740 (Q 50, V 40)

Finished my GMAT exam today. Got a score of 740 (Q 50, V 40).
Was aiming for 750+ but then considering that i only had 3 hrs of sleep last night (exam was scheduled at 9 AM morning) i should be satisfied.
As of now waiting for the AWA scores. I hope i did not screw my AWA section.

Any queries are always welcome.

My Preparation

I would share my view on the GMAT exam and my preparation for it without getting into the details of how i fared through the whole exam day.

Materials used.
I did almost everything available under the sun.
1. OG 12th edition
2. Verbal review
3. Kaplan 800
4. Kaplan premier programme
5. Manhattan SC
6. LSAT

Mock exams:
1. Manhattan gmat
2. Gmat prep

Scores:

MGMAT:
1. NA 2. 670 3. 710 4. 690 5. 750 6. 730

* manhattan questions are of good difficulty and replicate the Gmat exam questions more closely than Kaplan/ Princeton.

GMAT prep:
PREP1
1. 700 2. 740 3. 760
PREP2
1. 710 2. 750 3. 770

Do not use results of Kaplan and Princeton mock exams to infer your score. Both can give skewed results (generally on bad side) but are good for timed practice anyway.

Approach towards preparation

One really needs to identify one's weak area before committing to any plan.
Give a mock exam (prep 1 would be ideal). Identify your weak areas and focus just on them initially.
I found that my SC skills were lacking and worked for about 20 days just on them.

Gmatclub is a very good forum to sharpen your Gmat test taking skills. You get to see some brilliant minds sharing their approach. I participated actively in the SC forum. While different opinions are always good everything must be taken with a pinch of salt. So i verified all the concepts that i learned from other sources. This really helps - be open to different ideas but commit to them only after they are verified.

Making notes for SC and Quants also helped. Being an engineer, i was always comfortable with maths. While i did not find any single good resource for maths practice, (IMHO OG maths & quants review are way too easy) Manhattan and Kaplan exam's maths problems should provide a good workout for your mind. I did not get a chance to subscribe to Gmatclub maths test but heard they are good anyway. For verbal, doing CR and RC from LSAT helped me build my stamina for GMAT verbal section.

However, if you intend to practice from LSAT make sure you do this sometime in the mid of ur prep and you time your attempt. Too early you may not be ready for LSAT's tough questions and too late you may still be in LSAT mode of solving questions. (LSAT are good only for building your verbal stamina. Though i did not do too well in my verbal ).

I found people mentioning that gmat is getting harder each day. IMHO, that's not true.
Actual gmat exam is very close to the GMAT prep 2 level. So make sure you go through every question of Gmat prep software. Give the tests twice/thrice if need be.

One advice for test day, while solving questions do not look at the timer. This will make you more nervous.
Set some check stages. Like, 10 questions : time remaining 57 mins. Halfway thru questions : time remaining half the allotted time. In the last 5-6 question you can keep tabs on per question basis as not answering a question will be committing harakiri.

Feel free to ask if you have any queries....