I will comment primarily on the materials and the prep.
Materials
I used all the following books:
- Kaplan 800 Score
- Kaplan Math Review
- Princeton Crack the GMAT
- Manhattan SC Bible
- Official Guide (OG) 11
- Verbal Review
- Quantitative Review
I definitely do not recommend the Kaplan 800 and the Princeton Crack The GMAT. The have some generalities about the test, but the exercises are not like the test.
The Kaplan Math Review is a good book to practice some hard Math, although, again, it is not very representative of the GMAT.
The Mahattan SC Bible is a great book. It covers the concepts of every single SC problem of the OG and the Verbal Review, and gives great explanations for them. I believe this book is a must.
Without any doubts, the best books for practice are the official ones. More on this on next section.
Prep
I must say that I won't be objective at all with my opinion here. I joined the Knewton GMAT Prep. Those dollars were really well invested! The online classes are excellent. The Teachers and TAs are great (My regards to all of them, especially Dave, Alex and Joanna!). They really put an effort in the learning of the students. I totally recommend joining at least for the trial! You'll see how great they are. Also, I was of the first customers. Taking into account their philosophy, I am confident they are even better now!Anyway... what I recommend for the prep, is to do every single problem of the OG and Reviews at least twice! If you remember the answer, don't just pick it, but reason the problem until you understand the concept behind it. I couldn't do this entirely, however, I managed to many SCs twice (my personal major weakness), and really helped me.
Also read, or I should say DEVORE, the Manhattan SC Bible in order to acquire a solid base for SC.
Finally, do CATs! They help you a lot for your timing. Don't do the GMAT Prep at last just as an "avant premier" of the score on test day. Do each GMAT Prep 3 or 4 times. Yes, you will get repeated questions, and your score will be higher than if you hadn't done any of those questions earlier. However, it will help you a lot with the timing and you will always get new difficult questions! Furthermore, doing other CATs as Manhattan's (if you buy the book, you get some free tests - I believe the math is more difficult than the actual test -, or they have got a free one) or Knewton's (which are REALLY great).
Bottom line
Start studying early, give yourserlf at least 4 months if you have a very demanding job. If you can, join a prep course! (I cannot stress enough that Knewton's course is awesome). It's money really well invested; they even organize the study for you, optimizing your time! I ended up with a solid 720 (it isn't a 740 or 750, but definitely not bad), and I believe Knewton had lots to do with it!
I hope this is helpful for those thinking of facing the GMAT!
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