Should I retake the GMAT? Low quant, high verbal

Question

I recently took the gmat and got a 710 (Q43 V45 IR6 AWA6).

I was am happy with my overall score, but I want to understand how competitive I am for schools like USC (Marshall)? I have been given conflicting advice on if I should retake or not. I studied pretty hard for this test and mostly focused on quant.

omizzle · Answer

I would retake. Q43 is ~50%.. could raise questions about why its so low. Worst case, you can't raise it and apply with the 710.

bb · Answer

It depends on your profile. You may not be a math person (sorry for stereotyping) and that's OK. You can be unique. We had a moderator @michmax - she got Q44 V44 and got in pretty much everywhere she applied and ended up going to Ross.

I don't think a low quant score is always a liability. You can make it a strength if you are well spoken, interview well and have other qualities to show for it. Schools want a diverse classroom; that's why they take in athletes, singers, and pro poker players. They don't want to have Q50's only but again, you have something unique to show for it.

At this point, you want to consider your application in entirety - what is the best ROI for your time? It may be working on essays, volunteering and extracurricular profile or it may be retaking the gmat ;-)

Good luck!

Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum

Good luck! Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum

GMATNinja · Answer

Congrats on the great score, nbock ! As usual, I agree with bb that the retake decision ultimately depends on a whole lot of other stuff in your profile. We've all seen plenty of folks with weak quant scores do fine in admissions, as long as they have other ways of showing MBA programs that they can handle the academic work. I'll come at this from a different direction, though: you have an incredible verbal score, so if you can get the quant up in the ~65th percentile range, you'll be set up for a composite in the mid-700s, and that *might* really change things for you in terms of your target schools. I'm convinced that nearly anybody can get to a 47 in quant with enough work and pain. I'm not saying that it's always worth it, but it's worth thinking about. And if you could please bottle up whatever you're doing on the verbal and send it over to us here in the verbal forum, we'd all be eternally grateful.

Congratulations again!

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Should I retake the GMAT? Low quant, high verbal

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