GMAT Score 710 // Opinion // Cancelling and reinstating

Hello JonSpecter. First of all, congratulations on crossing the 700 threshold. It does open more doors than you might think. Before you do anything rash, I would let the dust settle on this test-taking experience and assess what had gone into each score, especially in comparison to how you had performed in practice tests. Test-day anxiety is a very real and powerful force that few people overcome in their first crack at the test. That is, you should not realistically expect a 740-750 if you had not consistently been scoring in that range under similar testing conditions, with a few results likely above that target. I often say that you can only expect to put in your worst performance from recent practice tests when you go into the test center, so if, for example, you had scored 700, 730, 740, 730 within the past 1-2 months, then that 710 would make perfect sense. Sure, you had hit your high score once, and you could probably do it again with more time and dedicated practice, but again, you should not simply believe that things will go your way because they have before, or especially that on a good day, you could hit a 760 or so when you have not done it already. To address your specific questions:

1) Your score fits into the range of accepted students at top U.S. business schools, but of course, falling below the mean in any measure will put some pressure on you elsewhere. Many successful candidates also have more background experience. Your goal, then, would be to present yourself in a manner through your application and essays that might allow you to stand out without looking as though you were waving your hands for attention. I have helped people before successfully get into at least one of their reach schools, but I will tell you that it is not the norm. I will also say that none of my successful students have ended up submitting such "Look at me, I am exceptional in every way!" essays. Their essays might have started that way in a few cases, but we always find something meaningful to the student to tease out that presents a better picture of who that person may be. For instance, I helped one such person develop an idea that he enjoyed learning how things worked, a vague and generic statement that was mentioned in passing and did not really fit into the shell he had written. I asked him about it, and he told me about some of his travel experiences, visiting the world's largest cuckoo clock in Germany, a life-sized, fully functioning clock, and stopping on a landing inside the clock to pause and take in the gears and mechanisms that allowed gravity, with gigantic bags of something or other serving as weights, and circular motion to keep the clock ticking. Anyway, it was this idea, developed, images and all, that he ended up submitting. His scores were a little below 700, but he ended up getting into one Ivy and Booth. You want to put your best foot forward, sure, but you do not want to do so in a patent manner. Consider: who are you behind the scores, behind the business school applicant, behind the aspiring manager-to-be?

2) This is an easier one to field. Yes, you can reinstate your old score, per mba.com, for up to 4 years, 11 months from the time you have taken the test. Everything comes at a price, though. Your scores will be sent to the original recipients, with no option to alter that list, and you will have to purchase additional score reports to submit to any others. In other words, you will be nickel-and-dimed to death, but it can be done. Here is that link:

https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat/after-the-exam/gmat-scores-and-score-reports/cancelling-reinstating-gmat-score

Best of luck to you.

- Andrew