Guidance required

First of all Thanks a lot for your reply. I was quite depressed to see my score. Though I scored 720 in both the GMAT prep exams, when I saw my score after the actual exam, it was difficult to digest. Even though I was quite confident even after the exam that I will score somewhere around 720. I scored 47 in quantitative (though I am not sure how good it is) and a meagre 24 in Verbal. Now I really don't know, how will I be able to improve upon my score, if I decide to reattempt GMAT. Any suggestions from this forum will be highly appreciated. Just before the exam, I did attempt all the OG 10 SC's and I could get more than 90% correct.

But I would like to share that, while I sat for the exam, I did encounter a lot of "EXCEPT" questions and "Which one is not" questions. And my general feeling is that the level of actual GMAT exam is much higher then that of the diagnostic test or GMAT prep test.

I have seen lot of people at this forum sharing thoughts. I would like to have your opinion on my situation.

I wanted to apply to the schools because the deadlines for all the schools will be over and I will only get a chance in 2009 then.