Advice on next steps

Hi everyone,

Hope you are having a great start to 2024. I took the GMAT for the second time today. I had simulated 700+ scores - including my last simulation on practice test #6, in which I got 750, 48Q and 45V. Before I also simulated 740, 49Q and 41V.

My first attempt was 2 weeks ago. I was nervous, anxious, and slept a total of 6 hours in the previous 3 nights to GMAT - the night before the exam, I did not fall asleep at all. I ended up scoring 620 (44Q, 32V). I have always suffered from anxiety and insomnia, its very much genetically intrinsic (some relatives have similar issues).

My second attempt was today - my last shot on the original GMAT exam. I scored 660 (41V, 39Q). I slept better, however, yesterday I could not fall asleep either. I did feel tired, however I felt less nervous that on my first try. Its crazy to think that if I had performed in quant as I did in my first attempt - which was still far below my practice test scores - I would have scored ~700. Its also crazy to think how can one possible go from 32V to 41V in just 2 weeks. Clearly the 32V I scored in my first attempt was very far from reflecting my ability in verbal. Perhaps something similar is happening with Quant. I still can´t understand how I got 39 in Quant. Perhaps the order was not ideal - quant makes me more anxious because I have not obtained such high scores as I have in verbal (even though I was historically good in math, or at least I thought so). Starting the test with quant, I felt anxious, blocked, and perhaps needing some warmup. Although I have managed to get high scores in that same order in practice tests.

As you can see, I´m going through a very frustrating experience that requires some degree of resilience and optimism. I really wanted to get over with the GMAT, and get my 700 in the original GMAT. Unfortunately the friends from GMAC really rushed the transition, I´m pretty certain that in any other year, with 3 more attempts, I would for sure have been able to score 700+ in the real test.

Of course I will take the GMAT focus edition - it actually might benefit me, since Geometry and SC were overall my worst topics in Quant and Verbal, respectively. I will need to reinforce the IR part of DI, but I don´t think it should have a marginally negative or positive effect. By the way, I have cancelled both scores - I´m 100% convinced I can perform better, and perhaps its not a matter of GMAT content/studying.

I would really sincerely appreciate any points of views on my situation and how to move forward. What should I do? How to keep preparing, considering I will not have more than ~12h per week - I´ve had plenty of time to study in last 3-4 months, but that is now over - my job will have increase workload in following months. I will apply for R1 of this year. My goal is 720+.

Thank you very much!
Renato