I just Beat The GMAT!

I did IT! 720(95%)-Q48(84%),V41(92%).

Everything written in this post is from my own experience and i do not insist that it is the ultimate truth. Please read at your own discretion. Sorry for typos, i will correct and add later!

I got 640 during my first attempt a little bit more than a month ago.
Since the programs I am applying for are very competitive I decided I must get 700+ and scheduled a GMAT exam in 1.5 month. A lot of people advise working on GMAT 2-3 hours a day, but I spent 7-10 a day, almost every day for a month during my second attempt.
Examination experience:
AWA:
During my first attempt I got 5 for AWA, but this time I feel I did better, but who knows. This time I had a template in mind from Arco book and I have read thru all official GMAC AWA question just to be familiar with all questions and for additional confidence.
Quantitative:
I felt it was in line with upper scale from GMATprep, OG 11th/10th. The fundamentals are the same, the questions are mainly variations on the same principles. DS were tricky.
Verbal:
No surprises here. Everything was in line with OG 11th/10th. To my advantage no science RC’s and a long one on futures but since I’m finance/economics major it was easy. I don’t know how I got only 41 since I was sure in all SC, most RC and most CR. Probably my attention failed me few times.
Material used:
First attempt:
Official guide 11th + V and Q (done almost all but didn’t read all explanations(MUST DO)) (BIBLE)
Read some chapters from Kaplan Premier, Kaplan 800 (don’t remember much)
PS / DS compilations (from “sets” , downloaded them from somewhere) (SHOULD DO)
Second attempt:
Official guide 11th + V/Q + OG 10th (MUST DO for Additional practice)
Power Score CR (MUST READ if you are not good with CR)
Power Score SC (<MGMAT SC but worth reading if you have spare time
MGMAT BOOKS series (THE BEST, MUST MUST DO):
MGMAT SC guide (MUST MUST MUST MUST DO)
The new third edition is VERY GOOD, it is much bigger than 2ed and covers a lot of points that you could learn only by reading Test Magic’s SC forum.
MGMAT CR guide (bought it but didn’t refer to it much, not that good)
MGMAT RC guide (covers few valuable points but from my experience writing anything down takes too much time)
MGMAT Geometry (Should do)
MGMAT Number properties (MUST DO)
MGMAT Word Translations (MUST MUST DO)
other MGMAT books are good but not as good as those mentioned.
Arco GMAT answers (MUST BUY if you are not familiar with good essay structure or do not understand few of the official AWA questions)
SC 1000 – done all 1000 questions.
Some sets I downloaded over the internet.
Advice on preparation:
General:
1st step - buy MGMAT books, go thru them. It is very important, they have all the tricks/fundamentals you need and they teach you to pay attention to the question (although you don’t get so tricky questions on real GMAT). Before I went thru the books I did a lot of careless mistakes like choosing radius instead of asked diameter in the answer choices.
2ed step – OG 11th/10th + V/Q books. You MUST read the explanations not only for questions that you got wrong but also questions that you got right. You HAVE to have a list of question you got wrong and you HAVE to understand why you got them wrong(misreading, calculation, careless mistake etc).
3ed step – go thru “sets” or whatever question you find on the internet (you should check their quality first though) doing a fixed number of questions each day.
4th step – do some CAT’s. I bought MGMAT’s CAT and I found them the best after GMATprep, although math is really much more time consuming and sometimes too hard than the real thing is.
Particular Sections advice:
Sentence correction:
(this was the hardest section for me to master)
if you want to ace Sentence Correction you must do 3 things(in this order):
1) Manhattan GMAT SC guide
2) OG 11th/10th + V (READ ALL EXPLANATIONS)
3) solve all the 1000 SC’s. You HAVE to read explanation (I found Test Magic’s forum helpful in this, read Erin’s and bob800’s explanations, they are priceless) for questions you got wrong and later re-do the questions you got wrong.
For SC you HAVE to know not only why your answer choice is wrong but also why all OTHER answer choices are wrong (often more than 1 mistake).
In my opinion this strategy will guarantee a 80-90%+ right answers on SC.
Critical reasoning:
1) Power score CR bible.
2) OG 11th/10th + V. READ all explanations and UNDERSTAND why each question is wrong.
3) Solve whatever other material you find and find explanations on web.
You have to be able to distinguish conclusions from premises and assumptions in order to do well on CR. Also you have to understand what is OUT OF SCOPE in GMAC’s view, a very important point. You can usually eliminate 3 answers easily but the choice between 2 last answers is often quite challenging.
Reading comprehension:
1) practice-practice-practice and read explanations in official guide to understand the thinking of GMAC.
The most important thing I have realized about RC is you need to read quickly(DO NOT RE-READ), you DO NOT have to understand ALL of the information, because it is too time consuming to understand some topics(especially science ones) and because you will only need around 20% of the information in the passage.
Another thing I found useful is that in order to answer general questions( what is the main purpose of the passage? etc.) you have to read the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and the last 1-2 sentences of the whole passage.
Problem solving/ Data Sufficiency:
1) MGMAT guides ( the most useful ones are SC, Number properties and Word Translations)
2) Official Guide 11th/10th + Q. The explanations are more useful for Data Sufficiency, for Problem Solving you will have to find shorter and faster ways to solve the problems( MGMAT guides or Beat the GMAT and Test Magic forums).
3) Practice sets and official paper tests
AWA:
1) Get a template either from ARCO book or from internet
2) Read ALL of the topics on essays (download from mba.com)
3) Read Arco book essays for questions you DO not understand, there are some weird ones.
4) Practice writing essays with your CAT’s.
5) If AWA section bothers you, write as many essays as you can.
General advice:
1) Do GMATprep as MANY times as you can to get familiar with the examination program (it’s identical) and to solve as many additional problems as you can. BUT you must do this ONLY during last stage of your preparation (after you have done all the stages mentioned above).
2) If you already have a good vocabulary and understand most of the English you hear or read (well, if you do not – unfortunately you will not score 700+ on GMAT) - try reading The Economist. The articles there are of VERY high quality, the language used is more sophisticated than the language you encounter in news, movies or songs. Some of the sentences are in line with sentences on CR and RC in terms of word usage and structure. I’m 99% sure that in each edition you will discover a new word (if you are not a native speaker).
For science topics – try reading Scientific America WITHOUT a dictionary.
3) You MUST time yourself and with practice you will start feeling when you spend too long on a question. Fortunately i did not have any problems with pacing during my preparations.
4) For breaks i advise – high quality dark chocolate, water, toilet break, splashing some water on your face and a bit of physical exercises to get the blood going.
5) You should schedule your GMAT appointment for the time of the day when you feel yourself full of energy, for me – its early morning.
6) You should relax right before the exam. During my first attempt I studied till last moment and was so stressed and tired that I could not sleep. I was sleepy during the exam and in my opinion it was one of the factors that contributed to my low score.
7) Remember that our brain stores all of the information and knowledge we acquired during the day – while we sleep. You should sleep at least 8+ hours a day in order to “relax” your body.
8) Gym is good in breaks between study sessions because the physical condition of your body affects both your health and your stress level.

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.