GMAT Strategy

I find myself in a peculiar situation, a situation I did not imagine I would be in, a situation that I dreaded the most especially after reading very similar stories on the forum.

I gave my gmat today and got a disappointing 640 Q 48 V 29

I stress on 'disappointing' for valid reasons. I started seriously devoting time to the GMAT in April, spending 1-2 hours on weekdays and up to 4 on the weekends. This combined with a demanding full time job has been really tough on me and my social life.

I never scored less than a 670 on my GMAT Cat Mock which includes the new GMAT Exam prep pack. My highest was 720 (without repeating the test). On the Veritas Mocks I was scoring 700 consistently with 680 as my lowest. All CATs were given with IR and Essays under timed conditions.

Test Day experience:

AWA was great!

IR was horrendous! I mean I can't believe how hard a section could be. I couldnt make heads or tails out of at least 4 questions. After the section was done, in the break I phased IR out and let it not get better of me.

Quant: It was straight forward and I could see some of the trap questions and was able to avoid it. However, I had to take an urgent loo break which probably cost me 2 minutes. Nevertheless, it did not detract me as I finished the section with 3 minutes to spare. At this point, I felt confident that I was on the path of inching toward my 690 goal.

Verbal: Ahh yes the most dreaded section of them all. I felt the SC was very different from what I have seen before. Although, I am confident I handled SC well, it was CR and RC that may have been my undoing. There was one particularly annoying long RC. I felt I spent too much time on it. But I recovered well enough to finish in time without rushing. 29 is a shocker for me as I have never achieved such a low score on verbal.

I am not sure where to go from here. I have ambivalent feelings about the GMAT now. Sometimes I feel that this nut can be cracked and then I think of all the hours I have put in only to be beaten.

I would appreciate some advice. I have already decided to shut down for the next week and spend time doing social stuff including the gym which I sorely missed.

Am I allowed to take the gmat within a month? Is an increment of 40-50 points achievable? What is the best approach to CR and RC?

I also want to thank the experts and my e-friends on BTG who have already helped me get this far.