680 (Q45, V38, IR7) - Test Day Experience

Hi,

I would like to share my test day experience. I had a 9am test appointment, the center was 1 hour away from my place.

A cold shower is important jolts you into waking up, had fruits and black tea for breakfast i conditioned my self to this with previous mock tests. Carried fruits and blacktea for the breaks.

The center staff was very professional and carried out the all the briefing and registration promptly and systematically.

I sat for test and selected Quant Verbal IR and AWA as my flow.

The quant section started and drew a blank, I kept staring at the 1st question and just could not solve it, it was a Time Speed Distance even today I know the question by heart. I was keen to get the 1st 10 right and I thought to myself even if I spend additional time its ok I will pace up later.

5 mins down I couldn't solve it, I had to mark something and move on. Subconsciously i knew I had to pace up, I ignored the time and kept solving, one question after another seemed to be easy and this is really made me nervous as I thought I was getting them wrong and wasn't given any difficult questions to solve.

At the half way mark of probably 17th or 18th question, I saw the clock and realised I was left with 45+ mins, I went into complete panic realizing that all the questions I solve till now were probably super simple and I had blown my test.

I told myself, there still half of the test left and more than half the time, I can take it real slow and try to recover my score. I did go slow tried to get questions as right as possible but questions were still easy and to my absolute horror I finished the quant section 10 mins to spare. BTW this has never happened to me in any of my mock test, infact I have always struggles for time towards the fag end.

At this point I was absolutely sure that this attempt of mine was down the drain and there is no way I will be breaching 650 forget 680, which was my target score.

I still coaxed myself to do my best in Verbal and try recover whatever I possibly can. To my absolute surprise the screen showed 680, exactly my target score, in any of my mock test I never breached the 650 barrier.

The point I would like for my fellow students to take away is that don't let the questions make you feel that you are not doing well on the test, keep calm and keep solving. Maybe I was solving difficult questions throughout my practice tests and that made me think differently on the test day.

GMAT suddenly seemed easy on test day, dont think you getting it wrong but think that you have prepared well.