Scored LOWER on retake despite copious studying. Help?

Hi everyone,

I want to start off by saying that I've never been good at standardized tests. I'm a native English speaker and my undergraduate degree was in engineering, but I still find it difficult to perform well on tests under time pressure.

My GMAT studying started months ago, in May 2015. I enrolled in the Manhattan GMAT prep 9-week course and found it to be very helpful. I attended all the classes, read through all the subject guides, did all the homework, did all the problems in the OG book, and pretty much used all the resources provided to me. I plan to apply to some of the top 10 business schools, so I was aiming for at least a 700. On the weekend before my exam, I took the GMAT Prep practice exam and scored 690.

I took the official GMAT for the first time in August and scored a 680 (45Q/38V). I decided to sign up for the GMAT again in October.

This time, I watched all the class lessons again online, re-did all the homework and OG problems, and downloaded the GMAT flashcard apps so I can review key concepts. I also saw advice on this forum to create an Error Log, and so I started doing that and tracked my errors along the way.

I scored a 660 (43Q/38V) on the retake. My heart sank when I saw the score. I felt much more prepared this time, so I was really disappointed that not only did my score NOT improve, but it actually went down.

I think I'll take a month or so off to just relax and focus on other things. I don't plan on applying until next year (Class of 2019), so I have plenty of time to retake it. I have to admit I was pretty stressed the past couple of months and I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to do well, so that could have caused the lower score.

Anyone else score lower on the retake? What should my study plan be for next time? I'm guessing I need to focus more on verbal to increase that 38 score.

Thanks in advance for your help!