I just Beat The GMAT!

Hopefully I can give back given the amount of info I skimmed off this site! Great community!

Tools used:
Kaplan GMAT Premier 2011- Good basics textbook but I could not run the CD properly and the phone help was basically useless. They could not help me with my online access over the phone so I never got to use the practice exams. (3/5 but would have been 4 or 5 depending on the practice exams.) I think it really

Princeton Review 2011 standard text and 1012 Questions- Disliked these books immensely and hardly ended up using them. The questions are pretty basic and the explanations are more about tips and tricks than actually understanding the problems.

Beat the GMAT Practice Questions- Don't want to make the individuals who built this site blush but I really feel this was the key to my quant score. The explanations helped me work on concepts, as opposed to strategies. I didn't study the verbal as much and it shows. The SC seemed pretty easy compared to the real test. (5/5 for my needs)

GMAT Prep- Great tool for getting ready for the test. With those two tests (710 and 690... pretty accurate I would say), you really get a feel for the testing environment. (5/5)

Test day:
I was more time crunched on AWA than I thought I would be. The essays are killer, but I didn't get to check them over for more than a minute in regards to spelling and grammar. 5 paragraphs is a bit much... if I went through this again I would probably cut down to 4 slightly longer.

Quantitative... I thought I got mauled by a bear on this when I was writing it. I ran out of time and made educated guesses on the last 3 questions by working them out in about 20 seconds each. Turns out this was probably because I was into the harder questions. Less geometry than I had studied for, more number properties.

Verbal... I was a little shaken by the Quant and I really had to keep myself focusing. With that being said, I went through every answer twice and eliminated answer choices I didn't like and finished with like 10 minutes left. Since I am a native English speaker, I figured I would have this in the bag. I bet I am not the first person to really want to know what they got wrong... With that being said, 78th percentile isn't that bad at all. I don't think it will hold me back applying to a PT MBA here in Canada. Any thoughts?

Tips!

-Don't sweat the past section like I did... it is done and nothing can change that.
-If you are naturally strong at an area, don't ignore it.
-Be friendly to the test admin staff. It really does add something if they are sincerely wishing you luck after a few minutes of chatting before the test. When I came out for my break they were very friendly and it really lightened my mood.
-Don't but a ton of material unless you really need it. Get good material, as suggested here, and really drill down on it. Know where you are weak and learn the patterns.
-Thank your significant other for being supportive. My girlfriend was awesome and understanding this whole time.

Good luck y'all!

congrats Blake! wish you all the very best for the applications ahead..

btw, how many tests did you give? what was your score breakup?