4th attempt: 690 (Q51 V31) and it is good enough for me

GMAT 1 590 (Q42 V29) Dec 08
GMAT 2 640 (Q43 V35) Mar 09
GMAT 3 640 (Q46 V31) Nov 09
GMAT 4 690 88% (Q51 98% V31 58%) Today

Do I wish I had gotten a 710 instead? Sure but I will get rejected by a top 10 not because I got a 690 instead of 710. After studying for 2.5 months and taking the Kaplan course, I scored a 640 on my 3rd attempt in November and I was devastated. I registered for a 4th attempt anyway because my #1 choice school has a deadline on 12/15 and they do not take new GMAT after the deadline. I had scheduled my 3rd and 4th attempt this way solely to present the best of myself to my #1 school.

But after my 3rd attempt I was completely turned off from studying. I did not study at all for 2 weeks afterward. With 2 more weeks to go, I took a Kaplan cat and got a 680. Okay maybe things weren't as bad. I simply studied every problem I got wrong. I took another cat a week later and got a 640 At that time I thought since I won't be reporting to any school so there was really nothing to lose. Instead of studying I focused on my application instead, putting a lot of effort into my essays.

I went to take the test today for one purpose only: to get above 80% in Q so I do not have to take a math waiver test for Haas. And you know what, last night was the only time I really studied, went over again all the wrong problems I got and went through my cheat sheet. I also did something different, I scheduled for 12pm instead of the previous 3 attempts at 8am.

I woke up at 8am and left my house around 840a. I intentionally took the long route to the test center (in Manhattan). I drove and parked my car and took the subway. I thought about going over my notes again but this beautiful girl sitting across from me was too distracting

I got to the test center with 1.5 hour to go. I went to a cafe next door and had breakfast before going in.

AWA - I did not really care. For both essay prompts I knew I could write meaningfully and even if I wrote complete crap, I would still get a 4.5. I finished AWA with 5 minutes to go and I decided to practice on my pad instead with the stupid marker pen. I imagined I was solving a madeup quadratic equation and solved it.

Took the break and started quant. BAM!!! The first question was a word problem with 6 lines of text. I had to read it twice to understand it and then after I DID NOT backsolve my answer was not in any of the choices. I already wasted 4 minutes. I randomly guessed and went on. I think I guessed on another question around question 20 but I made sure I was doing good on time (making sure if there were 10 problems left I would have at least 20 minutes for example). I got a little worried when the last question was REALLY easy...oh well nothing I could do at that point but I double checked my answer before submitting it (30 seconds left to go).

Took the other break and had a chocolate bar Started verbal and it did not start well at all. My verbal is fuzzy to start with and by question 10 I was serious lagging behind in time and I knew I hadn't done well on the questions I already answered. But I chose not to panic because I was there to do well on quant and I thought I had a good chance for 80% in Q so I guessed when I had to. It just seemed that every question I wasn't 100% sure. But I got to the last question with 2.5 minutes to go. I calmed down and then eliminated all but 2 and guessed on one of them with 5 seconds to go. Submit

If I got a 640, 650, 660, 670 I get the Kaplan money back guarantee If I got a 680 well that would suck since I can't get my money back and it is 680. Before the score showed up, I was expecting around a 660. And then 690 with Q51 98%. I was happy because I achieved what I wanted out of today. If I concentrate really hard on verbal this past month I might have improved on verbal. Since I got V35 before, a Q51 and V35 would have been awesome but it is what it is....690 is good enough in my case I am not automatically disqualified from any school because of my GMAT (well maybe HSW, but I am not applying there but I am applying to several other top 10)

I am sharing my experience NOT TO TELL YOU NOT TO STUDY. I knew I could do math but perhaps I was too stressed out on the previous attempts. I knew verbal will be a challenge but I expected myself to be around 31 anyway. But 690 is what it is and I am done with GMAT (for now)

Congratulations! That's a great score.
There is a tendency to only feel comfy with a 700+ but that's really overrated.

Thank you for a detailed debrief and I have added you to the list of successful retakers list: should-i-retake-gmat-thread-retaking-gmat-strategies-83339.html

inspirational and best thing is satisfaction....top b school is the one which satisfy our need not just FT ranking.

Good Luck ahead

Great score I'd say and u completely busted quant
I've got similar score as ur previous one and hope to make similar improvement too!

Many Congratulations and all the best with apps!

Got the official report today.
690 (88%) Q51 (98%) V31 (58%) AWA 6.0 (90%)

lol, writing crap and still get 6.0 on AWA. Hopefully the AWA score can offset some negatives from V31 even though schools do not care about AWA too much

Good attitude!