Sparky reporting

I took the test few days back. It was my first attempt. My score was 740 (98%) (Q50 95% and V39 89%) . I am pretty happy with the result, especially because I never broke 700 on mock tests.

Materials used for preparation excluding the forum, studied in the following order
Kaplan GMAT 800
Kaplan GMAT2005
OG10
Some RC's and CR's from LSAT published by Kaplan, Arco, and some retired official LSAT questions

Practice tests taken, from the first to the last

Kaplan 2005 Paper test 690 94% (Q48 87% V44 97%)
PP1 670 89% (Q48 90% V 34 70%) - before OG
PP2 680 (90%) (Q47 86% 36 79%) - before OG
Kaplan Diagnostic 620 87% (Q38 V39)
Kaplan CAT 1 590 73% (Q42 V30)
Kaplan CAT 2 630 83% (Q50 V33)
Kaplan CAT3 640 85% (Q48 V35)

Forum challenges in the order taken(I have done them almost every day since I got access)

C23 30 89%
C22 26 78%
C20 24 58%
C21 25 89%
C16 18 66%
C15 22 87%
C24 30 97%
C19 31 93%
C17 30 93%
C18 30 95%
C14 27 95%
C13 29 93%
C12 31 95%
C11 33 95%

Exam

Nothing special, really. Math - Kaplan level, Verbal OG level, maybe a little bit above.
I got 1 bold face - not really hard, two 75 liners but I didn't have any troubles understanding RC's. The last passage was the longest and the hardest.

My timing was perfect. I didn't have to guess on any questions. I finished each section with 2 minutes to spare.
CR's were straightforward (this is my strongest area in verbal). SC's were also not very hard. I only had to semi-guess on one idiom question.

Math had equal mix of DS's and PS's, few of them involved tedious calculations and there was only 1 question (PS) I was unsure about. Some questions were really easy (probably experimental). I had percentages problems, 1 easy permutation, work problems, set problems, little tricky geometry, unusual number of interest problems 2 or 3, only 1 number property, and few inequality DS's.

My total preparation time for this exam was a little under 2.5 months. I tried to study every day, minimum 1-2 hours. I did questions in groups of 40-50 to build up my stamina, timing myself of course.
I did all the questions in the books I listed above. I did OG CR's and SC's twice - the second time was when I was going through explanations - very useful.

LSAT CR's really made me understand how GMAT CR's work.


Since I have already taken the test, I feel like I can give advice.

For math

do challenges, after doing them math section of GMAT test would look easy
do Kaplan
read Math drill section in OG10 - where they explain what is what - even, odd, integer, remainders, etc You need to remember the definitions by heart to not make stupid mistakes in math.
don't pick numbers in most cases, solve the problems - if you fully understand the problem you can solve it. (I know some people might object but this is my personal opinion)
learn efficient problem solving style - read HongHu's posts in math forum, the way she does math is extremely efficient and clear
inequalities - before picking numbers, if you must, rewrite it in such a way that you get zero on one side and a product on the other.

Verbal
practice, practice, practice
read, read, and read - especially non-native speakers of English
for CR's and RC's - LSAT

In conclusion, I must say that I am really in debt to this forum for getting a good score on GMAT. I would like to thank people who post problems and participate in discussions.
I would also like to thank all the people who create and maintain the challenges, which were an important part of my preparation process.

If you have any additional questions - feel free to ask them here. I will try to be around.