Should I Retake GMAT Thread - Retaking GMAT Strategies

Hi all!

I took the GMAT yesterday and got 720. While my score is pretty good the split is not that great Q: 47 (77%) and V: 41 (92%). I know that it is recommended to have at least 80% in Q and V so I'm worried that my 77% may become a problem. Also, I scored 730 on GMAT prep 1 (Q:50) and 710 on GMAT prep 2 (Q:49).
Another problem is that the R2 deadlines are approaching and I need to start working on the essays. bb, I think you advised someone to retake the GMAT but to spend 95% of the time on applications and preparing for GMAT by only taking practice tests on weekends until the day of the test. Is that something you would recommend for me too?
One last question. When I took the GMAT yesterday I entered my 5 top schools that I want to apply to and that are going to receive my score. If I retake the GMAT but without entering any schools before I take the test, non of the 5 schools that I picked the first time are going to receive the second score unless I choose to send them a report, right?

Thanks in advance!

Congratulations!
I would send the report to the schools anyway, they won't care if you have 2 records and the last one is weaker than the first one.
Otherwise, you can only take gmat on the 17th of November, and you can't request additional score reports to be delivered until your AWA is graded, and then it is additional 2 weeks for them to be delivered, you can end up in a tough situation.

Retake is a tough thing - it may or may not pan out. You definitely fall into the 95/5 category.... perhaps spend some time on Quant (and full length tests - take 2, no need to do more), and mostly do quant during breaks between essays, etc.

I think you kind of answered your own question. For the timing issue practice until you can get the question right in less than 3 minutes. If it takes you longer write it down and come back to it later (whether you got it right or wrong). For SC questions, get the MGMAT SC book and study it until you know it inside out. For CR, practice recognizing the patterns, you will see that many questions are structured in a similar way. For RC, practice reading critically tough passages (you may want to spend more time on that if you're a non native speaker like me).

good luck!

Hi Guys,

So just a bit about myself, I wrote the GMAT in June 2010 and got a mark of 480 (22V/33Q). Needless to say this really disappointed me, to the point where I was completely discouraged and not until the last few weeks have I decided to give it another go. I'm still not sure what went wrong that day, but my nerves definitely got to me, and at the same time I know that it's only me that's in the way of achieving a high 600 mark.

I studied for 5-6 months prior, taking the Kaplan in class course and than the online one after wards. On my Kaplan practice tests I was averaging scores of 570, and on the GMAT practice test my highest score was a 610. Closer to the exam I also had a tutor that I saw about 5 times,this is where I felt most of my gains were came from. I'm frustrated at the fact that I put 5-6 months of HARD studying into this, by which I mean 3-4 hours a day and about 6-8 hours on the weekend, and obtained only mediocre results. In fact i've NEVER studied this HARD for anything!

Anyways,
I'm at the point now where I want to formulate a strategy so that I can re-write the GMAT by the end of Feb 2011/Early March 2011. Given that I went through many ups and downs during my past experience with studying and writing the practice tests i'm not to sure where to start. I'm contemplating signing up for another Kaplan course,Veristas Prep course, Knewton course, or just signing up for them online I'm not sure what route to take though. I'm a little bit reluctant to take the Kaplan course again because of the past results. I've read the prep course reviews on the website, but i'm still not swayed by any of them really.

For me this seems to be more of a mental battle. I'm able to understand all the concepts and fundamentals of both the Quant and Verbal sections, but what I found to be the most difficult part for me was finishing the exam sections on time. This held my score back a lot!

Currently I have the OG 12 guide and the kaplan books at my disposal. I guess I need some guidance and motivation to get the ball rolling. In addition if anybody knows of a great tutor in the Toronto area that would be helpful as well!?

The stories on this website are a GREAT PRIMER! I'm glad to have found a website that allows oneself to see that they're not the only ones struggling through this.


NO

If you have done a Kaplan course already, I think you can retake the course for free (not exactly sure the rules).
Another thought is that if you are looking to get a quick course and a different one from Kaplan is to take a look at the offer that Knewton has going (it's been available for 2 weeks now and it is not clear yet when will be pulled). The course is $299 and they offer money back guarantee with 50 point improvement: https://www.knewton.com/blog/gmatclub-holiday

Thoughts?

bseb, I self studied for the first test. I used kaplan books and OG. I also went through 2 chapters of powerscore CR. I gave 7-8 prep tests under times conditions and was scoring 550 average on all of them. Don't know what went wrong in the test .
I'm ok with my math. I just need a refresher,which probably some strategy guide like MGMAT books will help accomplish. Verbal(hell!!!) - I'm having trouble with understanding the concepts. Not sure if any prep classes hold verbal classes only. I"ll need to find out. I'm pretty disciplined with my study schedules but get caught up with some concepts,especially in verbal, here and there. I doubt if the instructors at a prep class really take the interest to help us with our questions. I had a few freinds attend kaplan/MGMAT classes and said the classes were great to get them on track and act as a refresher but no one had a lot of personal help on their problems. So, I wonder if some good books alone will help me.

I think it is definitely worth a shot once the stress of the deadlines and essays is gone but if you have taken the gmat a few months ago, chances are you don't remember much. Other challenge is that many schools announce scholarship decisions in conjunction with admit, or the period of time between admit and scholarship announcement is very short.

I think it is worth a shot but I am not sure how much you can do change at this point esp in your Columbia situation...

today I took the GMAT for 2nd time. Here is a summary of the story so I hope it may help you

In my first try I got 650 (june 2010) . I ran out of time in both Q and V so I had to guess the last 4 or 5 questions. Very disappointing and frustrating since I studied for more than 6 months.
In spite my score I got interview invite from Ross and LBS so it is true that the GMAT is not THAT important....but, I also got a ding from a couple of other universities .... so I decided not to run any risk and retake the test with the hope to send an update before the final decisions were taken.

I started studying 1 month ago. I did 11 of the gmat club's tests and also completed the 6 MGMAT tests. I bought Word Translations and Number Properties books as suggested in many posts in the forum, which reminds me to mention that I read the forum constantly ... it kept my morale high and also helped me to discover the "take one step back in order to advance two" strategy. The main lesson I learned was how to time my answers. Today I had more than 2 mins left in both Q and V parts which is not quite good because it's a sign I didn't use the time efficiently. In the breaks of the exam I took one GU energy gel ( the gels you use in marathons) which kept me awake during the exam.

My score was:
Q 48/82
V 39/87
T 710/92

I want to thank the members of this forum since it proved to be very helpful . I also wish the very best to those who haven't taken the test yet ...and remember to have a few beers or vodkas the night before ...it helps to relax and don't take all this too seriously. cheers mates

I am planning to retake GMAT. Scored 710 ( 48Q 39V ) on my first attempts studying only from OG, however i couldn't make it to any of the schools on my list. Hope to make a new start with MGMAT books. Any suggestions for prep???

This my suggestion - hopefully it works, though 710 is a pretty good score already... you are at or above average for pretty much all schools of your choice.


gmat-study-plan-for-gmat-novices-start-your-gmat-journey-80727.html?highlight=ml301

Hi you all!
I'm from Chile and I want to study in the US, since my wife is from there.
I need help with two things:
1) I'm planning to retake the GMAT this year. Do you think that 2 months of studyng will be enough to do so? For the previous test in March (23rd) I studied for 3 months and got 480, even though in the practice tests I was getting 640-670 points(6 MGMAT and 1 official) and in the AWA I got 6.0. I was reeaaaaaaally dissapointed, because it was by far my lowest score ever. The problem is that I have a 7 months old baby and don't have a lot of time to study during the week, since I work until 7PM in the afternoon. So my plan would be to study from 8:30PM to 10:00 from Monday to Friday and 7 hours during the weekends.
2) I already took the TOEFL iBT and got 106 pts but it expires on the 22nd of August in this year. Does anybody know if the schools will accept this score for the applications in October this year if I send it to them before the due date?

Hi batria,
Focus more on the quality of your study time than on how much time you have. Since you're somewhat familiar with the exam already--1-2 months is good enough---if you study well. Certainly don't underestimate the psychological aspects of the GMAT exam.

We have many students who fit your same schedule--busy working professionals with only the weekends and nighttime to study. An online video course would be excellent for someone like you, provided you have a good internet connection.

Good luck and we're here to help!

Folks – I have been following GMATClub for some time now and thought of sharing my dilemma with all of you guys – I am sure I can benefit with the combined wisdom of the folks here.

I belong to the dreaded category of Indian IT Male and hence target score for me is 730+ for good schools in Asia/Europe/US.

I first wrote my GMAT in October 2010 with reasonable preparation – largely focused on OG 11 and OG 12, MGMAT SC and few full tests from Kaplan and GMATPrep. The lowest score I got was 640 and closer to test date; I was hitting close to 680 in Kaplan tests and thought that I was ready to score in the vicinity of 700 at the real thing. I wrote the test only to end up with a disappointing 640 (Q48, V29). I thought that my preparation was severely lacking and I need to do a lot more to really reach my target score.

In February this year, I started thinking about the second attempt and finished following material over 3 months or so:

Quant – OG 11 and 12, GMATClub forum questions (and there are lots of them and really good quality too)

Verbal:

Apart from OG 11 and 12, I also finished following material for specific sections

SC – MGMAT SC, Aristotle SC grail
CR – Powerscore bible
RC – RC99

I also took lot of full CATs once my material was over. Following are my scores for those CATS

MGMAT
1: 710
2: 700
3: 750
4: 730
5:770

Kaplan
1:690
2:700
3:690

GMATPrep
1:710
2: 740
1 (Reinstall): 660 – I did this immediately after I finished MGMAT 5 (complete four hours) and realized that it is futile to write a test when one is extremely tired and drained out
2 (Reinstall): 760

My lowest Quant score was 49 and verbal score range was 36-45. Only once (in the GMATPrep 660 one), I got 32 in verbal.

Finishing all the material and armed with consistent CAT scores across tests (GMATclub score predictor was predicting a 730 score), I was feeling confident of getting around 730 at the real thing.

On the day of the exam, this is how it all went:

AWA – went pretty OK – I used chineseburned’s template and thought I did pretty OK on the section.

QA

The section started as a breeze – at least till 15th question, I felt completely in command of the section and thought I was managing pretty well and kept solving every question that came my way. Next thing I remember is having about 15 minutes left for last ten questions – I felt myself rushing through last ten questions and got a feeling that I had to make 2-3 wild guesses. Overall, I thought I lost my way a little in the end.

VA

The section was going OK – was not sure of my accuracy for some CR questions. RC is generally my weak area and hence I was not sure if I was doing well there or not. But, I had felt such uncertainty every time in practice CATs and broadly did OK there, so I kept going. Here again, I realized that I had 9 more questions to go with only 15 minutes left and then I got a long RC passage, completely messing up my time management. Like Quant, again I felt I rushed through in the last 8-9 questions and felt a little let down with that aspect of my performance.

In the end, I managed a poor score of 660 (Q47, V34). I had managed 5 points improvement in Verbal but lost a point in Quant and overall managed to pull up my score by just 20 points - nowhere close to my practice scores or the scores that I need to make my application competitive.

Questions I am grappling with now are:

1. Should I retake the test? If yes, what more can I do and how do I check if I have really made progress in my preparation?
2. Should I blame my overall low score on just the time amanagement issue in last 10 problems in both sections or does this score indiscate that I am being naïve in believing that my preparation levels are at 730+ right now.
3. I never felt timing stress in any of the practice CATs I took. The questions I saw in test were very similar to OG and GMATPrep kind of questions, so what could have led to timing issues on the real test.
4. If I sould retake, should I do this at the earliest opportunity 931 days) or should I wait for 2-3 months or so.

Comments/suggestions/help welcome.

ttin0307,

I can tell you probably got penalized heavily for those last few questions that you guessed on. Timing is a critical component of the exam. The key to timing is thinking efficiently. And if you are a perfectionist---that mentality can hurt you as well. Please read this excerpt from this article.

Perfectionists and overachievers like myself often have trouble with the GMAT. Why?

Because we are so determined to get every question that comes our way correct that we sacrifice time and ultimately are forced to guess the last several questions. The GMAT is designed to push you to your limits.

The CAT format is much harder from a psychological standpoint than a paper-based test on the same content. The reason is that by its very nature the computer-adaptive format is designed to push you to your failure point - and for us perfectionists that’s a VERY uncomfortable place to be.
The computer adaptive format means you get a harder question when you get the current question correct. What ends up happening to perfectionists is we get each question correct and in turn the GMAT throws us even harder questions. We perfectionists then spend more and more time on these harder questions double checking our math or re-reading portions of each answer choice over and over with the determination to get each question correct. Meanwhile, we sacrifice time and get heavily penalized for not finishing the exam.

In fact, part of the reason I did so poorly on my first practice exam was because I did not finish the exam in time. I was too focused on getting the question correct that I lost sense of the big picture–that I really needed be strategic with my time.

If you are pressed for time and have 4 questions left but really have time only for 2, my suggestion is instead of answering questions 34 and 35 and then guessing 36 and 37 for Quant is to answer 34, guess 35, answer 36, and guess 37. This allows you to stay at a relatively same level (or higher if you guess one right) than potentially dropping below the level you were at question 33 by getting multiple questions wrong in a row.

Since the GMAT penalizes you heavily for getting many consecutive answers incorrect you should make sure you do not end up in a position where you need to guess the last 10 questions because you spent too much time on each question in the beginning. In general, you are better off guessing 10 random questions than guessing 10 consecutive questions–so make sure you time yourself properly.

You should be aiming, on average, to answer each question in less than two minutes. With practice you should be able to sense when you are at around the 3 minute mark that you are spending too much time on this question. Around this time you should make a strategic guess and move on. With easy-type questions you should definitely not reach the 3 minute mark.

Hi,

I am quite disappointed, yet determined for a re-match. My score, 550 (Q-45 V-21), was far below my expectations. Apparently, I am planning to re-schedule in a months time and wonder if you share a study plan. Following are my weakest sections ordered chronologically:

1. SC => kills me
2. RC => Quite fine but not too much to be happy about
3. CR => Fair
4. DS => Average
5. PS => Comfortable except 1 or 2 tricky questions

I am all motivated to acquire 700+ status and ready to put ample efforts.... Kindly assist.

In that case, looks like you need a grammar book and my recommendation for RC is reading articles/text/books/etc, my suggestion is gmat fiction

Hello Everyone,

My issue is similar to what a lot of people have already mentioned in this thread.

I am a 28 year old entrepreneur from India with 6 years of work experience including 3 years of experience working as a SAP BI consultant and the reminder as the CEO of an Engineering Manufacturing Plant (Family Owned). I am also serving as a Director and stake holder in a Ferro Alloys Manufacturing Unit in India for the last 2 years. My GMAT score is 660 (Q49 and V31). My under-grad background is that of a Mechanical Engineer with a CGPA of 3.3

I am interested in joining the Full time MBA Program in some of the top 25 colleges. I was wondering if anyone can please provide me with an honest opinion if my GMAT score and background allows me a good chance to get into them or should I work towards improving my GMAT score. The colleges that I am looking at are Duke University (Fuqua) , University of Virginia (Darden) , Emory University (Goizueta) and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler). Although I had aspirations to apply for a couple of top 10 B-schools but I dont think I have too much of a chance with my GMAT score.

My GMAT score of 660 is within the 80% range in most of the above universities (its usually 640-750, so rather on the lower edges) for the class of 2012(even some of the top 10 ones have taken 660 students). But I am really confused about my score in GMAT. Fistly, I have no idea where I messed up in verbal. My quant score was 49 but I knew I botched a couple of questions so I am not complaining but I dont 31 in quants and that was the lowest I ever got in any GMAT prep tests.My GMAT score was lower than anything I got in GMAT prep or Kaplan test or GMAT club tests (barring the 1st one I took to check my level).I have always scored more than 36 in verbal. Total score 670,710,690,690,730,740, in Kaplan tests and 640, 710, 730,740 in Gmat Prep.

Secondly, is my score is good enough to get me into a top 25 B-school or should I consider reappearing?

Any advices would be welcome coz at this point I am extremely confused coz if I miss the bus for 2012 session then my chances of MBA are a gone for good, so have to make it stick and reappearing is sticky because it will be hard for me to manage to reappear GMAT again,work on my applications and manage my professional commitments. But if I have to reappear GMAT I will do it.

Also, any idea where I can ask for my profile to be reviewed is also welcome.

Thank you

Regards
Jit