First of all, I did not think that I got a score of 730 because I thought that the last questions of both Quant and Verbal were relatively easier than the previous questions. This was the 1st time I took GMAT, and I took it right before June 12. I started study GMAT in Oct 11, however, due to the peak season (I work @ KPMG), I had to stop my study and resumed in mid March 12.
My mock exams scores are:
Around end of 2011: 680 Q50 V30
Mar 12: 680 Q49 V33/34
May 12: 740 Q50 V41/42
30 May 12: 730 Q50 V38
As you can see, I scored pretty high in Quant. I was in the Math and Physics Specilazied Classes in high school so I did not have to spend much time to study Quant when preparing for GMAT (only about 1 week for getting used of the format).
Problem Solving: prepare carefully and practice as much as possible in Standard deviation and Probability. I think that these parts are relatively difficult. For Probability, try to apply Probability Tree for computation. In case that the question is complex such as there are many ways to combine and pick, use combination and permutation nCx and nPx
Data Sufficiency: use examples. Try to use different examples, if they makes different answers to the question => wrong. Otherwise, it's correct.
SC: I think that the stategy in Manhattan is okay because I read Man SC about 2 3 times to remember the grammar and rules (I am not a native speaker). You should read Man SC!!! 1 of my friend who scored 790 in the 1st attempt gave me this book (she only studied 2 GMAT books: OG12 and Man SC). From my own experience, I realized that SC questions test parallel, subject-verb agreement and modifiers again and again.
RC: I am suck at biology reading so I did try to translate several reading in
the official guide to understand the meaning of many terms which helped me a lot in my actual test (1 reading abt biology). I think that the strategy in Manhattan is okay: taking notes and read again when you need details for detail questions. But my friends said that they dont need to take note, only read once to understand the structure and read again for detail questions
CR: Power Bible is a good book. Reading it is sufficient.
My prep books:
Official guide 12
Verbal review 2
Manhattan SC RC
Thanks for reading and sorry for my english :D
Best of lucks!!!