Stuck in the GMAT Loop
Hi everyone,
I’ve taken the GMAT twice so far (Nov 2025 and Jan 2026), and unfortunately scored 535 both times.
What’s confusing me is that during preparation, my scores were much better:
GMAT Club mocks: around 680
Official GMAC Mock 1 & 2: mostly in the 600s
But in the actual exam, my performance seems to drop significantly.
My sectional scores were:
Attempt 1
Quant: 80
DI: 73
Verbal: 77
Attempt 2
Quant: 78
DI: 75
Verbal: 77
A few observations about myself:
I’m fairly comfortable with Quant concepts.
DI tends to fall apart when I face lengthy or calculation-heavy sets.
Verbal is definitely my weakest area.
The strange part is that I already know most concepts and question patterns, but somehow I’m unable to translate that into an actual GMAT score improvement on test day.
I’d really appreciate advice from people who faced a similar gap between mock scores and real exam scores.
What helped you finally break through?
Was it timing strategy, test anxiety, stamina, question selection, Verbal improvement, or something else?
Any suggestions would genuinely help.
Thanks!