750 (49Q, 44V, 6.0 AWA)

I took the GMAT back in March, and I was a R1 applicant. I have pretty much decided on UCLA, but I'm still waiting on one more school. I thought I'd share my experience for you who are studying right now. This was my second go-around with the test. My first effort, which I did on Valentine's Day, was a 690. Most people would be ecstatic with a 690, but I really felt like I had an off day with the quantitative section, so I felt that a re-test would bump me up past 700. Had I scored a 700 the first time instead of a 690, I would have not done it again. But there's something about breaking the 700 barrier that made me want to test again. My undergrad GPA was okay but not great (3.32) and my work experience is not very business-related, so I felt that I really needed an awesome GMAT to balance this.

One thing I did differently the second time around was to not stress out. My whole life, I had never really cared too much about taking standardized tests (SAT, SAT II, AP exams), and I had always done fine. So now I was stressing out for the first time in my life. So for my second exam, I studied very little, only doing two practice exams (and skipping the AWA section each time). My first test took place in the afternoon (3 pm), and I had made the mistake of never doing a practice test at that time of the day. So for my second test (scheduled for noon), I did a practice test the day before starting at noon as well. This really helped out in terms of stamina and awareness.

While I was taking the test the second time, I did not feel like I was doing great. There were a lot of math problems where I was able to narrow it down to two choices, so I kinda had to guess from there. And after I finished the quantitative section, they sat the test taker from hell right next to me (on my left). This guy was sick, so he was coughing and sniffling the whole time. To add to that, he was also tapping his hand on the desk the whole time, and stomping his feet. I put on the earmuffs to drown out the noise, but it only helped a little bit. Then he started leaning against the cubicle wall that the two of us shared, and he must have gotten up every 10 minutes or so. He was really driving me crazy, and I couldn't concentrate on the test.

So the whole time I'm taking the test pissed off and wanting to get a refund. I even flipped the guy off behind the cubicle wall, hoping that the people watching on the monitors would notice and hopefully tell the guy to shut up. So I kinda half-assed my way through the rest of the test.

One thing worth mentioning is that I saw a reading comprehension passage and questions that were EXACTLY the same as one I had done with the PP software. EXACTLY. I didn't even have to read through the answers. I remember that I had gotten them all right on the practice exams, so I just picked out those same answers on the real test.

So at the end of the test, I was just hoping for a 700, when I saw my score pop up. At first I wasn't sure what was going on. All I could see was the 99th percentile. So I stared at the screen for about 30 seconds before it all sunk in. I then quietly pumped my fist and ran out of the room, just in case my score was an error. The woman handed me my unofficial score printout, and complimented me on a job well done. I had to wait until I got into my car to scream.

I am happy to offer any suggestions to anyone who wants them.