Advice? Scored 620 42Q 34V 1st try, Goal... Masters Fin Eng
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31 Oct 2011, 15:03
I’ll try to briefly run through my situation. Any advice regarding my situation as a whole or in part will be greatly appreciated.
I recently completed my first attempt at the GMAT scoring a 620 42Q 34V. I was really off my game that day, so under the circumstances I wasn’t totally devastated. However, a 620 w/ 42Q is nowhere near what I’ll probably need.
I’m 26 and a few months back decided to begin the process of trying to get into grad school. Specifically, I’d like to enter a masters program in financial engineering but I have yet to rule out a masters in finance.
A few of the schools I have in mind are Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Georgia Tech, and NYU Poly.
I have a BS in finance w/ minor in accounting from DePaul University in Chicago with a 3.26 GPA w/ 3.7 finance GPA. I went to school sporadically for years and after going back full time I completed the degree fall of 2010. Unfortunately, 2 years of practically straight A-‘s wasn’t enough to correct the damage I had done. At that point I was unable to attain a job as a trading assistant or analyst. I’ve worked in sales, real estate, hard money lending, and have run my own wholesaling business. I worked throughout college.
I aced anything math related: Calc, Stats, Finance, Accounting etc.
I tutored people from Depaul, Northwestern, UIC, and Northeastern in those subjects.
My Prep:
I completed a full 7 week Veritas Prep course, followed by another 7 weeks of self study (approx. 35-40 hours per week) with the Veritas books and other GMAT quant guides. My practice test scores ranged from 550 on my first to a 690 on the last. I scored a couple of 700’s and never surpassed a 46 on Quant. The majority of my time was spent studying Quant because Financial Engineering programs require applicants be in the 49-50 range. I watched my Q’s go from the 30’s to mid 40’s and my V’s to go from the high 40’s to mid 30’s.
Questions:
How should I go about raising my quant score? Tutor? Another course? More books?
Do I stand a chance earning admittance to a higher tier MSFE program w/ a Quant score below the 90th percentile?
Some financial engineering programs require the GRE. I’ve heard the GRE quant section is much simpler than that of the GMAT. Is there any validity to this?
*English is my native language
Once again, thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some pointers.
I feel lost and after 14 weeks of study my brain is exhausted.