Hi everyone,
I had my GMAT re-take just earlier this morning and got 720 (Q49 V39 IR7)
. As you can guess from the title, it wasn't without hiccups - here is a summary of my experience:
1) I spent yesterday doing some chores, exercises, watch movie, etc. so basically, anything to get my mind off GMAT. I went to bed nice and relaxed but after sleeping for 2 hours, I was awake for basically the entire night and only fell asleep again for a measly 2 hours in the morning
:. Needless to say, I felt really bitter and negative walking into the test center, but tried to salvage the entire situation by snoozing in the waiting room and walking up/down the stairs of the building several times. It did help me gain a bit of alertness walking into the exam, but once things started, something unexpected happened:
I
froze for a good 5 minutes in the 1st Quan. question
.
Since I never experienced this kind of moment before, I wasn't sure initially how to react to it and literally gave up. Fortunately, I snapped out of it by taking long and deep breathes, keep thinking that this is just a re-take: I really have nothing to lose at this point, I might as well give it my best shot. I then started to really get to work, basically answering all 31 questions non-stop (with 2 minutes to spare at the end!). I probably made plenty of mistakes (hence the Q49) and should have slowed down, but given the circumstances I was just happy to made it out alive.
Knowing that I got to redeem my crappy start in Quan., I was being ultra-careful with Verbal than usual. The problem was, the fatigue from the lack of sleep really started to kick-in. So to "re-charge" interim, I momentarily closed my eyes and paused whenever RC passages come along just not to lose focus. I purposely chose to pause with RC because that's my strongest section by far, so I can afford to lose time a bit and then quickly recover. Because I ended up with a massive RC passage at the Q.30-something mark (talk about luck), I ran out of time and have to guess the last few questions.
For IR, I honestly never did care too much about it so I approached it pretty carefree - maybe just a bit too relaxed, as I still have 10 minutes left by the time I reach Q10. Needless to say, by the time I wrapped up my AWA, I wasn't too hopeful of getting a great score and was just glad that this is all over. When I was at the screen where the score came up, I nearly scrolled down to cancel without looking at my score, but then pause a second and realized, I got 720 - I nearly jumped out of my chair!
I am dying for some sleep now, so I will share other parts of my journey tomorrow.