thanks guys ..
sorry for late reply ... took the much awaited break

well .... here goes my second part which will answer a lot of questions.
Other than breathing patterns all areas are already discussed on gmatclub forums and everyone is aware of them ...
i just jotted all tips for myself and tried to follow them to my benefit.
breathing pattern: I am a firm believer that emotions and mind can be brought in control using breathing.
When we are sad, happy or afraid our breathing pattern changes. This pattern can be different in different individuals.
in my case i saw that as i get difficult questions my breathing rate decreases. then suddenly i realize that i am running out of breath and i take a few deep breaths.
this inconsistent behavior is the same when i am nearly at the end of the test and running to finish all questions.
to regulate this pattern i decided to take a good breath as soon as i start a question. had to train myself for a couple of tests but then it started coming in automatically.
having a smooth breathing pattern regulates your brain and gives the required attention and concentration.
also, having a goal is most imp for an exam. i was giving the exam to prove myself that 720+ score is attainable.
so, the moment my concentration drifted, i was able to quickly get back on track just by thinking if was capable of 720 or not.
tough questions analysis from OG:From OG I found that the tough questions are the ones which are not tough like the way
manhattan gmat has.
They were tough due to the twist involved in them.
My analysis of a few questions of OG made it clear that i should watch out for
a. the parameters m/s,km/hr etc
b. check what is asked. most of my quants OG mistakes were silly mistakes. the questions were specifically designed so that it had answers which a person can arrive at ... but that answer will be wrong.
c. from og and my gmat prep exams i found that that no way can there be questions where calculations are involved. if there are big numbers, there are better solutions.
d. i marked a clear difference between gmat prep exams and the rest of the exams. other exams prepare you for worst cases. helps to tackle the most difficult questions.
But the problem with other exams as compared to gmat prep was that they make a question difficult by asking something which has a lot of steps to get to the solution.
gmat prep asks for questions that are very fundamental. reading the quants section from gmat prep (and gmat review) was the most important study i did.
no other material even comes close to the ideas that gmat prep develops. my quants study was 90% from gmat prep software and analysis of questions.
grid:i got this from gmatclub website itself. it gave me good database of types of questions and how tracking performance can help to improve weak areas.
my target was to have 66% in overall areas. which ever area was weak, i used to read
mgmat verbal books, search websites and analyze the solutions to improve.
Best advice i got was from my brother who said that he himself improved his score from mid 600s to above 700s in 2 weeks just by focused approach and analysis.
strategies:mine was simple time based strategy - every 12 quants and every 13 verbal questions in 25 mins
during my exams i found that i take a few questions to my heart and spend more time than required. regulated that to have a deadline for each type of question.
also got to see that i get drifted by the numbers ... end up doing huge calculations for simple question
in quants, used a strategy of not simplifying the numbers till the last equation. saw that most of them cancel eventually.
in verbal, used
mgmat books to find what are typical wrong answers a question might have.
i might not have the correct answer but i can eliminate wrong answer for sure.
created an xls of all strategies of
mgmat and mastered it. found that every question can be solved by elimination.
used that trick for myself ... might not work for everyone ... so you will have to come up with something that suits your brain
my job and business involves a lot of critical analysis. many time i negate things and then start working on solutions.
used that to improve my rc abilities. i earlier used to agree with the author of the rc passage and read it. that used to give me an accuracy of 30-50%
then started contradicting the author of the passage and my inherent abilities to remember problems in the author saying, twists in the story, imp points was greatly enhanced
that improved my accuracy to more than 66% .... my target value.
my suggestion ... figure out what works for u ... and use that ..
one thing i strongly felt was to not read books before you understand questions.
after reading
mgmat and other prep softwares, our brain thinks that their way is the best way ...
when actually it might not be in ur case.
i found that my way of solving quants and rc were completely different from most of the books.
where as for SC it was very close to
mgmat and for CR i just used
mgmat book .... and did hands on from LSAT book
see what works best for u ... and you will be surprised to find how u can arrive at better ways to solve gmat questions.
i know one of my friend who scored 760 used to push back his chair after reading every pasage and think of his school before he answers the question.
his rc accuracy was 100% for any passage that he ever solved ...
Try to see which way is a better way for urself to arrive at correct answer.
last but not the least ... as ursula said .. have your own ‘lucky thing’ with u ... i carried my kid's ultra sound pics till the exam center in my car