700 is just on the borders of good scores, so nothing ground breaking here, but I thought of writing some insights, someone out there might benefit from them.
The resources I used were the
OG,
MGMAT guides (Excellent guides, specially in Quant and SC sections),
PowerScore CR bible, and online forums, including of course GMAT Club.
MGMAT CR and CR bible are both good; I found CR bible a little more comprehensive, but any of them is sufficient. The best thing about
MGMAT's quant guides is that they prepare you for the worst, using them along with the
OG will for sure put you above the level of the real GMAT's quant section.
MGMAT's quant practice questions have a different structure and format from those of the GMAT, but they'll give you a decent practice on concepts.
Practicing 700+ question on GMAT Club and reviewing the subsequent discussions lead to a phenomenal boost in my verbal performance, specially in the CR section. Another forums that are also highly recommended are those of
MGMAT, excellent instructors and great discussions there.
I've always found questions by other training companies a little "different" from GMAT's questions for some reason, specially in the Quant section; GMAT's difficult questions tend to be short and tricky, not lengthy and convoluted and always focus on the bare basics of mathematics. Practicing GMATPrep questions is the BEST way to prepare for GMAT, they are the closest to GMAT's question style and format. In this regard, two invaluable documents that I highly recommend are 198 700+ GMATPrpep quant questions and a similar one for SC (GPSC or something); you'll find them both in GMATClub's documents archive. Just make sure that you don't study them until you've taken the two exams of GMATPrep, otherwise your score will be inflated (you will have seen a lot of the questions) and you'll waste the best - or dare I say the only - real predictor of your score. Study both of these documents thoroughly and look up the ones you get wrong on GMATClub and
MGMAT forums, excellent discussions.
Another supplement I used was "Thursdays with Ron" sessions; they are amazing; they helped me a lot, specially in my struggle against SC, didn't have much time to check the rest though.
One thing that puzzled me during my study was what the best predictor of your final score is and how much other CATs scores correlate with the real GMAT's score. In my own exprience, GMATPrep was the closest. I scored 690 on both of GMATPrep's CATs. The gap between Kaplan "diagnostic" free test score and my real one was HUGE! few days before my exam I scored a dismal 630 on Kaplan, and just two days before the real test I scored 640 on
MGMAT free test (I didn't have enough time to go through the rest of their CATs). I knew Kaplan was more difficult than the real GMAT but
MGMAT score was a bit of a shock to me; anyway, don't let these scores discourage you, they are not a real predictor of your performance, it seems that the free tests scores are intended to be low (training companies need to attract more customers after all :D). Use these CATs to boost your mental stamina, 3.5 hours of extensive mental work is not an easy task and needs preparation of its own.
As for the real test experience itself, it was stormy, keeping your nerves in check is crucial, getting nervous will get you a score less than the maximum you can get, I got a little nervous at the beginning of the quant section, causing me to lose some valuable points that I wouldn't have lost otherwise. I was usually good at CR and RC, but SC was a weakness; in the real exam I recall facing some SCs that I've never seen anything similar to before! no doubt it was the main contributor to my humble V score.
Thanks again to the amazing community of GMATClub, your support is much appreciated.