GMAT Strategy

I am going to be taking the gmat in the next 6-8 months and would like your advice on the best way to prepare for it.

I graduated college in 07 with BA in political science and studied for lsat exam for about four months. I did poorly on the exams, but was going through some health problems and am finally getting a little better and am switching gears to the mba.

I retained some good verbal knowledge from the lsat that will help me on the verbal section of this exam, but the quant part is going to be difficult.

So far I have purchased the OG 11 main guide, and verbal+quant little books. I plan on the getting the OG 12 guide and other little books.

What other test prep books would you suggest and what is your opinion of taking a prep course. My college (UCF) offers a two month long course going over the gmat. Here's the link. https://www.testprep.ucf.edu/gmat24.asp

Other books I have seen mentioned are the manhatten books, powerscore bibles, and of course more mainstream ones such as kaplan/princeton/etc.

I think I am going to do the test prep as I did one for the lsat and learned a good amount, but have considered a private tutor option or anything else that would really help me out.

I plan on taking the gmat sometime after Christmas, and hopefully be accepted into a Fall 2010 program.

Any advice you could give towards preparation for the gmat I would be very grateful. I am interested in hearing everything about someone's gmat prep including a timeline of when they studied, what they studied, and what worked, etc. Thank you.

If you're looking for detailed study plans and their results, I suggest you browse our "I just Beat the GMAT!" section.

For quant, if you're having a hard time, I understand Princeton Review covers the more basic subjects. Also, MGMAT quant series is highly respected around here. If it's really bad, a tutor might help you.

I see you've done a pretty good job of researching all the required material. Can't exactly suggest anything else...