Received a PM asking me to respond. Sorry it has taken me so long - I've been getting lots of PMs lately!

Interesting observation on GMATPrep; I haven't noticed this. There has always been a mix of more wordy vs. less wordy questions. Could it be the case that you just happened to get a greater mix of the less wordy questions this time around? (Boy, that sentence sounds awkward!)

Re: careless mistakes, being more conscious of things is certainly the first step, but there's more that you can do. Keep a log of the specific things on which you have made careless mistakes. Periodically, review the log to look for patterns. You can't double-check EVERY little thing (you'd run out of time!), but if you know you tend to make more careless mistakes with, say, quadratics, then it's worth it to take the time to work more carefully and double-check your work when you see a problem of that type.

It's also important to realize that those times when you take way too long on a question are costing you elsewhere on the test. It's not worth it to take extra time on a really hard question (which you are more likely to get wrong because it's really hard) if that time costs you points on questions you actually do know how to do. So think about how you can balance your time better on the test. Let go when something is just too hard (and the test will always find a way to give you something that is just too hard).

You mentioned that you have the MGMAT SC book. What are you using for CR and RC? (I'm not sure what's in the books you mentioned from the other companies.) You do need to identify something that will actually teach you how to handle CR and RC - it's not enough just to do lots of problems.

It's also important, on verbal, to really study both the right and wrong answers. Would you be able to tell me, on any given problem:
- why was the wrong answer so tempting? why did it look like it might be right? (be as explicit as possible)
- why was it actually wrong? what specific words indicate that it is wrong and how did I overlook those clues the first time?
- why did the right answer seem wrong? what made it so tempting to cross off the right answer? why were those things actually okay - what was my error in thinking that they were wrong?
- why was it actually right?

Until you can do this, you aren't done studying a problem. (And this goes for problems you get right, too - you should still be able to articulate the above for the right answer and any wrong answers that you think could be tempting.)

Oh, and given your goal, I agree that it was a good move to postpone. Go identify some CR and RC sources (if you haven't already), and start diving into analyzing these questions!