GMAT: two attempts, two failures

Last Friday I had my second attempt to conquer the GMAT, but I messed up very badly. It has been a tough week trying to get over it. However, I must be positive, and at least I improved 100 pints my prior score. My final score was 580 (Q42, V28, AWA5.5).

I must say that during the two weeks prior to my exam, I was scoring from 660 (Q46, V35) to 720 (Q47, V42). So I was really confident about my possibilities to get around 700. I put a lot of effort to improve my verbal score, and for the last two weeks I did! So I thought that last Friday would be my final go on the GMAT.

I reviewed my AWA template to try to improve my score in this section and I stopped studying 48h before the test; I wanted to be relaxed before the exam. I slept for at least 8 hours, and I bought an isotonic drink and some chocolate in order to have something to drink and eat for the breaks.

Now let’s talk about the test. I chose my desired Business Schools, and I started to work right away on the AWA questions. I had enough time to review my texts and I felt sure about my writing. “Good start”, I thought.

I took a break, which now is eight minutes maximum, and started my quant section. I didn’t have any trouble until question 10 or so, then I really started to struggle in order to answer every question. I was so concentrated on my test, and on giving an answer to each question, that I forgot what I believe to be rule number one of the GMAT: manage your time wisely. In question 20 I realized that I was behind the clock already. I didn’t want to be bothered by this and kept working as nothing was wrong. Then on question 30 or so I saw that I had a really huge problem with the time: I just had five minutes left! I rushed through three of them, and I had trouble answering to two more questions. I managed to answer all 37 questions, but I new that I missed a lot of the last questions.

I took the break, ate what was left of my chocolate bar and headed up to take the verbal section. I new that I had to do a really good verbal test, so I took my time when giving each answer. I did not learn from my mistake on the quant section, and that was my downfall: on question 30 I just had 10 minutes left. I passed my the last RC questions, I skipped two CR questions and I guessed on another two. As I was doing so, I knew that I had just thrown all my chances of getting my desired score.

I was asked if I wanted to submit my scores. Hey, I didn’t do all of this for nothing, and after all, it couldn’t go any worse than my first time. I hit YES and there it was: 580. WHAAAT?! I couldn’t really have messed up THAT bad! But I guess I did.

After that, I left the examination center with just one thought in mind: this is not over! I had a horrible day, that’s all! I want to retake the GMAT by mid November, and I will start TODAY to prepare my third attempt to the GMAT.

But the worst thing is that I couldn’t apply before R1 deadlines. I had completed an application to a Business Schools and I had another one advanced. With that score, I decided to wait for R2.