GMAT Focus Edition 635 Debrief - 29th Dec 2023

Took the GMAT Focus Edition for the first time on 12/29/2023 to hopefully improve upon my GMAT score of 730 (Q49 V40) taken almost a year ago. The score was not an improvement whatsoever with a 635 (Q80 V83 DI81). Needless to say I am massively disappointed, especially because I had scored 725 (Q84 V86 DI88) on the free official mock exam on a week prior to this.

On the mock, I had no problems with timing and although I've taken the two free mocks for the traditional GMAT format, I am not aware of any question overlap on the mocks, unlike the prep questions which were the same. On the actual exam, I felt that the Quantitative and DI questions were significantly more difficult and took a lot more time, leaving me very little time towards the end of each section. Timing on the Verbal was fine but still did poorly on CR.

I've been studying using the Blind Review Method for both CR and RC using the LSAT problems for the 3 weeks leading up to the exam. I feel I am able to apply the strategies (reading for meaning and logical structure) even under time pressure. I used the Manhattan Prep Advanced Prep for Quant.

I am hoping that an improved score (percentile-wise) will give me a better chance of receiving scholarship offers from schools I've been accepted to.

Here are some questions and concerns I have on my performances in considering whether I should retake:

1. On the official mock exams, do the questions on the traditional GMAT mock and the GMAT Focus Edition mock come from the same pool? If they were, (although I did not recognize the problems) this would render the 725 score totally invalid.
2. Per the ESR, my primary weakness in Verbal is inference questions and plan/construct. How do I address this in a short period of time?
3. What are the chances that I got unlucky in the actual exam? As stated above, the Quantitative and Data Insights sections felt significantly more difficult than the mock. Is 725 the fluke or 635 the fluke? Even if I can score a 675 or a 685 which is somewhere midway between the two scores, this would be a marginal improvement from my 730 in terms of percentile.

Lastly, this is just advice if any potential test takers are reading: uninstall Avast antivirus before doing the exam. It forced the secure browser to automatically shutdown and troubleshooting with the proctor took about 40 minutes. I don't think it affected my exam performance but it's unneeded stress on top of an already stressful exam.