My experience with GMAT was so unusual, that i have decided to write about it.
I started my preparation quite early, almost 2 months before the appointment. I did not know much about which books are the best etc, so I choose Kaplam premier program, because I was familiar with this publisher from my CFA studies. I went through all the Kaplan book except exams. Then I took Gmat Prep exam and scored 650. There was 2 weeks left so I took a vacation and begun to study
the official guide, I spend most of my time on quant part, because for verbal part i simply run out of time. 2 days before the exam I retook GMAT Prep and scored again 650. I was a bit annoyed, and I felt that it was much more harder to concentrate than during the first try. Then in the last 2 days I intesively tried to revise all the material.
In the day before the exam I studied all the day. At evening when I was supposed to go to sleep, but I could not. I studied till 1 am and then went to bed. I was very tired, but I just could not fall asleep.
Sometimes after a stresfull day at work I go jogging, this gives me a better sleep, so at that night i decided to jog. at 4 a.m. i left my appartment and ran 3km. Then I went back to bed, but i still could not fall asleep. at 6 a.m. i realized that it will not work and resumed to revise gmat material.
as a result, i stayed awake and was "studying" up till the exam at 11am. at that time i felt like in a dream or under drugs, but i still had not lost my confidence.
During the exam I was frustrated because the room was quite noisy ( I was used to solve questions in silence) secondly, I had forgotten my mobile phone in my pocket and somebody decided to call me. This paralyzed me for some 5 min as i was rushing to push some button on my phone so that the sound goes away.
In general I was seriously runing out of time. for both quant part and verbal part I answered at random at least 5 questions at the end.
My expectations were 650 and AWA 4.5. ( the requirement for the school I apply is 600 and 4.5)
MY results shocked me: 570 (Q46 V23) AWA 4.0
I was so deeply depressed, but somehow I managed to schedule a retake.
Due to my depression I was reluctant to study - for more than a month i did not do anything. I actually wanted even to cancel my appointment, but a friend of mine persuaded me to try again. Before my reexam I realized that it is stupid to loose the 250$ in such way and I pushed myself to revise the material approximately 4 hours. I also wrote several essays.
This time i had a good sleep and i on the exam day I left my mobile phone at home.
my score was 690!!! (Q48, V36) AWA 5.5 !
I could not believe my eyes! ( i had already accepted that my abilities are low and there is now way I can get more than 620- 640)
I Hope my experience will help others to avoid the mistakes I made.