Cancelling a 680?

Question

Hey everyone, just a quick question here. I didn't perform quite as expected on the today, and ended up getting a 680 (V38/V45/6 IR) and I was wondering if it was worth to cancel. About 70 hours of studying total, mainly Mprep from 2014, and about half of the main GMAC book. I have a retake scheduled for the 15th of September. I'm applying to Fuqua, Johnson, Ross, Wharton* and possibly CBS. The only issue is that if I score poorly, I won't make the round 1 admission deadline for most of these schools. My prep scores were:

GMAC1 630 (Q42, V36), cold
GMAC2 700 (Q47, V38), 3 weeks prior
GMAC3 690 (Q44, V40) , 1 week prior
GMAC4 730 (Q49, V41), 2 days prior
Actual GMAT 680 (Q45, V38, IR6)

GMAC1 630 (Q42, V36), cold
GMAC2 700 (Q47, V38), 3 weeks prior
GMAC3 690 (Q44, V40) , 1 week prior
GMAC4 730 (Q49, V41), 2 days prior
Actual GMAT 680 (Q45, V38, IR6)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi MBASomeTime,

You've named some highly-competitive Schools, so beyond having a strong GMAT Score, you also need a strong OVERALL profile AND you need to properly 'market yourself' to each individual Program that you apply to. You're ultimately asking Admissions questions, so you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admission ... tants-124/

Many Business Schools view an Applicant's Quant Scaled Score as an indicator of how that Applicant might handle the 'academic side' of the Program - and a Q45 won't impress anyone. That score implies that you did fairly well on most of the "math" questions that you saw on Test Day, but you made some little mistakes throughout the section and you missed out on LOTS of 'strategy-based' points. This is meant to say that by focusing on Quant Tactics, you'll be better able to increase your GMAT Score AND how Business School Admissions Officers will view your potential to handle their respective Programs.

Many Test Takers who use a 'book heavy' study approach end up getting 'stuck' at a particular score level; since our prior studies appear to have been 'book heavy', this might have happened to you too. For this next phase of your studies, you might want to work with some new, non-book resources that emphasize Quant and Verbal Tactics.

1) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

MBASomeTime · Answer

Thanks for the response. Sounds like this score won't do much for me. I certainly bombed the Quant, as I got stuck on a problem and ended up at 18/32 with 20:30 left on the clock. With the verbal I honestly can't say - It felt very similar to the time I scored a 41, but clearly that wasn't the case this time around. I'm planning on getting an additional resource to study with in order to at least push my score to a 730, but preferably around the mid 700s. I honestly think this test would've been around 700-710 if it wasn't for the time issue. 
The hours can vary, as I'm used to a more intensive schedule. I'd say up to 20 is a possibility but preferably somewhere between 10-15 is where I'd like to be. I have an atypical student profile and I'm finishing up my bachelor's, so I have to deal with my bachelors while studying for this retake. I have 4 years of engineering experience and a PE internship from this summer so I'm not the weakest spot either. But I do believe that I need a strong Gmat, especially for the latter two schools.

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souvonik2k · Answer

Hi
Your Verbal score is very good, but you need to certainly improve on your Quant score. I think you will need more than 680 for an admit to the mentioned schools. Although a very good profile will help, but still a higher Gmat score increases your chances. And in your case, it is certainly possible, since increasing a Q45 to Q50 may not be a huge effort. In my opinion, you can study from the Ultimate Quant megathread of Gmatclub. You can also subscribe to Gmatclub tests. They are tough, make you learn a lot and will help you avoid mistakes. All the best.

LauraOrion · Answer

As already mentioned above, it would probably be good to speak with a admissions consultant who can look at your scores in context, although you are right that a 680 isn't probably the score you want to show in R1 to the schools you're interested in.

That said, I wouldn't cancel your scores. A 680 may not be 99th percentile, but it still isn't a score that you should feel embarrassed about. If for some reason you don't get a higher score on your next test date, you at least want something on the books.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi MBASomeTime,

A 680 is a strong score (it's above the 80th percentile overall), so you can certainly apply to any of the Schools that you're interested in. Neither that Score - nor the Q45 - would lead to an immediate 'rejection' - and if you have a strong Overall profile, then you could potentially be fine. Since you've already scheduled your next attempt though, assuming that you can keep your Verbal skills at this same high level without too much effort, your focus should be on Quant Tactics.

It's also worth noting that missing the Round 1 application deadlines is NOT a big deal. Your REAL goal is to get into your first-choice Business School, so you should be making decisions that help to maximize that possibility. There's no benefit to 'rushing in' a Round 1 application if you're just going to get wait-listed. Business School Admissions Committees know that some outstanding applicants will show up in Round 2 and Round 3, which is why only the outstanding applicants in Round 1 receive an immediate invite.

You might also choose to purchase the Enhanced Score Report. While the ESR doesn't provide a lot of information, there are usually a few data points that we can use to define what went wrong (and what you should work on to score higher). If you purchase the ESR, then I'll be happy to analyze it for you.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

MBASomeTime · Answer

I honestly don't know if my profile is strong, so I'd rather not take the chance of having a subpar GMAT score. That being said, I'm leaning more towards keeping the score now. Hopefully the ESR can provide some useful information. I'm going to study for around ~70 more hours for the next Exam, 10-15 of which will be on SC, 5 on RC, and the remainder on Quant. The reason I want to get my application in by round 1 is for the admissions interviews that are offered for military applicants at Duke, Ross and Fuqua.

keyboardandmouse · Answer

I second that I would'nt cancel the score. 680 might not be the 90th percentile, but it is still a good score (above 80th percentile). Secondly, i would 100% recommend the ESR report. It allows you to gauge whether the section that you thought you did not do so well could be improved in how much time. As such, you can know how much time you can spare while strengthening your application.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. There are some positive takeaways from your exam:

1) Your quant and verbal scores on your real GMAT were not that much much lower than those from your practice GMATs.

2) You studied for only 70 hours but still achieved a 680.

3) 680 is at the low end of your recent score range.

So, if you prepare some more, it seems rather likely that you will score higher on the GMAT next time you take it.

Given the above, the fact that 680 is a relatively low GMAT score for some of the schools to which you plan to apply, and the fact that you could reinstate your cancelled score if you were somehow not to score as high next time you take the GMAT, I unequivocally recommend cancelling that score.

Clearly, with a sound and thorough study plan, you can improve your GMAT score. (That being said, it's possible that hitting your score goal may take more than just one month. I realize that you want to hit round 1 deadlines, but would you be able to push for round 2?)

So, what constitutes a sound and thorough study plan?

It's possible to score 680 without fully understanding some topics or refining certain skills. To score 730, your preparation is going to have to be more complete. So, to lock in that type of score, you have to go through GMAT quant and verbal carefully to find your exact weaknesses, fill gaps in your knowledge, and strengthen your skills. The overall process will be to learn all about how to answer question types with which you currently aren't very comfortable and do dozens of practice questions category by category, basically driving up your score point by point.

For example, if you find that you are not strong in answering Number Properties questions, then carefully review the conceptual underpinnings of how to answer Number Properties questions and practice by answering 50 or more questions just from Number Properties: LCM, GCF, units digit patterns, divisibility, remainders, etc. When you are working on learning to answer questions of a particular type, start off taking your time, and then seek to speed up as you get more comfortable answering questions of that type.

As you do such practice, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get right. If you got a remainder question wrong, ask yourself why you got it wrong. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not properly apply the remainder formula? Was there a concept you did not understand in the question? By carefully analyzing your mistakes, you will be able to efficiently fix your weaknesses and in turn improve your GMAT quant skills. Number Properties is just one example; follow this process for all quant topics.

Each time you strengthen your understanding of a topic and your skill in answering questions of a particular type, you increase your odds of hitting your score goal. You know that there are types of questions that you are happy to see and types that you would rather not see, and types of questions that you take a long time to answer correctly. Learn to more effectively answer the types of questions that you would rather not see, and make them into your favorite types. Learn to correctly answer in two minutes or less questions that you currently take five minutes to answer. By finding, say, a dozen weaker quant areas and turning them into strong areas, you will make great progress toward hitting your quant score goal. If a dozen areas turn out not to be enough, strengthen some more areas.

You can work on verbal in a similar manner. Let’s say you are reviewing Critical Reasoning. Be sure that you practice a large number of Critical Reasoning questions: Strengthen and Weaken the Argument, Resolve the Paradox, find the Conclusion, Must be True, etc. As you go through the questions, do a thorough analysis of each question that you don't get correct. If you missed a weaken question, ask yourself why. Did you make a careless mistake? Did you not recognize what the question was asking? Did you skip over a key detail in an answer choice? Getting GMAT verbal questions right is a matter of what you know, what you see, and what you do. So, any time that you don't get one right, you can seek to identify what, if anything, you would have needed to know in order to get the right answer, what you had to see that you didn't see, and what you could have done differently to arrive at the correct answer.

When you do dozens of questions of the same type one after the other, you learn just what it takes to get questions of that type correct consistently. If you aren't getting close to 90 percent of questions of a certain type correct, go back and seek to better understand how that type of question works, and then do more questions of that type until you get to around at least 90 percent accuracy in your training. If you get 100 percent of some sets correct, even better.

So, work on accuracy and generally finding correct answers, work on specific weaker areas one by one to make them strong areas, and, when you take a practice GMAT or the real thing, take all the time per question available to do your absolute best to get right answers consistently. The GMAT is essentially a game of seeing how many right answers you can get in the time allotted. Approach the test with that conception in mind, and focus intently on the question in front of you with one goal in mind: getting a CORRECT answer.

In order to follow the path described above, you may need some new verbal and quant materials, so take a look at the GMAT Club reviews for the  best quant  and  verbal courses .

You also may find my article with more information regarding
 how to score a 700+ on the GMAT  helpful.

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