GMAT Day

My GMAT appointment was at 9 and the center about 15 kms away. I had booked a cab yesterday as I wanted to avoid driving myself. I planned to wake up at 6.15 which stretched to 6.45. I had called the cab for 7.30 and planned to leave by 7.45, it would have taken me about 45 mins to reach the center. I had it all laid out but everything was rushed this morning. The only thing that went as I wanted it to was doing 3 warm up questions for each section without checking my answers. My house help came in late and I let her clean the house while I took shower and got ready.

If I did not mention this earlier on this blog I had taken GMAT in Dec, 2006 with a score of 600. Let me take a bit to talk about that now. The day of GMAT I had caught cold, and was almost shivering by the end of the test. The other problem I faced was that by the time I reached verbal I was exhausted, I had not eaten anything between the break.

My preparations this time were to take care of these. I wore socks to keep my feet warm, full sleeved tee shirt and jeans. Breakfast was a boiled egg (protiens and energy) and pb n j sandwich. Not quite Indian breakfast but being a north Indian typical breakfast for me is paratha which is heavy and did not want to eat anything rice based (south indian breakfast) because it makes me stuffed and sleepy. Also I had to prepare the breakfast so it had to be easy. I took some sips of green tea to keep me calm, skipped milk and almonds today.

I got late and the cab I booked had left, so I had to drive down. I started from home at about 8.05 feeling scared that I would have less time at the test center. No morning traffic got me to the center in 25 mins.

There were 8 people taking gmat with me at 9. When I had booked a month back, there were only two dates available in July and only morning for today. I would anyway have picked morning, afternoon is my worst time of the day. I did not feel quite nervous but not very confident, probably a bit numb. Crossed through the screens of instructions, selected schools and started the test. Starting 10 mins were rough, I felt like I was in another world. AWA wasn't as straightforward. I went through the argument and finished right on time. Next was issue which I totally ruined. For first 5 mins I could come up with very little to write, and by the end of 20 mins I was almost done. When I started revising, I got some more ideas which came through well. Its in the last minute that I messed it up. I started editing a statement from while to and and time ran out. So I ended up with a misspelt and (as sand) and grammatical error. Not sure how it will effect my AWA score.
Took my break, stepped out, drank water ate chocolate. I took 2 ferrero rochers with me for the breaks. Its got chocolate and nuts which put something in my stomach, satisfied me (im a very chocolate person) and gave me energy without filling me. It took a bit of effort to keep reminding myself that its okay what I messed in awa and that I have to focus on the score.

Went back and finished Quant 13 mins before schedule. My pace was fine all through, I could tell which questions might go wrong and it was just as I did during practice tests. I was expecting 47-48 at the end of it.

Took my next break, ate some chocolate drank less water as I was beginning to feel a bit cold. Told the supervisors to up the temperature. Went back - was about 30 secs late. Something to remember is that while the break is 8 minutes, it is left for only about 5-6 mins with all the process of stepping out and in, opening lockers etc. Verbal started bad and I thought its like last time. After 9 questions I saw that I had eaten up 20 mins already. No panic but I was worried about finishing on time. I tried to focus but told myself that I could still spend some time on getting the questions right until time= number of questions remaining. At one point I got scared because I was getting simpler questions. I took a pause took 3 deep breaths and started off again. I made up for some of the lost time in one RC which was fairly easy to answer. My RC Strategy was to take notes of important points like words or suggestive words like opinion, assumes, however etc. This helped me a lot. By the time I had 15 questions remaining I had about 27 or so mins which relaxed me. In between verbal I had to call the supervisors to work on the temperature as I was beginning to feel cold again. Once I was down to last 12 questions I told myself that I have to get them right. I might have dropped to early 600s but I can pick and move my score to above 650 by getting these right. I still couldn't tell all the answers I got right or could be wrong but I could eliminate many wrong ones. By the time I was on last 5 questions I still had 13 mins left. I took my time to try to get them all correct, I had time to spend. I finished the test 3 mins before schedule.

Went through the screens on information about me and then it appeared, did I want to cancel? Took me a second to click that I did want to keep my score whatever it was. Clicked next and closed my eyes. Opened them to find a 710 which was perfect! Q49 and V37

Came out, called a friend to tell her I got 710. She was very happy for me but I was numb. Drove back home relaxed but not quite myself. I was numb for about 45 mins and then it sunk in that now GMAT would not be a deterrent in my applications.
If I have to give a tip to GMAT aspirants, it would only be to create self awareness. Know yourself, weaknesses and not only in terms of content but other like what time of the day works well for you, do you need longer duration to feel prepared, do you need to just get over with it the way I did, when do you get hungry, how much water you need, what keeps you motivated etc. Its just about knowing what you are and then there are many tips on various forums, from various experts and gmat takers to help cope.