it's not so hard to believe, prem_dai. most (actually all) of the ppl i know who took the gmat scored above 700. in fact, given that it's getting more and more competitive to get into good b-schools, you can't get in to a top program scorign 650 or less. i know someone who got into the stanford gsb with a 500+, but she had a 4.9/5.0 gpa at mit so that was an exception. rosie's suggestion is the best. as they say, practice makes perfect. i would also recommend Kaplan. it's got pretty good training sections that you can use to improve on specific areas. i had kaplan, princeton review, ets and barron. i found kaplan to be the best for training. i always got below 700 during practice, so the kaplan's score is not a good indicator of actual performance. the ets tests, which you can download for free, are pretty good indicators. you should definitely do them as you approach the deadline. and i hate to generalize, but most nepalese folks i know are not good time managers (but are pretty good at crisis-management). so start early, and practice regularly. happy studyin'