From 630 -> 730 - Mission Accomplished....Detailed Debrief

There are three basic reasons why anyone re-takes the GMAT even after scoring a 710 or 720
1. Scholarship : The higher your GMAT, the better your chances to lap up scholarships
2. Compensating for poor acads : Some people have poor undergraduate performance which can be cause of concern to the schools, so a high GMAT is the best way to remove the apprehensions of these schools.
3. Compensating for other profile weakness : Other weaknesses in your profile such as low work experience etc can be mitigated to a certain extent by a high GMAT score.
Apart from these three reasons, I don't think that there's any other reason why anyone should re-take the GMAT. However, a lot of overly enthusiastic people do take it again because they think that a 710 or 720 doesn't define them well.

Gosh! These guys who re-take the GMAT even after scoring a 710 or 720 must be either really crazy or extremely motivated because at that high levels, you can never say whether you'd get your desired score.I'd be really happy even if I get a 720. I just wish I could get that much! Fingers crossed.

Yes, there's no dearth of extremely motivated people . I'm sure that you'll get a good score.All the best!

Rockstar debrief! I learnt so much from all your comments to people - esp. about RC and SC. Although I am doing pretty good in general, I think 2-4 RC99 everyday for 1 month (before my test) would help me in my retake. I liked your simple strategy on RC - read the passage as quickly as possible, and, while tackling questions, go back and forth b/w the passage and the ans choices. I tend to spend a lot of time upfront and that makes me feel unwilling to go back to the passage too often as I don't want to spend further time on the passage. I will try to use this simple rule in my practice and see that works for me. I have been reading The Economists for a while, now I will get more engrossed in the articles. Thanks for the motivation and the much needed inspiration.

@fallen
I'm glad that you found the tips in this thread helpful. Keep participating in the forums here on gmatclub .There's a wealth of resources here on the forums and lots of superb folks to help you out with each small thing you can imagine about the GMAT . All the best !

Thanks. Yeah, now I understand that. However, I also read that the top universities don't find your candidature more appealing if you have a higher GMAT than when you have a 710 or 720. At tier two schools, however, the higher the GMAT score, the better it is because these schools are the ones to offer scholarships and higher the GMAT ,the more the scholarship. This is what I have read. However, what I haven't understood is that why would these schools give such scholarships to candidates with higher GMAT scores ? GMAT score is obviously not going to help the candidates get jobs.

Simply because when it comes to rankings of schools, the GMAT score also has a weightage. There's a strong correlation observed between the rankings of the schools and the average GMAT. so the second tier and third tier schools want to move up the rankings by taking the average GMAT higher.
For example, let's take the example of a second tier business school like Cox(SMU). It gives generous scholarships ,almost on the average of giving 100% rebate to candidate with 720+ GMAT scores and good profiles. Even in a class of 100, even if there are 10-15 candidates with 700+ scores, the average GMAT of the batch will go up from say 630 to 640. Secondly, most of the candidates with 700+ scores are good otherwise also, so these schools want to maintain or have quality students in their class.

Hi shovit,

I have taken 4 practice tests over the last one week and here are my scores:

MGMAT CAT#1 : 740
MGMAT CAT#2 : 720
GMAT PREP CAT#1 : 720
MGMAT CAT#3 : 720


As you can see from the scores, they have almost stagnated at 720. I don't intend to take another test till the time I'm sure that I'd be able to score better than what I have been scoring. Any tips/suggestions how can I do this ?I am taking my GMAT on 29th October
and am targeting to take 7-8 CATs in the next 10 days.

Sorry for the late reply.Had been out on a Diwali vacation Am not sure whether giving any advice now would be of much benefit since you're taking your test in another 3 days.
All I'd say at this moment is to relax completely. What you also might want to do is just think about taking the actual test and what you will do in different scenarios. For example, what if you don't understand an RC or what if you see yourself exceeding beyond 2 minutes in any PS/DS question. At this point, you should only be thinking about all this . Happy Diwali to you !

How did you finally perform gmatgunner ?

gmatgunner seems to have vanished after taking the GMAT. Hopefully, he gunned the GMAT down and not the other way round.

Hi there

I'm sort of in need of some advice regarding preparing for the GMAT.

I'm a little weak in the CR section and find myself getting at least 50% of the problems I attempt wrong,which can be very disheartening. And whats worse is I dont seem to be getting better with practice.

Let me tell what I've worked on- I've tried one of the OG's, the CR bible and I just gave a shot at around 100 problems from the 1000CRs. After getting almost 50 out of 100 wrong I realized that I dont seem to be showing signs of improvemnt with practice in this section.

Can you tell me if I should spend my time doing the problems from the 1000CRs? I saw that you worked on them (LSAT PROBLEMS) and thought I could ask you if these are the types of problems that I should be working on

You haven't mentioned that whether you practised the questions topicwise ? While going through the topics in the CR Bible, did you do the questions from the OG12 topicwise ? Practising questions sequentially ,otherwise, is not of much value .
Some of the questions/answers in the 1000CR document are debatable and I'd suggest you to take the first 20 tests in that document. Do not go beyond that. However, I would do those questions only if I am done with all the questions from OG12 and OG11. Which OG did you use ?

No, I didn't do the problems from OG(12th) sequentially while covering the CR Bible topic-wise; I just covered these books one after the other and seemed to be getting the same score (around 5 right on solving 10 problems). Thank you for that tip on doing both simultaneously topic-wise; I will do that next

Yes, do that. Also keep on participating on the forums here whenever you face any difficulty or confusion about anything, big or small. This will ensure that you're on the right track

It has been great re-reading these stories. Great job and good luck on your applications!

Thank you. Yes, reading the debriefs can be the best way to stay motivated on your MBA journey. All the best to you too