GMATPREP 720 to 670 in first attempt. Came crashing. But won't give up

Hi All,

Took my first GMAT yesterday and had a nightmarish experience. Just scored 670(Q47, V35).

Nothing went right to be frank and I was too distraught to write the debrief yesterday.

The test was scheduled at 9AM in the morning, something I dreaded since the point of scheduling onwards since I am bit of a nightowl and it's a struggle to reach office at 9AM in itself. But the only available slot in 4 weeks on a weekend was at 9 AM in my current city and I didn't want to postpone it any further.

So, to help my cause slept at 11 PM the night before after what felt like a decade or so. Didn't really study much the whole day, wanted to keep things light to make sure I walk in feeling energetic. I fell asleep soon but woke up a couple of times at around 3AM and 4AM dreading I have missed the alarm. Finally I woke up at 6:30 with the alarm, took a cold shower, drank a couple of cups of strong hot coffee to make sure I don't feel sleepy during the test. Solved a couple of DS questions and I was set. Took a cab and reached the centre in 20-25 minutes. Had a light breakfast on the way.

The exam started at 8:50. Started off with Quants as it's my strong area and I scored 50 in my last few Gmatpreps. I thought I deserved Q51 in the last one having just made 2 well spread out mistakes. But then Gmat has its own way of looking at things.

Had a few butterflies in my stomach since the time I reached the centre and so was praying for a confident start to get back my focus. The first question was a bouncer. A PS rate problem with four variables. There was one equation which was a little latent and I took time to figure it out. Meanwhile my mind started wavering with a few dreaded what if thoughts. I forced myself to focus and solved the equations but the answer didn't match any of the options. And to top it I already took 6 minutes since I didn't want to guess and screw up the first question in itself with all the emphasis that we put on the first 10. After 6 minutes I guessed and panic struck. I am usually good at covering up for lost time in quant and so had taken the chance. But this was the real deal. The pressure got to me and I panicked bigtime. I could hear my heart beating rapidly. Having watched a strategy session the day before where they showed how mistakes in the first couple of questions can cost you upto 10 points in verbal,I just succumbed. My focus was gone and all sorts of thoughts kept coming to my mind. By the time the section ended I had given up on this attempt. I was checked out mentally. At one point in the middle I remember even wondering whether it was worth asking for a fresh scratch pad in case I needed one.

I was not sure if it was due to my concentration level but cr and sc seemed way tougher than anything I REMEMBERED facing in OG or Gmatprep. My accuracy in OG was around 85-90%. In the GMATpreps my sectional scores in SC varied between 40-46 and in CR it varied from 39-43. RC would usually drag my score down.
I finished verbal, then IR and AWA too.

Was pretty sure I would get 670-680 and so wasn't surprised when the screen flashed 670(Q47 V35). Just felt relieved that the ordeal was over.

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