4 week part time, 3 week full time prep and miserable 640...

Here we go...
I took GMAT on the 1 May and scored 640 (Q 48, V29). How cruel?! It is not even 650! I wasn't expecting a lot more, since I have prepared for it for only 7 weeks. Furthermore, I was well aware that my verbal was not over the roof (I am an international student). But, I was hoping to at least break 30 on my verbal, which would translate into 650+. It wasn't to be.
But the life goes on and I am thinking to prepare for it again, especially when I know that I have a lot of room for improvement in the verbal section (although not sure HOW!).

I took Kaplan's 4 week(-ends) prep course followed by 3 week independent study. Kaplan's course was a disaster, to say the least. Instructor was very poor and did not seem to have any feeling towards participants' success on the test. So the course was waste of money and most importantly, waste of time.
Apart from attending the course, Kaplan gives you access to the online syllabus. It is a relatively extensive syllabus, BUT the practice tests were mostly repeat from their Math and Verbal workbooks, and Kaplan Premier.

When choosing between which course to choose from (I decided to take course, in the first place, to help me prepare faster), I decided between Kaplan's on-site course and Manhattan GMAT's online course. The only reason I chose Kaplan is because I thought physically attending the course would keep me more disciplined. If I knew that I would fall over this crap, I would much rather choose Manhattan GMAT...

Anyway...
My main preparation was during the last 3 weeks. I used Manhattan GMAT's SC book to improve my SC and went through OG (verbal part only, though). I also learned a lot from GMATPrep tests, as I found them harder than Kaplan (mostly quantitative and Sentence Corrections parts). And then, of course I used GMATClub. It is really useful to participate in the forum. I found it very useful to see how differently people approach a particular question.

Now, I need some advice from Gmat Clubbers on how I should take things further from here. I know that I have a lot of room to improve my verbal score, but don't know how.
I would appreciate the advice of gmatters who had to improve their verbal from similar levels to 35+ (or may be 40+?)
Generally, I don't think I am particularly terrible in verbal. For example, when I did 70 Brutal SC test, I got 50% of them correct (although I spent 2min per question). I thought, bearing in mind that they are the hardest questions around, it wasn't a bad result. Correct me if I am wrong.
Also, when I took GMATPrep, I got 70% of the verbal questions right and still scored 35 on it. How many mistakes can you afford to make to score 40+, for example? Would appreciate some comments in here.

Timewise, I have used up my entire holiday limit from work and earliest holiday I can take is January 2008. And I see little reason to take the test without a couple of weeks of full time preparation.


Thanks for reading this post! I apologise to make you read this poorly written note