Thanks for the advice guys. I really appreciate it.
I apologize for not being able to do a proper debrief. I had a (much needed) pre-planned trip so I'm traveling in Asia right now to let off some steam before I start work.
As far as where I thought I went wrong, its purely speculative (because during the test its really hard to assess your status. You're just too focused on doing your best for each question). But I'm fairly certain it was a mixture of anxiety/caffeine.
I had been practicing all of my CAT's with a red bull. I would drink half after AWA, and the remainder after Quant. It seemed to work well. I was taking all my CAT's during the same times as my real test, and under the most realistic conditions possible (8 minute breaks, leaving the room, etc.) I had trained myself with the redbull, so I thought I was in pretty good shape for the test.
However, I dont think I took into consideration the fact that test-day anxiety will make you alert regardless of the caffeine. So I think it was a mistake to drink the rest of my redbull after the quants. Quants felt good, but as soon as I returned for verbal, I had BIG TIME jitters, reading way too fast, rushing. It didnt help that I got two long RC's almost back to back very early on (this never happened during a CAT in such close proximity). This sort of threw my sense of timing off and I semi-panicked, and started to rush. I wasnt being methodical.
So it all came down to nerves, I think. The exactly same thing happened when I took the
MGMAT CAT where I got 710. I got destroyed on verbal b/c I had the jitters. It felt identical to how it felt during the real test. Its all in the state of mind. I went into the test with a great state of mind. I was focused and in the zone. My speculation is that the caffeine threw me over the edge.
I also think the Verbal on the real test was more challenging than any CAT (GMATPrep or not) I had done before. I would recommend NOT underestimating the verbal on the real exam. Quant was easier than
MGMAT, but not by very much. Quant was VERY close to GMAT Prep. I had no problem on quant for the real test - I scored exactly what I was expecting to score.
The CATs were for the most part taken under real conditions, and I only saw repeats on one CAT, which was GMAT Prep Version 2, CAT 1. CAT 2 did not have any repeats, which is why I felt 760 was still somewhat representative going into the test.
I'll post a more detailed debrief with prep, study material, etc. upon my return.
Thanks everyone!