Took a test recently, scored a 167 Q and 154 V, 321 unofficial score. My target was a 165+ Q and a 150+ V, since my requirement is quite moderate.
my first mock score was 160 Q and 142 V, which is quite terrible considering that i barely crossed 300.
I did my undergrad in engineering, which was calculation heavy so naturally i was good at math. Verbal on the other hand was awful.
Here's what i did through out my prep.

Quants was already high so all i had to do is get to know more about quant topics of GRE. But i had no idea about the additional topics i need to learn to score more and hence i decided to start from the basics, which was the best decision i made through out my prep. Starting from basics reveals significant gaps i had in quants, lol i didn't even know that 0 was an even number, and many such small info bits that i needed to ace the quants and starting from the basics made it possible.

Arithmetic and Algebra concepts were already strong, so i had no problem in those. But here's the thing, the more i practiced, the more i realized my flaws and gaps. Practicing a ton of problems not only made my basics stronger but also it allowed me to come up with my own tricks, which boosted my calculation power further.

Data analysis however was a mess, i particularly struggle with counting methods and probability. SO naturally i had learn everything right from the start and practice A LOT. Charts and Graphs were also a bit of a mess. They are the longest problems you could tackle (which are guaranteed to occur in the real test) and patience was the greatest skill i had to master. The prep for statistics were just like the prep i had for arithmetic and algebra but my concepts were a bad. This is that one topic that knowing basics isnt enough, you need to practice a whole lot of problems to know better about SD, Mean, Mode, Median etc.

Geometry was a breeze, it was in-fact the easiest i had tackled. But do not take my word for it cuz the concepts are tested in an Advanced level, particularly in the section 2. The prep for geometry, however was very aberrant. I developed a skill called dynamic visualization. Dynamic visualization is way of imagining the lines, equations, shapes etc in a 2D or a 3D space and observe their behavior under different conditions. for example, y = mx + c, if you know, c is just a y co-ordinate at x = 0 and m is the slope. But i visualize this equation on a 2D graph in my head rather than just knowing its behavior in just numbers. Doing so gave me a much better understanding on shapes, lines and curves. This skill was developed in order to tackle complex geometry problems fast. Of course, this requires you to have strong basics in geometry.

I never really used any standard tricks through my gre prep, because to be frank, if i relied on tricks i'll never be able to understand the concepts thoroughly. Tricks can help sometimes, but deep conceptual understanding helped me far more. Be thorough in your concepts and you wont even need them. it doesnt matter if you have a nuke in your arsenal, if you cant aim at your target nor do you know how to use it, its just as innocuous as a loaf of bread. But if you are creative with just a kitchen knife, you are impossible to defeat.

Coming to verbal, It was a nightmare. a 142 was devastating on my first mock and everywhere i go the only advice i get is to learn vocabulary first, and it actually made my prep worse. After solving a ton of verbal problems i came to realize that vocab wasnt the core of verbal (Obviously), my ability to read and understand was the core of all the verbal. This is when slowed down and read each sentence and understood their meaning individually and THEN understood the whole passage as a whole. In all honesty my reading is a underdeveloped or else my score would've been 160+ V obviously. Even during my final days of prep i did not bother learning anything special. The verbal guide by Carcass does that exact thing, emphasizing more the reading ability over vocabulary. That guide right there boosted my score at least 4 points despite not being as serious with verbal as i was with quants, 154 V is the proof for it, pure raw horsepower, no tricks. Vocabulary does play an crucial role, i am not gonna discount it's importance. Its just that the emphasis on it over-rated amongst the community which keeps them from ever looking at the reading ability.

Math book by Carcass is all you need for quants and verbal guide for verbal. all the links including the vocabulary will be provided by Carcass

finally the Awa guide by carcass was edifying, it laid out a perfect structure. Most of all, you can evaluate your essay FOR FREE, thats right, FOR FREE by Carcass, the verbal expert. i was topping at 4 and 4.5 which was 1.5 points higher that my target score out 6.

my prep went on indefinitely. it took my way more than just 2 months and that decision was also one the best i could take in my prep cuz for its quite expensive and also i started my prep in my 3rd year of UG so it i had plenty of time for it. my advice is, unless you cant score 7+ points in quants and 5 points+ in verbal than your target score, then do not even think about booking the exam. The results will be displayed right at the end except the essay score and if perform poorly, you're day's gonna be ruined. trust me it's gonna hurt, better be safe than sorry. Seeing 167 Q and a 154 V was a relief. i wasn't excited tbh, cuz when it comes to improvement in general, I'm obnoxiously greedy and stubborn, i just want more and more. lol i was aiming for a 170Q and a 170V despite my actual requirement was much lower than that, but is one of reasons behind my score. I replaced confidence with greed and unyielding stubbornness. your attitude toward this exam can also huge effect on your score, so if your scared, you will perform poorly, even if you scored a perfect 340 and 6 AWA in your practice tests. I knew those effects and deliberately changed my attitude from being timid and unassuming to a rapacious and unyielding monster, even during the exam, i wasn't showing even a slightest bit of nervousness, Looking back, the experience felt like driving the M3 GTR in Need for Speed: Most Wanted toward the final broken bridge — pure focus, full speed, no hesitation. Solving problems while hunting for mistakes was more exhilarating than the score itself. One of my strengths and also One of my weaknesses was focus, too much focus make me loose my grip on reality, and too little focus aint gonna cut it, so i had to work on my focus as well, it was a knife's edge. During my prep ,i ascertained my speed and tuned it from 40 seconds to 30 seconds per question in verbal and from 1 minute 45 seconds to just under a minute on average for each question in quants, this change did not take much effort since made this adjustment was made during my final days of prep. during that 1 hour and 58 minutes, nothing else mattered to me. but i gotta admit, GRE was my first high stakes exam, and i aced it on my first try.

Many many thanks to bb, Carcass, Nsp10 , GreenlightTestPrep, FunctionX and the staff for making this possible and Congrats to team on reaching 200k+ users. It goes to show how awesome GPC is.