720 (Q49, V40)

First off, thanks a lot!! I've been lurking here for the past three weeks, and cant thank everyone enough for all the insights. I only wish I got here earlier in my prep.

I took the test this morning, and got 720 (Q49, V40). This was a tad lower than what I had been scoring on the GMAT Prep tests over the past couple of weeks, but more on that later.

AWA
This was a pleasant surprise. I didn't really practice for this apart from doing the AWA on two of the GMATPrep tests, and looking at the general structure of the essay. The topics weren't weird, and I managed to get this section out of the way without any excitement. (I did go to the wire in the analysis of an issue part, so I guess this could've bitten me in the butt very easily!)

Quant
The one question I always looked for in this forum was how representative the GMAT Prep tests were of the real thing. I found my answer today. The quants were of nearly the same level as the ones in the prep. I did come across a couple of different types of questions in inequality, and probability, and one involving permutation (i think! i did it using brute force, and am still not sure i got it right). I spent a lot of time on the first 15 questions, and the last 5 min saw me with 6 questions remaining. This didnt come as a surprise though - during my practice tests, I always ended up that way without adversely affecting my score. (I guess more practice would have taken care of this, but the thought of getting the first ones wrong is ... *shudder*). I took educated (i think!) guesses for these, and actually panicked on the last one thinking time was up. I hit "Confirm" before realizing that i had full minute left! So that was quant.

Verbal
I've always been deficient in SC, and to my horror the first question was an SC !! Aaaaaargh! I did what I do best when I come across a test question I have no clue about - I stared at it . After the requisite 3 minutes, I used the tried and tested "if it sounds good, it must be good" method and went on. The rest of verbal was not too bad with the exception of a couple of rather nasty RC passages. I say nasty because almost every question required converging on answers by eliminating candidates. (IMO not a good way to go about things!) I finished the test with 1 min to spare.

Analysis
I think more attention on my part to the quants and timing as such during my preparation might have made a difference for the better. I mean being able to finish quant without flying blind in the last 5 questions is a GOOD thing! I think permutations and combinations dont deserve more than a quick run though. Questions from these are seriously underrepresented on the test (hurray ! I'm not good at it anyway!).

Verbal is a different story altogether. I simply didnt get in-depth into SC. I did go through the Manhattan SC book a week before the test, and kicked myself for not seeing it earlier. I believe SC is a safe bet in terms of return on effort expended. IMO RC and CR on the other hand are less easy to acquire with practice alone.

Practice Tests
Kaplan Test 1 - 560 (??!!!) Didnt go near a Kaplan test after this!
GPrep 1 - 750 (Q50, V41)
GPrep 2 - 710 (Q47, V41)
GPrep 1 (R1) - 730 (Q49, V44)
GPrep 2 (R1) - 760 (Q49, V44)
GPrep 1 (R2) - 760 (Q49, V44)

The advice about re-doing the GPrep tests is simply priceless! Just getting the form down is a BIG help, and not to mention the questions seem reasonably close to the ones on the real test. A word here about the practice scores and my final score. I noticed that towards the latter part of the practice tests, there were a noticeable number of repeats. I'm not sure how exactly these might skew the score since you dont remember the answers anyway, but I think its a good idea to keep this in mind. Still taking these tests is invaluable!!

Resources
The Orange Book (OG 11), and the Purple Book (OG-Verbal). I wish I had gone through the Manhattan SC book but it was a little late in the game for that. And of course, I did a lot of quant questions posted on this forum !