I wouldn't say I BEAT THE GMAT yet, but I definitely punched the GMAT in the face, but he's still wriggling around and I'm going back to finish him.

I got a 700 (90), 44v(97), 42q(59). I got serious about the GMAT in January of 2011 and have been consistently putting in my time, nothing crazy, just a solid 6-15 hours a week. With work and family that was the approach I preferred. Standard OG strategy with Manhattan books. I also used Knewton for their practice tests and some homework problems. It has taken a bit longer but I'm happy with my first test result.

Quant has always been my biggest opportunity for improvement. I found a local tutor who scored 800 on the GRE quant section to help me with it. That was quite helpful, but I know I can do better. My focus was quant in my studying but I always had the verbal section in the back of my mind distracting me, which was good because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have scored as well. Now that I know I have that under control, I can just focus on maintaining the verbal and pouring myself into the quant. If I get even a "high C" or "low B" (75-85%) I will improve my total score significantly, opening up a lot more options.

Here's some encouragement for anyone who hasn't tested as well on their first few as they like or think they're capable of:

470 25q 29v Diagnostic June 2010
550 35q 32v July 2010
580 33q 38v March 2011
660 41q 42v June 30th 2011
600 37q 37v July 18th 2011
570 35q 35v July 19th 2011

700 44v 42q July 22nd OFFICIAL SCORE

Don't ever let your scores discourage you, especially if you're taking tests back to back. Use them to gauge where you're at, but focus on the work and keep making progress. My GMAT journey is not through, but I am encouraged on my path.