Those who didn't like their first GMAT score (690 to 740)

Fellow Gmatters, I took the GMAT first time, 3 months ago. Even though I thought that was fully prepared but i scored 690 and believe me 690 is such a tricky situation that neither you are quiet there where you would ideally want to be (~750) nor you are completely out, as you really feel .... oh maaaaann!! i can do it.
As disappointed as i could be after 690, I came home and on the same day I took a new date for GMAT again 6 weeks out in future. Then followed up on whole bunch of extermely useful information available on this forum and it seemed that there is still some light at the end of the tunnel. Consulted with some professionals as well including Veritas and Kaplan, though they didn't say clearly that it is impossible but from their conversation it appeared as if after a 690 max I can expect is 700-710 in my next attempt, more than that will be literally proving the concept GMAT itself wrong. Hence, i decided to not take them along and go by myself. Here are few important points that I thought helped me:

1. Most important point is get a study partner. On my first attempt this was my biggest mistake that I tried to rely on pure self-discipline, it may still work for you but for me it didn't as much as I expected. A study partner not only puts you in routine, even when you may not be in mood to study, but also it makes the whole study process lot more enjoyable and efficient.
2. MGMT only reliable material, not only tests but the contents of all 8 books and their question banks is exactly what you need, nothing less nothing more. Kaplan is good to get some practice. I literally memorized the MGMT SC back to back. Most important follow questions on this forum.
3. Throughout you preperation, practice 75->60->45->30->15 rule to stay on time.
4. Do attempt at least 2 GMATPrep tests in the last week. (reset it if needed, you will not see many repeated questions). It is so reflective of real GMAT, questions as well as score, that i can't even explain.
5. I can't believe how true some managerial tips can be: "Focus on where you are strong." . Being a non-native english speaker, I always feel like sweating bullets when it comes to an english test and GMAT is like king of such tests. So if you are like me, then ofcourse practice verbal because that is where you want to improve but make very sure that you can't afford to miss out even a single point on quant. It is much easier for you to take your quant from 49 to 51 then it will be to take your verbal from 38 to 40.

As you can see that I am very excited to finally see some favorable results for my last 3 months efforts, so I can keep writing but I know that this forum already has a good compilation of all the good tips that can help you.
But if anyone is interested, I will be happy to share any more information that may be helpful.

cheers..