{"id":35794,"date":"2017-02-07T11:12:54","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T18:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/the-pros-cons-of-retaking-the-gmat-or-gre\/"},"modified":"2025-03-10T13:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T20:45:05","slug":"the-pros-cons-of-retaking-the-gmat-or-gre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/the-pros-cons-of-retaking-the-gmat-or-gre\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pros, Cons of Retaking the GMAT or GRE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GMATThis guest post is provided by our friends at\u00a0LA Tutors 123<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

After working through a grueling standardized admissions test, the moment of judgement arrives when you get your scores. If you got the score you were hoping for, congratulations! You can now focus your time and energy on the rest of the MBA admissions process. If your score is much lower than you\u2019d hoped, however, you have to decide about whether or not to retake the test.<\/p>\n

My biggest advice is: Don\u2019t retake the test if you haven\u2019t done any additional preparation!<\/em><\/p>\n

As a tutor, I\u2019ve encountered student after student who has taken the test two or more times before seeking a tutor or doing additional practice, hoping to somehow \u201cget lucky\u201d on the retake. This rarely works because these tests are not lottery tickets; the only way to substantially raise your score is to master the skills and test taking strategies they require.<\/p>\n

A well-planned retake, however, can give you the boost you need to improve your application and clear the path to the business school of your dreams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good idea to retake the test if:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You\u2019re willing to put in the time and effort necessary to prepare for the retake.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Use the score report from your first test to map out how much time you\u2019ll need to improve your skills. For low-scoring students, this might require several months, or an intense effort if you have limited time. You might consider finding a tutor (or purchasing additional hours, if you had one before) to help. Then, take at least one more practice test<\/a>, preferably more, before the next real test to make sure you\u2019re making progress.<\/p>\n

You had extenuating circumstances on your test day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the only exceptions to the additional preparation rule would be extreme circumstances, such as if you became violently ill halfway through the test, accidentally deleted your entire essay ten seconds before your time was up, or your test center was invaded by aliens.<\/p>\n

In these cases, you might score substantially higher without additional preparation. Hopefully you\u2019ve already cancelled your scores, because it\u2019s better to not to have a score show up on your score report if it doesn\u2019t reflect your true abilities. Most of the time, however, the biggest factor in how you score is preparation.<\/p>\n

You scored substantially higher on your practice tests than the real test.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If your official test performance was much lower than your practice tests, test anxiety may have been a factor, as practice can\u2019t fully mimic the stress of the real test. There\u2019s a chance that once you\u2019ve had the real test-taking experience, you\u2019ll be calmer and more clear-minded the second time around.<\/p>\n

That said, you should still to evaluate the reason your real test scores were lower and try to address the problem. For example, did you only complete the practice test in sections instead of all at once? If that\u2019s the case, you should complete a few full-length practice tests in one sitting before your retake. Did the questions on the test seem harder than those on the practice tests? If so, you should seek out a different brand of practice tests and work through those.<\/p>\n

Your score is just shy of a posted requirement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the school to which you\u2019re applying has posted minimum or expected scores and you are just short of those requirements, a retake might get you over the top. You should still do additional preparation, however, otherwise you\u2019re just as likely to score lower the second time around.<\/p>\n

You probably shouldn\u2019t retake the test if:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You haven\u2019t done enough additional preparation and aren\u2019t scoring better on practice tests.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best way to tell if you\u2019ve improved is to take at least one more practice test and see if your score has gone up. If it hasn\u2019t, the retake might be a waste of time and money.<\/p>\n

You scored higher than you did on any of your practice tests and don\u2019t have more time to prepare.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this case, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll score lower if you take the test again, so don\u2019t tempt fate.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve already retaken the test several times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While one or two retakes is common, retaking the test over and over again can weaken your application, especially if your scores don\u2019t go up. A single retake with substantial gains, however, can show the admissions committee that you worked hard to improve, or that maybe the first test didn\u2019t reflect your true abilities.<\/p>\n

If you do choose to retake your admissions test, make it your goal to retake it only once and get the score you need. If you didn\u2019t seek professional help in preparing the first time around, a class or tutor might be what you need to get you over the top. A private tutor can help you evaluate your weaknesses, keep your studying on-track, and come up with the best plan to make sure you do the retake right.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Flickr user Steven S.<\/a> (CC BY 2.0)<\/em>\"\"<\/h6>\n
***<\/span>
\n<\/i><\/div>\n
If you are looking for guidance on your\u00a0<\/i>MBA\u00a0<\/span>application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with\u00a0hourly<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0consulting services.\u00a0Contact us<\/a>\u00a0to learn more. Visit the website for\u00a0Stacy Blackman Reviews<\/a>, and check out the company\u2019s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This guest post is provided by our friends at\u00a0LA Tutors 123 After working through a grueling standardized admissions test, the moment of judgement arrives when you get your scores. If…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,749,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-stacy-blackman","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64451,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35794\/revisions\/64451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}