Need advice in going from 690 to 720+

Hi all,

it's great to find this forum as I am truely inspired to again try to tackle the most dreaded part of the application process, i.e., the GMAT.

I gave my GMAT back in September and got a score of 690; I had preped for 3 months using the OG guides and the MGMAT guides.

I thought this was good enough of a score to get me into NYU, Darden, Cornell and Ross but so far I have been dinged by cornell, and ross. I haven't heard back from NYU yet and am on the waitlist for Darden (after interview). I am starting to think that my gmat was one of the major problems as I am Indian and the average score for an indian applicant is 720+ for these schools. It is tough to make it into these school especially for an Indian applicants as there are toooo many of us with stellar scores appling there.

For Darden, I don't think the gmat was that big of a problem; the problem was that my interview was with a second year student. We never really hit it off during the interview and, at the risk of sounding jilted, I would say that lacking the experience and perspective the guy judged me by his own subjective perspective and perception. There are also a few things he said during the interview about current international students which freaked me out and convinced me of his bias. I can't say those things on the forum but I doubt that he wrote a good feedback for me.

advice: if you get an interview with an school, try to do it oncampus if in US and that also with only adcom as they are more experienced and have a wider comparative framework.

anyway, I am planning to do the gmat again with the hopes of raising my score by atleast 30 points so i can have a fighting chance on the waitlist or to have a better chance next year. I would greatly appreciate all the advice I can get regarding the strategies and preparation process.

Though, I am of Indian origin I haven't lived in India since I was ten and don't have the genious quant skills that my indian brothers and sisters have the break down of my score was: v 40(89%) & Q 45(77%).

89% in verbal is the lowest score I got. in all my practice tests I scored substantially higer than that so I am not so very worried about verbal part as I think I just need to refresh the learnings and polish my CR a little bit. As for quant, I am REALLY bad.

I am planning to prepare for next four-five weeks and maybe spend 4-5 hours per day. what sources should i use to improve my quant score.

thanks for advice and suggestions.

best of luck to all...you can do it!!