Its days like today that make you believe that a higher authority exists...
First a little about my GMAT background. I studied for 3-4 months last year and after consistently scoring mid to low 600 I decided to schedule my GMAT for November. Long story short, I pulled a horrible 550. I was devasted but decided to go ahead and apply to UF part time MBA since I live and own a house in Tampa. I got accepted for the spring class and have been going there since January. Something in my mind kept telling me "you can do better." I decided to start studying for the GMAT again in March. These were the most grueling two months since I was doing all the normal MBA work, working full time, and studying for the GMAT. I gave myself a minimum cut-off score and scheduled my GMAT right before my second semester started. If I did well enough I have proved to myself that I'm not a complete idiot and can save close to $7k for next semester tuition.
For the past week I haven't been able to do much GMAT studying since this past week was dedicated to final exams, which took place this past weekend. Last night I decided to take a
manhattan GMAT practice exam and got a 640. I was kind of bummed since I have seen this score many times in my practice exams. I decided to review my exam this morning and overall took it pretty easy. Got to the test center right on time and started taking the exam. After seeing the same test center two other times the anxiety automatically disappears. After writing my essays I took my 8 minute break (something I didn't do previously).
I couldn't figure out where I was in the quant section, since I saw some very hard problems, but the next problem was barely harder then 2+2. I struggled for time on the last 2 problems. After quant I again took my 8 minute break. For verbal the CR and RC stuff didn't look too difficult, but I had no idea how SC was turning out. For me all the SC questions look difficult. In the end I was about to hang my head in shame again. When I saw 690 (Q47, V38), I almost broke in tears. I have never got this score in any of my practice exams. It has truly given me an aura of self confidence and direction regarding my MBA. Thank you very much GMATClub. The battle isn't over, I plan to take the GMAT again. This was my third attempt I hope 4 attempts won't look bad to the ad com.