My prep:
I had been kind of studying for the test for about 6 months, but really got serious about 4 weeks before the test. Here are the materials I used.
OG 11 (one edition old)
Kaplan 800
Manhattan Reading Comp Strategy Guide - 4th Ed.
Manhattan Sentence Corr Strategy Guide - 4th Ed.
Princeton Review - Crash Course in the GMAT
Manhattan Test Simulation Booklet
I didn't really have to go too far, my first practice test (GMATPrep) was a 720, so this rundown may be better for someone who already has a great aptitude for the test but needs to refine some skills. More of my preparation was learning the test itself, not so much learning new concepts.
Reviews of materials
OG 11
Obviously the OG is the best practice because they are old test questions. However, if there is anyone out there that has a copy that is one edition old and doesn't want to buy the new edition, then don't unless you are doing some serious preparation. I had read somewhere that 75% (or somewhere around that number) of the OG 12 is straight from the OG 11. The negative is that Manhattan's Strategy Guides reference specific problems in the OG 12, so it may take away from the usefulness of them if you are heavily relying upon them. While I did use those guides, I only had limited time so I did not get through all of them, so not being able to reference OG 12 didn't bother me too much.
I went through all of the math questions in this book and about 90% of the verbal.
Kaplan 800
This is an old book too. (As you can tell, I decided to take the GMATs about 2 years ago and just now got around to it) I did not find this book helpful, but I can't speak for newer editions of the book. Some of the Critical Reasoning had, in my opinion, questionable logic. Also the math was very very easy, not near what you will see if you are going for 700+.
Manhattan Guides
I mainly bought these because they come with 6 free practice tests, and its cheaper to buy the guide and get the free tests than to buy the tests alone. Sentence Correction was very helpful. I did not look enough at Reading Comp write a fair review of it. Looking back, I wish I had bought some of the math guides, because I ended up doing better on verbal.
Princeton Review - Crash Course in the GMAT
Also bought this book a while ago. The book itself is not great, it is what it says it is, a crash course. Has a pretty good list of idioms. I used it because I spend about 30 minutes a day on the subway standing up, and I thought it would be a good way to utilize that time. You can't stand up, hold on, and read Manhattan Strategy Guides, so the small size of this book allowed me to do that. The math was pretty easy.
Manhattan Test Simulation Booklet & Pen
Did you know that you in the actual GMAT, you don't use paper and pencil? Neither did I. You actually use a dry erase pen and flip pad. Had I not seen this product I would have had no idea, and may have been kind of surprised on test day. The dry erase pen doesn't write much different than a pencil or pen, but I do recommend doing your practice tests with it.
Practice Tests
Here is how I did on my practice tests:
GMATPrep 1 (a few months before test day) - 720
Manhattan 1 (about a month before) - 720
Manhattan 2 - 740
Manhattan 3 - 690
GMATPrep 1 (retake) - 750
GMATPrep 2 - 760
I only had time for three of the Manhattan practice tests, but they were great. The math is much harder than that on the actual test in my opinion. They also give you great analytics that are helpful once you have taken a few tests. Write the essays before taking the practice tests, and try to do them all in one sitting. Its tempting to do the math the night before and the verbal the next day, but then you are defeating the purpose of the practice test. Its a grueling process that you haven't been put through since high school or college, and THAT is what is most important to practice. Can you stay attentive to this stuff for 3 1/2 hours?
Manhattan Online Resources
Along with the 6 free practice tests you also get some access to their online resources. Best thing here was the OG Stopwatch. Whenever you are practicing in the OG, use this! You put in how many questions you are answering, and how much time you want to give yourself, and you enter your answers on screen. Any practice questions that you are doing not under time constraints are a waste. No GMAT question is really that hard if you have unlimited time to do it. The time factor, combined with the fact that every question you get is going to be at your skill level, makes this test so hard. So, if you are doing practice questions, time yourself, even if you are giving yourself a little extra time.
Specific Strategies:
AWA:
I type faster than I write so I made my notes on the screen instead of on the pad. Just don't forget to delete them! Read some level 6 essays, some of the language you can basically just copy over. You should know how to write an essay. After you make your notes, write whatever comes to you! Test prep companies seem to say write the conclusion first because it has to be strong, or to write your supporting paragraphs first to help you understand your argument. If you have a great idea for a supporting paragraph, let it flow! Don't write the conclusion because someone told you to write that first, just to forget what you were going to say in that supporting paragraph.
And obviously, leave time to reread, because you will make mistakes. I probably found at least 5 mistakes in proofreading.
Problem Solving:
I don't know, the math is hard. The actual computations that you do aren't too complex. Make sure you can play with inequalities, exponents, absolute values, permutations / factorials. Get your geometry straight. Make sure you know every equation that you'll need to know, there aren't really that many. The relative lengths of sides in a 30-60-90 triangle comes in handy. Make sure you can take a very large number and reduce it quickly to its prime factorization. Know how to find how many factors a number has using that. Make sure you can do rate, distance, time questions as well as the triple Venn diagram questions. Once you know all that do a bunch of practice problems because you need to be able to come up with shortcuts for these problems. If it doesn't come to you immediately, you're really going to struggle through the question. Make sure you know what numbers to plug in to get different results. The test doesn't really give you a lot of questions that look like questions you have already seen, it does a very good job of disguising them.
Data Sufficiency:
This section sucks. I'm so glad I will never have to do another problem like this again. I have a strong math background (780 SATs, math minor in college, stock trader) and still really struggled with this section. Get your basics down that I listed under PS and then do a lot of practice problems. There is an easier way to get the answer than whatever you are doing, if it is taking you a long time. Play with the question. If it is an equation, look for other forms of the equation that will make your life easier. Other than that, on this section I did a lot of narrowing down to two answers and then guessing. If I could disprove each and knew that proving them together would take a ton of time, I would just go with my gut between C and E. Practice systems of equations. The general rule is that you need an equal amount of variables and equations to solve. But what are the exceptions and how can you identify them? So many of these questions get a lot easier when a variable disappears.
For math in general, write calmly and neatly. Double check your work very quickly. And know what variable you are solving for! There are so many trap answers when you need to double your solution or subtract it from a certain number, or you are solving for a radius and the equation gives you diameter. This is probably the easiest way to make stupid mistakes in the quant section and the most easily remedied.
Also, if you are having trouble comprehending a word problem, just start writing stuff. Don't sit there staring at the screen if you are confused. Write something down even if it is a number that you have no idea the implications of. It helps.
Reading Comp:
Someone here suggested reading Science Daily and that was a great idea. I tried to read one article a day from there, because I don't read that much science in my day to day, and the GMAT likes to use those types of passages. I am not a fan of the "Don't read the passage, just look for the answers" strategy. But this is different for everyone. I read through it once very carefully, especially the beginning of the passage. Then I read the first question and skim the passage again. I don't mind taking 5 or 6 minutes on the first question because sometimes I end up only taking 30 seconds to 60 seconds on the following questions.
Other than that, there isn't much strategy than you can learn for these. Do a bunch of practice questions in the OG. This applies to CR as well, but you really get a feel for what types of answers are right and wrong. So many of the answers choices are out of scope.
Critical Reasoning:
Like RC, do a ton of practice, but I don't know how many strategies you can learn for these. When you do enough practice questions, you get a feel for what questions are right and what are wrong. Strong language, such as 'always' and 'never' is rarely correct, but sometimes is. They end up asking the same types of questions that were asked in the OG, just in different contexts. Read the passage, read the question, go back to the passage and specifically identify the conclusion that the author is making and the premise that he is basing that conclusion on. Your answer needs to relate only to those two things. Make sure you understand the question. Two of the answers will probably be out of scope, one will be an 'opposite,' where its strengthens instead of weakens or vice versa, and you're left with two more.
Sentence Correction:
I did a fair amount of studying for this. I think it is the only section in the Verbal that you can really study for. I already had a pretty good grasp of grammar coming in, but made sure to focus on the what the GMAT actually tests. Idioms, modifiers, pronouns, verb tense, sub. verb agreement, comparisons/parallelism. For a native English speaker, which I am, review those, but most of it you know. The Manhattan Strategy guide was great for this. On test day, my strategy was, unless I can clearly identify something wrong with a sentence, pick whatever sounds right. A lot of guides say that the GMAT tries to trick your ear. It does because it often separates pronouns from their antecedents and verbs from their subjects, and puts a phrase within an idiom. My advice to people who are native English speakers and are relatively good with grammar is look for specific errors such as those and then choose the sentence that sounds the best.
Scheduling the Test
I scheduled three weeks in advance. I am so happy I didn't put it off for 2 months. Once you take a practice test or two and are getting decent scores, schedule it for within a month and take a bunch of practice tests. Rip it off like a bandaid.
Getting yourself ready for test day
I try to eat healthy in general and get exercise, and I think that is one of the most important aspects of keeping your mind fresh and doing well on the test. I drink a lot though, so I cut down on that during the month I was studying and didn't do anything social the weekend before the test or the week of the test. I made sure to hit the gym every other day during the week prior to the test and tried to concentrate more on cardio than on weights. I ate salmon the night before, and tons of fruits and veggies the week of. I don't know if this all actually helped me, but I believed it was helping me, and thats really all that matters.
Get all your shit taken care of - A lot of people put off everything in their personal and professional lives because of this test. If you are taking a day off of work for it, make sure you have everything wrapped up at work so you are not going to come back to a huge workload the following day. Don't tell your family you can't talk to them until test day. The last thing you need is your mother yelling at you the night before the test because you haven't been calling. Make time for your family and friends, get your work done, pay your bills, walk your dog, whatever needs to be done in your life, make sure it is getting done. It is so easy for other thoughts to enter your head at the beginning of reading comprehensions, or during a hard problem solving question. Also, keep your life clean and organized while studying. Personally, I can't focus in my bedroom if my desk, floor, and bed are a mess. And I am by no means a neat freak. I guess everyone is different in this respect, but do whatever you can do to keep stressors out of your life.
I studied very little the night before. Maybe did twenty problems. I made a nice dinner and watched Family Guy. I highly recommend this.
Test Day
My test appointment was 10:30, which was the ideal time for me. I woke up, went for a very cold run around Hoboken, and made an awesome breakfast. Bacon (center cut, so a little less fatty than normal bacon), scrambled eggs mixed with salsa and avocado (i'm a huge fan of the avocado), and strawberries ... and green tea. For me, filling up on protein helps me helped me keep from getting hungry during the test. But obviously don't eat so much that it will bother your stomach, and regarding caffeine, just do what you normally do in your daily life.
Leave early, especially if you are in NYC or somewhere else where you rely on public transportation.
I brought with me a bag of trail mix and some nature valley granola bars. I also brought some arizona green tea and a water bottle. None of this can be brought in with you, the only thing you can have in the test room is your ID and locker key. Keep any food that you will want to access easily accessible in your locker so you don't have to rummage around a bag for it. You only get 8 minute breaks, and part of that seems to include the proctor signing you in and out, and obviously walking down the hall to go to use the restroom.
Take deep breaths, try to relax. Make conversation with the nice lady at the front desk to take your mind off of the test. Once you get like halfway through the math you are kind of over the hump and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Good luck! And let me know if you have any questions about my prep!
-John Totten
