GMAT Won Today -- 530 (Q35, V28)

After a month of preparation I gave my gmat today. Scored 530 (Q35, V28) . Maybe the feeling has not sunk in and I am still feeling ok.

I am not going to talk about my preparation as I dont think its really worth mentioning. Scores show it all.

To be honest, my practice scores were all within this range so I was kind of not shocked or surprised to see a 530 (i was hoping to cross 600). Plus I totally totally screwed up my timing in Math. I had to guess the last 10 questions as I was completely out of time and there were a lot of them which I could solve. By the time I was finished I knew I had screwed up. But I decided to put it behind and go for verbal.

Just want to share some pointers with everyone:

1) AWA - Since no one gives that much importance to AWA scores, I never understood why this section features in the test. But this section really helped me to calm down. I was extremely relaxed till the time I sat on the desk to start the test. First few mins, my mind went blank. But writing the first essay kind of calmed me down. I never spent more than 10-15 mins per essay in my practice test but here I spent almost 25 mins on the first one. Not sure why but I was very anxious. Also these keyboards make a lot of noise. The guy/girl on the other side were typing and I felt as if my head was being hammerred. The ear plugs really helped.

2) Math - Totally solvable. I did not find any difficulty in terms of difficulty of questions. And I am sure I got the initial 10 or so right. But the test gave me more than a couple of ques which asked me to find the answer close to the given options (not exact).

3) Verbal - SC took way too much time (some of them even took 3 mins). I found it more difficult than any practice test I have given (gmat prep including). RC was ok. CR was the easiest with some very direct answers. But I struggled with timing here also. In practice tests I used to take up time in RCs which I would recover in SC ques towards then end. But here I couldnt as the SCs were way too tough.

4) Others - As suggested by many others, I took chocolate and water to eat in the breaks. First break was ok. Drank lot of water and ate a fruit and nut, went to the rest room and got in. Second break I had water and little chocolate, did not go to the restroom as it was occupied. Not wanting to waste too much time waiting, I decided to get in and hit the Verbal section. However, the AC was way too cold this time and since I had drank almost 400 ml water, my bladder was bursting. I knew that I would lose precious time if I go to ease myself. And it became worse with time. Not sure what impact it had on my Verbal section, but just wanted to let everyone know that how external environment can change and go against you. By the way 8 mins is way too short to eat, drink and take a leak so do it fast.

I plan to take the test again. Not sure when but definitely before the R2 apps deadlines.. My practice scores are below:

1) MGMAT - 530 (Q32, V31)
2) GMAT PREP1 - 540 (Q39, V25)
3) GMAT PREP2 - 470 (Q35, V20)
4) GMAT PREP 1 - 610 (Q43, V31)
5) KNEWTON - 520 (Q33, V29) - way off than actual gmat. would never recommend this to anyone. knewton ques were bizarre
6) KAPLAN - 580 (Q36, V36) - last test. i read somewhere that kaplan were most difficult and usually one scores higher in the actual test.

Lastly, the only bright side was I did not feel fatigued during the test. Doing 6 practice tests, mostly with AWAs did help me build stamina.

any advise would help here...!!