Average score. Strong work experience

Question

I just got my official score delivered. I scored 585 overall, with Q79, V82 and DI76.
The most suprising thing for me is that I got 16 questions correct in both Quant & Verbal. Yet my score is lower than what I expected. Also, my official score report was delivered 10 days after the exam date.

I'm really lost currently. I gave it my all this attempt. I want some clarity regarding 2 things:-
1. Can I apply with a 585 and still get into a good school? (I have a strong work experience)
2. If applying with this score doesn't help, can I connect with someone who can guide me through this so that I can get a really competitive score in the next month or two?

It's an earnest request from my end. Hoping for some positive responses.
Thank you!

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Edskore · Answer

A 585 is below median at most M7/M12 programs, and honestly strong work experience helps but it doesn't fully compensate for that gap at the very top schools. That said, it's not a dead end either.
On your first question: depends a lot on which school. For Tier 1 (HBS, Wharton, Booth, etc.) the median GMAT Focus is around 720+ and a 585 is a significant gap that work experience alone usually won't bridge. For Tier 2 and regional schools, you have more room. Strong work experience genuinely counts there. If you share which schools you're targeting, people here can give you a more concrete read.
On the second question: yes, retaking makes sense if you're aiming higher. One thing I noticed from your post though: you said you got 16 questions correct in both Quant (Q79) and Verbal (V82) but scored lower than expected. That's because GMAT Focus Edition is adaptive and difficulty matters a lot, not just the raw number correct. Getting 16 easier questions right will score lower than getting 16 harder ones right. So the raw count doesn't map cleanly to the score.
For a 1-2 month retake: I'd start by pulling your detailed score report and looking at where time is being lost. From my own prep, the biggest gains came from cutting down on questions where I was spending 3+ minutes and still getting them wrong. You're not going to gain 100+ points from content review alone in that timeframe. Timed practice and review of your error patterns is what actually moves the needle fast.
Good luck with the retake if you go that route.

GreenwichMBA · Answer

PMed you directly

bb · Answer

Thanks for sharing your experience! How were your practice scores? What did you on GMAT Club Tests or GMAT Prep?

The human factor is a big thing in testing. So if you underperformed both GMAT Club and GMAT Prep, then there are potentially steps you can take to address some of the human elements and those often are much faster though sometimes very challenging to address.

KRNSW · Answer

Hi bb,

My mock scores ranged between 605-675. During my prep time, I struggled with Quant and DS. I made it a point to improve on it and during the last days of prep, my efficiency in these improved greatly. Also, in the official exam, I was also able to get most of the questions in Quant correct and made only 1 error in DS.

My verbal has always been strong. I've never scored below 80 in any full-lenghth mock or sectional mock. During the official exam I had 90th percentile in CR and a mere 37th percentile in RC. I'm sure that if I can maintain the CR and improve on RC, a high 85+ in verbal is achievable.

But the most disappointing thing was my score in Quant, I was so conifident in my execution, but I don't know what was the algorithm smoking on test day.😂😂😂

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Getting a score below what you expected after putting in that level of effort is genuinely hard, and it makes sense that you're feeling lost right now. Let me work through both of your questions and address something you flagged that's worth understanding. 
 
On the "16 correct in Quant and Verbal but different section scores" piece: the GMAT Focus is an adaptive test, so your score doesn't depend on the raw count of correct answers. It depends on which questions you got right, how difficult they were, and the pattern of misses. Two test-takers can both get 16 questions correct in Quant and land at significantly different section scores because the algorithm weights harder questions more heavily. Quant and Verbal also have different total question counts (21 vs. 23) and different scaling, so even at the same raw count, the section scores will diverge. That's a useful clue. The path to a higher score isn't just more correct answers, it's getting the harder questions right that you're currently missing. 
 
Now to your questions. 
 
On "can I apply with 585 and get into a good school," I have to be direct. 585 sits at the 61st percentile on the Focus Edition. For most top 25 programs, medians cluster around 685. For top 15 schools, the bar is higher still, typically 705+. That's roughly a 100-point gap to where competitive programs land, and strong work experience helps but generally doesn't close a gap of that size at the upper end. There are good MBA programs outside the top 25 where 585 is more workable, and at some schools strong professional experience does carry real weight. The honest answer depends on what you mean by "good school." For specific school targeting given your full profile, including work experience, GPA, and target industry, r/MBA is the better forum. I'd post your full background there. 
 
On your second question, yes, a meaningful jump in 1 to 2 months is achievable. Looking at your timing chart, a few things stand out.

In Quant, you spent 4.5 minutes on the first question and missed it. That's a red flag, because over-investing on early questions almost always creates time pressure later in the section. You also have a mix of slow misses and fast misses in the 1.0 to 1.8 minute range. Those are two different problems. The slow misses point to concept gaps. The fast misses point to careless errors, misreads, or falling for trap answers.

In Verbal, the misses are scattered across the section with very different times. 1.3 minutes on one wrong answer, 3.2 minutes on another. That spread suggests you don't yet have a consistent, repeatable approach for the harder questions. 
 
DI is your weakest section by percentile and shows the most timing variance, including multiple wrong answers in the 2 to 3 minute range. DI rewards a structured process for each prompt type more than raw effort, so improvements there often come quickly once the approach is dialed in. 
 
The way to make real progress in this window is to stop drilling broadly and go topic by topic. Pick one Quant topic, relearn the concepts and techniques thoroughly, then practice only that topic untimed until your accuracy is consistently high. Do the same in Verbal by question type, not mixed practice. For every miss, diagnose specifically: was it a concept you didn't know, a misread, a careless error, or a trap answer? Then redo the question from scratch later without looking at the solution. If you can't solve it again on your own, the concept isn't solid yet. Only after topical accuracy is high do you add timing, and only after that do you mix topics back into broader sets. 
 
For DI, work the question types one at a time. Two-Part Analysis, Multi-Source Reasoning, Graphics Interpretation, Table Analysis, and Data Sufficiency each have their own logic and pacing, and building a repeatable process for each is what unlocks the section. 
 
The decision between applying now and retaking comes down to two things: which schools are on your list, and how confident you are that a structured rebuild will produce a meaningfully higher score in this window. If your targets are in the top 25, retaking is almost certainly worth it. If they're outside that range and your profile is genuinely strong, applying with the 585 may be viable for a subset of programs.

This article goes deeper on the retake decision:  Should I Retake the GMAT?

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