I think this score reflects my ability give or take a few points so I'm happy with it. I want to give a big shout out and thank you to my instructor Avi Gutman and the rest of MGMAT.
I do have some advice for those who haven't written the GMAT yet. Not everything I say will be applicable/helpful to everybody since everyone's circumstances are different.
- Anxiety
If you suffer from anxiety on test day, you will not be able to achieve the score that you're capable of. If this is an issue for you like it was for me, then you have to find a way to conquer your fears/anxiety.
What helped me was doing a lot of practice tests under strict timed conditions. Over time, I became very comfortable with the exam format and the pacing. When I wrote the actual exam, I wasn't nervous or anxious at all.
Everyone is different so what worked for me may or may not work for you. I heard a story about how someone overcame their anxiety by visiting the test centre he was going to write the test at once a week, every week before test day. You have to find out what works for you and do it.
- Time Management
If you have bad time management, your score will definitely suffer. You need to pace yourself and budget your time accordingly or else you won't finish the exam.
You have to be able to let go of questions that stump you. It is very likely that you will end up getting the questions you get stuck on wrong anyways so spending extra time on them doesn't help. So why waste more time on a question you're going to get wrong anyways?
There are cases where there will be a question that you do know how to do but you will have to spend more time on it than you should. This is most likely because you don't know the most efficient way of doing the question. If this happens, you will have to use your best judgement. If you're ahead of time, it may be worthwhile to do the question. If not, then it may be best to make an educated guess and move on.
The bottom line is you can't get every question so you have to be smart and pick your battles.
- Strategy & Tactics
To maximize your score, you need to know different approaches/methods (and be comfortable with them) for doing the same type of question. I can't tell you how many times I ended up solving a question in an unorthodox way. The bottom line is you need to have as many tools in your toolbox as possible and you need to know when you should use each one.
- Goal Setting
I noticed a lot of people seem to have target GMAT scores. While it's good idea to set goals, I really think this is done in the wrong way. For example, you can set a goal to score 750 but unless you actually have the ability/potential to get that score, it's not going to happen regardless of how much you study. The only thing you can do is bring out the best in you so that you can achieve a score that reflects your ability. With that being said, your goal should be to achieve your potential / reach your "ceiling" as opposed to getting a specific score.
How do you know what your "ceiling" is? This isn't something that you can pinpoint exactly but you can get a good idea of where it is with practice tests - provided that you've studied/reviewed all the materials/concepts that the test covers already.
If you find that the majority of the questions you got wrong on a practice test were due to conceptual holes/misunderstandings (that you can fix after going through the solution) and/or silly mistakes then it means you haven't reached your potential yet. If you're looking at an answer solution for a question you got wrong and you're thinking to yourself "oh my god, how did I get this question wrong?" or "ohhhhhh, now I understand and know how to do this question...", then you know you haven't reached your "ceiling" yet.
If you find that the majority of questions you got wrong on a practice test were due to conceptual holes/misunderstandings (that you can't fix even after going through the solution) then it means you've probably reached your potential. If you're looking at an answer solution for a question you got wrong and you're thinking to yourself "Uh... I've read and reread the answer solution 5 times... I have no clue what's going on... I don't get it...", then you know you're reached your "ceiling".
That's all I can think of for now. I hope some of you will find my suggestions helpful. Good luck.