GMAT Strategy

Hi

I was fairly confident about my preparation (it's been over a month). I have been studying from the following material -
Quant:
- OQ 13
- Kaplan Book
- 700-800 level questions from Manhattan and other varied sources
Verbal
- Manhattan SC and CR guide
- OG 13 and assorted questions from OG 12,11 and 10

My Quant is fairly strong, however i was struggling with the 700-800 level questions, more so in terms of time taken to solve them. To improve this and find shortcuts, I have been going through videos which have important maths shortcuts and properties.

I just took a GMAT Prep test to see where I stand and where i need to improve. I got a disappointing 680 Q41 V41 (my Target is 730). Below is where my shortcomings lie and where I would need expert guidance:

Quant - I MESSED up BIG TIME !!
Took way too long for the initial questions (Got the first 12-15 correct) however, I panicked on seeing the time, which is why I got a few wrong in the middle and had to leave around 10 questions unanswered. I was getting slightly harder questions, and thus taking more time. In the bargain, I ended up making silly mistakes on the easier ones. Please can you suggest what my strategy should be for the next 15 days. I really really really want to improve my score and I understand that a 50 point improvement in 15 days isn't going to be easy - but ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT !! I have planned to do a series of 5 mocks before my actual exam, but apart from that what kind of questions should i focus on. I have the OG second edition remaining and also extra practice for the tougher questions.

Verbal -
Surprisingly Verbal wasn't too bad. I need to aim for a better score (since a few questions that came in the test were familiar and repeats of my practice material). I have a plan in place which involves regular PRACTICE !! I am going to keep at it till the test date.

Thanks a lot !

Thanks Brent. That was a great video. Will follow the Milestone Chart in my subsequent tests!

Hi Brent, Rich and the other experts

After my first GMAT prep test, I went ahead and gave a Kaplan CAT this week and scored a 700. I did improve on my time management in the quant section , but started getting harder questions towards the end because of which i got more than a few consecutive questions incorrect. I'm working towards this and hopefully should get better in the next test i take end of the week. How best can i tackle this dilemma - questions get harder, time gets lesser and guessing on consecutive questions is suicide. HELP !!

What I'd also like to know is how seriously should I take this (Kaplan) score and how does it compare to the real GMAT? I;m saving the 2nd GMAT prep for a few days before my test.
In the meantime, I have been working on improving my weaker areas (Number Properties, Probability). I also solved the math questions for the OG Second Edition (found these fairly simple barring silly errors on my part).

12 days to test-day - please advise !!

Cheers