From 640 to 710 and V28 to V38

I have been a silent member of the GMATClub forum for a long time now and have greatly benefited from the rich information available here. I never really felt qualified to contribute something myself but today after achieving a GMAT score which I am happy about, it would be unfair of me to not share what I have learnt and maybe help even 1 future GMAT test taker.

A little background about myself:
I am a Software Engineer from India working in a Santa Clara based tech company in Bangalore India since I graduated with an engineering degree in July 2017 (2+ years work-ex as per today).

GMAT 1- 14th May 2018- 640(Q49 V28 IR6 AWA6)
GMAT 2- 10th Sep 2019 - 710(Q49 V38 IR8 AWA score pending)

After my first attempt, I was very disappointed and decided to take a break from GMAT as I never planned to apply in 2019. I started studying again in March 2019(inconsistently).

I'd like to first point out what I did differently in the 2 tests.

1. Master the Official Guide
I know this has been said in every GMAT experience post but I cannot stop myself from re-emphasising this.
While preparing for GMAt1, I probably did 90% of the Quant questions but hardly 40-50% of the Verbal sections. This was the biggest mistake I made.
For my GMAT2, I bought the latest version of the OG and decided to use its online portal for Verbal. Now I find the online portal really advantageous for 2 reasons: It allowed me to experience questions the same way as it is during the actual exam and it also kept a record of correct and incorrect questions without any of my effort.
I made sure to do each and every question of my strongest and weakest type of questions: Quants and RC. I believe this played a very big role in my eventual score.

2. Respect the process
This is the biggest mistake I made in my first attempt. I didn't respect the process. By respecting the process I mean is that while solving the question, I didn't pay much attention to the solution. I rectified this during my second attempt. I used to mark each question I found tough(irrespective of whether I got it correct or not), and made sure to see the solution provided and try to understand it and make a note of it. This helped me understand my mistakes, learn few formulas/rules and also certain better and faster approaches.

3. Write lots of mocks
This plays a huge role in the GMAT success. Make sure to write as many mocks as you can. When you register for the GMAT, you get 2 official mocks for free. Apart from this, you can buy 4 additional mocks for a total of about ~$85($50 for 2). I bought 2 additional mocks and I scored 730 in 2 and 710 in 2 of them. So you can see how closely accurate it is to your exam day experience. Also writing mocks helps you get adjusted to the exam better and pace yourself better with a timer.

4. Book a date only after you are happy with your mock scores
I have read a lot of articles which tell you to book a date 8-10 weeks away and then prepare. This is the worst suggestion in my opinion especially for people who are working. There are days when you will be loaded with office work or days when you just can't concentrate and you lose out on time and then have to study under pressure. It might work for some people but it just doesn't work for me and I ended up screwing my first attempt because of this. The second time around, I studied at a slow pace skipping few days in between and only after I was hitting the 700+ score did I book a date 10-12 days in the future. Here again, you shouldn't wait for long as once you are getting your target score or threshold, unnecessarily delaying will increase the anxiety for no reason.

5. Order of exam
Another advantage of writing mocks is getting accustomed to one order of the exam. GMAT allows you 3 different orders. In my first attempt, I went with the default order: AWA IR Q V thinking I will ease into the main sections but ended up being exhausted towards end of Verbal. I realised Q V IR AWA is better order as I can target the important sections first fresh and then do the lesser important and less tiring AWA in the end. Make sure to try all 3 and take a decision accordingly.

I'll try to add more things that helped me improve as and when I can remember.

Hope this is of help.