Low GMAT Quant Score - pulled score down

Hi all,

I finished my undergraduate in April 2018, gave my GMAT for the first time in May 2018 without much prep (about 1 week). I'm a female Indian engineer, planning to join a business school after 2-4 years. Undergrad GPA is early 7s on 10 in the Indian system. Planning to write it again at the end of June 2018, after dedicated studying.

I scored a 640, which is much lower than what would be required for my target schools. Need to be 750+ to be competitive for the MBA programs I am interested in. Section-wise scores were V37, Q41, IR8, AWA5. I tend to do well in standardized testing (eg. SAT Subject Test - Math Level 2 score was 780), but generally do better in the English section of any test than in the Math section. Still, the low quant score was very unexpected.

Practice Test Scores:
GMAT Review (Test 1): no prep - 710 - V39, Q48
GMAT Review (Test 2): 730 - V41, Q49
Princeton Review (Test 9): 650 - V36, Q44 (Made the error of not answering several questions - 2/3 in Verbal, 5/6 in Quant)
Princeton Review (Test 8): 700 - V38, Q39

After the 1st attempt-
Princeton Review (Test 7): 730 - V47, Q45

Did some part of MGMAT's Section Correction and some selected questions from the OG before the 1st attempt. Currently going through OG and the practice questions on Magoosh. Have looked at the main strategies for RC. Need to go through idioms. Statistics, number properties and coordinate geometry are a stumbling block.


Any tips on how to improve Verbal to mid to late 40s and Quant to Q50 or so would be appreciated. Will be starting work from August 2018, so won’t have much time for prep after that. I might attempt in July again if June’s score is low, but I’d rather finish it off in June itself.
I felt that during the actual exam, there were a lot more DS questions than I was used to, and they felt hard/time-consuming, much more than any practice test I have given. I've been struggling a bit with the time-constraint, but not as badly as during the actual exam, where I was very short of time during Quant, a bit during Verbal. Ended up making 1 or 2 guesses in Verbal, quite a lot in Quant.

Any strategies, books or practice tests I should be trying out? I'd say I have a good handle of the concepts for Quant, and play it by ear in Verbal.
Also, are there schools which look at the best sectional scores across different GMAT attempts?

Thanks!!