Jealous and Testing

If ever there were a sense of urgency, it is now. I have met two former grade school and high school classmates who are going to Columbia and Berkeley respectively this fall and it's got me thinking...why can I be in their shoes?

I'm enrolled in my Manhattan GMAT prep course now, having already taken it once and received a reasonable score (but not what I wanted). I got a 39 on the verbal in a practice exam today which puts me in the 89th percentile in Verbal. Is that an accurate assessment? Anyone have any ideas?