I'll try to keep this as short as possible. I started my prep with a horrible coaching institute in sept. absolute waste of money. i had planned to apply by r2 in december.
Target score :660+ (yes, i'd be happy with that and don't really care for a 700)
Fast forward to november, i realised if i stuck with this coaching i'd not even hit 600 let alone 650+.
So left, and went to my hometown. Used
magoosh to clear up my basics. But no matter what i couldn't get past v29 and q41. ie 590. so postponed my gmat to feb 8, ie today.
i saw a webinar by egmat which helped me realise i didn't need a high quant score to get to my target. so i decided to maintain q41 or try to get it to 43. my main focus was on verbal and i targeted v38-39. i had already spent a lot of money so luck was on my side as a friend had an egmat account with 15 days validity. I used 10 days for SC and got my accuracy upto 85% and 5 days for rc and got it upto 75%. for cr, i read through powerscore but found a lot of stuff unnecesary. either way, i took a mock (in test conditions [just at home] with just 1 repeat question from gmat prep) at scored first 620 (v35 q41 ) and another one 2 days before my exam and scored 640. (v36 q41)
I was like okay, atleast 640 i'll get. Keep in mind that last 2 months have been hell for me. I stopped having a social life, barely spent any time with my girlfriend and gained 5 kgs. (sucks more when you're someone who bench presses your bodyweight at 12% bodyfat, but nvm that)
2 weeks before exam, i started getting stressed out and couldn't sleep properly. Had to take sleeping pills. Yesternight, night before exam had to pop 2 but even then just got 4-5 hours of sleep due to not being able to sleep.
exam day went to the centre.
Started the exam. v-q-ir-awa. SC, i don't know how i did but except maybe 2 questions i felt confident. I think i got 5 passages, minimum 4 and this took up a lot of time. CR was the worst, since i didn't have much time i had to guess on most. But i felt i'd score atleast v34.
Then quant, my nemisis since birth. As someone who has never scored more than 41, i knew i wasn't gonna do too well. But i couldn't make head or tails of most questions and the ones i could i didn't have time for them.
IR and awa went well. I closed my eyes and prayed for a 630. Guess what? 530 (q35 v28) I felt like i had been shot. Before starting my prep my score was 540. Never in my life i had gotten such a terrible score. I went home, i had hoped i'd finally celebrate but i turned off my phone and lay down on my bed. Slept off in 2 seconds i think, the exhaustion had shown its effect.
I don't know what to do now. I want to apply by march 15-20 anyhow. A friend suggested to take gre as he had a similar experience but did well on the gre.
So my two options now are 1) take gmat in a month again 2) give gre.
Honestly i've never felt so terrible in my life. and confused and helpless. Please advice me. (and as much as i'd like to, i can't spend any more resource on GMAT, except the exam fees)