First GMAT Attempt

Gave my first standardized test since 2018, pretty much without studying in a structured manner, on 26th March 2022. Can't say that I am disappointed because I've come to realise that a structured approach, atleast during the preparation phase, is extremely crucial. Not to say that rigid application of SC rules is a must but we do need a method to gauge our progress and short coming

Anyway, here it goes!

I started getting accustomed to the GMAT exam in January 2022, directly hammering OG '22 questions and using the explanations at the back of the guide to "fill my gaps". Since I have always been comfortable with Quant in general, I was able to breeze through 500-600 level questions with 95% accuracy and a 85% accuracy on the 700 level questions. But when it came to verbal, it was all over the place! With accuracy varying wildly; 90% in Easy-Medium and 80% in Hard RC questions, 70% Medium and 65% in Hard CR questions, and 65% Easy-Medium and 55% in Hard SC questions! Unsurprisingly, OG explanations made my head spin. I anyway ended up giving my first official mock, to get a benchmark, and scored 700 with Q50 and V35. I hammered some verbal review questions, blazed through GMAT Ninja's youtube series and sat through the whole 24 hour Ukraine marathon ( after which my respect for the whole GMATClub team went through the roof )
After that I gave another mock , from official exam pack 2. I scored a 730 with Q50 and V39. I thought I was ready, since my goal was a 700+
So I booked my exam slot at a nice 12:30 PM and cruised through the test center formalities without any hassles. My confidence was decent when I began my exam. But the moment it began, I started second guessing myself too much! From my ESR, I saw that i took around 1:50-2:05 minutes in my first 3 quarters and only 0:44 per question in my final quarter! Even then I ended up missing two questions . This was a "blasphemy" of sorts, because in my both my official mock exams I ended up missing a couple of verbal questions at the end and I ended up making the same mistake in the exam. Had it been a different mistake, I would have brushed it aside as a learning experience, but making the same mistake thrice is not a mistake anymore, it's a habit . Also, I made 3 mistakes within my quarter itself and after that 3 mistakes in every quarter ( so much for being consistent )
I calmed myself in Quant, and ended up with only 3 mistakes ( all of which were literally at the edge of the high difficulty level in my esr). A Q50 is what I ended up with, which was as expected. Even AWA went decent enough with a 6/6 and got a point knocked off somewhere in IR, ending with 7/8 in IR. My total score was a measly 670 with Q50 and V31.
After that I took a 2 month break to gather my thoughts ( and prepare for my CFA exams which were scheduled in May )
I might give another attempt in June, as I am damn sure that I can end up with a 700+ with some tweaking in my verbal methodology.