Take charge of your GMAT prep

1. Study hard, no substitute for it. Study all areas of the GMAT.
2. Take notes: the areas such as math, sentence correction and critical reasoning are concept intensive and logic driven. There is a lot for you to learn from the reference sources of these areas.  Make a note of all your trouble spots: Act on them within a week. if you cant help yourself, seek a professional trainer’s help to overcome the trouble areas.
3. Always read the logic of every question that you attempt, even if the question was easy (you may find a different way of solving the question)
4. If you tend to procrastinate, first thing is to book your test date. This will help you become serious for the rest of the prep period.
5. Go through OG questions ( official guide) only after you are thorough with the concepts. Go through OG more than once. The logic of the questions, types of questions in the OG have a lot of transfer value.
6. Write practice essays at least 10 each of issue and argument under timed conditions.
7. Take at least 6 full GMAT exams( inclusive of the essays) to build stamina for a nearly 4 hr test.
8. For the first timers at least 3 months of prep time ( with the right prep no room for repeat)
9. Spend an average of 2-3 hrs per day; some of this time can be used for general reading( support for RC and essay)
10. You are good at math is not necessarily synonymous with you are good at quantitative thinking.
11. Brainstorm on as many essay topics as possible; consult experts for more ideas pertaining to abstract topics.
12. Knowledge of idioms is a must for  significant improvement in sentence correction questions.
13. Say no to hearsay: if some one says GMAT math is easy, double check, because he may have performed in the medium level test and scored not more than 580.Even the official guide doesn’t present questions of the highest difficulty possible.
14. Vocabulary is not altogether unimportant; you must know, say, the meaning of ‘condescension or laudatory’ as the author’s tone and the difference  between ‘preface’ and ‘foreword’ as the source of the passage; the emphasis is on functional diction.
15. For success in critical reasoning there is lot to learn- types of logic, nature and components of arguments; strategy for categories of questions; you get them all at the click of a mouse.
    

Access  them; make success.