Bitter sweet feeling - GMAT score - 690 (Q50, V34)

Just came back from the test center, got a 690 (Q50, V-34). I know its not a bad score but so wanted to cross 700 and probably would have, had I not messed up the timing in verbal. Was left with 9 questions and had 9 min to go (with 1 RC). Ohh well.

First of all, Thanks a lot to every1 at this club ..... its an amazing resource.....

First GMAT
My first attempt at GMAT was in August 2010, scored 640 (Q47, V31). Although, I wasn't happy with the score but die to unavoidable circumstances couldn't retake it. I ended up applying to schools and got reject. After this I was left with no option but to try my luck at GMAT again ......

Second Innings
Started thinking about in Feb 2011. From my last experience, I knew I could manage Quant (although my Q score was not great) but had to work on Verbal. My biggest problem was discipline, so I enrolled in Knewton class to give my studies some structure. Also their 50 points guarantee was a bonus. As per content, its a good course which will keep you focused but I am not sure if it prepares you for a 700 level score. Also in my opinion, the adaptive part of the course aka concept queue is a little overrated or may be I couldn't fully understand it.

I should have mentioned before, for my first attempt, I used Manhattan GMAT books but probably lacked practice. This time, I completed the Knewton course including all their pre-class assignments, homework and extra practice questions. Apart from this, I was also doing OG12 and the supplementary guides. So basically, I was mostly practicing as I thought for me it was a better way to learn a concept (from my mistakes). I concentrated the most on SC and mostly used OG.

Apart from this I also did almost half of GMAT prep SC and CR questions from the docs posted on this forum.

I took plenty of practice tests to build stamina. All my practice scores are on this thread
gmat-damm-you-113784.html

Day before the exam
I took off from work, got up at 6:30 in the morning, took a GMAT PREP exam at 8:00 (my actual test time), with AWA. I scored a 710 (Q-49, V-40) with only a few repeats. After that i revised my notes. In the evening went out for a movie and dinner to free up my mind. I went to bed at 10:00 PM hoping to get a 8 hour sleep but woke up at 3:00 and could sleep for an hour or so. I think thats was tension does to you.

Exam Day
Finally the D day, I reached the center 40 mins early. The check in was smooth and started the exam at 8:00. The AWA was pretty easy, I used the full allotted time and then took a break. For some reason I started panicking in the break, ate a granola bar, drank some water, used the facilities but because of the tension, I took a longer break and ate 2 mins of my Quant time. I am normally a little slow in answering and am always catching up on time. This made me panic even more. But as there was no other option, I started the Q section and tried not to think about time. Luckily, I found the first few quant questions really easy and caught up on time (may be i messed up a question there). I found the entire Q section manageable without any surprises. It was very similar to GMAT Prep. I might have missed 1 question in between which did not seem difficult but my solution was not matching the answer choices (I might have messed up the calc). I guessed that one and moved. I was actually thinking that I have messed up this section as all the questions seemed easy. (was kind of surprised to see the final score).

After the Quant, took the break, drank water and came back early this time. Didn't want to use more time again. I found GMAT Verbal to be more difficult than GMAT PREP, CR and RC in particular. Here, I think i messed up with the timing. I should have guessed a question here and there and should have caught up on time but not sure what got in me and I just kept solving all problems thinking i will catch up later. Before I knew, I had 9 questions to go in 9 mins with 1 RC. I started to speed up and that would have affected my accuracy. I am quite sure, had I handled the timing a little better, I could have gotten couple more points on V and hopefully crossed the 700.

Now What
Now, I gotta figure if this score is good enough for the schools i was to apply. The first one being INSEAD which required 70-75 percentile in each section and my V percentile is 68%. Not sure what it means .....

Anyway, thats my story.... let me know if any of you has any specific questions.