670, retake?

Hello all,

First of all I would like to thank bb and the club for the invaluable help up to now towards my GMAT preperation. I started studying for the GMAT three months ago, but only the last month I practice for the test intensively.

Today was my exam day and I scored 670. Funny thing is that I come from an engineering background and I should be good at maths. Outcome of my exam? A pathetic 42 (59 percentile). The most funny thing of all? One month ago I had a publication accepted in a leading energy economics journal with lots of complex math. Really complex math.

Despite my dissatisfaction, I am trying to think realistically. Should I retake? Since my academics are competitive (my first degree was on electrical and computer engineering and graduated top 10% of my class, my second degree in finance - top 5% in class) isn't there a great discrepancy between my academic performance and my GMAT score?

Considering that I can easily score the same in verbal (40 - 89 percentile) should I practice two months and retake to score something around 700?

Best Regards,
Andreas.

What did your practice tests look like? When do you plan on attending Bschool? What Bschools are you targeting? How long did you spend studying?

There are a lot of questions when considering a retake. Your quant score is going to be a red flag to Adcoms b/c as you stated, you are a math person. Plus, most top schools want to see a 75% or 80% quant or higher b/c of the quant intensive nature of Bschool. If you are targeting top schools, I would recommend a retake, especially if you feel you can increase you quant score to Q47 or above and have time to study. A Q47 V40 will be approx a 700, and anything higher on either section will drive your score above 700 (the magical number).

It seems to me that you wouldn't mind taking it again, and are already considering it. Why not just go for it and put a 700+ in the books? This way you won't have to hide or explain a 670 with a poor quant score in your apps. Sounds like you have all the other pieces. Sounds like you have some quant intesive studying ahead of you.

PS. It is not unusual for top math minds to get beat by GMAT quant. It is a different beast, and some feel it will be easy for them. In fact, it is challenging applications of gradeschool math. Don't get cocky, and make sure to the learn the strategies (backsolving, picking numbers, etc..) as well as the question types and areas covered. With the math mind you have, a 700+ score is very much within your reach.

What do you think?

First of all GMATLA thanks for the reply and your encouraging comments.

I started studying three months ago but not intesively. My greatest weakness was verbal and I spent 90% of my time on that. I took my first (and only) GMAT prep test one month ago which was 720 (without special effort actually). Ok first mistake I didn't do any practice tests (now I know this was a HUGE mistake, because time management is a skill you have to master before the real thing). I studied quant from the Manhattan guides but I actually *skimmed through* the material. I didn't even complete the official guide questions. Now it's clear how unorthodox my reading was.

I did a lot of CR, SC and RC. I practiced the OG on these sections. I did some of the verbal GMATclub tests. On the real exam I underperformed on that part too as well. But not as much as I did on the Quantitative section.

I am trying to figure out what did go wrong on the actual exam. The truth is that I didn't practice hard the quantitative part. I focused only on probabilities but I got only one question on that! And its true, I am not a genius with numbers (doing fast computations or making estimates) but I don't think I suck THAT much (or I actually DO suck at least on what GMAT considers important).

Oh my god, I thought that the torment was over.

Well I'm sorry I know that the GMAT is quite a beast, but why leave points on the table. You obviously have a great score within your grasp. I would recommend a true study plan gmat-study-plan-start-your-gmat-journey-80727.html as well as mastering the intangibles 10-tips-to-improve-your-score-app-with-no-extra-studying-124393.html.

But you seriously did impressive for very little study. I don't think a 700+ is far away at all for you. It really also depends on where you are applying, and what the best ROI of your time is. I would suggest more intensive studying, for a shorter amount of time, and I think you could really put this test behind you for good. 700's are not easy to come by these days, you have competition from around the world.

Good luck! and let us know what you decide to do.

My suggestion would be to know the target score/college you are applying in..that way you know if u need to spend time on GMAT or Applications..

Sunneysood and GMATLA thank you for your comments. I am primarily interested in UK institutions (imperial, cass, lbs, manchester, cranfield etc) but my case is a dfficult one because,

a) I have worked only for local companies (i.e. not multinational firms such as Coca cola, Toyota) in my country of origin.
b) I am quite old (31 yrs)
c) My academic background (which is by far my strongest asset in my opinion) derives from studying in domestic institutions (which, while famous in my country, are probably unknown to the rest of the world).
d) No extracurriculars except for research on energy security and energy policy.


To summarize, my profile lacks international recognition, and this is why I am concerned about my GMAT score and especially about my Quant, which is, uhmm, pathetic.

Cool..I have a suggestion for you then since u are targeting UK colleges..u can go to the respective college websites and fill up a small form for Informal Assessment..I bet you its so cool..Cass rejected me for my 600 (though I never intended to apply to Cass )

And age isn't a concern in Europe..its just the US schools don't like older fellow's

Just arrived from the testing center ... greater concentration, better strategy ..750. Thanks everybody for your help, thanks bb for providing us with this forum.

670 to 750......Wow....Congratulations:)!!