Hello fellas!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for helping me out in my preparation. Although I primarily studied with the official Gmat material, this forum provided me with excellent solutions for questions that I had doubt. I would also like to apologize myself for not participate in the discussions and contribute further with the community until now.

I just took my first attempt on GMAT, and I had mixed feelings about the results. Albeit the excellent total score (50 Q, 45 V, 770 total), I poorly performed on the Integrated Reasoning section, scoring 5 on it.

In my preparation, I took the 6 official practice exams and scored 8 on IR in 5 of them (including the first one, which I took in the beginning of my preparation). The other one I scored 6, as I felt that I lost the track of time and end up messing several questions. This also occurred during my official GMAT, but in a worse day. So, my IR score was below my expectations, although I had other experience of bad performance during my preparation.

As for my total score, it was a little above my expectation, since I scored 710 (before the preparation), 750, 780, 760, 740 and 740. So I think that if I take the official GMAT again, the chances are greater that my total score will not increase.

Concerning the AWA, I did not prepare myself much. I just practiced on the 6 practice exams, english is not my first language, and I do not have much experience in writing long paragraphs. So, as you can see from this text, I probably will not score much high (I expect something between 4 and 5, but I don't have something to base myself on).

Now that I explained my score situation, let me explain a little about my expectations from it.

I took advantage of a gap period between the end of my graduation and the start of my role as a business analyst on a consulting firm (I received an offer after a one-year internship) to study for the Gmat, so it's highly unlikely that I will have such quality period to doing that again. I just focused on GMAT and didn't looked up other factors involving the MBA admissions yet. I listed 5 of the M7 schools on my official GMAT (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT and Columbia) and accepted the score, and I would really like to be approved on those institutions if possible. I intend to resume my applications after between 2 and 3 years as a consultant, but I don't know how this put myself in my competition pool (I'm Brazilian and 25 years old) of those schools.

From other discussions on this forum, it seems that much is unknown about how the schools weight the IR score. I also read that they often take the best from the last three GMAT scores. But what it constitutes the best? IF I score 750 and 8 on IR, would they consider my new score the best? Would they analyze the two of them to form a conclusion?

So, I would like to hear your opinion. Can my IR really hurt my GMAT score and strongly undermine my chances of approval? Should I take the exam again? Should I cancel my scores? Do I really have a chance of being accepted on M7?

Thank you all.

Hello, kbjmnin. I saw this post in the forum a couple days ago, but I refrained from replying because it was in the e-GMAT sub-forum. (I am not affiliated in any way with the company.) With that said, I feel that congratulations are in order, first and foremost. A 770 is a massive total score, one that certainly increases your chances of gaining admission to an M7. The IR section is not that important, even at such schools. The bar seems to be 5 on the IR and 4.5 on the AWA. Most schools do not even report these scores, evidence that they do not place too much stock in them. Provided the rest of your application will be in good order, then, I see no reason why you would not stand a chance at a top-tier program. Still, I must confess ignorance as to the representation of your demographic. Although I doubt there is overrepresentation among Brazilian or South American applicants in general, I am not an admissions consultant. You may want to pose your question to such professionals in this dedicated forum. My guess is that you will get a quicker and more informed response.

Good luck with your endeavors. If I were you, I would put the GMAT™ behind me.

- Andrew

Congratulations kbjmnin on 770!

All the best for the next phase!

which b schools are you thinking of applying to? your score is so good, you will easily get scholarship.

Andrew, Thank you very much for your response. I'm now a little more relieved after your words. My official score came out yesterad, and I got a 5.0 on the AWA. Even so, I will seek opinions from admissions consultants before deciding once and for all put GMAT™ aside. I appreciate the tip.



Many thanks! I also wish you the best!



I sent my scores to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia and MIT. But I still need to do a little more research on that, I intend to do MBA 2-3 years from now.

Hello again, kbjmnin. I was glad to see that your AWA ended up in a more desirable range, all the better reason not to retake the GMAT™. I was hoping, however, that you might set aside some time to write a debrief for the benefit of the community. I know that I, for one, always look forward to reading debriefs from 700+ scorers, and the community pores over such posts from 99th-percentile scorers especially. If you want to give back, I can think of no better way to reach many eager readers. (No pressure, though.)

- Andrew

I just posted my debrief. Hope it can help some of the members of the community!