This is because I improved a lot from my first test (550) and I reached my target of 650.I decided to write for two reasons. First I want to thank the regular contributors and everybody for sharing your experience with others. even if we don't always say it, it is really helpful for the rest of us who don't always post replies.
Secondly I wanted to talk briefly about what I did and how it worked out. I prepared for about 3 months for this exam. At the start I took GMATPrep and scored 550. I found out that the GMAT was a bit tougher than I expected so that I would have much work to do. I bought the Official Guide Companion and the Critical Reasoning Bible as my weaknesses were Quant and CR.
In math, I used the OG Companion reference section to plan my study. I grouped questions by subject area and did groups of 15 OG questions in 25mins. Then I took a break and returned to study the questions one by one. I didn't really pay much attention to the solutions in the OG and instead studied the explanations in the OG Companion book (better explanations). It would take me maybe another 30 minutes to go over the questions.
I would save the questions that I didn't really understand well in a file and return to them later. I would only remove a question from that file once I knew the question inside out. The idea was that at the end I would have studied every question in the OG. Overtime, my performance increased.
On the Verbal side, I used the OG along with the CR Bible ot really break down Critical Reasoning quesitons. The strategy was pretty similar to math and it worked well for me.
Every two (sometimes 3) weeks, I would take the GMATPrep exam. Since there are only 2 exams, I would delete and retake. Basically I told myself that I would spend as much time as possible studying official GMAT questions; that's why I kept taking the GMATPrep tests. I did see some of the same questions come up again, but my focus was not really the score but it was seeing all the official questions and studying them. When going over the GMATPrep tests, I did my best to understand every question. It would take a long time to go over the test but it was worth it! I used GMATPrep Solutions engine from gmatfix to get detailed solutions.
The day of my test I was really nervous. My hands were sweating when the first essay (analysis of an issue) came up. By the time the first math question came up I was on the verge of a breakdown. I think if it had been a question that I didn't know how to do it would have messed up the rest of my test! Thankfully I think I knew how to do it so the test went well.
Materials used:
Official Guide 11th (from GMAC)
Official Guide Companion (from GmatFix)
GMATPrep Software (from GMATC)
Critical Reasoning Bible (from PowerScore)
GMATPrep Solutions Engine (from GmatFix)
