Hello - Seeking some general advice on whether taking the GMAT a third time is a good idea. Here is my breakdown:
took the test once in June and got a 710 (44Q, 41V, IR 5). I figured the low quant score (58th percentile) would be a deal killer, so knew I needed to take it again, but got distracted by work and life and whatnot, so put it off for a while.
I finally got around to taking the test again today and got another 710 (48Q, 40V, IR 7), which I'm pretty neutral towards. The silver lining is that I was able to jack up my quant scores considerably, though at 48Q I'm still at 73rd percentile and below that 80% mark which adcoms probably would want to see. The only reason my raw score didn't change is because my verbal score went from a 41 to 40 (basically 94th percentile to 91st) because I focused almost exclusively on improving my quant scores.
I am looking at top 15 schools generally (definitely not HSW (lol!) but columbia, mit, tuck, yale would be nice but perhaps a stretch). A few other bits about my background:
- english major at a small but highly regarded liberal arts school, took almost no quant classes other than an accounting class. 3.5 gpa
- work experience includes 1.5 yrs as a paralegal at a large law firm and then 2yrs as a compliance officer at a top-10 hedge fund. very little quantitative work involved in either role
- would like to apply first round to several schools this fall and go from there
Would appreciate any insight into whether taking the GMAT a third time is worth it. I think, with some additional practice, I could pretty easily get my verbal score up and get a higher raw score, provided that I can repeat a strong quant performance. But I'm not sure it would really add much more to my profile, other than helping me get over the average GMAT at target schools.
Appreciate any comments or insights you have. If I'm totally nuts even looking at these schools, would certainly appreciate that as well.