Hello all,

This is my first post here-I wanted this to be the one that I debrief my glaring 700+ score but unfortunately that's not the case.
After 2-months preparation time (along with many distractions from work and other stuff) I ended up scoring 600 (V47 Q28).I don't have the words to describe such disappointment.

Study Plan

Verbal :

I have started studying the verbal part initially and especially focusing on Sentence Correction (Manhattan SC)
As everyone says this book is amazing and it really helped me to learn the tricks and brush up some rules.
Then I also went through Manhattan CR and RC books and honestly the questions seemed pretty good to me initially then I realized how different the real GMAT questions are. Besides, I was never a fan of taking notes for CR and CR questions. Because I am feeling that I lose time even though I spend 20 seconds to take notes per question-I will explain later on in details- and losing time or feeling that I am falling behind the pace of the exam is the most crucial part that I have to deal with for my 2nd attempt.

Quantitative:

Sorry I ramble a bit, for quantitative part I didn’t do more than learning the terminology in English (such as prime number, isosceles triangle, rhombus, denominator etc. ) . I also referred to Manhattan books for this and I had a quick glance on the books and solved 2-3 questions for each topic.

AWA:

I used the template on the net and also read couple essays with 6.0 points and made my own template. I was so late studying AWA and preparing myself for this and I regret as it did stress me out just before the exam.
I recommend everyone not to leave this to last minute. ( Well I am Turkish so I guess it’s bit a cultural thing  )

General:

I have also bought Princeton and Kaplan books but didn’t have a chance to study. Leaving the AWA and fulltime tests to last week was also stupid mistake. I have done the GMATprep-1 before any preparation and I got 600. Then I remember doing that again after 2 months and getting 700. I thought I could do Manhattan ,Kaplan and other full time tests in my last week (6-7 exams) but I only found time to do the 2nd Gmatprep test and got another 700.
I was scoring around 49 even with stupid mistakes that I was doing. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t do such mistakes in the exam with better concentration (Aha!) Verbal was around 35 but I was running out of time for the last 2-3 verbal questions. I did the verbal part of the gmatprep-2 again and scored 40V. And also I realized the questions that I got wrong wasn’t resulting from the concepts that I didn’t know but from the basic mistakes that I kept promising not to repeat.
Last week-was meant to be for full time tests only- I did the verbal part of the of the official guide (12th edition) , but I am not sure I digested this- I realized when I try to do the questions that I got wrong I was still doing them wrong after 3 days. Now I understand people who does the OG thrice.

Test Day:
As I am working abroad, I wanted to take the opportunity and combine the exam with a family visit. So I scheduled my exam in Istanbul. I have been stupidly mentioning to everyone about my exam and god knows how many messages that I got on my phone right before the exam everyone wishing good luck or telling me to call them right after the exam. Indeed, it’s a perfect feeling people do care about you and wishing you success but on the other hand, this is putting a great amount of stress on you. (At least this was the case for me, I felt pressured for no reason) It could have been easier for me if didn’t tell people that I was taking GMAT.
I was so anxious before the exam but It all got back to normal after the AWA section. (I guess this is an advantage for us to get ready for the Q and V part) As I wrote down my essays on relatively easy topics than I expected I calmed down and took the break before quantitative part. Everything was under control until the bloody 10th question on quantitative. I lost almost 4 minutes then I realized I was getting the question wrong (if you are in a position that you are looking for an advance solution on GMAT, go over the question again it shouldn’t be asking you a question hat hard or there must be a easier method to crack it) Anyway, then I understood the question right and cracked it in a minute. But my result wasn’t among the answer choices, that was the moment I lost the control of the exam. I re-did the equation and solved the problem in 6-7 minutes. After this moment I was never able to re-focus. I tried to catch up with the time but hard DS questions didn’t let me to do so. I couldn’t read the last 4-5 questions on Quantitative part and randomly guessed. I was finishing the quantaitaive part 5-6 minutes earlier in my full time tests, but my early mistake did cost me a lot! Then, I was out of focus for the verbal part as well, how much I tried to calm myself down I failed to forget that moment and found myself calculating the time all the time (how many minutes do I have for the rest of the questions) and also I randomly guessed last 4-5 verbal questions.

To conclude, I am not saying I gave up the exam and scored bad. It did have a major impact on my exam but also I did realize I am spending too much time on some certain type of questions(some CRs and some DS)

Last time I scheduled my exam to be able to start studying but now I am not scheduling my exam before I score 3 scores over 700 in a roll and take lots of full time tests. And I am also planning to go over the official guide more than twice with a error log and a detailed flash cards.

Any suggestions, advices are highly appreciated. I tried to explain my experience and preparation history, please help me how I can hit the magic 700 in the real thing?
Early June is what I have in my mind but I am not scheduling it until I regained my confidence. Bottom line is long nights are waiting for me at least I have the new Radiohead album so it is more bearable.

Thanks a lot everyone on this forum and I wish great luck for the people who is taking it!
One of the hardest thing in the world is explaining the GMAT exam to someone who doesn’t have a clue! Only we know what we are going through!

Thanks, that's exactly what i am gonna do.Take some time off and relax then push it hard again.