GMAT : Scored a 720 (Q 50, V 37, IR 8) against a target score of 750+

LONG POST. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME. I HAVE TRIED TO HIGHLIGHT THE IMPORTANT POINTS. BUT IT WOULD BE GREAT IF THE EXPERTS COULD GO THROUGH THE COMPLETE STORY

Hello GMAT club users,

Like many, I have been lurking around this site for close to 6 months now, reading up explanations for verbal questions, and parsing through GMAT experience stories.

I gave my GMAT on the 6th of September, and score a 720 (Q 50, V 37, IR 8), much below my target score of 750+. I know it is a decent score, but it is below the score I was expecting and I don't know if I will be able to leverage such a score to my target school

Exam experience:

The exam went well. I was not stressed while giving the exam, although there was a lot of stress in the days leading up to it. I completed the questions comfortably, with around a minute to spare in every section. The fact that I had given around 12 exams with similar test conditions, sitting in a computer lab, writing essays and giving IR, and giving exam at a time similar to the exam time had helped me to become comfortable in giving the exam.

Practice regime:

I had joined Jamboree coaching classes for verbal, and in parallel, read Manhattan for sentence correction and powerscore for critical reasoning.

In the month leading up to the exam, I practiced all the OG and OG verbal questions. In the 15 days leading up to the exam, I gave GMAT preps and Jamboree exams almost everyday, and gave sectional tests in the evening. I think I did ~500 SC questions, ~200 CR questions and ~200 RC questions in the last 15 days. Given below are the scores I got in the 6 GMAT preps (Jamboree had given me access to the extra exam packs):

Aug 05, 2016 - GMAT Prep 1 - 710 (Q 49, V 37, IR 7) (Had not completed all the material by then)
Aug 27, 2016 - GMAT Prep 2 - 760 (Q 50, V 42, IR 8)
Aug 30, 2016 - GMAT Prep 3 - 750 (Q 51, V 40, IR 7)
Sep 01, 2016 - GMAT Prep 4 - 750 (Q 50, V 41, IR 8)
Sep 02, 2016 - GMAT Prep 5 - 760 (Q 50, V 42, IR 8)
Sep 03, 2016 - GMAT Prep 6 - 760 (Q 51, V 42, IR 5)

Now there were some repetitions in the questions, with some exams having the an RC and related to the questions that I had done earlier, because I had given so many sectional tests and Jamboree exams.

Where I may have gone wrong:

I think the main factor that may have affected my score was the stress-levels in the couple of days leading up to the exams. Because I was doing sectionals almost everyday, I did not have time to revise OG and OG verbal earlier, and I redid the questions in OG and OG verbal only in the last 2 days. In fact, in the last 2 days, I gave sectionals, redid SC and CR questions from OG, and gave another mock exam in the last 2 days, while reading all notes the night before the exam. I slept at around 11:30 PM and woke up at around 6 in the morning, revised notes again, and gave the exam.

Another factor that I think may have affected my score was the repetitions in the preps, although I did not see many people complaining about such a thing. Because of repetitions, my scores may have been inflated, and may have built a false confidence in me by giving a false picture of the scores I am actually getting.

I believe the large amount of problems that I did in the last 2 weeks, along with the cramming up of OG in the last 2 days may have led to a decrease in the retention capacity and an increase in the stress-levels which would have got my score down.

Enhanced Score Report:

Because I did not know where I may have fumbled, I went ahead and bought the Enhanced Score Report (attached with the post), against the suggestions of many users. But I felt it was worth it, I was able to find out, or at least get an idea of, where and at what difficulty, my score started going down.

I saw that, in verbal, the first 10 questions went well, with only 1 question wrong, while I screwed up in the second group of 10 questions, with nearly 6 questions wrong. The third group of 10 questions again went fine, with only 1 question wrong. The last 11 questions had ~4 questions wrong.

Also, the second group of 10 questions, where I got 6 questions wrong, had a high difficulty on average.

I believe this is the prime area where I screwed up and my score came down. The quant portion was fine, with only 3 questions wrong in the final quarter of the exam.

Next Steps:

Now that I know where I went wrong, I want to know the actual causes of what may have happened. Was it the stress-levels that actually went against my expected score? Or was it that the GMAT prep scores were inflated? Or was it a mix of both? From the ESR, it looks like my concepts may not have been clear at all. This may have happened because I could not retain all the things I learnt in the 15 days leading up to the exams. Or is it that I need more practice? Because I got an RC passage that was lengthier than any passage I had done (up to 4 paragraphs wrong)

Concepts:
Going forward, I am thinking I will revisit all the concepts by going through Jamboree notes, Manhattan (SC) and PowerScore (CR). Additionally, I wanted to know if the E-GMAT verbal package (https://gmatclub.com/marketplace/courses ... bal-Online) will be helpful in clearing my concepts. If it is worth the cost, I can go ahead and buy it.

Practice:
I am thinking of doing the remaining Jamboree questions in blue book, along with the scholaranium from the E-GMAT verbal package and the OG and OG verbal questions (repeating them again). I am also thinking of taking up LSAT superprep for doing lengthier RC's and CR's. Let me know if the LSAT material will help me in increasing my RC and CR percentiles.

Mock Exams:
Now that I have exhausted all GMAT preps, I still have Manhattan CATs (all 6 of them) at my disposal. I am thinking I will start these once I complete the material and the practice questions

Study Plan:
I also wanted to know what my study plan should be, in terms of the time I should allot for concepts, practice, and mock-exams, in terms of how I should structure the practice exams and mock-exams, and in terms of what should I do every week leading to the exam.

I was thinking I will spend ~2-3 weeks on concepts, along with doing all the questions from Jamboree and scholaranium. I will then do OG and OG verbal for a week, followed by LSAT prep for a week. I can keep 2 weeks following this for just the CATs. Or alternatively, I can start giving CATs as soon as I finish concepts, giving one CAT and some sectionals every week. In the last 2 weeks, I give only CATs and revise all material.

Date of the exam:
I also wanted to know when I should schedule my exam, as I am planning to apply to universities in Round-2, and need to have sufficient time to write the essays as well. I am thinking I will complete this by October end, so that I have at least 2 months to prepare for the essays. If you think it should be earlier, please let me know.

Impact on applications:
Finally, I wanted to know what impact this can have on my applications. I am targeting the following schools:

Kellog
Darden
Fuqua
Anderson
Tuck
Kenan-Flagler
ISB

I want to know if a score of 720 will help me in these universities at all. I have a B. Tech and an M. Tech from IIT Madras. I have around 5.5 years of work-experience. I have been working in ZS Associates for 3.5 years. I also founded an NGO in Pune 2 years ago and am currently heading it.

That's it from me. Any help on any part of this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!
sad_general