Disappointing 640(Q49,V27)

Trahul4
I am a mechanical engineer and post graduate in industrial engineering. I have 8.5 years experience in IT and of that 6 years is international(US and Europe).

I have good acad. 84% in BE and 80% in post graduation. I was topper in bachelor so i guess this will help to a extent.

Dreamt of big league schools but with 640, it seems very difficult.

I did some research to find schools with 80% GMAT range touching 640 and saw that Yale, LBS and Oxford does figure in that list. However, I am part of this Indian IT pool so I am not sure if this 640 applies to me.
If I can get into any of these then I will happily take it.........

Do I stand a fair chance for any of these big league schools.....

any suggestions ??

I saw on this forum that several people got 700+ scope on 3rd or 4th attempt as well so I am still not sure if I should go for 3rd attempt........

Hi N750,

For starters, taking it again is a good idea IF and only IF you are confident that you can gain 50 points or so .. (to take you to 690 and above). So I think that you shouldn't rush into the GMAT again without adequate preparation.

Having said that, your GMAT results are actually very easy to analyse. You Quant is sensational (having cracked 50 once). You just need to fine tune you verbals. How did you prepare for Verbal the second time ? Did you use GMatter ? Did you take the gmatprep tests before giving the GMAT to get an idea of what your score will be ?

Do some serious work at the forums here on the verbal and I feel that you can get your dream GMAT score.

good luck.

For the second time, I bought additional books - Kaplan 800, Kaplan premier and about 20 days before the exam I got MGMAT SC book as well.
I think I should have picked MGMAT SC book earlier but I was not aware that this is best of the lot. I came to know about this book here in the forum. But I studied this book well and did MGMAT CAT as well.

I did not practice with Gmatter as I was not aware of its existence but now I have got a hold of it and will check it out.

Actually 2 days before the exam, I did give Gmatprep and I scored 740 there( there were couple of repeats there so it was not a true score) but still I was hoping that I will touch 700 in the real exam.

I have below books -
PRC cracking the GMAT, Kaplan Verbal, 800 and premier
MGMAT SC
OG 11 and OG Verbal.

Am I missing any important piece ?

Are you able to assess what is your real weakness in Verbal ? Whether its RC, CR or SC ?

N750,

Your profile looks good but i think you need to ask Paul in ask accepted forum to get a clear idea. Personally i wouldn't take the GMAT for the 3rd time and instead concentrate on second tier schools. But yes its again my personal opinion. Good luck and keep us updated on what decision you take.

Thanks Trahul4.

My RC is weak and SC is also bit of trouble because I am not able to finish that in time. So invariablly I am forced to guess to on last 5-6 questions.....I think If I got 4 of them wrong then it can easily sink my score by atleat 4-5 points.

To improve these aspects of Verbal, try using the Gmatter software. https://www.gmatter.biz.

Good luck.

640 is an awsome score dude..

here are a couple of examples...AMTVAL an avid gmatclubber like you got into Tuck with a 640, my cousin got into Kellog with a 640...lots and lots of people with a 640 have gotten to big league schools..

good to know this

Well you can always give it again. Its quite easy to add another 60-70 points to your score.

Schools don't really look down on people taking the test 3 or 4 times. Its once you get beyond 4 that some schools really care. I know someone who got into LBS, Duke, and Ross after taking the test 6 times.

You don't need to bring your score up to 720+ to justify taking it again like someone suggested. If you think you can bring it up 40-50 points it definitely will help your odds, the close you get to the schools average GMAT the better your chances. Since you are so far out of college adcoms are going to look at your GMAT as an indicator of your current academic abilities.

Not to say you can't get in to a top school with a 640 but it is immensely more difficult. The GMAT is one thing you can control to a certain degree and you may be much better served to study hard and retake the test one more time and then apply R2.

this might seem like a dumb question coming from someone who has been preparing for GMAT for last 4-5 weeks, but what is GMATTER?

Thanks Riverripper. I am planning to retake exam on 25th Sept.

Goodluck N750!

Its a software that simulates the verbal part of GMAT on the screen.

It comes default with a very large bank of questions. Download it from https://www.gmatter.biz

Thanks Trahul4