A Frustrating Day & Night on GMAT Prep by: Richard Battle-Baxter on September 09, 2010 September 9, 2010 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit After just completing the quant section of a Veritas test exam, I’m frustrated and embarrassed I scored so low—a 39Q, lower than my high which was a 45Q. In practice exams back in March, I’ve seen this quant score before. Really wonder if this is for me. I know I should keep at it, but at this point it’s just becoming embarrassing. The only positive note was that the things I got wrong during this practice exam were topics I haven’t covered yet with my tutor. One would see/hear that and say, “Well it looks like you’re on the right track!” What I say to that is, “I don’t care. I want to see an improvement every time I take an exam.” The last topic we went over was number properties. I’m starting to get the very basics, but if something new is thrown at me, I don’t know how to think around it. We’ll definitely need to spend at least two more sessions going over that alone. When I look ahead to all of the topics that we still need to cover, I just hear the cash register sound going off in my head. Cha-Ching. Cha-Ching because I know I have many more weeks before I’m completely ready. Then on top of that there’s one thing to be ready while it’s another thing to be confident. I do have a deadline in my head and a potential exam date so that’s what I’m aiming towards. Well, part of my homework is to get proper amounts of sleep. Since it’s almost midnight, I need to start getting ready for bed. This report is adapted from Richard Battle-Baxter’s blog posts at “Ellipsing My Way…To Business School.” Previous posts by Richard at Poets&Quants: Should You Hire an MBA Consultant? Study for the GMAT or Polish Off an Essay? Am I Really Cut Out For This? My First Round Applications Are Looking Elusive © Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.