From 710 (1st attempt) to 690 (2nd attempt) & need advice (Goal: 750+)

Went from a 710 (46Q/42V/8 IR/6 AWA) when I took the GMAT in August (accepted), to a 690 (45Q/40V/8 IR) in early September, which was promptly cancelled at the exam centre. Now feeling discouraged, but also motivated to hit my target score of 750+. I also have specific questions near the bottom of the post. Here's the story so far...

Profile

Fresh out of business undergrad, I decided to take the GMAT before starting full-time at an MBB firm in September. I am a North American Asian female, although I'm not sure whether that positively or negatively impacts how my score is viewed. I plan to start applying to schools in 2-4 years' time, so no significant time pressure. I have my sights set on top schools — HSW and INSEAD in particular, as I am already working at a "top" consulting firm and primarily want an MBA for the network it will provide. With that in mind, I set my target score at 750+, but have my minimum threshold for "not retaking the GMAT again" at 730+ (current median at these schools).

My 1st GMAT Attempt

I prepped for 1.5 months before taking the GMAT for the first time, using exclusively free self-study materials. I achieved a score of 710 (46Q, 42V, 8 IR, 6 AWA). While quite happy with this score, I felt worried about the 46Q score, which is in the 58th percentile. Furthermore, I was extremely nervous before taking the exam — getting too far into my head the night before, not being able to sleep (and therefore feeling tired on the day of the exam), and frantically learning about "c-trap" and other questions from the GMATClub Q49 - 51 guide within 24-hours of the actual test. Thus, I was certain that I could do better, especially since I've heard that almost everyone improves on their second try. Confident that I could improve my score within just a short time, I promptly booked my second GMAT exam for early September.

How I prepped for the 1st exam

My prep was mostly unstructured for the first exam, and I mainly focused on filling "gaps" that I'd forgotten from school.

• Economist GMAT tutor free trial — exclusively focused on quant
• MathRevolution diagnostic — told to expect Q50, and felt very excited as this was at the beginning of my prep
• Read a bit of OG quant and did the first 109 PS problems in the 2018 quant guide... stopped since I found them "too easy", although I have heard they get progressively harder
• Magoosh math flash card app
• Ready4 GMAT Prep app (free trial only)
• Note that I did pretty much no verbal prep, as I am a native English speaker and found quant as the bigger "problem area" in my prep

I also did the following free practice tests:

• 07/23/18: GMAT Prep CAT 1 (yes, I burned this! Had no idea from GMATClub that you should save these for last...) - 660, 43Q/38V/7IR
• 07/30/18: Economist GMAT Tutor Free CAT - 680, 44Q/40V/7 IR
• 08/07/18: Manhattan prep free CAT - 680, 46Q/37V/8 IR
• 08/13/18: Veritas 1st free CAT - 650, 40Q/39V/5 IR
• 08/14/18: GMATClub free CAT - 710, 49Q/38V
• 08/15/18: Kaplan free CAT - 720, 47Q/42V/7 IR
• 08/16/18: GMAT Prep CAT 2 - 730, 48Q/42V/5 IR

After each CAT, I reviewed both the questions I got wrong and the questions I got right but felt unsure about, paying particular attention to Bunuel's solutions on GMATClub. At this point, getting a 710 was in line with my performance. I left the test centre KNOWING I could do better, especially with more focused quant prep. That brings us to...

My 2nd GMAT Attempt

I detoxed my intense GMAT sprint (see: that one week of taking practice CATs every day) with a week-long vacation with friends. As someone used to cramming at school (resulting in a 3.98 undergrad GPA), I got back from the vacation and went back to prepping every day for another 1.5 weeks. This time, I decided to read the GMAT Club math book in full, and discovered several time-saving tricks I didn't know about before. Furthermore, I decided to stop being a cheapskate and invested in the remaining official GMAC CAT exam packs (3-6). My scores kept trending higher and higher, and I was confident things would turn out better this time!

I got a good night of sleep the night before the exam, cleared my mind the night before by reading for pleasure, and went into the exam feeling energetic and confident. At this point, I already had a pretty good "baseline" score, so the pressure wasn't on — I'd accept if the score was higher or the same but higher in quant, and decline otherwise. I ultimately felt like this exam was "harder," which made me believe that I was doing better than last time (hah!). My time management was a little off though — I definitely spent too long on one quant question, and had two minutes to spare for the last two questions. Likewise, since I always had ~20 mins to spare on verbal, I decided to take my time and had to finish the last 6 questions (including a RC passage) with 4 minutes left.

Still, despite these timing issues, I was VERY surprised once the score popped up: 45Q/40V/8 IR, for a total score of... 690. This was 40-60 points behind my official GMAC GMATPrep CAT scores (see below), and a notable decrease in both quant AND verbal.

How I prepped for the 2nd exam

• Read GMAT Club Math Book v3
• Reviewed a couple GMATClub resources on CR, SC, and RC just to make sure I'm maximizing my already-high verbal, which seemed to plateau at 42

These were my CAT scores during the week leading up to my 2nd GMAT exam:

• Veritas free CAT #2, aka my only remaining "free" CAT - 680, 43Q/41V/7 IR — I brushed this aside since Veritas was also my worst score from the first prep period
• GMAT Prep CAT #3 - 730, 48Q/42V/8 IR
• GMAT Prep CAT #4 - 740, 49Q/41V/5 IR
• GMAT Prep CAT #5 - 750, 48Q/44V/8 IR (FINALLY! And while not my highest quant, finally got over the 42V plateau that I'd been stuck at even from the prior prep period)
• GMAT Prep CAT #6 - 730, 48Q/42V/7 IR

I went into the exam significantly more confident. I expected 48Q/42V at the minimum (730 overall), and was hoping for 750-760 (49Q/44V, my highest CAT results in each category to date). When I saw 690 pop up, I was visibly shaken. This was not in line with my practice tests, especially after feeling like I was starting to recognize the "pattern" of typical GMAT questions. I hadn't scored <41V since eight CATs prior, and I had only scored <46Q (my 1st quant score) on my first two CATs ever and the two Veritas CATs. I'd been treating the GMAT like my full-time job for the past two months, and it felt like all my effort was in vain.

The situation now

At this point, I've now burned through ALL the official GMAT Prep CATs available, as well as every "recommended" free CAT from GMATClub. Moreover, I am now starting full-time work in a high-pressure industry, meaning I no longer have the luxury of studying every day for several hours a day. In fact, I know I will be expected to work 12-hour weekdays, unpredictable weekends, and fly out to client sites on Sundays. My current thoughts:

• Considering taking an in-person course, but would love recommendations. Self-studying seemed to be ineffective. Firm will reimburse costs, but if I go this route, I want to make sure that my next GMAT score is 750+ (or 760+ ideally, for that 99th percentile stat). Are any classes focused on this high-calibre of scoring? Initial research makes it seem like most are targeted at people who want to be 700+ scorers. I prefer an in-person class/tutor, but availability is likely restricted to Saturdays only.
• Should I complete all OG questions? I have OG 2018 and OG quant + OG verbal books accessible to me. Is it worthwhile to do all of these questions before my next retake? Should I just focus on "hard" questions" on the GMAT Club OG guides?
• Based on my profile and target schools above, do you think 750+ is an unnecessary goal? Consensus from my colleagues is that 700+ is the magic number for us to get into any bschool we want, but I am unconvinced because of the 46Q score, and because it seems GMAT scores are only going up in the next few years before I apply. Also not sure if the Asian-American demographic is more competitive at these schools. I think the other aspects of my application will be pretty strong, and will be cognizant about improving/maintaining them over the next few years before applying. I don't want my 710 GMAT score to cast any doubt on my competitiveness for these programs.
• Current plan is to retake in December. Was definitely feeling a little frustrated and GMAT-ed out by the end of this week, and even more discouraged after receiving the lower second score (which I couldn't decline fast enough!). I think it's time to take a step back from this test and focus on the start of my career, but I really don't want this nagging GMAT-cloud over my head for an indefinite amount of time. I also don't want to wait so long that I have to "start from scratch" so to speak when I'm thinking more seriously about MBA programs.
• Seems like pacing is one of my biggest issues during the actual exam. Any tips to maintain a better pace during the actual exam, since I tend to have ~2-3 mins extra on quant and 10-20 mins extra on verbal during practices CATs but scramble for time on the real deal?

Parting information

I have an ESR from the 1st GMAT exam, but seems like I cannot include it as this is my first post on the forum. If there's a way I can PM it to you, please let me know.

Key insights:

Verbal

Performance by fundamental skills:

• CR: 75% analysis/critique + 100% construction/plan
• RC: 75% identify inferred idea + 83% identify stated idea
• SC: 100% grammar + 57% communication (what is "communication" and how can I improve it?)

• Percent correct by quarter of exam: 88% / 86% / 71% / 75%
• Average time per response by quarter of exam: 2:04 /2:28 / 1:13 / 0:53

Quant

Performance by fundamental skills:

• Geometry: 66%
• Rates/ratio/percent: 71%
• Value/order/factors: 77%
• Equal/inequal/algebra: 66%
• Counting/sets/series: 83%

• 60th percentile on PS and 52nd percentile on DS
• Percent correct by quarter of exam: 71% / 71% / 71% / 86%
• Average time per response by quarter of exam: 1:58 / 1:44 / 2:09 / 1:39

Thank you so much for reading such a long debrief, and any advice you can provide is highly appreciated!