Hey, SlippingAway:
Sorry to hear about a frustrating performance! Honestly, though, the worst thing you can do at this point is to completely lose that confidence...I'd suggest a quick name change to "Back in the Saddle" or "PhoenixRising" or something more upbeat!
Think about it this way - yeah, you're out $250 which isn't a great spot to be in, but $250 is probably less than your car or health insurance deductible, right? So if that's the worst thing to come out of today, it's far from the worst inconvenience that could have happened today. As for everything else, you'll live to fight again and now at least you know what it's like in the heat of battle...you've seen the GMAT and more importantly you've seen how you react to it, so now is the time to start taking inventory of what you've learned from that experience. While it's still fresh, I recommend that you jot down some notes regarding:
1) Were there any concepts or questions that you saw that you just felt completely unprepared for? If so, write down as much as you can remember so that you can use those as starting points.
2) How did you pace yourself? Did you have to do much guessing or rushing to keep up? If so, do you remember double-checking any common mistake areas for yourself? (If not, that's an indication that you left some points on the board due to "silly" mistakes that you just didn't double-check).
3) If someone told you that you could take the test again in 48 hours, which concepts would you spend tomorrow studying, now that you know what you've seen?
4) Similarly, were there any concept areas that kept you up last night? That you knew you just didn't want to see and that kept you nervous?
5) What did you do well? Which questions did you feel like you just knocked out immediately?
6) Were there any strategies that you know just went out the window under pressure (and instead you just started "playing by ear")?
Take an inventory of how things went and then gameplan how you can improve. Honestly, the best way to succeed at the GMAT is to have a pretty good blueprint of how the GMAT beat you. As a sports fan, I know how hard it is for good teams to beat other good teams multiple times in a row (think Patriots-Jets) - mainly because the opponent now has film to study about what the other team did to them, and they can plan accordingly.
I'd also go back and take inventory of your most recent practice tests - there you have a permanent record of your mistakes, pacing, etc. See if you can determine any common mistakes that you make, any places where your pacing starts to run out of control, etc. Then use those as points of emphasis as you craft your plan moving forward.
It's definitely frustrating to underperform, but often times that provides clarity for how you need to improve. It's a total cliche, but when the going gets tough the tough get going - and as a Sentence Correction expert-in-the-making you should notice that those are simultaneous events with parallel verb tenses! Now is the time to capitalize on what you've learned...
As for your program deadline, you may want to inquire as to whether they'd accept a GMAT score submitted after February 15. You'll have to wait 30 days before you can take the GMAT again, so your soonest score will miss that deadline. Check to see if they'd accept a late score (many schools will bend the rules to allow that, particularly if they like the rest of your application). Regardless, though, if that's your goal, you'll need to get back up and running with the GMAT, and for that there's really no time like the present to at least start recapping your recent performance. Then, take a short break if you feel you need it, but get yourself going again soon so that you don't lose the momentum you've built up with your studies to date...
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
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