Thank you for sending over such detailed information. I believe nerves and fatigue played a role in your lower-than-expected GMAT score.
From your responses and the ESR, there are 2 things that stand out to me:
1) I went to bed early enough to get a full 8 hours, but I ended up waking up briefly at 4am and again at 5am, probably due to anxiety or nerves. Adrenaline was pumping though so I didn't feel tired at any point of my exam.
2) You responded correctly to 75% of the first set of questions, 71% of the second set of questions, 86% of the third set of questions and 50% of the final set of questions.
Since the GMAT is a 4-hour mental marathon, if, on test day, any part of your mind or body is slightly “off,” your GMAT performance can be negatively affected. Although adrenaline may have masked how you were truly feeling during the exam, your lack of sleep could have led to increased nerves and fatigue. Furthermore, I think you burned out on the last part of the verbal section, in which you correctly answered only 50% of the of the questions, as opposed to 75% on the first set and 71% on the second set.
Because you have been scoring consistently in the 700s on your practice exams, you do not need to drastically adjust your study routine for your upcoming GMAT. To stay fresh in both quant and verbal, you may consider practicing a mixture of NEW quant and verbal questions. Once you complete each problem set, analyze your mistakes and figure out remedies for them. I also suggest taking the final two exams from
exam pack 2. As above, once you finish, analyze your mistakes and figure out remedies for them.
Finally, I wrote a detailed article that provides some valuable
test day tips and strategies that should help calm your nerves on test day.
If you need any further advice, feel free to reach out. Otherwise, I’ll await the good news after you kick the pants off your GMAT!