From 630 to 710...

Guys,

I've taken the test today and scored 710 ( Q 49, V38). As I was not an active member of gmatclub discussions I wanted to contribute at least smth to this exellent site. My first GMAT attempt was in March this year - and as the test was taken for scholarship I had only 2 weeks for preparation, that is why I took a vacation (the worst holiday in life:) and began my preparation. I covered all basics, though I had no time to practice properly. That is why in spite of GMATpreps results (1- 700, 2-710) I scored only 630.
I knew that was not a score for applications, hence I booked the second try on Jul 17. Although I was highly motivated, I "severely" procrastinated the preparation because of work till it was only 3 weeks before the test. My advice - never make breaks in your preparation, as the test requires you to live "in gmat style". Full first week I was recollecting my previous knowledge and the next two weeks I was preparing at least 3-4 ours working days and 7-8 on weekends.

Mainly I was preparing math and SC. I was preparing math in order to shoot 50-51 in order to compensate for weaker verbal section - I am sure - its the strategy of many non-native speakers. The main resource I used for math preparation was gmat club tests, and I advice all to prepare them in order to reach 50Q (don't lose time on OG questions - they are considerably weaker than real stuff). They cover almost all gmat questions and their interface is suitable for practise. In order to reach 50Q I would suggest take those tests until you will have up to 28-30 correct answers per test.
In verbal I was preparing only SC as I saw no point to prepare RC - since no "advanced" methodic in RC worked for me properly, or maybe I was too reluctant to conquer those strategies. The best for me was reading properly the passage, and some parts even for 2 times - that is why I was working on SC in order to have more time for RC.
I don't know why but CR came natural to me. I read the LSAT official guide on LSAT Logical reasoning (app 20-25 pages) and took several tests scoring about 80-85% and spending less than 2 minutes.
SC was the hardest for me. Its the only section that I studied back and forward: OG 10, OG 11, OG 12, SC 1000, questions from GMATprep , all types of somebody's notes (4 or 5) and some other stuff. I won't name MGMAT SC since everybody knows that without this book there is nothing to do on the test.
My advice is - practice SC till you are blown

Most probably I will retake the test in order to boost my chances as I am only 23 and thus have to compensate for relative lack of work experience and in order to compete for scholarships

Good luck everyone, and as you can see any progress in GMAT score is more than real (with no exceptions) and it only requires from some people more or less time.