Too many materials - overload?

[mayonnai5e]

Anyone have any thoughts on the sheer volume of resources available on this website?

I remember when I first started looking into studying, I was completely overwhelmed by the material particularly all the online material that just appeared out of nowhere (e.g. 1000 documents, random notes from people). Perhaps it would be interesting to structure the materials available such that a total newbie can easily figure out what should be used first, what should be used second, and what should be used as a last resort.

For example, I often tell people to use PR Cracking the GMAT if they are completely new to the GMAT, OG books if they are midway through their studies, and kaplan 800 + MGMAT in the advanced stages. Only when all these resources are used up and further studies would lead to repetition of many many questions, do I suggest using the other material available (e.g. 1000 docs). Or if someone is struggling financially then the free materials online can be a good option.

I'm asking this because I just looked through out resources page (del.ici.ious whatever it is) and there are a ton of links. It seems highly unorganized.

[beatthegmat]

Moved to 'Suggestions and Feedback'...

Thanks for the feedback, Lee. I agree that the directory is becoming fat with resources, but ironically, one of the primary reasons I switched to a del.icio.us directory was that I thought it was a much more efficient way to organize the bloat. The tags are really great!

Usually I advise newbies to check out the GMAT Blog, but perhaps we need a more simple, distilled start page.

Thanks again, I'll think about this more. Suggestions welcome everyone!

[mayonnai5e]

Right. I think the main obstacle is choosing the right material to study at the right time. It would be nice to find some way to organize the material available here in such a way that it creates sort of a roadmap. Then someone can easily look at it and ask themselves where on the map they are and which materials would be right for them at that phase in my studies. That seems to be the question that is repeated over and over again in the strategy forum.

[aim-wsc]

Believe me, there are still lot more GMAT related materials floating around on internet which are not available on BeatTheGMAT resources section.

& Admin's been pretty selective in keeping resources at BtG.

Eventhough, materials we link are too many to confuse a newbie, they are still well organised.
I cannot say they are perfectly organised but still comparing it with others I know BeatTheGMAT has been constantly in a process to upkeep its resources.

We definitely should sit and discuss about improving users experience esp. for newbies who are more confused about the materials to opt.

...More on this later....

[aim-wsc]

We should think of this topic...