Don't Know What To Do Next - Your Suggestions Are Needed

[rickyishere]

I really dont know what to do next, gave GMAT today got 450 ( Q 43, V 13).

My practise scores in last 4 tests were in the range of 590 - 660.

I know that my verbal score is not as bad as my score suggests, in my last 4 tests it was in the range of 27-34.

After getting a 540 ( Q 43, V 24) last year, I was hoping to get in the 600 range which would have been sufficient for me since I am looking for an evening program.

Few things which I noticed during GMAT :

a) In my opinion the difficulty level of the exam is up as compared to last year.
b) Quant was slightly tougher than GMAT Prep or OG. Got couple of probability questions one of them as early as Question 2.
c) Verbal was a lot tougher than GMAT Prep. In particular, RC passages were long and quite complex. I remember in one RC passage, I did not understand the passage as a whole and ended up guessing all 4 consecutive questions. This is something which I never did before on any kind of question in GMAT ( Verbal or Quant)

I really want to start my MBA this fall and would like to give GMAT one more shot but I am running out of motivation. I know I havent been systematic in my studies ( I travel quite a bit because of personal and professional reasons) so perhaps getting a private tutor might help.

Can experts out here please help ?

Thanks
-Ricky

[bkw]

I really dont know what to do next, gave GMAT today got 450 ( Q 43, V 13).

My practise scores in last 4 tests were in the range of 590 - 660.

I know that my verbal score is not as bad as my score suggests, in my last 4 tests it was in the range of 27-34.

After getting a 540 ( Q 43, V 24) last year, I was hoping to get in the 600 range which would have been sufficient for me since I am looking for an evening program.

Few things which I noticed during GMAT :

a) In my opinion the difficulty level of the exam is up as compared to last year.
b) Quant was slightly tougher than GMAT Prep or OG. Got couple of probability questions one of them as early as Question 2.
c) Verbal was a lot tougher than GMAT Prep. In particular, RC passages were long and quite complex. I remember in one RC passage, I did not understand the passage as a whole and ended up guessing all 4 consecutive questions. This is something which I never did before on any kind of question in GMAT ( Verbal or Quant)

Interesting, last year I always got 20-30 on Verbal in PREP/CATs. When I took the real test I got V13. I simply got blogged down in a difficult verbal with e.g. sentence constructions that were very long with 4-5commas etc.

The verbal on the actual GMAT is difficult, at least for me as a non native :/