So, after reading some of the other posts in this forum, I noticed that I used a smaller set of study materials. Here's my list of study materials :
GMAT 12th Edition Review
Free Test Prep Software from mba.com
I found the 12th Edition a good source for practice questions, as it gives answers as well as explanations that aid your analysis of what you did wrong.
The practice exams from mba.com are good for gauging where you stand, although the exams don't give answer explanations - just the answers, so you'll have to analyze where you erred on your own. You can retake a practice exam, as the majority of the questions will be different, but I'd still give yourself a significant amount of time in between takes if you choose to go that route.
While I think I managed a solid score, I'd personally recommend at least one additional study material. During my studying, I found myself wanting a resource that actually explained how to improve my score; something that would explain what to focus on (so if someone can recommend a good material for that, let me know).
At the beginning, I focused mainly on taking all the practice questions I could. I started by taking the first 50 questions from each section ( Problem Solving, Data Sufficiency, Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction ). During this stage, I don't think I learned a lot because the first 50 questions of each section are relatively easy. It wasn't until I advanced deeper into each section that I was really forced to look into systemic reasons I missed each question.
Ultimately, here's my takeaways from Studying/Test-Taking :
Quant
1) READ THE QUESTION.
Often times I fell into the trap of instinctively solving for x, when the question may be asking for (x+y), or some other similar dynamic. Be sure to make a mental note of what you need to solve for. Early on, this was my most frequent careless error.
2) What is the question REALLY asking?
Underneath all the variables, in between all the lines, most GMAT questions boil down to some concept such as Factoring, Odd/Even/Prime, Positive/Negative, etc, etc. The ability to determine what a question is really asking, so that you can attack the problem, is the key to "breaking through" and raising your GMAT score to the next level.
Verbal
1) Sentence Correction - Make note of where clauses begin and end. Be sure to find the main clause of a sentence, as GMAT's favorite trick is to place plenty of separate noun and verb clauses in between the main clause and it's subject, which results in the sentence "sounding right", when the sentence is actually grammatically incorrect. If you can analyze the sentence structure properly, you'll have an easier time making sure the subjects and verbs match and that the tense of the sentence is consistent.
2) Sentence Correction - Check to make sure that when items are listed in sequence, their tenses are consistent (parallelism). When sentences don't have good parallelism, you can quickly eliminate them from your choices.
[I'll edit in more analysis, but that's what I have right now]
