Beat The GMAT a GMAT & MBA community

After joining this site for more than a year, I just beat the GMAT 740(Q-49,V-41) but I think got beaten at AWA not got the score yet.
Quant: 49
Verbal: 41

I am thrilled about my score. My prep was based entirely using the help from these forum and I didn't join any classroom program.I started my preparation in October with a diagnostic test .Scored a 660 on that. Most of the mistakes were in Verbal were on SC and on Quant, I found DS questions a little difficult to manage. I was initially targetting to take the GMAT by Jan end but it got delayed to Mid March because I didn't see any point in taking the exam in haste in January

Here are my thoughts and experiences about my preparation and about the test day experience!

AWA:
I did not practice this at all, literally. During all the practice tests, I simply skipped all the AWAs. This cost me big time on the D-day as I simply became clueless as to what I should write. Just now I searched the topic on the list of issue essays on mba.com website and this exactly was the issue I had got.
“Clearly the government has the responsibility to support the arts. However if that support is to produce anything of value,the government must place no restrictions on the art that is supported”

The prompt seemed quite confusing(maybe because of the initial anxiety). For the first 5 minutes, I simply could not understand the meaning properly but then suddenly I understood it. The problem then was what to write on this issue but somehow I wrote on the topic. The time ended and I was left disappointed that I have written quite a bad essay.
The argument essay went well because it was almost a “Flaw type CR question”.
I don’t think that I’ll get anything above 4.5 on AWA. 4.5 if I get lucky , 4 is my prediction though.

Verbal:
Did not face much difficulty on Verbal because this was my prime focus during preparation.
I only used ManhattanGMAT and AristotlePrep material while preparing. Although one of my friends who had prepared for the GMAT lent me Manhattan SC and CR Guides, but I purchased SC Guide for $18 again to get access to the 6 full length CATs. Purchased the combo of all Aristotle products at just $30 so the total amount I spent on my preparation was a paltry $45.That maybe shocking but yet it is true.
I used the SC Grail and Manhattan SC Guide and I must say that both the books really did wonders for me. SC Grail got me hooked to SC as it is very concise and moves step by step. For example, although I could speak and write good English, I could really not figure out a noun from an adverb and an preposition from a conjunction (Sheepish grin). SC Grail really simplified things for me and the 100 questions at the end(though not very difficulty) helped me cement the concepts. . Moved on to MGMAT SC Guide after that and it really boosted my comptency to the next level. Understanding the concepts inside out and being able to implement them was the key to improving my accuracy in Sentence Correction. I also benefited immensely by the explanations given by the GMAT Experts here especially Ron,Brian and David. All of these people are amazing.

Quantitative:
I have a background in engineering and I always considered math to be one of my strengths. However, I was not used to Data Sufficiency questions so had to learn how to effectively tackle those questions. It was primarily through BTG and gmatclub that I prepared for Maths and honed my ability.


My advice to test takers:
- Don’t ignore the AWA section otherwise you may land up in a situation like mine. You don’t have to write a lot of essays but writing 2 essays each of Issue and argument before the actual exam will really help

- Identify your weaknesses ASAP. It was not enough for me to realize that I had trouble with SC. I analyzed my mistakes and found the exact format of questions that were confounding me.
- Print out the flash cards available on this site and make sure you know them at the back of your head. I cant tell you how much they helped.
- Don’t stretch you preparation too much. As suggested on the forums here, I was very sure that I will wind up with my GMAT preparation in 3 months. Doing it beyond that was anyway not possible for me as I will be going onsite in another month and did not want to lose momentum.

- Maintain your calm during the exam: This is probably the most important thing. As I said, I screwed up my AWA section but I gained composure during the break and came back as if nothing had happened. That was the key I think.
- Figure out what works for you and dont change a thing during the test. In the practice tests, I always finished the math section with 5+ minutes to spare. During the test, I had to fight the urge to change my ways and utilize the full 75 minutes.


My Scores during Prep:
Gmatprep 1: 720
Gmatprep 2: 750
Kaplan Free test- 760
MGMAT Test 1- 690 (Quant was unrealistically tough on this test)
MGMAT Test 2- 710
MGMAT Test 3- 770
MGMAT Test 4- 740
MGMAT Test 5-730
MGMAT Test 6-760

All in all I am quite happy. I am just a little concerned that what if I end up getting a 3/3.5 on AWA ? Should I consider re-taking the exam in that scenario . Any thoughts ?
Also, I have not done much school search. My profile is 4+ years of work experience in Manufacturing.Am not sure if I want to return to this field as it is quite tiring a field to be in . I’m really not sure what do I want to do post MBA and which schools should I be targetting.