750 First Time GMAT - Advice on retake?

Question

Hi all,

As a long time lurker, I wanted to thank the community for all the help I've received here, whether from reviewing excellent explanations to problems, or from informative debriefs after test day.

My debrief is a bit bittersweet -- I have a pretty reasonable score (750, 50Q 42V), but I have to say it came far out of left field in terms of all the possible scenarios I envisioned and I'm now undecided on whether to retake, given that I come from an overrepresented demographic.

Before I get to the fun part, here are a couple of questions, which you may find easier to answer after reading my debrief and taking a look at my mock scores:

1) Should I even retake? Target schools are in the top 5/10, the usual suspects. I went to a top tier LAC for undergrad, but as mentioned before, am from a demographic that is notorious for high GMAT scores.
2) My plan is to get my ESR to see what happened on Verbal this time.
3) I really did not enjoy quant during the test. Even though TTP has been great in getting me this far, I'm wondering about materials for a retake. My current plan is to do the GMAT Club tests.
4) I've done each of the GMAT prep mocks once. What mocks should I use for the next rodeo? Manhattan?

Here's a more detailed debrief.

Starting prep (August)

I started my prep by taking GMAT Prep 1 cold. No review (I didn't even know how to solve DS problems) and it showed. I ended up with a 700 (40Q, 45V). Note the 45V here, especially in context of my 42V on the actual thing; this is a contrast that will become ever more jarring through the rest of my debrief. In any case, it informed my (perhaps, in retrospect, foolhardy) decision to go all in on Quant.

Manhattan Quant Review (September - Mid October)

Went through all the Manhattan Quant guides. As people on here with far more experience with the alternatives have commented, these are extremely valuable to get you acquainted with the scale of the task ahead of you (unless you're one of those quant whizzes that was born knowing things like, for example, that a perfect square has an odd number of total factors). My one fault with these materials is that they assume minimal prior knowledge and the problems do not mimic the GMAT in any way. There's not enough practice after each chapter to actually ingrain the concepts, unless you gather problems from OG/elsewhere, which requires time/effort. If you bought all the books like I did, you might have also found the "filler" chapters on DS/plugging in numbers a bit annoying. In any case, I'd say look at these if you're on a budget.

In Limbo (Mid to Late October)

Even though I had reviewed all the Manhattan books, I thought my quant was not up to par, just based on how I was feeling. I decided to go ahead and try TTP, because I enjoy structured learning/reading from textbooks, and just wanted to get enough reps in to feel comfortable with the basic concepts. I started my TTP review in late October.

TTP Review (November)

Nothing much to say here - just went through the TTP program. I thought it really conveyed large majority of facts very concisely and then drilled them into your head with repetition, which is just what I needed at the time. I did not use any other resource for Quant, other than looking at problems on GMAT club every so often.

Verbal Review and Practice Exams (December - Early Jan) 
I finally got cracking with Verbal in early december. I went through Manhattan's SC guide, which I found was as advertised. I also looked through some resources online for CR. I didn't touch RC, since English is my native language and I also happen to read a lot of non-fiction. I felt confident I would be able to handle RCs on the tests.

Alright, now to the fun (albeit not so much at the time) part - GMAT Preps. I took 5 of them and scored pretty well. All of them (save the last one, where I skipped IR and AWA) were taken in exam conditions in the order Q-V-IR-AWA. I tried my best not to practice questions from the preps beforehand, and don't recall many repeat questions. If there were any, they would've been in Quant since I barely practiced verbal.

GMAT Prep 2 (Dec 7) - 790 (Q50 V51 IR8; I was shocked at the V51, given the fact that I'd only studied for 2-3 days)

GMAT Prep 3 (Dec 22) - 780 (Q50 V47 IR8; Ok, V47, still pretty good, right? And I was still clinging onto the Q50 for dear life)

GMAT Prep 4 (Dec 29) - 790 (Q51 V51 IR8; V51 again?? I'm feeling like I'm on to something here. Separately, the math on this particular test was ridiculously easy. I CTRL F'ed all the questions I got and like two of them were above 55% difficulty on GMAT club)

GMAT Prep 5 (Jan 1) - 770 (Q49 V47 IR7; Uh oh, now I'm worried about my Q score.)

GMAT Prep 6 (Jan 7) - 780 (Q50 V49 No IR on this one; Ok, so it's going to be touch and go between Q49 and 50 on this test, and there's always the risk of slipping below that. I was hopeful at this point that my verbal would not be lower than 44.)

I also noticed that I got every CR and RC question correct on the preps. The couple of mistakes were on SC questions.

Test day (Jan 9)

I'll spare you my mundane morning routine, but I got to the center on time and checked in. I wasn't super nervous (it's tough to rationalize nerves when you know you have 7 more attempts to get something right, and also because I'm not applying to school until the fall). Anyway, I go ahead with the section order that had become routine at this point (Q-V-IR-AWA).

Quant - I thought this was way harder than the GMAT Preps. I always thought something was off on the preps, because some of the questions were so easy, even when I was scoring 50. By the end of the section, I was convinced I wouldn't hit 48, but wasn't down enough for it to impact my verbal.

Verbal - I thought this was in line with the GMAT Preps as I worked through it. But then I ran out of time and couldn't select an answer for the very last question (big mistake?). Anyway, I just wanted to do IR and AWA and get out of there.

IR - This was pretty much in line with the Preps.

I finished up my AWA, hit enter, and see 750 (Q50 V42). I was shocked at both scores for different reasons. I expected Quant to be way lower; guess I got a few of the experimental Qs wrong at that allowed me to scrape the 50. But what about that V score -- it was far lower than any of my prep scores! Heck, it was way lower than my diagnostic score! Honestly, couldn't have seen that coming, although the overall score was in line with preps if you tell me that one can expect to score within 30 points of his/her lowest prep. I canceled the score, knowing I could reinstate, and will purchase an ESR when it is ready.

IanOfficial · Answer

TargetTest Prep for Quant, what would you recommend for Verbal?

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exliontamer · Answer

This may not be super helpful, but as I mentioned above, my preparation for verbal was fairly limited given my diagnostic and GmatPrep scores. I would say that Manhattan's SC guide is a must. I didn't review any professionally produced materials for CR or RC. For CR, I went through Whiplash's CR Guide, which I've linked below. I'll wait for my ESR to diagnose what went wrong with Verbal today, and then might be on the lookout for resources, just as you are! https://gmatclub.com/forum/zomg-the-ban ... 00473.html

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Many people score lower on verbal on the actual GMAT than they do on their practice tests, and much of the time, the reason why people score lower is that, during their prep, they got into the habit of looking for, expecting, or applying certain patterns that people involved in GMAT preparation have all seen, because those patterns appear in questions in the OG and in the GMAT Prep practice tests.

Also, there seems to be a bit of a cat and mouse game going on between what people do to prep for verbal and how verbal questions that appear on the actual GMAT are written. The test-makers want people to use vision and logic to answer the questions, and so, any patterns that people commonly use when answering the questions the test-makers seem to do their best to make useless. I'm not saying that this description is exactly correct, but something along those lines seems to go on.

The upshot is that, to effectively prepare for and score high on GMAT verbal, you have to be careful not to become too pattern driven and, rather, to use basic logic and, when necessary, out of the box thinking, as much as possible.

For instance, in Sentence Correction, if you focus on looking for the subject-verb agreement issues or modifier issues that we have all seen before, you could totally miss a new twist that a Sentence Correction question writer came up with. So, you have to keep your way of looking at the questions fresh, holistic, and open-minded, similar, in a way, to how it was when you took your first practice test.

So, your move going forward is to go back to GMAT verbal and analyze a lot of questions, seeking to see the logic of why every answer choice is incorrect or correct and to clearly define that logic. You could even analyze questions that you have already seen. The point is to become super good at seeing everything that's going on in the questions, so that, no matter what they put into verbal questions that you see when you take the actual GMAT, you will pick up on it and arrive at the correct answers.

People talk about timed practice, but to take verbal to the level you want to take it to, timed practice is not the move. You have to become so good at seeing what's going on the questions that the time allotted per question is almost irrelevant, because you see what's going on so readily.

freedom128 · Answer

I think it is wise to reinstate your 750 score, although I believe you deserve a score that is significantly higher than 750. 750 is still a great score (98th %tile).

If you wish to retake again and score higher than 750, then the schools will see your substantial positive progress. When you score 750 or lower in your retake, you can conveniently and immediately cancel your retake score and proceed to MBA application.

Just fyi, I have a friend who got 750 and is now doing 2-year full time MBA in Kellogg (one of top M7), but without scholarship.

If you are thinking of Stanford or Harvard, perhaps retaking is a very good bet for better chance of acceptance or/and scholarship.

Congrats for 750 and wish I can reach beyond that soon.

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gmat1393 · Answer

Congratulations  exliontamer  on the 750!!
Very Nice debrief!

exliontamer · Answer

That's a good point. I might do that. I'd love to go to H/S, but they seem especially difficult for someone with my profile, especially S. The others like Columbia, Booth, and Wharton seem to really care about the GMAT, which is what makes me inclined to retake, so I have a better shot against others from my demographic and am not dinged straight up because my GMAT is too low. Of course, I may be hyperventilating a bit, but given my Prep scores, I think there's some chance of improving and I'd like to shoot my shot. Thanks for your comment and good luck to you!

MartyTargetTestPrep  - thanks for all the work you and the rest of the TTP team put into your program. As I mentioned to Jeff, I think it's a great option to get up to speed with the theory and do a lot of practice. With reference to your response and comment about the evolving nature of the Verbal section, I completely agree. I saw some very odd/nuanced idioms on the test (notably, one of the questions seemed to test the difference between the phrases "back down" and "back off" in a business context, which was weird to see).

Separately, I got a chance to take a look at my ESR. I was able to get 100% of my RC questions, CR "Plan" questions, and SC "Communication" questions correct. I lost points on CR "Analysis" and SC "Grammar" questions. Would I be able to tackle relevant SC questions by filtering to questions tagged with "Grammatical Construction" on the SC forum? I'm looking to retake in 3 weeks.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Exactly. I'm glad that it worked for you.

Now, to increase your quant score, keep doing topic by topic practice to become more comfortable with topics in which you are less strong currently, AND work on becoming better, in general, at hacking and at avoiding being tricked.

The expressions "back down" and "back off" are pretty commonly used in English, and GMAT Sentence Correction is not meant to test language skills as much as it is to test perception. So, while it's a little surprising to see those expressions used in creating decision points, it's not THAT surprising. Really, anything goes in SC, as long as the wording used is not so arcane that many test-takers would not be familiar with it.

I think you would have to run a bunch of different filters, such as Adjectives and Adverbs, Pronouns, and Subject-Verb Agreement, and use a bunch of different sets of questions to get complete grammar practice.

Just remember to go beyond grammar even when you are doing grammar focused practice. Analyze all aspects of the different versions carefully to train your eye.

On another note, when you take the verbal section of the test, or of a practice test, be super intense and careful. Being super intense and careful is a huge part of verbal success. I'm pretty sure that, were you able to go over the questions that you missed when you took the GMAT, you would find that, had you just caught a few more things, you would have gotten all, or close to all, of them correct.

Enjoy the game!

nurba92 · Answer

reminded me Gary Lineker saying "Messi considers 40 goals in a season a "bad" season whereas my 40 goals were the best season in my life. How sh*t I was"

bb · Answer

Ha-ha. I have considered retaking my 750 for a day perhaps. Back then it was 99th percentile and the idea that I could improve the score but not the percentile killed any foolishness my mind had about retaking and paying another $250.

Congrats!

Congrats!

exliontamer · Answer

I looked up a few MBAs from my demographic that went to the schools I'm targeting on Linkedin and even on my company directory. 95% of them that disclosed a score had 760+ on the GMAT. Just ridiculous.

Honestly, I didn't mean to come off that way! I think the trend of people taking the test several times to hit a 780 is just ridiculous. If I was part of any other demographic targeting the set of schools that I am targeting, I'd be more than satisfied with a 750, especially the Q50.

bb · Answer

Got it. By the way, have you tried looking through the decision tracker filters? You can get a pretty accurate picture, more so than on LinkedIn. Just a thought.

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exliontamer · Answer

I just did that, and wow, thanks for the suggestion. I'm seeing quite a few 750s on some of the M7 schools I'd love to get admitted at. That makes me feel a lot better about going into the season with a 750, even if I don't bump my score by 20 points or so on a retake!

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi exliontamer,

Great job with the 750! If you feel that you can hit 770, there is no reason not to give the GMAT another shot. You have the 750 in your back pocket, so there is nothing to lose.

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