How I prepared for GMAT - Tips and Tricks

I started preparing for GMAT towards the end of June. I wanted to appear for GMAT in the end of August or the beginning of September but the only date I could get was 13 September.

Someone recommended that I use Kaplan Premier Program for studies but I could not find it in India. I bought the Princeton Review textbook. It has a book companion section on its website that has 4 full-length CATs. I would recommend reading the CR section of this book. It is the only thing I consulted for CR and I found that it was quite helpful. The AWA section of Princeton Review is also very good. My essay templates were based on the sample templates given in the book. Of course, I changed wording to make them look original but the general structure of my essays came from this book.

I also bought OG 11th Edition and Kaplan Premier Program 2008 Edition. I got the latter from someone in Canada!!! Oh my God, to what lengths I went to get this book thinking it is the sure-shot way to get a great score. Of course, that is not the case. Kaplan does have a lot of questions and this helps in getting more practice. I found it easier to time questions when I did from a book instead of sitting on the computer and browsing through sites. I did questions in the form of section tests. 22 PS + 15 DS for quant, 16 SC + 14 CR + 11 RC in the verbal section.

I did not do strategy from Kaplan. Somebody had advised me to not do strategy from multiple books because that tends to confuse us in the middle of doing a test. After finishing the questions from Kaplan, I did a full-length paper test given in the book. I did not write essays in this one but only took the verbal and quant sections. The book gives a 6-month membership to use the material on the website. This has several questions, one full-length test (Not a CAT) and review information.

After Kaplan, I took over OG. I read the theory given for quant and then started with questions. Again I did the questions in the form of section tests.

Meanwhile I took a full length CAT every weekend or every other weekend. To gauge my level before preparing, I took a PowerPrep test. Scored 660.

I practised AWA using random topics from the list of topics available on the GMAT website. I did AWA also as a timed exercise and used only a plain text editor similar to notepad to write essays.

Towards the end of my preparation, after finishing all the books, I started practising verbal by making tests from 1000SC, 1000CR and 1000RC with 15 SC + 15 CR + 2 RC passages. This used to be around 50 question which I did in 90 mins. Accordingly if it is 48 questions, take 86 minutes etc.


The tests I took were -
Princeton Review CAT 1 - 720
Kaplan online test - 720
Kaplan paper test - 700
Powerprep CAT 1 - 660
Powerprep CAT 2 - 750
Crack GMAT diagnostic test - 605
Kaplan CAT - 1 (CD) - 640
Kaplan CAT - 2 (CD) - 620
GMATPrep CAT 1 - 750
GMATPrep CAT 2 - 750

I found Kaplan CD tests to be a bit obscure, and as I was already very close to G-Day, I stopped taking any more Kaplan tests. I would suggest their usage only for building stamina and not much else.

My performance in RC was going down, I read the MLIC reading comprehension module and it really helped. It provides a mechanical way to do RC and just works!

Last but not the least, I cannot adequately stress the importance of taking CATs seriously. Do the test just as you would do GMAT. No pauses. Write AWA. No long breaks beyond the stipulated time. No telephone conversations. In my opinion, GMAT is the test of your stamina whether your brain can still process information after having to deal with a gamut of obscure things. And always write AWA in full-length tests.