Yes! It actually did. Contrary to my belief during the actual exam, I scored a 670.
Q44 and V38 - the highest I've ever gotten, even on mocks for Quant. I am extremely pleased and surprised. What I really think helped me in the end was relaxing just a little bit the week before. And on the actual exam, I did not waste any time on questions that were above my level of skill: I simply made an educated guess and moved on. Turns out that worked quite well!
Even though I spent my time wisely, I did have to guess the last 2 or 3 questions having barely read them because my time was running out but that clearly didn't matter too much. This was what lead me to believe that it did not go well. But even though I thought I had bombed it, I tried my best on verbal, just in case I had done well enough.
To my surprise 670 popped up on the screen and I was so relieved. I will say I was "lucky" on the quant section: I didn't get any questions that completely made my stomach turn, which is rare for me. But with that said, I believe I might still have succeeded even if I did.
I never got to pay for the full Empowergmat course, since my bank didn't allow for an overseas transaction and I was too close to my exam to stress about it. But what I did get from the free trial was extremely helpful. If I had used empowergmat in conjunction with
Manhattan Gmat tests and GMATPREP from the start, I would have had way more confidence.
Thanks to everyone who wished me well and gave me valuable advice! This forum has really been a great support system for me. I might write a debrief later on, since I started with such a low score.. it might help motivate someone else! I know I read countless stories to psych myself up.