Bombed my IR, does this kill my chances @ Rotman, Schulich?

I agree completely with AbhiJ: the IR isn't going to be taken seriously by top schools anywhere, at least for now. A huge proportion of applicants are going to submit GMAT scores without the IR section this year, and it just wouldn't be fair to take the IR into consideration for only a handful of students.

So don't worry about the IR, and just celebrate the fact that you came awfully close to the 700 club.

Sorry to dig up an old thread.

Just finished retaking my GMAT last night, and was able to pull my score from 700 to 710 (Q48, V39). However, for some odd reasons my IR score dropped from 7 to 1. I have completely no idea how that happened...

Even though IR isn't that important compared to Q and V, but I think an 1 in IR will most likely raise some concerns. Not sure what the schools would think when they see the dramatic drop in the IR score..

Does my situation warrant a retake?

Boilingh2o, I guess my first reaction is… congratulations on the 710!

And my second reaction is… how the heck did that happen on the IR section?!? That's a huge drop, and it's tough to come up with a reasonable explanation for it, unless you just guessed your way through.

Although the IR score is a bit of a shock, I still wouldn't bother to retake, especially if you're planning to apply to schools for round 2. If I were on an admissions committee, I would just assume that you guessed on the IR to save energy, since you'd already done really well on a previous attempt at it. Sure, the IR score isn't ideal, but I really don't think that it will be the deciding factor that keeps you out of business school. The adcom already knows that you're capable of doing well on the IR, and they know that you're capable of repeatedly rejoining the 700 club. At that point, your candidacy is very likely to depend on other factors (work experience, extracurriculars, career vision, demographics, essays, recommendations, etc.).

And besides, we're still just in year 2 of the IR experiment, and I don't think that most schools are taking it too seriously yet. Retaking the exam just to compensate for one bad IR day--when you already had one really good IR day--seems excessive to me. I would just concentrate on writing the best applications you possibly can at this point in the calendar.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your applications!

I'll think about it.
Thanks GMATNinja!