GMAT Club Legend
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Affiliations: HHonors Diamond, BGS Honor Society
Posts: 5916
Given Kudos: 7
Schools: Chicago (Booth) - Class of 2009
WE:Business Development (Consumer Products)
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10 Aug 2006, 15:19
First of all, HUGE congrats!
Honestly I dont understand why people with 730's talk about retaking. Sure, a 740 or 750 would have been nice, but you have to realize that it wouldn't make a difference on your application. That is, no school is going to accept you because you got a 750, and no school is going to reject you because you got a 730. Similarly, and most importantly, no school would change their view of your application between a 730 and 750. Sure, you could go 730 to 780, thats possible, but the odds are slim, and even so, I still don't think it would make a tangible difference.
There's also the question of diminishing returns. Is it worth another 100 hours to increase by 1% percent? 2%? 3% .... No not really. Your time is far better spent working on your essays.
From my experience, the GMAT pales in comparison to the essays in terms of difficulty...
You need to write outlines for your 2-3 recommenders. You need to have a backup recommender if someone flakes. You need to confirm titles, salary, dates of employment, bonuses, number of employees, addresses, phone numbers, names, annual revenues -- everything about each employer you've ever had so you dont make any mistakes on your app. You need to revamp you resume completely. You need to go back and remember what you did in college and what dates you were part of what clubs. You need to do the same for post-college. You need to get transcripts from schools, transcribe them into excel, confirm and reconfirm them. You need to think of your key accomplishments at each job. You need to think about interesting personal stories. You need to attend open house events. You need to go to classes. You need to reach out to existing students and get material for your essays. You need to take notes about the schools, research them, develop thoughts around them. You need to order your GMAT scores. You need to develop timelines for your application. You need to confirm dates, sign up for events, reconfirm deadlines, and recheck them again. You need to prepare statements explaining gaps in your history. You need to address any poor performances. You need to think of leadership examples and examples of weaknesses. You need to write essays that demand 2000 words in 400 words. You need outlines for your essays so you stay focused. You need to proofread them. You need to re-proofread them. You need to fill in exact dates at school, matriculation dates, exact dates for each term too. You need to create folders for schools and manage each process. You need to have checklists for each one. You need to order transcripts for some, for others you don't. You have to keep on your recommenders to keep working on it, but you have to do it politely. You have to prepare for interviews, refine thoughts and ideas and ensure you can communicate an effective idea. Worst of all, you get to reread your essays again and again always questioning if what you are saying is good, or if there is a better story, or a stronger example, or if its too cheesy, or if its not cheesy enough, or if its too personal, or if its too business like, or if its too long or too short, or too flattering or too whimsical or lacks enough humility, or reads strange, or has spelling mistakes, or has grammar errors, or has run on sentences. You need to check the font sizes, as some schools specify both font size and type. You need to triple check word counts. You need to sign up for the sites, identify interesting courses, weave information about the schools into your apps, customize each application, tailor each essay, massage each word and you have to do it all by October.
In other words, use your time wisely.
close
.
But someone already did that this week.
