610->690->740-8 months of rollercoaster ride ENDS!

Well mine has been quite a frustrating GMAT journey. Whenever I'd open these forums here,I'd see people scoring 750 or 760 on the first attempt itself and I always used to get anxious when I'd reach this score and in fact after the first attempt I never thought that I'd be able to reach this score.But patience paid off and thankfully I'm done with the GMAT for good
Here's my journey in a nutshell:

First attempt
September 30th,2012- 610
I wanted to apply in early action for CBS and Tuck and without much preparation(2 weeks to be precise)took the GMAT. I hardly knew the content well and took only 2-3 full length tests when I should have done a lot more. I was quite disappointed with the score AND realized that cracking the GMAT is not gonna be as easy as it looked like.And I obviously missed the early action dates.


Second attempt
20th November 2012 - 690
This time I prepped a little better but I think that I still didn't understand the concepts well.I knew a lot of stuff but doing it under timed conditions was a challenge.I used grockit and it helped me improve by 80 points. On one side I thought that maybe I have maxed out and I can't score more than this but I thought that a score of 690 is not good enough especially because I belong to a very competitive pool and the average
scores at the schools I'm targeting hover around 720. So I dropped the idea of applying to business schools altogether for the fall 2013 intake.


Third & Final attempt!
22nd April 2012 - 740
I prepped for a total of 2 months during this attempt. Did the Free verbal classes that came alongwith the Aristotle Verbal Grail set. Great set of books. The classes were quite good and moreso because they were free. But I had to finish them in 3 weeks because I didn't have much time left for my GMAT.
This time I felt more in command of verbal and of the GMAT as whole as I had prepared for quite a few months by now and I could feel it while taking the test too. Was overwhelmed when I saw a 740 on the screen. 49 on Quant and 42 on Verbal. Almost jumped with joy!!!!!!!!


My $0.02 FWITW
- If I had started following these forums a bit early, I probably would have wisened enough early on.
- Taking a lot of practice tests is important. I took only 2 tests on the first attempt and no wonder i sank liked titanic.
- Don't do the same mistake that I did of underestimating the GMAT. Yes, you shouldn't be scared of the GMAT but at the same time the GMAT is not a cakewalk.
- I'd occasionally here stories of people getting into HBS and other top schools with 600 or so scores. The truth is these people are exceptions in schools where the average GMAT scores around 720-730.
I remember that the guy who was admitted to HBS with a 580 score was an ex NBA player..there are other people with those scores who get through who are very strongly linked to the schools as they belong to
prominent business houses of different countries and the top schools do take that into consideration(although they don't mention it explicitly)..

Anyway, it was great learning from others here. It's by reading and participating in these forums that I have been able to pull up a victory! Thank you all.