Well I'm calling this a sob story because I literally cried for an hour after my GMAT online test finished. My intention for writing this story is not to scare or discourage someone. So I started studying for GMAT in January after I left my job. I was very sure that I would crack this test because that's how comfortable challenges have been in my life "till yet". I have always been above average student and was very excited to take up this challenge. I started studying for GMAT as I wanted to change my career from Graphic Design to something more managerial which involves strategies and planning.
I studied rigorously for my first attempt, but ofcourse not in the right way. I was just solving the GMAT Book questions, not even on the computer but manually on a paper sheet. I'm good at making equations and even the reading and CR part was coming fine to me, but I was suffering in the SC section as I couldn't figure out what's wrong in the option I chose. I would read the reasoning but still not get the idea. Somehow, I was still performing around 600 in the mocks. As I was afraid of the mock exams I only gave 3 of them. Results are as follows:
Veritas-560
Veritas-590
GMAT 1st Prep-620
I was confident that whatever the conditions be I was getting above 600, assuming luck would be on my side. Unfortunately in the second wave of COVID, I also got wept away. I asked the Care support staff to convert my GMAT center test to Online, for which they initially agreed but then ghosted me. I was forced to take COVID Tests in two days, for which I had to travel to a nearby city and travel back. I had to travel to another state through bus, I waited for the bus for 4 hours because there were no buses during COVID. I reached very late at the hotel and gave the test with 5 hours of sleep. As I didn't think sleep mattered, I was confident during the test but tired. In the half way I was confidently guessing as I couldn't understand the questions anymore but thinking I'm guessing right at the same time. When the result came I was shocked because the result was worst than my minimum expected result. The score was 370. I didn't cancel my score as I thought a score this low would encourage me to go for a high score to cover this up, and I was right because I studied very hard and consistently afterwards. I studied for the next 4 months and gave a Veritas 3rd mock, not confidently, and got the result 670. I was happy with the result but then I got sick for the next 15 days and had to stop studying in between. I also lost my confident in between and had to start anew.
As I was studying again I found how big sleep factors in your results. The days I slept well I was able to perform but the days I didn't I performed mediocre in my practice questions. I need to mention that one of the reasons for my increased strength in SC,CR and RC was the GMAT Club's question bank.
I have a sleep problem. I can't sleep when I like or early even if I wake up early in the morning. While trying to maintain my routine, I would sleep well two nights, and would stay awake on the next night. I delayed my exams for 2 months just in order to make sure my sleep routines get formed. In November, it felt right as my sleep routine was fine and I was scoring good in the mocks too. My results are as follows:
MGMAT-620 (V33, Q42)
Experts' Global- 630 (V31, Q47)
Kalpan- 660
Veritas- 680
Princeton Review- 690 (V42, Q44)
Unfortunately I was too scared to book my exam in November, and ended up booking it on December 10. From the beginning of the month I lost my sleep routine. I wouldn't sleep and just lie down on my bed for hours, watching the ceiling. Luckily I was able to sleep on time on 5th Dec, and gave my GMAT 2nd Mock on 6th, in which I score 660 (V37, Q44). Next day I couldn't sleep well but still gave a GMAT Club Mock. My result was 530, I was missing the easy ones and had half of the 700 ones right. I didn't mind the result because I knew It's because of sleep. The next day, after sleeping well, I gave my 3rd GMAT mock and score my best yet, 700 (V38, Q48). Believe me it wasn't a fluke I was very versed with my fundamentals, and sleep was the only thing affecting my results. I skipped doing anything besides a few questions on 9th Dec but all my luck had already drained by then because I couldn't sleep at the night of my exam day. It was already 2:00 when I started folding my hands and praying to God to give me sleep but God didn't listen. I was able to sleep by 3:30, In a very conscious sleep state in which I was asleep and awake at the same time. I was sleeping but awake the whole night, conscious of my surroundings. I woke up and started reading a novel, I always did to check whether I can concentrate. and I wasn't able to read properly. I drank an extra glass of caffeine to wake up completely and started doing some practice questions before the test. I was able to understand but I was missing the easy ones and getting the hard ones right as if I was getting too much tangled in reasoning for the easy ones. I wouldn't select the option which I'm sure of, overthinking there is something wrong in it.
I gave my Online Test. To be honest it went smooth and I didn't feel like it was going any wrong, but when the results came out I went into denial and despair. The result was 590 (V26, Q46). As less sleep usually affects my Verbal section I knew the culprit but all I could do was sob for an hour as I had already done what I could. I delayed the test as much I could for my perfect time, which I almost reached, and still failed to get the score I feel I should have gotten on a near perfect, if not perfect, day. I had removed sugary drinks and food from my diet, I stopped drinking Tea as I thought it keeps me awake. The only thing I did was drink caffeinated drink in the morning for concentration and this habit did me very good because I believe if I didn't take the caffeine shots on the exam morning my score would have gone further down.
I'm very disappointed, not because I scored very low but mostly because after putting all my efforts in making my sleep routine right, the sleep problem came back to bite me at the last minute. I'm taking the score I got and trying to work with it. I needed atleast 600 as it is required for the WU Vienna's Strategy Program but there is still hope that I might get into the WU Vienna's Marketing program. Let's hope for the best.