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Apr 2512:30 AM EDT
-01:30 AM EDT
At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
Apr 2610:00 AM EDT
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The Target Test Prep course represents a quantum leap forward in GMAT preparation, a radical reinterpretation of the way that students should study. Try before you buy with a 5-day, full-access trial of the course for FREE!
Apr 2711:00 AM EDT
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Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors
Apr 2808:00 AM PDT
-11:00 AM PDT
Whether you are just beginning your MBA journey or fine-tuning your path to a 700+ score, GMAT Day is designed to give you a competitive edge.
Updated on: 05 Sep 2025, 11:43
Originally posted by asdliadsih on 05 Sep 2025, 07:57.
Last edited by asdliadsih on 05 Sep 2025, 11:43, edited 5 times in total.
Last edited by asdliadsih on 05 Sep 2025, 11:43, edited 5 times in total.
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I’m writing this debrief not as a success story, but as an honest account of the ups and downs of this test. I'm sorry it's a long read, and this may not carry the professional tone of the success stories so common to this section: but If you’re struggling with the GMAT or mental health, maybe some of this will resonate, and maybe you can learn from my mistakes.
Phase 1 – Summer 2024:
I began studying in May 2024 with a group course. For the first two months, I was on fire, scoring above the 95th percentile on verbal practice tests and feeling confident. But when the course shifted into Quant and Data Insights, cracks began to show.
I was getting extremely anxious and falling into spirals of negative thoughts. By Fall 2024, my mental and physical health took a nosedive. It became a vicious cycle: sitting down to practice, getting problems wrong (which is part of learning!), spiraling into negative thoughts and binge eating, which impacted my ability to learn and retain information.
One thing I did come to terms with in this overall negative time: I had forgotten about a decade of math fundamentals! Slogging through nearly every math module on Khan Academy from middle school intro-to-variables through to complex GMAT topics was humbling, challenging, but ultimately a good idea. While that helped rebuild some confidence, my mental health continued to decline, and I decided to stop studying entirely in Nov 2024 when failure on practice tests and problems was just consuming me. I was allowing self-imposed timelines and pressure to break me.
Phase 2 – Getting into Therapy, Winter 2025:
I started therapy in Winter 2025, which was a turning point. I had very low confidence in myself and questioned if this was even a viable path. My therapist encouraged me to take a test to see where I was at, to take more control over my internal monologue.
First Test Attempt:
May 2025 (Baseline Test): 605 (Q77, V83, DI80).
Considering I had done no real prep for six months, this was better than expected given I was going in effectively blind. It served as a baseline and a mental reset. It lit a fire under me.
Second Test Attempt:
July 2025 (Second Attempt): 645 (Q86 🔥, V86 🔥, DI74 🫠).
After therapy + grinding through Magoosh problems for 60 days, I made strong improvements. Dropping from DI 80 to 74 hurt. Worth noting: I have a visual learning disorder that makes graph interpretation in the GMAT format (where I cannot interact with the graph physically or digitally to reduce visual clutter) uniquely difficult for me. That said, I had done relatively little prep for the Data Insights section, instead choosing to go all-in on quant to put my Khan Academy work to the test.
On the Eve of the Final Attempt
Tomorrow I sit for my third (and decidedly) final test. Instead of feeling sharp, I feel like I’m at the bottom of a mental well. Lately, I’ve been so focused on squeezing out marginal gains (pushing quant from 86 to 88) that I feel I've let fundamentals slip, and a practice test yesterday exposed that.
I know I’m a top performer at work (in a company with ~90,000 employees). I’ve fought my entire life against learning disorders and feelings of inadequacy. But right now, it feels like I’m fumbling at the finish line, and I'm just tired.
I keep reminding myself:
But the shame of not feeling like I can "prove" myself with a score, feeling like am letting all the hard work I put into therapy and studying slip through my fingers has been eating away at me over the past few days and sending me backsliding into a pit of despair and defeat.
Lessons Learned and Advice to Others
If you’re on your own GMAT journey and struggling, here’s what I wish I had done differently:
Closing Thoughts:
I feel deeply sad and lost. I had dreams that feel like are slipping away. We live in a VHCOL area, and this was supposed to be our ticket to a dual-income life where we could afford a modest place to call our own and kids. I feel like I'm letting myself and my wife down.
At work, I am accomplished at the manager level with corporate-wide recognition (though intellectually unsatisfied, and quantifiably underpaid!), but here, I feel utterly defeated.
Still, tomorrow, I’ll show up. Even though the horrors persist, so must I.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading and I'm sorry. I promise this isn’t a cry for help, it’s an exhausted (defeated?) sigh. Writing this helped me clear my head, and I think I can try to get back to my material now, at least for a little while before the test tomorrow. My goal tomorrow is simple: stay calm, repeat my quant and verbal performance from July, and hopefully bring my DI score closer to May’s baseline.
Thanks again.
Phase 1 – Summer 2024:
I began studying in May 2024 with a group course. For the first two months, I was on fire, scoring above the 95th percentile on verbal practice tests and feeling confident. But when the course shifted into Quant and Data Insights, cracks began to show.
I was getting extremely anxious and falling into spirals of negative thoughts. By Fall 2024, my mental and physical health took a nosedive. It became a vicious cycle: sitting down to practice, getting problems wrong (which is part of learning!), spiraling into negative thoughts and binge eating, which impacted my ability to learn and retain information.
One thing I did come to terms with in this overall negative time: I had forgotten about a decade of math fundamentals! Slogging through nearly every math module on Khan Academy from middle school intro-to-variables through to complex GMAT topics was humbling, challenging, but ultimately a good idea. While that helped rebuild some confidence, my mental health continued to decline, and I decided to stop studying entirely in Nov 2024 when failure on practice tests and problems was just consuming me. I was allowing self-imposed timelines and pressure to break me.
Phase 2 – Getting into Therapy, Winter 2025:
I started therapy in Winter 2025, which was a turning point. I had very low confidence in myself and questioned if this was even a viable path. My therapist encouraged me to take a test to see where I was at, to take more control over my internal monologue.
First Test Attempt:
May 2025 (Baseline Test): 605 (Q77, V83, DI80).
Considering I had done no real prep for six months, this was better than expected given I was going in effectively blind. It served as a baseline and a mental reset. It lit a fire under me.
Second Test Attempt:
July 2025 (Second Attempt): 645 (Q86 🔥, V86 🔥, DI74 🫠).
After therapy + grinding through Magoosh problems for 60 days, I made strong improvements. Dropping from DI 80 to 74 hurt. Worth noting: I have a visual learning disorder that makes graph interpretation in the GMAT format (where I cannot interact with the graph physically or digitally to reduce visual clutter) uniquely difficult for me. That said, I had done relatively little prep for the Data Insights section, instead choosing to go all-in on quant to put my Khan Academy work to the test.
On the Eve of the Final Attempt
Tomorrow I sit for my third (and decidedly) final test. Instead of feeling sharp, I feel like I’m at the bottom of a mental well. Lately, I’ve been so focused on squeezing out marginal gains (pushing quant from 86 to 88) that I feel I've let fundamentals slip, and a practice test yesterday exposed that.
I know I’m a top performer at work (in a company with ~90,000 employees). I’ve fought my entire life against learning disorders and feelings of inadequacy. But right now, it feels like I’m fumbling at the finish line, and I'm just tired.
I keep reminding myself:
- My struggles with DI are test-format specific.
- In the real world, I’d use Excel or physical printouts, and my performance wouldn’t be limited the way it is here.
But the shame of not feeling like I can "prove" myself with a score, feeling like am letting all the hard work I put into therapy and studying slip through my fingers has been eating away at me over the past few days and sending me backsliding into a pit of despair and defeat.
Lessons Learned and Advice to Others
If you’re on your own GMAT journey and struggling, here’s what I wish I had done differently:
- Get therapy sooner, don’t wait until things spiral (I tried group and individual, actively in individual therapy 1x/week).
- Document emotions in real time, notes make therapy easier.
- Balance review, don’t obsess only over wrong answers. Maintain skills across the full range of topics.
- Group study over isolation, prep courses aren’t therapy, and yes you can and should do prep on your own, but they make the grind far less lonely. I wish I’d joined another course this summer.
- Use Khan Academy, it’s an amazing resource.
Closing Thoughts:
I feel deeply sad and lost. I had dreams that feel like are slipping away. We live in a VHCOL area, and this was supposed to be our ticket to a dual-income life where we could afford a modest place to call our own and kids. I feel like I'm letting myself and my wife down.
At work, I am accomplished at the manager level with corporate-wide recognition (though intellectually unsatisfied, and quantifiably underpaid!), but here, I feel utterly defeated.
Still, tomorrow, I’ll show up. Even though the horrors persist, so must I.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading and I'm sorry. I promise this isn’t a cry for help, it’s an exhausted (defeated?) sigh. Writing this helped me clear my head, and I think I can try to get back to my material now, at least for a little while before the test tomorrow. My goal tomorrow is simple: stay calm, repeat my quant and verbal performance from July, and hopefully bring my DI score closer to May’s baseline.
Thanks again.
05 Sep 2025, 10:32
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Thank you for sharing such a raw and honest account. The post reflects your resilience and self-awareness, despite the circumstances.
Wishing you calm, clarity, and confidence on test day. No matter the outcome, the growth you’ve achieved in both your mental health and GMAT prep is real and meaningful.
Wishing you calm, clarity, and confidence on test day. No matter the outcome, the growth you’ve achieved in both your mental health and GMAT prep is real and meaningful.
asdliadsih
