selene wrote:
hey rhyme,
Don't feel so bad.. 640 is a decent score.. Really, you don't need to talk as if it is the end of the world..
Do you need to get a higher score for the school you want ?
The frustration selene is that I absolutely should have done better. My math scores on practice exams were consistent. My math score my first attempt was also consistent with my practice exams.
The reality of it is, I SHOULD have scored 42-44 on math, and 42-45 on verbal. That would have been a 690-720. Every practice exam I took indicated this was going to be the range.
Thats why bombing the math SOOO BAD is SOOO frustrating. Something happened. I don't know what. If I'd been scoring all over the board on math to begin with (a 33 is lower than I scored BEFORE I EVER STUDIED!) then at least I could say, well, crap, I knew my math score was up in the air... It shouldn't have been. It was a known quantity.
Part of me says, screw it, its a 640, its a good enough score for many universities, and since MBA reports both scores anyway they will see that I did good on both math and verbal the first time and then poor and amazing on verbal the second time. The hope is that they notice that.
Part of me says, I HAVE to take it again.
The list of schools I'd like to go to, a 640 is within the ranges of the scores they accept. It's not a stellar score by any means.
Possible destinations (I've yet to make up my mind really) include: KGSM part time (possible with a 640), Chicago Part time (no chance), Haas (hard sell), Tepper (possible), Tippie (possible), Cornell (possible), Darden (hard), Duke (hard), Sloan (hard), Georgetown (should be a gimme)... the list is, as you can tell, not short enough... A 640 is FEASIBLE but not the most likely either.
My inclination right now is to stick to what I've always said - the school you go to will affect that first job out of school, but what you do in the five years following graduation will play a much bigger role in determining how your career plays out than what school you went to - the implication, of course, is to not retake the GMAT, accept that I failed, and move on.
I know I sound like one of those guys who comes in here and screams "I got a 720!! DO I RETAKE?" .... and you want to come through the screen and stab them. For that I apologize, I was just expecting better. The irony of it is, when I got a 640 the first time, I was happy with that.
I'm going out drinking right after I stop crying.