reading through two resources:

http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com
http://www.beatthegmat.com/resources.html

Good luck!

Partagas150-J · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:19 pm Post subject:

Guest · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:22 pm Post subject:

the blog beatthegmat mentioned has a daily schedule. check it out!

bates88 · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:40 pm Post subject:

ALL the recommended books? How many was that?! Which ones did you buy?

Guest · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject:

that must have been expensive!

beatthegmat · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:27 pm Post subject:

No need to apologies! We're here to help. Smile

Partagas150-J · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:14 pm Post subject:

Let's see, here is a list of what I bought. It came to about $150 with shipping:

1.Cracking the GMAT with DVD, 2008 Edition (Graduate Test Prep) Princeton Review

2.The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
3.The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
4.The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review

5.Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program (w/ CD-ROM) (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom))
6.Kaplan GMAT 800, 2007-2008 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800)

7.Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) [Paperback]
By: Manhattan GMAT Prep

$159 shipped. Should be arriving in a few days! Not bad if you consider the costs of a classroom prep class.

As per daily schedule, somehow I missed that on the blog. I'll go look right now, but if anyone has any recommendations I am all ears!

***EDIT I see the schedule, nevermind! ***

Guest · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:34 pm Post subject:

Yeah not too bad compared to a full class!

mayonnai5e · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:47 am Post subject:

You have purchased a lot of books (but not as many as I did - I purchased at least 3 or 4 more than you and used only 5 total). You may find yourself in a position (as I once did) where you have too many books, too many strategies for studying, and too many ways to order the books to use. I found myself overwhelmed with the amount of materials and it paralyzed me. Here is my suggested order:

1.Cracking the GMAT with DVD - good and entertaining intro book (ignore some of the weaker strategies because to get in the high 600s and 700s you can't follow some of them); the problems in this book are relatively easy.

2.Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program - this book is similar to the PR book, but more serious and not as "noob-like"....this book is a very good followup to the PR book.

Work through 3, 4, 5, and 6 at the same time:

3.Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide - you should work this book as you work through OG because at the end of each chapter in this book there are listings to OG SC questions that highlight the topic at hand.

The OG books are all ordered by difficulty so you should intersperse the questions from each by difficulty. For example, do the first 20 RC questions in OG11 then do the first 20 RC in OG V. Then work the next 20 in OG11 RC and OG V. This means you'll cover all the easy questions at the same time and give you a nice steady progression in difficulty. In addition, it also gives you a broader base of questions to work with.

4.The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
5.The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
6.The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review

Lastly, the Kaplan 800 book has very good strategies for hard problems you're likely to see. I would work on this book when you get to the last 50 problems of each topic. For example, on the last 50 CR, you can do the CR section of Kaplan800 to see what "hard" problems are like, do that section, then go back to OG11 or OG V review and do those.

7.Kaplan GMAT 800, 2007-2008 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800)

The idea is to use the right book at the right time in your studies and focus on quality over quantity - that's a winning formula.

Let me know if you need any clarifications on what I have just suggested.

beatthegmat · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject:

Great post!

Partagas150-J · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks to all for the help. The last shipment of books come in tomorrow and that is when the journey begins.

I will try to update along the way.

beatthegmat · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject:

Look forward to following your story! Good luck!