..and the struggle continues (super long)

I took the GMAT the second time on Mar 23 and got a 670 ( M 39 , 58 V 42 ,96) . My initial target was to break the 700 barrier but considering that my last score was 570, it wasnt too bad.

The test center experience was good. The staff's good and helpful. So if anyone of you here are from Bangalore,India then you needn't worry ( vivek , are you hearing ?) The markers were fine, the last time I took the test I remember that they dried too fast, they were just awful but this time they were fine.

Regarding the test -

Quant - thats where I got slaughtered. I was cruising till the 12-13 th question and thats when I encountered some real tough questions. It could be possible that they seemed tough because I didn't manage time well for the first few questions. I faced modulus, inequality questions in the first 15 questions, not overly difficult. I also noticed that I got some medium difficulty questions on Coord-Geo towards the end. If you've been a regular to the Club then it shoudnt be too tough at all. The quant does not mimic the OG, the level is certainly higher in the actual test. So if anyone is too happy looking at his/her quant performance in the OG then he/she's living in a fool's paradise. Although I was aware of this , I guess its bad time management for which I had to pay the price. That said, please make sure that you dont hurry for the forst few questions, they are crucial and decisive in some ways.

Verbal- well I coudnt imagine in the world that I'd get 42 !! Well, for those of you feel that the verbal section is a tough nut to crack, thats simply not the case. I 'm not a Verbal Pro here but still managed it. For SC, just practice, practice and practice. This is an oft repeated mantra- but make sure you maintain a error log, believe me it can make a helluva difference. Dont get bogged down if you get wrong answers or if you're accuracy rate takes a beating, pick yourself up and learn because you're in a process of learning and are bound to make mistakes. RC- this used to be my archnemesis, as it has been for so many others. My first step was to do all the RC passages in the OG and read all the answer explanations. The key here is to understand how they arrived at the answer and not the answer itself. The OG explanations for OG are some of the holiest explanations you can find !! I then proceeded to do some of the GMAT passages in the big RC question-bank. I applied the same techniques to these passages without timing myself and believe me it worked. I then took timed RC tests - first 35 block questions and then blocks of 50. Once I gained confidence, I proceeded to the tougher LSAT questions in the latter part of the question bank. For RC, make sure you paraphrase what each apara says. Most oft the times, I noticed that a smple thought has been put in the most round about fashion you can ever find so basically simplify it. Keep key words in mind - they are helfulin answering "tone" questions. I found the KAPLAN Verbal book pretty good for Verbal tips. My fresh appraach at RC increaed my accuracy rate in RC from 73-75% to 87-88%. In the real test I got 5 RC passages- all with increasing difficulty and yes on GMAT where there's RC there's always women and I got one passage on them For CR,read them with an open mind ,make sure you arent "answer biased" and throw out all out of scope options. T noticed in the real test that it was pretty easy to spot the OOS options. There was nothing extraordinary about the CR- they were of moderate difficulty.

So far as the practice tests are concerned, I noticed that GMAT Prep provides the most accurate estimate

GMATPrep I - 660
GMATPrepII- 680

PR might overestimate your score slightly

PRI 700
PRII 690
PRIII 720

and KAPLAN is crap ! I suggest anyone taking the GMAT not to do it in the final days of your prep it can demolish all the confidence you have built

KAPLAN I - 560
KAPLAN II 580
KAPLAN III 600

although I'm pretty happy with the improvement of my score ( 100 points), I think i can do much better in quant and raise my score further. I've decided to still apply to a couple masters prog with this score.

to summarise
1.practice, practice and practice
2.Dont get bogged down by low scores- keep your spirits high
3.Be persistent in your efforts
4.Have a study plan and stick to it

would want to thank everyone on the Club, (vivek, thanks a lot for those super SC explanations you sent me) and good luck ! I'm still gonna stick around for a while here..my struggle continues.