Seeking Advice - Retake GMAT?

Its good that you have already gone for the ESR.
I would say schedule a free consultation with an admissions consultant. You can discuss your full profile including leadership experiences and extra curriculars to really see if there is a need to go for a higher score or if the other aspects of the profile are good enough to compensate.

Hi blight12,

Your mock test scores are significantly above the 700 that you finally got. This is what we would suggest:
- Did you see repeat questions on the later GMATPrep tests (i.e. either questions from the earlier tests or questions from any other practice material or tests)? If that was the case, even a few questions can skew your mock test scores. If you feel that was not the case, then a drop of ~60-70 points from the mocks to the real test is substantial, and even unusual.
- Getting down to the 2 last options on RC and then having difficulty in choosing among them could be a result of the 'may be true' v/s 'must be true' selection. The best way to overcome this is not more practice or going over concepts again, but simply going over these kinds of questions (several of them) that you get wrong to see how and why you make the wrong choice here. Not easy, yes, but if done right it will get you tremendous results.
- Given that you are targeting Jan deadlines, and have the potential to score in the 750+ range, you should certainly be retaking the test. This is even more important given your list of target schools.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hey GyanOne,



On the later GMATPrep tests I came across a handful I'd seen before during the course of study but with that said within that set there were still questions that I missed in both study and practice exams. Additionally, in only one of the practice exams did I finish with more than 1 minute left on the clock inclusive of the quant & verbal question sets (there were still questions where I was spinning-my-wheels / going down the rabbit-hole). I felt a 50-70 point swing was relatively extreme on the basis of having previously seen a number of questions as I was in the 720 - 740 range with all new questions but I guess if you include the nerves / stress on first time taking the actual test it's quite possible.

I received my ESR last night and will attach it once I have the additional posts necessary to allow for posting an attachment

I stand corrected that it was not the RC that was my undoing but CR with a horrific start to the section. On the quant section I hit a wall / started spinning-my-wheels on a few problems that messed with the time management in the back-half of the section. If I recall correctly I tried to finish the last 5-6 questions in about 3 minutes.

Please let me know your thoughts / impressions on the ESR.

Appreciate the response nishantd88.

Question for you - is there a point in time during the application process / admissions timeline that consultants will no longer take candidates on from a time constraint perspective? I understand they may have hit their limit from a number of client perspective but didn't know if that was the case on actual time.

Hi blight12

Thanks for sharing that. Definitely helps on the analysis. Would be happy to review the ESR. Further suggestions based on what you shared:
- Seems like some questions did repeat, although you might still not have realized that initially and so still spent time solving them. Still, even if you got a couple right because you remembered some part from earlier, it will skew the scores. Do watch out for this factor in more mocks you do. However, even if we assume that the natural level was at 740-50 instead of 770, a drop to 700 says that something went wrong in the real thing.
- On the timing part, would suggest that next time you do the real thing exactly like a mock (no double checking, no re-reading questions to make sure, no spending extra time on questions where you're almost there) and that should help you get a score closer to your natural level.

Will look forward to the ESR. Meanwhile, feel free to post any other questions or perspectives. Thanks.

GyanOne - would it be alright if I PM'd you my ESR snapshots?

Its a bit difficult for me to say since I too am an applicant like you.
However, some consultants I spoke to did say that I should enroll withing the next X days else slots would get filled up. So it may be a case that they were putting a cap on the number of applicants they work with for an application round. Or it may as well have been a marketing ploy to show that there's a rush and get me to hurry up and enroll.

This post may help you :

https://gmatclub.com/forum/should-i-ret ... ml?fl=menu
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Of course it is great to share. There are many people who have shared it.
souvik101990 has shared it and so did ChiranjeevSingh . Please search their posts those are amazingly knwoeldgeful.
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After looking at your mock score I feel you must retake the GMAT and at least aim for a score around your median/mode mock score in 6 official mocks!

All the very best!!
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