GMAT Strategy

So I started studying for this test about 3 weeks ago (it's coming up in 2 days as of today) and since I have spent a lot of time browsing this forum, I figured I'd put my two cents worth in here. There's been a lot of good advice I've gathered, so hopefully someone can get a little something out of my diddy here...

I had previously bought the MGMAT package (all the books + timer and pad etc.). This was about a year ago, so I think I have the older version (3rd edition). Being an engineer, I found that a lot of the math was review for me, but since I have definitely forgotten it (being out of school for 3 years now), it was SUPER helpful.

I highly recommend the MGMAT math reviews for people of all levels of math skill (unless you're writer of the lame jokes for Big Bang Theory...). I even showed them to an "artsy" friend who was thinking of taking her GMAT, and she found them to be the right pace for her seeing as they start from first principles. If you just need to dust off the Math skills, you may not need all the books, but definitely buy the Word Translations one at least. I personally found them all useful and well-worth the $$.

I didn't really read the Reading Comp/Crit. Reasonig MGMAT books since I did my LSATs last year, and took the Powerscore course (which was awesome, but my only 85 percentile score didn't offset my average GPA....so no law school for me. Besides as an MBA, I'll have the lawyers working for ME!). If you want to crack those two sections, I'd say get the Powerscore material--I always am finishing at a 700+ level in the verbal section with like 20mins to spare.

Incidentally, my weakness in the verbal section was sentence correction. Here is where MGMAT comes to the rescue as well. I would say that book is a must in my opinion. It helped me become a "grammaticiaphonerian" (lol).

The 6 MGMAT practise tests are awesome too, but I found them to be quite difficult. Still, over the three weeks of studying, I found my score to increase: 620, 640, 670. Today, I did the first GMATPrep exam and got a 710! It was waaaaay easier than the MGMAT tests.

So other things I did:

• 1) I blew off work the past week to study non-stop....good, but I might have been served better to spread it over longer. That being said, I work better under pressure, and I like the fact I'm ONLY focusing on GMAT. So this worked for me. Also, in undergrad I taught myself a whole course in Thermodynamics in 3 days--running on redbull only. I only got a 62% in the course, but that was WAY harder than the GMAT....haha.
  
  2) Decided to defer my CFA (which I was studying for concurrently...).....this one burned a bit since it's another $600 to take the Dec. exam instead of the June. My advice: Don't study for both of these together AND work full-time.
  
  3) QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS: I did most of the MGMAT practice problems for sections I had just learned, and all of the OG11 Quant. I also did a smattering of the OG11, and 4 practice exams. I'm sure other people have done more, but this seemed to work for me. Also, a lesson learned from the LSAT: i started timing myself from day 1.
  
  4) Tried to apply sentence correction rules and proper idioms in day-to-day writing (except in this post...so no wise-cracks about incorrect parallelisms or verb-tense agreement errors). This helped a lot. Also I found that a lot of people don't write with proper grammar...
  
  5) I bought the GMAT CLUB IPHONE APP (here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-ap ... 81492.html. There is a free one and paid one). This thing is amazing, and well worth the 15 bucks. I also used the MGMAT iPhone app which comes the MGMAT package. This thing is pretty sweet too--it's like flash cards.

Now....

I'm writing all this BEFORE my test. I'll post my score after and let you know if all this worked, or flunked...

Hope someone finds this long post useful. Any feedback or comments are certainly appreciated!!

Cheers,

Andrew