The GMAT beat me! 640 (q49, v28)

[victoryk]

This is my first post to this site, after months of observing everybody's posts and questions. I just got back from taking my GMAT and was very shocked to see my score.

I expected my Math around a 48 or 49 although during the exam I felt very overwhelmed by the math section.

My verbal score is the biggest shocker. I have never scored that low before. I took a GMAT prep exam towards the beginning of my studies and scored a 34. 2 days before the exam I got a 39 in verbal. I would have been happy with any of those scores.

I don't really know what happened during the test. I felt the verbal was very vague compared to the GMAT Prep exams. I took a Manhattan Gmat course, have studied the SC book and all of the OG resources. If I plan on taking the test again, I don't really have any material left.

I do want to apply for the 2010 school year so I must decide and re-take the exam very quickly in order to meet round 2 deadlines.
Can anybody give me any advice on re-taking, if so any strategies on how to improve.
I am not looking to get in to top 10 schools, but top 20 would be nice, I know my GMAT score puts me at a huge disadvantage to get into a decent school.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[theK]

I also had a very similar experience in my 2nd attempt. I felt that the Verbal section in the actual test had:
- more CRs compared to SCs
- longer and more complex RC passages compared with GMATPrep and the OG. I had 2 of those! One had 5 questions!

I felt the OG11 and the OGV (Purple book) were inadequate in preparing me for those long RC passages.

I'm interested to hear what the others have to say about their recent test experience on the verbal section.