Out of touch with academics, how to start the prep ?

You might consider signing up for Beat The GMAT's free 60-Day Study Guide (https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide). Over 25,000 students have already done so.

Once you sign up, you'll receive a daily email featuring a series of learning activities that guide you, step-by-step, from Day 1 to test day. This will ensure that you will cover everything that the GMAT tests.

Here's an outline of all 60 emails: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/gmat-guide-outline

Cheers,
Brent

rattan.ds wrote:Thanks, Brent. Appreciate it!

Would you also suggest the books to follow. I for one have read numerous blogs/forums now and all have left me utterly confused. Moreover, the tension to re-start studying is worrisome. Some suggest that to go by Official guide, some say Kaplan, Manhattan, Princeton etc. What to believe and what to follow? These are not small investment in their own way and one can study only limited.

The Official Guide (OG) is a great resource (the BEST resource) for official practice questions, so be sure to get that. However, the OG is not very comprehensive when it comes to instruction. To perform well on the GMAT, you need to learn all of the core concepts AND you need to learn GMAT-specific strategies for answering questions quickly and accurately. In my opinion, the OG does not provide this level of instruction. So, you'll need at least one other resource.

I think all of the test-prep companies (including ours) on this site provide solid instruction. You'll need to choose the resource (books, videos, classes) that best suits your learning style and budget.

Cheers,
Brent