against ALL odds: 690----->720

Hello gmatclubbers!! Here is my debrief.I will separate this in 2 categories so everyone can jump and find info as quick as possible without having to read through a lot:

1)Mock scores and real scores
2)Material used

Here we go:

1)MOCK TESTS AND REAL GMAT SCORES

March 24 2015 : GMATPREP 1 600 (q43 v29)

April 7 2015 : GMATPREP 2 640 (q45 v34)

April 15 2015 : FIRST REAL GMAT 690 (q44 v40)

August :Manhattan 1 640 (q44 v34)

August :Manhattan 2 620 (q43 v32)

Sept 14 2015 : GMATPREP 3 660 (q47 v34)

Oct 4 2015 : GMATPREP 4 660 (q46 v35)

Oct 15 2015 :Gmatprep 1 retake 730 (q49 v41)

Nov 3 2015 : SECOND REAL GMAT 720 (q47 v42)

takeaways: Mock tests were not good indicators of my real capabilities IMO.I don't know why.Deep inside i was always thinking that this is not the real thing and who cares how well I do.

Also,i always drank a lot of coffee/red bull during my mocks BESIDES the 730 retake.I only drank half a (small sized) red bull during the real 720 and a sugar enhanced(I added it) powerade along with chocolate.I found that too much caffeine was making me agitaded.To find out if my instinct was right i drank a full sized red bull before the quant of a second retake.Once i realized that i had spent 7 whole minutes on the first 2 questions i stopped the retake.

Interpret these ''findings'' however you like but with caution.

2)MATERIALS USED

Manhattan quant guides:top stuff, 'nough said
Manhattan advanced quant :way too hard for me but i did learn some lessons
Manhattan SC: it gets you on the right track but i think it is not well organized.After i had gone around some extra sc material(look below)i found it more useful.
Skimmed through manhattan CR and RC : nothing to say here
Powerscore CR bible:It's good for understanding what is going on but I felt i did not need guidance on that anyway.I had already gotten a 40 on the real gmat verbal and done all the q's on the extra blue official guide before i started any verbal preparation so maybe that's why.However,lessons such as breaking down the argument into premises and conclusion or keeping in mind that a secondary conclusion might exist were VERY important.I did not like the exercises at the end of the chapters.I think a lot more are required.
Total GMAT Math by Jeff Sackman : i would only recommend this if you are low on quant.Most of its questions i could solve easily and i had a q44 first time around.Reading the theory of this book is not worth it IMO if you have done the Manhattan ones.Either get it for the exercises or get some sort of packages with exercises by this professional that i have heard are good(I haven't used them though) or do something else for extra questions like gmatclubs forum.
articles by e-gmat on gmatclub for SC: for me they helped clarify some things better than MGMAT's SC and made them stick in my mind better
Some quant q's from the gmatclub's forums.Especially the explanations by mister bunuel were very helpful.

Official guide + the two extra guides + gmat software question pack 1:Besides the fact that these sources contain actual questions from previous tests that help you understand how the questions are,i was disappointed .The OG questions are supposed to contain questions of increasing difficulty as you move on when this does not happen all the time,so you can't really evaluate yourself based on them.The qp 1 is a bit awkward since when you choose to do e.g. 10 questions on RC you can get 15 different passages and when you move on to harder questions these passages can repeat so you can't really know how well you have done if you re-read a passage.Plus you have limited freedom of movement generally(e.g. you have to bookmark every question that you want to retry in the future because they are not all in order).

I thought it would be appropriate to add an extra category of comments/experience but i want to make it easier for busy individuals trying to ace this test.Whoever wants can ask me anything through a private message of publicly.

Good luck to everyone trying!!! And here is the classic motto: IF I CAN DO IT ANYONE CAN!!! (i never even thought if this is real everytime i read it,but it is)