GMAT Preparation Tips and resources

If someone asked me point blank a year back if I would be satisfied with a 680 in GMAT without having to take the test, I would have gladly accepted it. But hell, this is not disneyland and wishes require a lot of effort (6 months in my case) to come true . But having got more than I wanted (700 expected), I can frankly say that with a little bit of discipline (hard work is too strong a term), one should comfortably cross the 700 hurdle.

Whether 700 by itself is good enough is questionable as I see so many folks scoring 750+ in the GMAT these days. But hell, lets take it one step at a time.

I began my preparation for GMAT exactly the day after July 4th, after a splendid long weekend in Canada. Started out by joining www.gmatclub.com.

Let me talk a little about this site as I owe quite a bit of my success to this site.
The site is free to register and offers discussion forums for pretty much everything in the MBA process, each stage has a separate forum (GMAT preparation - Verbal/Math/Adv Math etc., Application process, Share your GMAT story etc.)
What's good to see is that the site has a lot to offer to folks who have trouble with the GMAT - excellent support network when you need it !
Besides this, you can use the search facility in this site to understand answers for every single question of 1000-SC/RC/CR ( which I will talk about shortly).
Finally, it serves as a source of motivation. I was struck in awe seeing the daily posts of folks who crossed the 700 barrier.

Start by analyzing your weak area. Take the Princeton review diagnostic test to see how you fare in quant and verbal. Do not take the GMAT Prep test at this point at you would waste a precious test which would be of better use just before your test day.

Depending on your performance, see the posts in the gmatclub forum in that section (Verbal-SC/RC/CR, Math).

Resources :
- Start with Princeton Review. Good book to start with.
- Move on to Official Guide for GMAT Review. Do all the questions in all sections. Time each
block of 25 questions.(2-Min for Quant, 1-Min for SC...may be tough in the beginning..but should be easy after some prep).
- 1000 questions on SC, RC & CR is freely available on the net and is very useful if you need to work more on a particular section. Link for 1000 SC/RC/CR is :
http://www.esnips.com/web/GMAT-Vomc
Make a note of every error you make in a log. Keep referring to this log once in a while to avoid making the same mistake.
- Finally, 800Score is a good book to fine tune solving specific problems in the GMAT.

Sample tests :
GMAT Prep is the closest thing to the real test. I got 710/730/710 in my GMATPrep which is damn close to my final score of 720.
This free software is available once you register in www.mba.com
Reinstall the s/w as many times as you want to repeat the tests with fewer repeats.

Day before Test day :
Brush up on Math formulas. Work out some AWA essays. Revise Error logs.
GO TO SLEEP EARLY.

Test day :
Make sure you carry necessary identification, especially important for international students to take your passport. Take a bottle of water and some snack (bar of chocolate/cereal bar).
The test will last 4 hours and you want to make sure you don't drain out towards the end.
My advice : Take every break given and get some fresh air.
But make sure you come back within the allotted time.
Give importance for the first 10 questions in Quant and Verbal, preferably double check your calculation for the first 5 to make sure you didn't commit a silly mistake.
After that, just accelerate. Keep moving if you are stuck in a tough problem.
Contrary to popular opinion, with some good preparation you should be able to comfortably finish of both Quant and Verbal sections within the time provided.
End of test : The questionairre would come up (which I really didn't care about) and finally the big question :"Would you like to score/cancel this test?" "Of course I want to know my score".
A minute passes by and finally the number comes up...."7XX"....yahoo ...job done !

Good luck on your GMAT ! It should be easy.