It seems that my world is ended. :(

It surely hasn't! Let me share you my story.

First... please take a look at my scores:
GMAT 1 (2006): 540
GMAT 2 (2007): 460
GMAT 3 (2007): 430
GMAT 4 (2009): 570
GMAT 5 (2009): 690

For the first GMAT I enrolled myseñf in the Princeton Review. I dedicated lets say around 3 hours a week. But did not took the exam seriously as I did not used any practice test.. I trusted my common sense (a major fault in this exam) I ended up blowing my score but I did not learned my lesson.

For the GMAT 2 and 3 I was sure that something had happened with me and that probably I made some careless mistakes that surely could have brought my score down. I took again the test and received a big dissappointment as you can see and just took one practice test two days before the GMAT and did not even finished it.

For the GMAT 4 I had learned my lessson... This exam could get tough if you don´t practice a lot so I needed to fully dedicate myself to practice! I sacrificed a lot of my social life... I committed to study 5 hours on weekdays and around 15 hours on the weekends for 6 months. but something went wrong... I only brought my score up to 570. Again, I did not use any practice test!

With this score I decided to apply to BSchools in 2009 - I was so exhausted with the GMAT - that I convinced myself that I could create a killer application and that my global working experience will offset this low grade. I hired an admissions consultant to help me with the process and to give me tips on what to do to "break" the system and get accepted... Unfortunately this very expensive and did not worked the way I wanted it to work... I got dinged from Kellogg, Ross, Tuck, Berkeley and waitlisted at Mendoza just to eventually got dinged.

Early in 2010 I simply didn't know what to do !!! I did not wanted to practice for the GMAT again! The past years were a nightmare and there was no way out! I lost my girfriend because I did not pay much attention to our relationship and at work things started to get complicated as well... I started to lose myself in the process of sending (more like "begging") adcoms my profile just to hear something good from them... I wanted any school to tell me "Your profile looks great! be sure to apply"... Believe me I sent an email to all the top 50 schools in the world!

I then decided to look for a school that did not demanded a GMAT as a requirement to grant an admission... I ended up excited by the fact that Madrid's IE program has its own admissions test! To tell you the truth I nailed the test and was later admitted to the MBA program.

I was ok with my IE admission but something about it was not right (althouth its a great school!)... My goal had been always to study at the US or the UK and I had drifted away from my goal because of this monster (the gmat)...

I started then to deeply think that I did not wanted to live my life thinking "what if I had taken the test a fifth time?"... So after taking my time to make this relevant decision.... I then enrolled in the Manhattan GMAT boot camp at NYC in the summer of 2010. This would be very expensive (I am from Latin America), but I kept thinking "WHAT IF" this works?

I simply can tell you that this decission was the best I've ever made in my life! They break up the GMAT not into two main topics... they go way much deeper in their study guides! and apparently the way they break up the test works for my mind structure because on August 2010 I increasen my latest score 110 points! just in time for the early rounds at Duke and Tuck!

I now think back and understand my faults which I would like to share with you:
1- Take this test seriously (I know you have)
2- Dedicate time to practice
3- Don't just start going through the problems... you will end up making the same mistakes again and again! What is needed is to fully understand the concepts! (for me, the MGMAT boot camp was my saviour)

Please do not give up! I am one of those scary stories with a happy ending! don't become one! Its too stressfull! I saw your post and wanted to share my experience with you. You can do it! You have to think what strategy could work with you as you are the person that knows you the most...

Let us know how the next test goes!

Good luck