Help needed: Venezuelan profile evaluation

Question

Hi all. Been a long time lurker, reading from work and home how to master the first key to managing your future: taking the Gmat.

I took the test yesterday, and didnt score that well. I got a 640 (Q48 82% V31 58%). However, i scored in gmatprep consistently V38 in at least 4 tests, and even got a V41 in one of them. My scores ranged from 700-730 on Gmatprep. That makes me feel misarable at this time since i was aiming at least for a 48 36... rounding 680ish

I felt the verbal section on the GMAT was way more difficult than Gmatprep and OG. Way more!.. In CR i would constantly get to the answer without too much thinking, but that wasnt the case at the real thing. Same thing with RC's, they were just brutal. Long RC's filled with syllogisms and relationships with questions regarding those details.. Quant was easy compared to MGMAT, a little trickier than GMAT prep, but not more difficult.

My preperation consisted of three months of studying, with all of the MGMAT's Guides. I went through all of them, and must say that they are pretty good. I also did all of the excersices in OG11 and OG12. I did all of the MGMAT tests too, with scores ranging in 680-700, splitted as Q48-Q51 (Yeah!) and V35-V36

Now on to the good: Should i retake?. A little about me (Im just gonna paste my CV)
________________________________________________________________________________________________
OCT 2002 - MAR 2008
UNIVERSIDAD SIMÓN BOLÍVAR, (U.S.B.)
Production Engineer. GPA 4.1/5.0
Caracas, Venezuela
WORK EXPERIENCE
MAR 2008 - PRESENT
Efficiences de Venezuela, Consulting firm
Business Consultant
Caracas, Venezuela
• Leader of a 3 member team in a strategic sourcing project, for the Auto Insurance Branch of a Top 10 performing Insurance
Company in Venezuela. Responsible for executing a savings opportunity analysis, as well as for
implementing the proposed sourcing strategy. Leader and designer of a Non-linear simulation model
comprised of over 5000 variables used in the validation of the supposed savings obtained through the
sourcing project. 30% savings in auto parts purchases were obtained, with a feasibility of occurrence of 95%.
• Leader and designer of a Non-linear simulation model for the evaluation of different selling prices strategies
to be implemented during a 3 year period, for the business intelligence products offered by a top
Venezuelan credit bureau
• Team member in an evaluation and process redesign project for all the processes compelled in both the
Auto and Health Branches, for a Top 10 performing Insurance company in Venezuela
• Team member in a Strategic Planning Project for a top Venezuelan credit bureau. Responsible for the
analysis and forecasting of several political-economical scenarios for a 3 year old period. Responsible for
correlating and scrutinizing different macro economic variables to the Company’s product sales
• Leader of a Cash-on-demand Sourcing Project for a top Venezuelan financial group comprised of 3 banks,
totaling 180 Agencies and 220 Atm’s nationwide. Estimated savings of 25% on operational costs due to the
implementation of the designed sourcing strategy
JUL 2007 - DEC 2007
Danaven S.E. (Chassis Assembly Plant)
Long internship. Awarded with Honorific Mention
Valencia, Venezuela
• “Evaluation and improvements on the materials handling plans for all the assembly lines of Danaven S.E.”.
JUL 2006 - OCT 2006
Machine Dynamics Laboratory (U.S.B.)
Short Intership.
Caracas, Venezuela
• “Redesign of the BAJA SAE USB 2005-2006 for its mass production”.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
JUL 2007 - PRESENT Technical Advisor BAJA SAE USB team
MAY 2006 - JUL 2007 Technical Director BAJA SAE USB team
JAN 2005 - MAY 2006 Engine & Transmission Captain. Founding member of BAJA SAE USB BAJA SAE USB team
CONGRESSES
JUN 2006 “5th Congress of Auto Management and Technology” USB Organizer
JUN 2005 “4th Congress of Auto Management and Technology” USB Exhibitor
NOV 2003 “3rd Congress of Auto Management and Technology” USB Organizer
NOV 2002 “Marketing new tendencies Symposium” USB Participant
COURSES
JUL 2009 “Financial mangement principles” MonteAvila University
MAR 2009 “Effective presentations workshop” Cambridge Consulting
OCT 2008 “Harvard Model negotiation and mediation workshop” Cambridge Consulting
SEP 2008 “Basic Consulting: Solving a business case” Efficiences de Venezuela
HABILITIES, HOBBIES, AWARDS
• Experienced in Office®, Minitab®, AutoCAD®, SURFCAM®, Photoshop®, Macromedia FreeHand®. 2 Years
experience with Crystall Ball®. 4 Years experience with Solidworks® and Cosmoworks Professional®
• Mother tongue spanish. Fluent in engligh and portuguese
• “Erasmus Mundus” scolarship awardee for the “Msc. EUMAS European Masters Course in Aeronautics and
Space Technology” for the 2010 class
• Car and photography enthusiast
________________________________________________________________________________________________

I want to apply to IE, IESE, and ESADE. Can i stand a chanche? what about scholarships? I know I will have to work very hard in my essays given the low gmat, but are my chances on getting accepted greatly diminished by this GMAT? im actually considering retaking the exam without studying, since I want to apply for 1st round, and thats due to 30 days from now... What do you guys think? To retake or not to retake? given the fact that I dont have enough time to study again since i want to apply 1st round..

Thanks a lot in advance!!!!!!!!

Jeanette · Answer

if you're confident you can do better, take it again.

quick question: when you took practice tests, did you make sure to do the essays at the beginning?

paulobajasaeusb · Answer

Hi jeannette. No i didnt do any of the essays, nor i practiced them before taking the exam. I read chineseburned AWA guide, and must say i felt extremely comfortable during the essay, and afterwards during the exam, at least regarding exhaustion. I am pretty confident my essays were at least very good, and i think that my math section went pretty well.

What i did was to take the exam's after work.. i work usually 12 hours a day, and felt this was a much more tiring set up for taking the exam than getting up, resting the whole morning and taking the exam with essays included. I even took two tests at the same time my exam was scheduled jut to replicate everything, except for the essays.

I think that in general, i wasnt as concentrated on Verbal as I should have been, since i was not worried at all how my performance would be, given that I had gotten V38 straight in a lot of tests. Actually, i was much more nervous about Quant, since i kept running out of time during my mock ups.

What i think is the most important factor is that Gmatprep Verbal, as well as OG verbal, are not representative of the Real GMAT verbal questions. I dont know, i think im gonna take it again, the thing is that i already exhausted evry material i have.

Regarding the profile and Gmat, would you say its good enough for these schools?

Thanks in advance,

Kind regards

mirfan2 · Answer

You stand a decent chance at ESADE, but IESE or IE, especially IE is going to be really tough to get into. You can take IE's own specialized test, which in essence is similar to the GMAT at no extra cost.

Help needed: Venezuelan profile evaluation

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