First try, highest score: 760 (Q49, V44, IR8)

I wanted to share my GMAT story, because I didn't think it was possible for me to do better on the actual test vs. my practice tests, but with the help of some of the advice in this forum, I did!

My practice tests:
610 (Q33, V40, IR8; Manhattan Prep; 2/13) -- completely spaced on timing in Quant on this first test. After that I switched from the official GMAT prep book to mostly computer-based, timed questions.
740 (Q50, V40, IR8; GMAT Official; 2/28)
730 (Q47, V43, IR5; Kaplan; 3/12)
750 (Q59, V44, IR5; GMAT Official; 3/16)

Test day 3/21:
760 (Q49, Q44, IR8, AWA5)

I took my last practice test 5 days before the exam. I had planned to take another, but I felt like going out with my highest score would give me the confidence I needed to perform on test day. However, my IR was inconsistent and I'm a slow writer, so I did take one more IR test and wrote another full essay. Other than that, I didn't do much practice at all in the few days leading up to my test and tried to just chill out.

On test day, I drove two hours to my testing center and listened to my hype playlist. I arrived an hour and a half early, got a cup of coffee and a snack, and did 2 problems in each section (timed) from the Official GMAT practice questions.

This is my biggest piece of advice, my mantra all morning before my test, and the reason why I wanted to post my debrief: You have to be willing to get questions wrong.

Let me explain. In my final practice test, I finished both Quant and Verbal about 5 minutes early, so I knew that I needed to spend a little more time in the beginning of the sections to make sure I was getting the early questions right. This strategy left me running about 6-8 minutes behind schedule halfway through. At this point, the questions were harder -- back to my mantra: you have to be willing to get questions wrong. I started taking less time with each answer, believing in my answers after about a minute or so and bailing out after a minute with an educated guess if I didn't have a good answer. This allowed me to finish the test with enough time to spend at least a minute on each question, and not rapidly guess the last few. I finished just under the wire on each section. In fact, I didn't even have time to press "Next" but if you've selected an answer before time runs out then your answer will still count.

IR was easier than practice tests so I thought I wasn't doing well. My 8 score was a total surprise. I finished that section about 4-5 minutes early, and spent that time writing out a generic essay outline on my scratch pad so I could quickly dive into AWA.

The essay prompt was much more difficult than any I had encountered in practice, and I think I may have even read the prompt wrong because at this point I'm full of adrenaline and also all of the practice essays I had written had been similar to each other and this one was much more nuanced. If I could study for AWA again, I would have read more sample essay prompts, even if I didn't write the actual practice essays.

So that's my debrief! Deep breaths. Be confident in knowing what you know, and also knowing what you don't know. Good luck!