Should I Retake the GMAT, 750 with Low Quant (47/47)? + My Study Story

Hi everyone! First, let me say that I found the GMATClub community very valuable while studying for the GMAT and I really appreciate all of the awesome people who answer questions on this forum.

I took the GMAT for the first time last week and scored a 750. While I am okay with this score (I was aiming for something in the 750-780 range), I am somewhat concerned about my quant/verbal split. I received a 47 in quant and a 47 in verbal, which means that I am only in the 61st percentile for quant, but the 99th percentile for verbal. My IR score was an 8 (92nd percentile).

I am wondering if I should be concerned about my low quant score/if this would warrant a retake? Would the low quant score throw up any red flags about my math abilities for the folks in admissions at M7 schools? I do have somewhat of a quantitative background from undergrad education, though certainly not extensive or advanced (supply chain, information systems, data analytics were my majors/minors), so not sure if this would help prove my quantitative abilities.

Let me explain my situation and provide my profile for some context. I am currently a college senior and I plan to apply to MBA programs about 2.5 years post-graduation. My target schools are Northwestern, Harvard, MIT, and Wharton. If I am unsuccessful in applying to these M7 schools, then I will likely seek a program in the top 10-30 range with the goal of earning a large (near-full-ride) scholarship.

For context, I am a white male from a middle-class background. It is my understanding that a 750 GMAT is currently on the lower side of what makes a white male applicant a realistic candidate for an M7 school, which is why I am a little concerned about my overall score and particularly concerned about my quant.

The 47 quant score that I received on test day was certainly lower than I expected, but not significantly so. I took 3 GMAT Official Prep practice tests in the back-half of my study period. My scores are below:

GMAT Official Prep Test 2: 740 (Q48, V44)
GMAT Official Prep Test 3: 760 (Q49, V47)
GMAT Official Prep Test 4: 780 (Q50, V49)

Based on these results and my general improvement trend during my study time, I expected a quant score of either 48 or 49 on test day. A 47 wasn't that far below my expectations, but I definitely think I could do a just a little bit better on a second test (I only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before my test). My verbal score was exactly where I expected it to be. Again, my main question is: would it be worth it for me to re-take the test for the possibility of improving to a 760-770 with a quant score of 47-49 or is this overkill/a waste of time and money?

My profile is below for further evaluation and my GMAT prep/study plan is also below if anyone is interested.




GMAT Score: 750 (Q47, V47, IR8) as discussed above

Undergrad Education: 4.0 GPA with a double major in Supply Chain and Information Systems (minor in BUS Analytics) at a solid but not top public school (think approx. 100 on US News rankings, top 50 public) with a solid business school (ranked 25-50). I see this as a weakness in my profile due to the non-elite undergrad brand.

Work Experience: Will be working in a supply chain rotational program at a low-brand-power Fortune 200 manufacturer. I made the decision to do this very purposefully, as I believe that this company will offer me much more responsibility, exposure, and a more true business/ops background than I would get in a more prestigious industry like consulting. I plan to highlight this choice and how it impacted my growth in my application essays.

Extracurriculars: In college, I was the president of a student-run consulting firm and I helped lead a student-run venture capital fund. I plan to get involved as a volunteer at an incubator or venture fund in the area where I will be working full-time after graduation. I may also volunteer as a high school baseball coach.

Career Goals: Still undecided on whether I will continue in supply chain post-MBA or move towards a general management path. My end-goal is to be in the C-suite at a F100 and I really want to get some solid management experience to help prepare me for that, which is why I'd like to attend a top b-school.

Ultimately, I see the main weaknesses of my profile as my undergrad and employer brands, but please correct me if I am wrong.




I am just posting this in case anyone finds it helpful for their own studying purposes. Since I am currently in school and had some free time over my winter break, I thought it would be pretty easy/straightforward to study for the GMAT. My first mistake was that I underestimated the prep time needed to be a successful GMAT test-taker. Without doing much research or any studying, I signed up for a GMAT test date that was only 3 weeks away. I do not recommend doing this, as it can induce unneeded stress if you underestimate the difficultly of the test.

I started by taking a GMAT Official Prep practice test and scored a 720 (Q46, V42). I then began studying for the quant and verbal sections individually.

For quant practice, I purchased official GMAT practice questions for $30 and used Magoosh's free GMAT quant practice questions, sorted by category (these were VERY helpful). I used periodic practice tests to gauge my progress and determine which quant areas merited most of my attention. I found GMATClub very helpful when stumped on an official practice question that I just couldn't quite figure out.

For verbal practice, I reviewed common GMAT idioms and did a quick course refresher on grammar rules using the free GMAT advice section of The Economist. I also used the purchased practice questions for additional verbal practice.

I studied for about three weeks in total, but I devoted significant study time (4-5 hours) to every day in this time period since I was on winter break. My main takeaways were that I underestimated the effort needed to study for the test and that I probably devoted too much time to taking practice tests and not enough time to focusing in on my weak areas (particularly in quant, where a little bit of studying/learning how to attack problems can go a long way). I would recommend to anyone studying to carefully consider what you think you will need to do to feel prepared for the exam. In my case, I found that I did not need to "waste" money on more expensive official prep materials like the OG, so I just focused on getting free or very cheap practice materials online. These are readily available, so do not feel like you need to pay for practice materials (although I did drop $30 on some official practice questions and $50 on two additional practice tests to boost my confidence on test day). Hope this helps all of you pre-test folks out there!

Thank you in advance for your help and please let me know if there are any other questions I can answer!