Disappointed? At least you didn't get a 540

540, q 41, v 21.

Been lurking the forum for a few weeks. Gained a lot of insight from this website so I thought I'd give back a little by sharing my experience from yesterday.

Let me just come right to what happened... it was VERY cold in the test room (at least for me). I was not expecting this at all, and was wearing light clothes. I had not read anything about this during all my GMAT research. It made it very difficult for me to focus, especially when I got to the verbal because by that time the cold had slowly taken over my limbs and it became hard to focus. My dyslexia started kicking in, and most of everything I read didn't make sense, and I started panicking and completely bombed the verbal.

My other problem was that the marker they gave me would stop working on the notecards if I used it to cross off something I had already written. And then every time I had to squiggle all over the place to get it working again. This became very distracting. Anyone else experience this? It didn't occur to me to ask for another one for some reason. Was in panic mode and not thinking properly.

Some background: been studying for about 2 months, but really only got very serious about it since 3 weeks ago. I studied for a good 5 hours daily for the last 3 weeks. From OG12, every verbal question I'd get done in about a minute on average, and always get around 9/10 correct, but would struggle with math. GMATPrep 1 placed me at 560 (q 36, v 31) 1 week before the test (after facing a bunch of distractions during the verbal section). I was actually somewhat satisfied with my verbal but being a math minor, very disappointed with math. So all week I did mostly math. Went on a math marathon 2 days before the test, solving every problem in sight and got a q 44 on GMATPrep 2 (was too focused on math, didn't even bother with verbal). Been out of school a few years so I felt my math instincts started kicking in very nicely again. At this point I was thinking that with at least a 40 in math and a 32 in verbal (given how with distractions I had gotten 31), I'd get 600, which was my aim.

I'm not doing an MBA, I'm pursuing a Management in IT type of program. They all usually require a GMAT, but aren't nearly as competitive. George Mason's M.S. Technology management average GMAT is around 570. UVA's M.S. Management in Information Technology is around 620. Georgetowns M.P.S. Technology Management doesn't even require a GMAT. George Washington's requires it but only if your undergraduate record wasn't too great.

It's too late to retake it for George Mason (application deadline October 1), but I feel I'd be able to get in even with this score, with a stellar essay and recommendations. I do have the option to retake it for GW and UVA, but still not more than a month left... I'm thinking till October 31 to retake it to be able to get decisions by December. My new aim would be 650. What do you think? Does that give me enough time to come up to a 650? I can dedicate around 5 hours a day (probably more on weekends) for the next 6 weeks. And I'm the type of person that belongs in the military. I have my day very structured and have a set daily routine and stay regular in everything I do. And next time, maybe I can take a sweater with me, and complain about issues with the marker before the test even starts. But this whole episode has left me depressed and part of me doesn't even feel like bothering and to just suck it up and enroll at George Mason (my backup school). But I would really like to go to UVA instead.

I hope this helps others. Anyone about to go take the test for the first time, be aware that it might be unusually cold in the testing room, and that your marker might give you problems.

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