Took GMAT on 6 April 2016, Confused on retake, Please help

Hi Battleready79x,

While I do know some things about the Admissions Process, I an not an Admissions Expert (but the link that i provided in my prior post will take you to a Forum full of those particular Experts). The Schools that you listed are all highly competitive, popular and receive LOTS of applications, so it's not really possible to define your "chances" at getting accepted to any of them. If you're a strong overall applicant, then the Experts will be able to figure that out. However, beyond having the qualifications, you also have to 'market yourself' to each School in the correct way - since many applicants don't know exactly how to do that, working with an Admissions Expert would likely be a great investment.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

The schools that you have listed are highly competitive and are very difficult to get in. It is great to always aim for the best, but I would recommend you to change the way in which you are selecting your schools. Blindly following a ranking table is the lamest way to select a list of schools for you

You need to look at long term and short term goals, what you want to achieve from an MBA, which geography you want to be in.
All these parameters will help you in finalizing a list of schools where you should apply.

Regarding your score, it is very good and you can apply anywhere you like if clubbed with a good application process. Your CA background will help you to differentiate yourself from the Engineer applicants from India. But since you are from India and the schools desire a higher GMAT score from Indian applicants. So if you think you can, I would say go ahead and put your efforts and increase that score.

All the best!

Thank you OptimusprepJanielle and empowergmatRichc for taking out your time to reply.

After reading your post I checked out your website and found that your admission consultancy success rate for INSEAD and DUKE are particularly high, both of which are on my radar. If I can improve my score to 750+, please suggest what is the probable farthest date by which I need to complete GMAT retake. Also, Will optimusprep take up the Admission consultancy for candidates in India.

Hi Battleready79xn,

You need close to 1.5-2 months to prepare a solid application. So you can calculate backwards from the deadline date of the first school.
Duke has its EA deadline in the month of September, So by July end you should be ready with your GMAT.
Yes we do undertake Admission consultancy for the candidates in India.

Thank you for the prompt reply

Congratulations on your 710! The great thing about this score is that you've already established a pretty high benchmark for yourself, and hence, can't go any lower.

While you've mentioned that you achieved this score with "half-baked" preparation, you have not given any further details on your preparation: this would include some description around the quantum of study that went into your preparation, the resources that you used in your preparation, and the mock test scores that you are getting during your preparation etc.

If you could give those details, then I believe that it would be possible for people to give you a more customised advice in terms of what might work best for you. Looking at your final GMAT score however, I am tempted to suggest that Verbal has more scope for improvement than Quant does. The reason I say this, is because generally it is harder for students to push Quant score from 49 to 50/51, than to push Verbal course from 38 to 40+.

However, this would also depend upon the scores that you were getting in the mock tests, so that we get some comfort level in terms of your pattern & consistency of scores.

I attempted around 4 manhattanprep mock tests and 2 veritasprep mock tests. But every time I attempted them I used the google search or pause button. Scores were in the range of 610 to 740(last three tests were 700+). I attempted around 6 Gmatclub verbal tests and 8 Quant Gmatclub tests. I postponed the official GMAT exam pack to few days before the actual exam but unfortunately I could not attempt the 2 gmatprep tests available as I was busy with my business. Almost completed OG 2015 Quant part but could not complete even 20% of verbal except for sentence correction which I tried to complete. Practiced only 24 questions of IR as I attempted all manhattanprep tests without IR. No other preparation for IR.(IR score 7- 81%ile only) and read two essay formats(AWA 5.5, again 81%ile) before the exam day. Took e-gmat SC course and worked on it very very seriously as I felt(sorry, I know) I am very weak at sentence correction. Have to give GMATCLUB a great review as it has been my backbone of preparation as I would just randomly solve posted questions. I have CFA attempt on June 4. So, I felt I can improve my score by attempting the GMAT around mid-July with somewhat better focus in the month of June. Preparation was in phases, like a continuous study for 2-3 days and then a break and again studying for 2-3 days. This went over for a period of 6 months, when finally I took a break from business to study for a continuous 17 days. Also, thank you for giving me another perspective on the way to move forward. Your question helped me think about the whole process I adapted for the preparation.

Sounds good. Since your scores over the past mocks have been consistently above 700, there is good reason to hope that a month or two of good preparation can significantly boost your score.

Good luck!