I passed out during IR... test anxiety horror.

I am mortified at my text experience, but I wanted to share it with others hoping it would be helpful - and make sure people do not feel alone.

I recently discovered, I have severe test anxiety. I will occasionally, get sick.. start sweating... have a racing heart ... get dizzy....OH, did I mention this was during a practice test? I started researching my symptoms and realized this is probably why my grades are so poor when it comes to courses with tests... but so high when I had courses with projects - I only realized this now. So how was I supposed to write the GMAT?

24 hours before the exam, I was so nauseous, I could barely eat... I couldn't sleep. I felt this impending doom. I tried to work out the morning of the test to try and pump some endorphin's... then headed off for the test. I sat in the parking lot almost getting sick outside of my car... I told the proctors at the facility that it was highly likely that something terrible would happen and that I wanted them to let me keep going (I paid for the stupid test, I want to at least try to finish it and cancel it if I have to).

The AWA went as expected, a bit rushed at the end... but my hands were shaking - so when the IR started... I got the first question and I had no idea what the stupid graph was trying to say... I started to feel dizzy, I started sweating... I forced myself through a few questions and then I couldn't take it anymore... I put my head between my legs to let the blood flow to my head and, well, I'm not sure how much time had passed... but it must have been a lot because I only had 15 minutes left. I think I only completed 4 questions. I took my 8 minute break.. went to the washroom - and a part of me thought, I should just walk out of here right now. It was that bad. The proctor was worried because I was so pale and I was utterly embarrassed.

I decided to go back to the Quant, and actually came back into the room a little bit late... my life is over (that is what I thought). I decided, who cares... this is another practice test. I'm just going to cancel this score... after that, I'm not sure what happened. It is a blur... my score appeared (after their lengthy survey... what is that by the way?!). I got a 650?! Q48V31 - don't get me wrong, this is not an amazing score but I passed out... it was the highest score I had ever achieved.

I wanted to share this story to let people know not to give up when you're in there because... I fainted. I guess I could have actually gotten sick and they would have probably forced me out of the room, so it could have been worse... but if this happened to me, I feel like others can overcome their anxiety as well.

With that said, I need/want to improve my score to at least a high 600. Obviously my IR score was awful (I fainted.. so that was doomed) - and I think I can improve my verbal. I'm a bit worried I over achieved on my Quant as my average is usually around 44/45... so if anyone has advice for someone who faints, and wants to improve their score... please help me!