Well after almost three months of preparation, it really psyched me out when I couldn't solve the first quantitative question.

Luckily, I was able to recover.

My final (unofficial) score of 760 (49Q 45V) was pretty much dead-on with my practice scores, so I can't really complain.

Edit - Here are my practice scores:
MGMAT#1: 710 (46Q 41V)
MGMAT#2: 720 (47Q 41V)
MGMAT#3: 750 (48Q 45V)
MGMAT#4: 740 (50Q 41V)
MGMAT#5: 770 (50Q 45V)
MGMAT#6: 760 (49Q 45V)

I think I got 760 on both GMATPreps, I dont remember the breakdown.

Lessons Learned:
1) Anxiety affected me way more than I had expected. I'm not really sure how to combat this, but I really felt totally unable to function for the first 10 minutes of the quantitative section.
2) Make sure you learn something from every problem you do. This means reviewing the questions you got wrong AND the questions you got right.
3) Tell the people you care about that you're taking the exam, the more people you have sending you good vibes as you take the test, the better :D


Most important study activity?
Over memorial day weekend, I took six practice CATs. I took two CATs each day, back to back. I did this to work on the mental fatigue associated with the GMAT.

But just taking the exam that many times, under testing conditions... that'd be boring, right? So I wanted to spice it up a bit. That's why during each test, I asked my girlfriend to create hilarious distractions to test my concentration. During one test, she threw crumpled up pieces of paper at me for 75 minutes during the Q section. In another test, she turned on the TV and channel-surfed for the entire V section.

Actually I'm kidding about the distractions, but I did take those six CATs. And it was really boring.

Final Advice?
Test the GMAT like a game, or a series of puzzles. I actually really enjoy the GMAT, and I think it made all the difference in the world. If you can have fun while studying, you'll get more out of it, and you'll be likely to do more of it.

Lol. I was like WTF??? Truer words have not been spoken.

And congrats! Great job!

Congratulations, your score is amazing!
I guess it's quite common to experience problems at the beginning of the quant section. This is one of many examples that prove that one can still achieve a 700+ (or even 750+) even though one has messed up (or thinks to have messed up) the beginning of the quant section.

Good job and great score! Congratulation! You won the GAME!!

Thanks everyone!

My top choices are Dartmouth and MIT, fingers crossed. I'm going to take a week or two rest period and then start into my applications.

I updated the OP to include my practice scores.

Below are my GMAT Club test scores. Although, many of these were taken back-to-back or right after a practice CAT, so I'm not sure how indicative these scores are.

Club Test #1: 28/37
Club Test #2: 29/37
Club Test #3: 32/37
Club Test #4: 31/37
Club Test #5: 26/37
Club Test #6: 26/37
Club Test #7: 31/37
Club Test #8: 25/37
Club Test #9: 28/37
Club Test #10: N/A
Club Test #11: 28/37
Club Test #12: 25/37
Club Test #13: 30/37
Club Test #14: 30/37

Can you tell me the reason for most of your mistakes? careless errors, etc? Also, how did you find most of the questions in the GMAT Club tests? Did you feel that they were solvable? And for those questions you got right, was your reasoning the same as mentioned in the answers? Thanks!

Some portion of my mistakes were definitely careless errors. I'd say the lion's share of questions I missed were definitely solvable, but that I didn't remember a particular rule of geometry, or maybe I just didn't see the elegant solution.

I used both versions of the GMATPrep software (the old version, and the newer version).

I took the exams once each, and got either a 760 or a 770 each time.

I am retaking gmat so i need to suck the life out of gmat preps, does using the older version help in any way that it throws a different set of questions altogether ?

I have only used the new version, Gprep 1:
used twice (once in last attempt in december-650), Once a few days back-750.

prep 2 -
used once-640(last attempt-december).
Kept prep 2 retake for next month before actual gmat retake.



After proper uninstall and deleting files I saw 2-3 repeats in all in gmat prep-1. That too i did not remember the answers as last time I used it was 6 months back. Will using the older version be of any help ?
_________________

Cheers !!

Quant 47-Striving for 50
Verbal 34-Striving for 40