1st attempt 450 (Q29, V23), 2nd attempt 550 (Q33,V32) WHY??

First of all, congrats on being brave enough to tell your story and ask for help. A lot of people never do that. I am not really in a position to say where you went wrong, but I can venture a few guesses. Anyways, here are somethings to note:

1. You made a jump of a 100 points on the real thing! A 100 points! That's a lot in a month

2. You are studying material similar to but not same as the stuff the GMAT tests. Use the OG 12, Verbal Review book and if and when required move to other books. Do not go anywhere else, unless you finish your OG and understand each and every part of it. Every time you get a wrong answer, find out why, stop and look at the reasons. Get the feel of the real GMAT questions.

3. Use flashcards like the ones on BTG or those offered by Manhattan for free. There's a lesson in each question- on those flashcards.

4. Analyze your performance. What is not measured cannot be improved. Exhaust the old GMATPrep software. Extract every last bit of info. How do you do that ? Take the test, analyse it by looking at which questions you got wrong in which sections, for example, in CR -> 13/15, RC -> 7/14, etc. And keep printscreens of the wrong questions, so you can ask folks here on this forum how to solve and then how best to solve. Then focus on your weakest section, e.g. between the CR and RC scores above, I'd start working on the RC first. Then focus on the second weakest and so on. Keep doing this to improve and pretty soon you'll be hovering the 650-700 range. From that point on, the game is a bit different

5. Make full use of the videos on DS and other topics here on BTG.

The next 2 months could change your lifestyle for the next 50 years of your life. And GMAT is a game in which you can keep on improving. All the best. Hope this helped.