Finally got it done 710(Q50, V36)

Hi all,
I have not been an active member of this forum. Mostly, i just came to practice but haven't contribute to the gmatclub much. I gotta say this forum help me a lot to improve my Gmat. It's time for me to pay this forum back.

My first attempt to take gmat was 2 years ago. I got 560 but cannot what remember the break down(Q49, V??). At that time, i was thinking that im not gonna be able to score more than 600. So i just used that score to apply for MBA. Right now, im almost done with MBA and i want to continue studying on Ph.D. That's come the time i need to retake Gmat.

My preparition started in April(2004) with Crack gmat, OG, and Kaplan verbal workbook. I took it in June and this time i got 590(Q4?, V20). I thought i could have done better in quant since my undergrad was engineering. So i tried again in Aug and got 610(Q51, V1?). I was shocked again but this time with my verbal.

That's when i found this forum and start to become a member of this club. I was thinking that I would take gmat for the last time. If i don't get more than 700, i will give up the PhD. This time I started doing all OG then go through Kaplan CD. Here are my scores:

PP1 : 670
800score 1: 720 (Q60, V33)
800score 2: 710 (Q60, V32)
kaplan cat 1: 640 (Q50, V33)
kaplan cat 2: 630 (Q50, V33)
kaplan cat3: 630 (Q50, V33)

One week before the test, i just found Paul's recommendation on Kaplan Gmat 800 so i just bought one and go through it. It is the BEST gmat prep book(except OG).

Test day: appointment at 1pm
AWA: It was ok. nothing special. Just follow PR and OG.

Quant: The first question was relatively easy. Went on .....until Q6, i got very long and difficult one. Have 1 prob, and 1 combination. One very dif. SD. After that, i got one parabola question. I was surprised to get that since i never found this kind of problem in my preps but it was not too hard. Finished it and had couple minutes left.

Verbal: RC was night mare for me. I got the first one in 3rd question. Got 2 bold face questions back to back in Q25-30 ...im not sure. SC and CR were about the same as in OG. But RC was different that 3 0f 4 RC has only one but lengthy paragraph. They are like one 50-line paragraph. I was running out of time so I decided to guess on the last RC(4 questions).

Final score 710(Q50, V36). I almost cried when i saw the score. Never thought that i could break 700.

Thanx all of the members.

NEVER GIVE UP !!