GMAT Results - 2nd attempt: 770 (Q49, V47)

Here's a debrief on a few aspects of the GMAT I dealt with:

This was my 2nd GMAT, so I'll try to put the summary below, after the prep and practice sections, in some sort of chronological order.

Preparation
Veritas Prep Course + materials - I took the intensive, 1-week version of this course back in October in NYC. Very good materials and good instructor. Highly recommended, although if you have the time, take the full 13-week course.
OG 11 - Unlike many others, I did not find this helpful at all. I found the practice questions to be rediculously easy and the concepts were not approached in depth.
Kaplan 800 - I thought this was quite helpful. There are too many GMAT books that take a shallow cut at the concepts and not enough that prepare you to confront the toughest questions. Although the math questions were easier than they should be, the majority of the book did help.
GMATClub.com Challenges - Probably the best tool for practicing math concepts and GMAT-specific problems. Typical questions will stack numerous concepts into a tough problem. Utilize these if you want to do some training by the over-reaching method (ie., practicing problems harder than you will face on the actual test).

Practice Exams
Thomson Arco - My scores ranged from 630-780 on these. Overall, not a bad test. The questions from both sections were similar in difficulty to the actuals.
Veritas practice tests - Decent tests. Not the best. The quality of a few questions were iffy at best.
800 Score - Absolutely horrible. The questions on these tests are of extremely poor quality. Mistakes ranged from blatant and numerous misspellings to missing information in the questions.
GMATPrep - Must take before the actual exams. My score on this test 2 days before the real thing was exactly the same as my official score.

Summary
My first test (on 11/20) wasn't taken under the best circumstances. I had little rest in the preceding days, and was doing some excessive work (during my actual work day). The result was a 720, which was not nearly what I expected and much lower than most of my practice exams.

Afterwards, I was adamant about re-taking it, even though many questioned a retake when the initial score was not bad by any means. My reasoning was pretty simple - I knew I could score much better.

So, I've spent the last 6 weeks or so (aside from a 4-day golf vacation in Florida) doing plenty of GMATClub challenges, practice tests, and general study.

Also, my mental approach to this latest test was a bit different. I came in much more relaxed (likely due to less stress), which I'm sure helped. I also paid very little attention to the clock, peaking at it only every 10 questions or so. This was something I actually had to discipline myself to do, rather than looking at the clock every minute, estimating how much time I have left per remaining question, etc.

So, I came into the test center very relaxed, with a very light attitude...almost as if I didn't care what I got.

The AWA was simple. Veritas teaches a formulaic approach, as I'm sure other courses do. Sticking to that approach makes it very easy. It's also effective. I'm assuming I got a 6.0 or close to it on this test, since that's what I got on the first one using the same technique.

The quant section tried as hard as it could to screw with my mind. I was sure after this section that I hadn't been able to break 45. The difficulty of some of the later questions I was receiving was pretty low. Later, I though this might have more to do with building up a strong tolerance with GMATClub challenges. So I finished quant with about a quarter of a second left. I actually thought I didn't get my last answer in before the time expired. Anyway, I didn't let what I thought was a poor performance bother me too much going into the verbal, which was key.

Verbal got very tough towards the middle and stayed that way all the way through. With the exception of the RC questions (they were fairly straightforward), everything from question 15 onwards was challenging. I actually got a question in the verbal that I had seen in one of the GMATPrep tests, which I thought was strange.

So, I finished verbal with about 1 minute left and prepared for the worst. I really felt terrible at this point about my performance. I estimated a 670-690 score, and was leaning towards cancelling my score. The only thing that stopped me from doing so was the fact that I wouldn't get to see them. My reasoning was that not knowing what score I got would be worse than simply not dong well . It would have just eaten me up inside.

So, of course, I decided to book the scores and send them to the schools I chose. One of the Veritas instructors once mentioned that the really great GMAT scores occur when you feel like you've done terribly. That was definitely the case here, as I saw a 770 pop up on the screen.

The 49 in quant was 90th% (little disappointed in that - was hoping to break 50), and the 47 in verbal was 99th%. Total score of 770, into the 99th%.

All in all, I felt this was much closer to what I was capable of on the GMAT and am very satisfied with the score and what it might mean with regards to the application process.

If you guys have any questions about any of the stuff in my summary, let me know. I would be glad to clarify.

Thanks and much appreciation to everyone on the GMATClub forums for contributing. You guys helped me out a ton!