Took the GMAT today...not good. Need advice.

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A year and a half ago I decided I wanted to take the GMAT and get my MBA. So, I signed up and took one of the Manhattan GMAT courses. Unfortunately, it was a pretty rough period in my life and I definitely did not get as much out of it as I should have. However, in my practice tests I had done okay - 630-640ish.

Anyways, long story short, I went through the motions and decided to take the test. First time I took it I decided to cancel my scores - I messed up on my timing on the quant and ended up not leaving myself enough time. I took it again 3 weeks later and scored a 580. Not what I wanted by a long shot.

So, I put business school on hold for a bit and waited for things to calm down in my personal and professional life a bit. About 2.5 months ago I started studying for the GMAT again. This time, I did a self-study - I would study for 30mins-hour in the morning before work and an hour to 2 hours or so at night. I feel like I understand the material very well - much better then when I took the test last year. The one thing I did not do much of was take practice tests. I took a couple over the last 2.5 months - but this is mostly because I can't find any good practice tests (any suggestions?). I used the Manhattan GMAT books and went through them - did essentially all of the practice problems, all the recommended problems, and the Kaplan 800 book. I also used the practice problems on this site.

Today was the day of reckoning - I was up all last night and woke up feverish. For some reason, I have almost an allergic reaction to the GMAT - last year I lost almost 15lbs before I took it. I decided to tough it out and went to the test center. I ended up scoring a 530. I had about 15 minutes left when I finished my quant and almost 10 minutes left on my verbal. Obviously, my timing was way, way, way, off. I realized I was not doing well during the test, which made it hard to concentrate.

Anyways, just wondering if anyone has any advice. It's obvious to me that I have some pretty serious test anxiety (odd, but I don't remember having test anxiety like this in college), so I'm thinking I might look into getting some sort of medication or something for it? Is it unusual to take the test 4 times?

It's almost to the point now that I'm thinking I might just give up this dream and just move on to find a new one - this is the first time that I have committed myself to something, worked hard, but did not had a positive result. Maybe business school isn't for me?
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by humblebee » Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:57 pm
mangothehuman wrote: Today was the day of reckoning - I was up all last night and woke up feverish. For some reason, I have almost an allergic reaction to the GMAT - last year I lost almost 15lbs before I took it. I decided to tough it out and went to the test center. I ended up scoring a 530. I had about 15 minutes left when I finished my quant and almost 10 minutes left on my verbal. Obviously, my timing was way, way, way, off. I realized I was not doing well during the test, which made it hard to concentrate.
It basically sounds like you're cracking under pressure. I know it might be hard to do, but you need to not care about it all to take the pressure away, in order to do well.

You should have cancelled the test or not showed up when you woke up without sleep.
wannabe business school consultant

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by gsbjake » Mon Dec 20, 2010 7:16 pm
Hey Mango,

I agree with humblebee. It seems like you're cracking under pressure. My advice would be to take as many practice tests as possible and pretend like they're the actual GMAT. I really think this could help you out and help you get there. PM me if you have any questions and I'll be happy to help.

JL