Sad ending to a journey

Hello Everyone,

Man, I don't know how to begin. GMAT is a journey for some people, it starts and goes on and on. Then it ends either on a happy not or on a sad one. I guess the latter happened at my end. I have been a member of gmat club for quite sometime now, and have seen posts whereby people get 700+ at one go to people who end with with 500 on first or first few attempts but then hit the 700 mark (or close to that mark).

I also always dreamed of touching the 700 mark and was at one point of time confident that I could do so. I am not an engineer or so, thus my math skills are average. My decision to study GMAT started in 2007, when I was working full time, I thought it won't be a bad idea if I start brushing up my math skills. I knew a math tutor and I used to visit him periodically and then my journey to get my dream score commenced.

By fall 2007 I thought that I could take a break for a month or so and put my full effort and give GMAT. But due to work pressure I didnt do that. It was not until March 2008 when I decided to change work so I took few months off and started my prep. In the middle stage I didnt put as much effort as I should have done (my output for the day used to be low) but nevertheless I continued my efforts. In june-july 2008, I gave my first gmat exam. I was not worried as I thought I will need to give it again as I have worked for math but not too much for english. I gave the exam and scored 600 (Q48, V25). Well belive it or not, I was happy to see my score. I thought wow I am getting results for math and now I will work hard for english. I got back to work, but was studying english now and revised my math from time to time. I gave the exam in Sep early. Going with tension and a heavy head (becoz of worry) I made a mess of the exam. My score was lower than before and I scored in mid forties in math and a little less than twenty five in verbal. I was devasted and was upset for sometime. I couldn't concentrate properly in verbal as I thought math didnt go great. I thought I would give the exam when I feel I am ready to get a good score.

I started to study seriously again in May and worked and studied together. In weekends I gave more time and my prep seemed go in the right track. I went thru english material again, SC (manhattan sc) and other notes (spidy etc) and CR, RC from OG. In RC i improved myself a lot by reading the passage slowly. In math I started to focus on Geometry as I used to hate that area, and work on my fundamentals in various areas. I gave gmatprep by end of may and got 590. I thought I needed more time and kept on studying. I gave my gmatprep two days before my exam in june and got 650 (Q47 V32). I had taken a gmat date and decided to go ahead. I gave my gmat (just a few days ago) and well (as expected or not, I dunno) scored badly. Quant score in early forties and verbal score in mid twenties.

I found Quant to be tougher than my previous exams but I never felt I was doing that badly to get score in early forties. And in verbal I found CR and SC (a bit) to be tough. I thought CR ques were tricky and I wasnt sure how I was doing. I thought in SC things were going fine but considering the score they may not be. RC (an area that used to worry me) went fine (that what I feel).

Now here we are, GMAT score, not going up at all. Now doing even average and feeling that am I cursed or what. Is it my fate that GMAT will not go well. I mean what should I do.

Should I take a break, I am not in a hurry to apply to B-schools (and won't be doing it this year for sure). Should I start my prep again from scratch and slow slow with work, go ahead one step at a time. Then when I feel ready, give another attempt.

I mean why is this happening to me. I am not that bad in english. I know english is not my first language, but I have been studying it since nursery.

What should I do ? If I decide to re-start my prep soon then how should I study so that I become confident in both areas (Q & V). More in verbal because my gmat verbal score never crossed mid twenties.

I have done several posts in this forum and am thankful to everywho who has helped me either by answering my ques in specific areas or by encouraging me.

Please tell me what to do ? How to improve drastically in verbal section and be ready for test again so that this time I am confident that no matter what, my lowest score should not be below 700.

Thank You very much people for reading this long post.

God bless you,

Good luck,

Cheers,
GR

[My prep material included Kaplan 800, OG 11th ed, OG verbal guide, Few gmat club tests and some other tests and books.]