510 Practice test day before GMAT; 650 on actual GMAT

My road to taking the GMAT was somewhat unconventional and spontaneous.

My sister was applying to some masteral programs and I decided to look into a few of them as well. Eventually I found myself attracted to different MBA programs especially those pertaining to international business and the likes. I saw that most if not all programs required GMAT scores and I decided that I had nothing to lose taking the test since I could always put my score in my resume if I decide not to pursue business school.

I initially scheduled my test for December 2016, however I ended up rescheduling this a week before the test when I realized I hadn't done a lick of studying in the two months I had given myself to prepare. (Honestly, starting to study is the hardest part of preparing for the GMAT)

Jan 12 was my new test date and I planned a study schedule to "conquer" the GMAT like I read many people do in these forums however I didn't take into account I was going on vacation and, although I tried to study, I ultimately failed to gain any sort of momentum before I left for Japan for the holidays. I arrived back home on Jan 4 and had 7 days to prepare. At first I was worried since I read you shouldn't cram but I was always a good crammer in college and in high school so I was still somewhat confident I could score at least a 600 which I had always assumed was the mean before I found out it was actually 550.

I was finally able to gain momentum and put the 7 days to good use.

Here is how I studied:

Day 1-
~50 questions from " The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review"
1st free online practice test (Veritas)
45 quant, 6 verbal 440 total (I skipped the verbal just answered C for all since I got tired; also used 1.5x time so it wasn't realistic)

Day 2-
Another ~50 questions
Took another practice test I think it was Kaplan and got a 660 (38 verbal) but again used 1.5x time so quant wasn't realistic


Day 3-
Another free practice test, Manhattan
Q: 43 V: 32


Day 4-
Rest day; just read some verbal tips

Day 5-
LBS free practice test (only solved quant) and read on some quant topics
Free GMAT CLUB tests

Day 6-
Read up on strategy etc. Started panicking on verbal after I read somewhere that it had the potential to bring up the overall score more than quant.

Day 7-
Economist Free Practice test (real testing conditions)
Score: 510
Q: 38 V:24

This was when real panic ensued. How I scored so low when I was supposed to be peaking for the test was beyond me. It was also strange since I i got 29/41 questions correct in the verbal sections and ended up with a 24... maybe it was the algorithm of economist that was off that time.

The next steps I took were important. I decided to focus on the SC portion of verbal since I was already scoring near perfect in reading comprehension in all my practice tests and knew I was never really a grammar nut. I also made a set of "rules" (more like tips) that would help me in the quant section.

1. If it's a geometry question and looks hard to begin with it'll be better to skip in order to finish the quant portion
2. Maximum of 3 minutes on any quant question
3. The data sufficiency will always try to trick you into choosing BOTH TOGETHER are sufficient
4. Most data sufficiency questions can be answered without actually solving

On my actual test day I was not confident at all. I was regretting my decision to cram and was honestly expecting a score in the 510-570 range based on how I was scoring in the 2 days prior. I went in and just decided to relax, and put no pressure on myself thinking I could always take the test again (it would hurt my wallet though, these tests ain't cheap lol)

Actually enjoyed the AWA and IR section I think those helped get the juices flowing for the next sections. Finished Quant exactly at 74:55 and finished the verbal in 60 mins. The Quant questions were much easier than any of the practice questions however I also thought that when taking Economists free test and got a 510 there. The verbal was a lot harder than I thought but I got a lot of reading comp questions so I was confident I got at least 60% of all verbal questions correctly (even if percentages don't really matter as much on CAT tests)

In the end I scored very average in quant and did well in the verbal
Q: 42 V: 38 O:650

Now overall this was a good experience for me and I just wanted to share my process of preparing. Reviewing my mistakes in practice tests really helped me prepare even if I was scoring low on them the fact that I would review each question probably aided more than the actual tests themselves. I'm just hoping my low scores in the quant section won't be a detriment to my application especially since I was a very average business major and only have a year of work experience. I don't really plan on retaking the test since it's expensive and it might look bad if I score lower than that. (My practice tests were erratic enough)

Just a few observations:
1. I find it weird that the GMAT would give a greater weight to verbal than quant. (?)
2. I think luck plays a role into your scores even if I know the scoring algorithm takes lucky guesses into account I still feel like you can still get lucky with the type of questions you get.
3. The GMAT is hard.
4. I feel like there are enough free questions / tests out there to self prep for the GMAT however if you want a 700+ then maybe a structured course could help but for those middle of the pack testers 500-670 I think the free content is enough.

Okay, just wanted to share my experience/observations in this long useless post lol.