Hi BTG
Since most of us studying alone somewhere, the study guide is an essential guidance that helped me stay on course while diligently working through the vast array of topics, tips, tricks and formulas.
I have noticed, however, that this guidance has its limits. Depending on your capabilities, the study guide is either too easy or too hard.
a) Incorporate more basic (fundamental) exercises on topics you are struggling with.
(EZ, Kaplan, MGMAT,Princeton) (Quality of books is most determined by accuracy and by explaining the solutions as simple as possible while solving the question from different angles. No one does a better job than MGMAT, although still room for improvements)
b) Incorporate more advanced topics.
(Same as above, there are several new advanced publications out there now)
c) There are hundreds of helpful formulas and almost a thousend helpful verbal items to learn.
(These are not part of the Books mentioned. The only helpful formula collection I have found so far was the Manhattan GMAT TURBO from years ago. For a decent sentence correction score alone you need to be solid on thousends of idioms, redundancies, common usage errors, vocab and not to forget all the GMAT specific rules. I will post my collection once I am done - or I sent them to Eric.)
d) The actual test preparation within the study guide may not be sufficient either.
(Remember, GMATPrep is the most realistic and repeating them in a test setting is crucial. I would argue that in order to develop a good rhythm, you should do several from different companies, while keeping in mind that the scores will be somewhat irrelevant. If you repeat the GMATPrep, make sure that you still calculate the questions you remembered.)
e) Now I just need to stop reading the postings from people that started studying for the GMAT with a 730. Or the ones that improved from 350 to 750 in four weeks. Plus, I need to find out why I have to ask BTG for a new password every time I try to log on.
Hope this feedback provides some value. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you.
Juergen
Since most of us studying alone somewhere, the study guide is an essential guidance that helped me stay on course while diligently working through the vast array of topics, tips, tricks and formulas.
I have noticed, however, that this guidance has its limits. Depending on your capabilities, the study guide is either too easy or too hard.
a) Incorporate more basic (fundamental) exercises on topics you are struggling with.
(EZ, Kaplan, MGMAT,Princeton) (Quality of books is most determined by accuracy and by explaining the solutions as simple as possible while solving the question from different angles. No one does a better job than MGMAT, although still room for improvements)
b) Incorporate more advanced topics.
(Same as above, there are several new advanced publications out there now)
c) There are hundreds of helpful formulas and almost a thousend helpful verbal items to learn.
(These are not part of the Books mentioned. The only helpful formula collection I have found so far was the Manhattan GMAT TURBO from years ago. For a decent sentence correction score alone you need to be solid on thousends of idioms, redundancies, common usage errors, vocab and not to forget all the GMAT specific rules. I will post my collection once I am done - or I sent them to Eric.)
d) The actual test preparation within the study guide may not be sufficient either.
(Remember, GMATPrep is the most realistic and repeating them in a test setting is crucial. I would argue that in order to develop a good rhythm, you should do several from different companies, while keeping in mind that the scores will be somewhat irrelevant. If you repeat the GMATPrep, make sure that you still calculate the questions you remembered.)
e) Now I just need to stop reading the postings from people that started studying for the GMAT with a 730. Or the ones that improved from 350 to 750 in four weeks. Plus, I need to find out why I have to ask BTG for a new password every time I try to log on.
Hope this feedback provides some value. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you.
Juergen
