In total, I probably spent around 8 months studying for this exam. It started to take a mental toll when I couldn't get the score I was aiming for, and I started to even question my self worth, accepting that maybe I wasn't as smart as I thought I was or wasn't as capable enough to get into the schools I wanted to get in. That sucked.
I took the GMAT 5 times - Once in 2018, twice in 2019, and twice in 2020.
My practice scores ranged between 660 and 720, and I was aiming for a 720.
May 2018 - 640 (Wow, kick in the teeth, lower than all my practice exams. I attributed it to test day nerves and maybe having seen some questions beforehand while taking practice exams, the practice results might have been overstated, so I thought)
May 2019 - 640 (This was pretty disappointing, after 1 year I felt stagnant)
June 2019 - 700 (A decent score, but was bittersweet. I so dearly wished that I had scored one more point on each Quant and Verbal and gotten a 720, then I would be done and over this journey. I knew 700 wasn't good enough for a top B-School, esp since my undergrad GPA was nothing spectacular. Knew it was 'good enough' for now and I'd revisit it at a later point if I felt more motivated)
May 2020 - 680 (This time, I felt like I was regressing. I had spent a solid 2.5 months studying in 2020 and couldn't even beat my previous score. All time low at this point, wondering if it would ever get better than 700. After all, test scores don't tend to vary much or so they say on message forums)
June 2020 - 730 (This test honestly felt more or less the same as the other attempts. I knew I was getting some wrong, and some questions towards the end of each sections were really easy, making me wonder if I had screwed up the test and it was just feeding me 500-600 questions. Very shocked to see the end score, a mix of disbelief and ecstasy. Never thought I would beat my target in a million years)
It's in my character to persevere - in fact it's in my native name. I was fully prepared to take it once last time if I didn't get the score I wanted, but that would be a painful and uncertain journey if I could even get that score. I just wanted to share my experience, that it is possible. I focused on the weak points which were painful and could not pretend like I could just ignore them on the test. Ironically many of these weak points didn't come up on the most recent test, but I still found the questions in Quant pretty tough.
Good luck everyone, don't give up. Persistence pays off. Thanks for all the resources here, it really did help.
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