Seeking Advice - The better date to retake the GMAT?

Hi Evan,

This was my first GMAT, and I am definitely retaking it! It's just a matter of when at this point! I have two options which I would greatly appreciate any available advice on!

I'm currently living in Australia and we're making our annual trip back to the US to visit friends and family. We arrive to Indiana on September 25, and depart for Sydney on October 24th. During this visit home, we have the following planned:

- September 25 - Arrive home to Indiana
- October 1 - Drive 13 hours to North Carolina for wedding with wife
- October 7-8 - Drive 13 hours back to Indiana
- October 10-11 - Wedding in Indianapolis (1 hour from home) - Groomsmen
- October 18 - Wedding near home
- October 24 - Fly back to Australia

The way I see it, is that I have two options:

1) Take the test when I'm home (likely October 20-21) an hour from home
Advantage - No work, can theoretically study as much as I need to. Family is around to help with 3 year old child and pregnant wife (~15 weeks by this point)
Disadvantage - A lot going on during timeframe. Less time to study. Testing in unfamiliar location

2) Take the test when I'm back in Australia (Nov 12 - allowing for jetlag to wear off and back into routine)
Advantage - More time to study. Familiar location (I've already taken the exam here). Better study set up/less distraction
Disadvantage - Dragging the study out longer. Back at work in management position in the middle of a few large projects that I'm leading that span the country. Hard to allocate time to study with work here, primary point of contact with Swedish partner, and pregnant wife (will be ~19 weeks by this point)

At this point I'm planning on going through ALL my study material again (Manhattan GMAT books, Veritas Prep Books/Online, OG13) Then adding in GMATClub Quant/Verbal PDF, E-GMAT Sentence Correction) and keeping an actual error log, which I didn't do the first time.

I have been working on the rest of my application and plan to apply in R2 to LBS, Chicago-Booth, and Berkeley. Either route leaves enough time to retake the test one more time prior to the deadline if needed.

Ending consideration: I think I actually know why my verbal dropped so much. At the end of my study (just prior to my 610 practice and 610 actual) I was methodically going through answer choices on verbal using A-E on almost every question. The first pass was only excluding the "definitely" wrong answers, and working from there using decision points and POE. When I was at the end I wasn't using this process on OG questions and that carried over to my actual exam. It didn't hit me for a few days, but I'm about 90% sure that is why I went backwards. All my other higher end scores (670, 680, 660, 680, 680) I used my method approach, and then BAM dropping scores just looking at the screen and deciding an answer

Ready.Set.Go!

Additional information (whether relevant or irrelevant)

Official GMAT AWA: 6.0
Official GMAT IR: 7

I also attached a document of what it likely looks like to get through everything in time if I were to take the exam while home on October 20. The one weekend prior to leaving, I've been given a 'pass' by the wife to spend the entire day in the office studying.