Should I retake? 680, aiming 720 at least

tfangend,

Congrats on the score. I believe the mean at Fordham is 600 and you should be fine. Do you mind telling us how you did no your practice tests?

Sure, i basically used only Kaplan's book and took 4 CATs from them. Here are the results:

CAT1: 680
CAT2: 690
CAT4: 660
CAT7: 680

GMATPREP1: 660
GMATPREP2: 720

Kaplan has completely wasted my time.. and the real GMAT was really much more difficult than i thought. One of the reasons that i really wanna retake GMAT is that I barely had enough time to finish both Math and Verbal during the test.. This has never happened before in my practice tests. I dont think I was ready for GMAT when I took it

Btw, I studied for 5 weeks. Work at the same time. I dont know if my score is also a reflection of the poor preparation.

Anyway, many thanks to everyone's comments and advice!!!

based on your CATs you probably could score better, but your score is totally good enough to get into fordham. as long as everything else in your package is up to snuff (i.e. do you have the average amount of work experience... is your GPA at least as good as the average GPA) you should have nothing to worry about. will your essays be well written? do you have at least a somewhat interesting background (i.e. not indian male from IT field) if you've got these bases covered relax and enjoy the rest of summer.

unless you are shooting for funding or something like a scholarship or assistantship? are you looking to go off to get a PhD afterwards? if you are doing it just for ego, that is fine too - just be true with yourself regarding the reasons! otherwise you are spending $250 and won't be getting much more in return (i.e. i think you are going to get that acceptance letter whether you get a 680 or 700)

btw- what lowered percentile are you reffering to (acceptance rate?) also, just wondering... have you thought about Baruch? i know they are ranked higher than fordham (although i don't know fordham;s exact rank baruch is 70th) and they are a public college, so it is more affordable.

I just received my writing score today. Got a 6. Very happy about it. i guess it kind of makes up for my poor performance on the verbal part. I didn't really practice writing till the last day before the test. Basically memorize the essay templates from Kaplan. So far, these two templates seem to be the only things that work from Kaplan.

Thanks

I am actually more worried about the AWA than anything else! I am 99% sure I will score in my desired range of 680-720 -- but I have no idea how well my essays will turn out. I have a general template worked out, but I don't like the Issue topics. I have no problem with the Argument topics, but for some of the Issues I have a hard time fleshing out more than 2 or 3 decent ideas

if you have the motivation, i say take the test again
i'm sure with the right material, you can do much better on the verbal
if you'd like the Manhattan GMAT SC Guide, PM me your email id and I could send it to you

For my issue essay on the GMAT, I had no time to come up with the third idea at all. As a matter of fact, I have found it rather difficult to find out what the author's third assumption is. However, I believe if you are able to make the two points you have as strong as possible, two ideas are just as good as three. Organization is key in writing.

Thnx

I would retake it