From 610 to 720

Score: 720 (Q48 V41)

Introduction:

Maybe subject should state: "from 580 to 720" since my first attempt was in October 2005. when I scored 580 (Q36 V33). After that I totaly forgot about GMAT untill I started new round of "preparation" in August 2007. for the exam scheduled in October 2007.

At that time I was not active user of any forum. The only book I had was Kaplan premier from 2001. and, couple of weeks before exam friend of mine brought me Kaplan800. I thought that should be enough for 700 - 750 score. Fluent in english, have some black spots in math, but, hey I have Kaplan800 - why should I worry. After some 4-5 weeks of preparation I took exam again and bang: 610 (Q42 V31). WHAAAATT? Lower verbal than that in my first attempt. Not should even mention that I was really mad and then I decided to retake and to start some serious learning.

Preparation

First of all, joined Gmatclub and Beatthegmat forums. One of the first things I have noticed on these forums was that words "Kaplan" and "decrease in verbal score" seem to be inseparable. Lurking throughout these forums I gathered the list of literature that should be used and I sticked to that to the last day of my study:

1) OG11 with Q and V reviews. No argue about that, no one can master GMAT without these books.
2) Manhattan GMAT. I used all five quant quides and sentence correction book. As I said, math used to be my weak area, but I managed to increase my score substantiately by using these books. Manhattan SC guide has a legendary reputation and I wouldn't add anything here. Simply, must have. I didn't use their RC and CR guides since I firmly bleive that only thing that should be used for these areas is OG.
3) Various notes and sheets developed by members of this and other forums (Spidy's notes, Prachi SC blog, TOEFL books...),
4) For math I used some old encyclopedias as Larousse and some old formula notes from 1984.(!?). You wouldn't beleive how many usefull stuff I found in these funny looking dusty books of my parents. Also, for math I bought electronic book from 4GMAT company from India. I did that on recomendation of some member of this forum and I loved that book.

OK, what is the point of my funny literature list stated above? Use whatever you want and whatever you can find for Math and for SC. DONT USE anything but OG for RC and CR. For RC you may us some magazines such as Economist, although I didn't, you may even use LSAT readings, but if you use LSAT (probably from 1000RC source) use it just for pracice of speed reading. This is good source to practise reading a passage under 3 minutes since their readings are extremly boring and tedious. However, don't try to answer their questions because their assumptions are much deeper and they often tend to get out of scope.

Another usefull tool was GMATprep. This is by far the most valuable source that one can get free of charge. That recource is a true gold mine, I can only say "GMAC, thank you". Do these as many as you can. This is tool for practice and, although it can be used as a reliable predictor of your test day performance, what is the point of that you realize 3 days before exam that you are going to score 670? Who cares! 3 days before actual exam I don't want to know nothing about my future performance. What can I alter? In the end of the day, you are taking that awfull exam in order to gauge your abilities. Let the real exam care about measuremnt, GMATprep is a preparation tool and should be used for that purpose. And, yes, this is the only CAT besides Powerprep I found usefull. Although I adore MGMAT's guides I realy hate their CAT's. Manhattan CAT's are awfully tedious and can only lead you to the heart attack. The point of the hard math question is that it should be hard because you have problem to ANSWER it under 2 minutes not because yoy cant READ it under 2 minutes! And that is the problem with MGMAT, their questions are so geeky difficult that something like that will never, and i mean never, appear on the real thing.

Test day

The level of actual questions was very similar to those from GMATprep, even for a click less time consuming and maybe I even could say little less difficult. Maybe... Anyway, they are on par with GP - both math and verbal.

On the test day, I did what I do every morning: ate same damn sandwich I eat every day, drank same coffee I drink every day, read same newspapers... Don't bother too much with "carb-hydrates-cereals-caffeine-taurine-Huey-Dewey-and-Louie" stuff! If you drink taurine drinks such as Red Bull regularly (as I do) drink it in the pause. If you don't - drink water or something else you like. Point is: don't make the rocket science of your test day, it's too late for that then. You need a lot of rocket science work before that.

On the test day, go in the test center with all the confidence of this world and destroy the damn thing! Good luck to you all, people!