Asking for guidance on studying for GMAT

[paladin41699]

Let me get this right out there, i'm pretty ADD, and always have been. Makes reading comprehension a real pain. But also studying is difficult. But i'm also that guy who only has to study very little and can walk in and get an A on a test(mid to high B if I don't study at all).

I need to get a 490+ to qualify for the local college's business graduate school. I am aiming for a Graduate Certificate, which I can roll into a Masters in MIS. I am kind of befuddled in regards to how to study for the GMAT. Ideally i'd take it in a month or so, but I think I might need to wait until next semester to do it.

I own the OG, and have gotten the GMATPrep test off the web. What other materials would you recommend? Princeton review or kaplan? Other recommendations? I will try to get the manhattan sentence correction book.

Math, and the sentence correction are rough for me to be honest. So, what do you think? Try to do a quick study and get my test done in a month or so, or wait and really study hard for the test? All help appreciated. Thanks.

[wickely]

I would get the Princeton Review guidebook. I tend to be easily distracted on stuff like this too (partly because I don't want to do it), and the PR book is goofy enough to keep me paying attention. They kind of make fun of the test but have good ideas for how to approach each question type. It's a good companion to the official materials.

I would also say you should plan to study for maybe an hour at a time at first, with a 15-minute break, then gradually increase how long you're studying without a break. Or just see how long you can concentrate and build from there. You're going to need to make it straight through on test day, so you'll need to build up your mental stamina if that's an issue.

If you have a diagnosis for ADD you can request an accommodation for the test to get extra time. But I wouldn't schedule your test until you've spent a few weeks studying to see how much time you really need to prep. It's not overly difficult to get 500 but the ADD could be a factor. Give it some time to see how it feels.

Hope this helps.