GMAT Strategy

Thanks to everyone who has posted on Beatthegmat.com... the info and support I have found here are driving me to retake the GMAT after a long hiatus and destroy it the 3rd time around!

My story: I work full time and travel like crazy all over the world, and I am currently pursuing my MBA in the evenings here in San Diego. I took the GMAT with minimal studying in 2005 and scored a 460 (V31 Q 23 AWA 5.5) and then I retook 1 month later and scored a 530 (V34 Q29 AWA 6.0). I was accepted to the Evening MBA at USD with the 530 and more importantly with my vast Intl work experience and great essays/letters of recommendation.

I was obviously not pleased at all with my scores back then but in retrospect and after much research I have learned that they were due primarily to:

1) Studying in secret (I was not in a position to tell my boss about graduate school plans.. I would leave work without telling my boss and felt pressure of his calls etc when I was outside of the office during study days)
2) I took KAPLAN classroom session but felt that class did not prepare me adequately for rigor of test
3) Lack of practice tests.. I only had time to take the few offered by Kaplan which I now know are not the best predictor of GMAT success
4) Improper study plan - in retrospect this was probably the main reason why I did so poorly
5) No self-studying from appropriate materials..ie not maximizing the use of my time (I only relied on classroom sessions and a few hours with a Kaplan "tutor" who was a much younger kid from UCSD who does math in his sleep and who didnt help at all). By now I have talked to peers who are accepted at top 10 programs (NYU, Wharton, Columbia etc) and they have all told me they self-studied after finding out what the best books etc to use would be
6) Studying for 2 months only part-time and taking test without being anywhere near ready

I am looking to retake the GMAT in SEP and if needed OCT 2009 in order to apply to my dream schools in my dream city for either their PART-TIME or FULL-TIME MBA PROGRAMS: #1 Columbia & #2 NYU. I now have the unrivaled International work experience along with a current 3.55 GPA in my MBA program so I believe that if I am able to focus hard the next 3 months with the correct study plan I will be able to significantly raise my score by approx 150 points total = 680 or higher. My goal is to crack a 700 and I know I can do it as long as I put in the very hard work required since I know people that are not that smart that have done very well on the GMAT. It is 100% possible!

In order to get ready during the next 3 months I have gone over posts on beatthegmat.com along with talking to people that have scored 600+, and I have purchased the following books:

Official Guide for GMAT Review (OG) 12th Edition
Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review

My questions and where you can help me:

I need to really make sure I take the best approach this time around since I am willing to take the time to study my butt off and do what I did not do the first 2 times around back in 2005. In order to achieve my target score of 700+ I obviously need to improve on my dismal quantitative scores (drastic increase needed) and also find a way to raise my verbal scores from a 34 up to the 45+ range, while maintaining the excellent AWA score of 6.0 I got the 2nd time around. The advantage I have is that back in 2005 I was literally guessing on the entire quantitative section since I was completely unprepared, but it makes sense to me that the quant section score can be raised significantly with proper studying where as the verbal section is harder to raise overall.

After reading all of this I would really appreciate hearing from you what study plan / strategy you recommend taking into account that I will have the next 3 months to study about 2 hours per night during the week and entire weekends. I am going to cut out my social life in order to get the best score possible since this is my opportunity to get into a top school in New York which is where I want to live. Depending on what score I get I will then apply to either full or part-time programs since full-time requires a higher score overall.

How should I spread out my time?
What study plan should I follow?
What other books (if any) should I buy?
What order would you use to attack the books / practice tests?
What practice tests and how many etc should I obtain? Where do I obtain them?
Anything else I should do? (Tutor, Math Class, GMAT for Dummies review etc)

I really appreciate any feedback and specific help anyone has that can help me. I am focused on breaking the 700 range and I need the best plan of attack possible

THANK YOU!