I just Beat The GMAT!

I started studying for the GMAT 3 months ago. At that time, knowing little about the monster that I was up against, my intention was to build the right capabilities so that on test day I could solve any question without much trouble. Did that happen? Read on.

The plan:
Master the content/build capabilities (8 weeks)
Improve delivery/execution (4 weeks)

The material:
Manhattan Quant Guides
Manhattan SC Guide
Manhattan RC Guide
PowerScore CR guide
Official Guide 12th Ed
Quant Review 2nd Ed
Verbal Review 2nd Ed
e-GMAT verbal content
GMATPrep Exam Pack

Building Capabilities
I started off with Quant, the area I feared the most. I first solved all the Problem solving questions from OG. That gave me an idea of where I stood. I then started going through the Manhattan Quant guides while at the same time I worked on DS. DS absolutely killed my enthusiasm as there were lots of gaps that I needed to address.
A month into my prep I started on the verbal section, and I really struggled in SC and CR. So I postponed my exam by a month and decided to slow things down. I went through the Manhattan SC and RC guides, and the PowerScore CR guide. I then attempted a Manhattan CAT (7 weeks before the exam) and scored 680 (Q44, V34). I was really disappointed; it seemed like an uphill task. Sentence Correction was the worst so I went through the Mgmat SC guide again. The following weekend I score 600 and 580 on two more Mgmat CATs; I was devastated.
At that point I realised how different MGMAT was to the OG questions; more complex, more steps and way too much thinking. That was the end of the MGMAT CATs for me. I only focused on official questions from then onwards for both Quant and Verbal.
I also bought the e-GMAT verbal course which was absolutely brilliant; with every lesson my confidence improved.

During the second month of the prep I ensured that I did at least 10 questions of at least 3 different question types (PS, DS, CR, RC, SC) everyday - this was very important; the brain is like a muscle and it needs to be trained via repetition. Do note that I ALWAYS practiced under timed conditions and ALWAYS maintained an error log. By the end of the 2nd month I had completed the OG, Verbal Review and Quant Review questions.
I took a GMAT prep exam 5 weeks before the test and scored 690. I couldn't complete the last 9 Quant questions (just guessed). Same was the case with Verbal. So I then focused on reducing the average time per question during my daily practice sessions.

The next weekend I scored a 710 but time was still an issue. Plans didn't change much but I knew I had to start wrapping things up. I continued my daily practice questions but also started going through my notes again - starting with the most troublesome areas - THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL. Once you practice for a couple of months and go through the key points again, you realise how you can tackle some questions better and faster. My success rate throughout the next few weeks remained at 80%-90% of the questions in any session. My practice scores were:
2 weeks before GDay - 720
1 week before GDay - 690
5 days before GDay - 710 (this was not under test conditions)
Except the last test I always had timing issues and could not complete 10-15% of both sections.

The last one week I only solved GMAT PREP questions again and again

Improving Execution
Execution depends on (1) the strategy you use to solve questions (2) the discipline with which you follow the strategy

I could clearly see that I made 6-7 careless mistakes in quant every CAT. The reason was (1) I didn't solve for what was asked [solved for x when the question asked for x/y] (2)I was always in a rush (3) I didn't write equations for every DS statement and tried to ONLY solve it mentally [watch out for this one!]
In verbal the timing was the issue - I could only bring down the questions to be answered in the last 5 minutes to 5 from 10. The margin for error in GMAT Prep is very low.

A week before the exam, it was very clear that getting to the 700 mark was not certain; I was really under confident. But I realised during my last test that I could always solve questions with ease when I reviewed the GMAT Prep exams. That was because I tried to solve questions mentally - for me this was a turning point. 5 days before the exam I changed my quant strategy - 30 seconds to read and mentally solve the questions (not for those that require to organise data though); 90 seconds to write and solve. That way I knew the approach end to end before I started writing.
For verbal I knew I had the skills, but I had no idea how I would finish the test.

Test Day
The night before, one of my housemates started blasting the music and woke me up at 2am. I couldn't sleep until 5am; my brain was fried. I could sleep only for 4-5 hours and was very nervous. In fact I was even thinking about cancelling the test. Even at 10 am I wasn't sure if I wanted to go ahead with the test.
Nevertheless, I prayed to all my gods had my standard breakfast (2 fried eggs and 2 slices of bread), had 2 scoops of whey protein and went to take the test. Summary of sections:
1. AWA - seemed simple and straightforward
2. IR - Bombed; I just couldn't read and understand anything. My mind couldn't process anything. I got a score of 2 (in practice I never got less than 8)
3. Quant - so simple that I thought I must be messing up really badly. This is why when I got difficult questions I didn't let them go because I thought that I was operating at a q40. Dont EVER do this! The result was that I had 7 mins for the last 5 questions. I guessed the last 2.
4.Verbal - it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. SC was unbelievably hard, same with CR, while RC was chill. I had a lot of difficulty reading and absorbing the data; my brain was dead. I had 20 questions left to answer in the last 30 mins when I thought Ill quit the test. I was so exhausted that I didn't even have the energy to panic. I somehow managed to get to the 2nd last question in the last minute. The last question was a guess.

Expecting a 600 I quickly completed the survey and nonchalantly clicked on next to see my score - 720 (q49, v39). I made it.

Key Lessons for me:

1. Put in the hours; go through the pain
2. The journey is meant to be difficult
3. Trust your knowledge, trust your effort, trust your brain. God will handle the rest.
4. DO NOT PANIC! (you still will and its normal!)

Quant:
1. There are only specific types of questions; make sure you are aware of all of them.
2. First decide the approach end to end mentally, then solve on paper (can do for 70% of the questions)
3. For word problems, unpack the data and ORGANISE it such that you can easily comprehend it.
4. ALWAYS write equations or find numbers to prove insufficiency - DO NOT DO IT MENTALLY!
5. ALWAYS make a note of what the question is asking for.
6. If you follow pt2, for 70% of the questions you should skip you'll know it in 30s and save valuable time
7. GMAT Quant is not even half way close to GMAT Prep Quant in terms of difficult (Only based on my experience, might not be true)

Verbal:
1. Know every question type for CR, RC, SC. GO DEEP INTO THE CONTENT while going through the guides.
2. Do official content again and again
3. Spending more time on a question does not mean you will get it right
4. Always reach an answer through elimination
5. Don't read so fast that you have to read things again
6. GMAT Prep CR and SC are not even half way close to the GMAT CR and SC (Only based on my experience, might not be true)

Looking back, I can say that my approach took me to a 680-690 level in the first couple of months - simply by doing some practice EVERYDAY, going through the notes/concepts whenever I identified an issue. You really need to train the brain, like you train your muscles. This will get you through the easy/moderate difficulty stuff fairly easily.
Had I been more confident and had I not worried about my performance on test day, I could have done better but I don't really care about it.
Most importantly - You will never feel ready; you will never get all the questions you are capable of solving correct; there will always be an element of uncertainty. In such times, KEEP CALM and CARRY ON (it was my wallpaper for the last 3 months!)

Congratulations for such a great score!!!

For other readers to notice, the most important part of the study is CONSISTENCY!!! Please note the same here AS WELL.