5 Months and 2 attempts to 730

Hello All,
Just got back from my 2nd attempt at the mad test !

Background
- Bachelors in Mechanical Engg from India & Master in Mechanical Engg from Carnegie Mellon.
- Work Exp : ~3 years at Schlumberger, Houston and ~3 years at GE Healthcare, Florence.
- Target Schools : Kellogg and Booth ( both part time programs)

I started my preparation in August this year. Initially started by understanding what the test entails and what it tests. Basically trying to get into the grind of studying after a long gap!
After a couple weeks, I took a GMATprep test and scored 710. The main thing I realized was I was weak in SC, CR and DS. I also realized that i need to build stamina to sit thru 3.5 hours.
I started digging for a good course prep and stumbled up on Experts' Global. I was mainly attracted to it because of 15 tests that it offers. It also covers basics necessary to get started. I drafted a daily study plan and followed it diligently.
After 4 months, I took my 1st GMAT and came out with a 700. It was not a bad score but was definitely below my expectations. I did not feel the test was difficult at all ( that's how they get ya).
Took that evening and the next couple days to analyze my ESR and realized that I was average in all areas and that I needed to put equal focus on all areas.
With this info, I expanded on my study plan and started solving more questions with different strategies and honing in on those strategies.
After a month, I took my 2nd GMAT today and scored a 730 !
I am not going to bore you with any more stories, but I do want to give you some bullet points that took me a while to realize. If you are reading these, PLEASE make sure you try to incorporate them in your strategy.

SC
- MEANING IS THE KING. Many prep centers preach splits methods. They say boil down the options to 2 and then look for meaning. But I noticed that this method can get us only to a certain level ( ~650). My suggestion is to take time in understanding what the author is trying to say in the sentence. See if it makes logical sense. If not, how would you make it logical. Spending 5-10 secs on this exercise helped me immensely in both my attempts. So, for any question, no matter what level, your 1st priority should be to understand the meaning.
- SLOW READING INITIAL SENTENCE : Many of us, including me in my earlier phase, try to read the sentence as soon as possible and jump to options to help figure out the right and wrong. This is a dead end approach, especially if you are shooting for 700+. Please read the sentence slowly, pause at commas( they are there for a reason), grasp the meaning, then continue reading the sentence. This will always help you. And trust me, the time spent here is totally worth it.

CR
- PRETHINKING : I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT jump to answer choices as soon as you read the prompt. There are so many traps and the best way to avoid them is to first come up with your own answer. At first, even I was hesitant to follow this, thinking that the answer choices will help me visualize the scenario. But, boy was I wrong. The main purpose here is not to come up with an option that is correct. The purpose is to give yourself a few seconds to connect all the dots from the prompt and create a mental picture of the scenario. Creating this mental picture will help you visualize the loopholes in the argument which you can use to strengthen, weaken or find an assumption in the argument.
- COMMON THEMES : There are common themes the CR questions are based on. Correlation vs Causation, wrong extrapolation of situations ( applying results from one area to another) , Percent vs numbers. Make sure you can recognize these types as you practice.

RC:
- SLOW READING: I attended one of the e-gmat webinars after my 1st GMAt attempt and the instructor said that the best way to attack RC questions is slowly reading the passage and understanding it. Many prep companies suggest to read very quickly and move to questions. I did this for my 1st attempt and ended up with an RC score at 67th percentile. But again, this might work for easy questions, but not for 650+ questions. The time you take reading the passage is totally worth it. I stuck to the suggestion by e-gmat and it was worked well for me. In today's exam, i could answer most of the questions even without looking back at the passage. So, the time you lose in trying to understand the passage will be compensated when you answer questions quickly.

PS & DS
- The only suggestion I would give here is to start off with the GMATCLUB's quant pdf file. This file is a masterpiece. It will give you everything you need to start practicing. And beyond that, it all depends on all the finer techniques you develop to attack the problems.

GENERAL
- DO NOT, at any circumstance, start off your prep by solving OG questions. They are a very hot commodity and you want to save them for after you have gained some ground.
- DO NOT, at any circumstance, start off your prep by taking the GMATprep diagnostic test for the same reason as above. THEY ARE A HOT COMMODITY AND DON'T WASTE IT.
- During my 1st GMAT, i felt the test was easy but ended up with a 700. During my 2nd GMAT, i was facing really hard questions, especially after ~Question 13. It was the same feeling in both quant and verbal. So, my takeaway is take every question as it comes and try to forget your previous question as soon as possible ( I know, easier said than done).
- I did a deep-dive on all my GMATprep verbal sections and noticed something. The fewer question in the 600-700 range i got wrong, the higher my score was. So, my suggestion is, if you want to get a 700+ score, make 100% sure that you are strong in the 600-700 level. The 600-700 level questions are the ones that will make or break your 700 wall.
- As you can see, from my 1st GMATprep test to my 2nd GMAT, I improved only 20 points. You might wonder why I needed 5 months to improve by 20 points. Honestly, I don't know the answer to that. All I can say is there are sooooo many factors that come into play while you take your exam. All we can do is try to identify those factors and make sure we have a plan of attack for each of those factors. As part of this GMAT journey, I have learnt a lot about myself, how I think, how I react to situations, and so on. So, atleast for these reasons, I would say that spending 5 months for those extra 20 points was totally worth it.
- Use you fingers to keep track of the eliminated options. I read that here on GMATCLUB and is a fantastic idea.


I have attached my excel plan file with deepdive on GMATprep verbal sections and my ESR from GMAT -1.
And now, I am tired of writing
And pardon my grammatical errors and spelling errors. Although, I am done with the test, I should know better

Pls PM me if you have any specific questions and I will try my best to answer.

Thank you GMATCLUB for creating such a fantastic forum and for being part of my life !

Cheers and happy holidays folks.
Bhavish