Got a 740 (Q49, V42) should I retake?

Question

First of all I would like to express my gratitude to this wonderful community for all the invaluable support and for coming to my rescue every time I was stuck. I would have lost morale early on otherwise.

I gave my gmat yesterday and scored 740 (Q49, V42) which I know is a decent score but (unfortunately) I'm an Indian applicant (Female/liberal arts/4yrs name brand workex/ 4.0 from a top 5 Indian uni in my field but not feeder).

Given that I'm aiming for M7s, H/W included, should I retake? My officials mocks have ranged between 720 - 760, majorly prepared for quants, spent ~20hrs on verbal.

Thank you in advance!

GMATinsight · Answer

I think you should drop the idea of retaking GMAT and focus on GMAT application. You have all the good reasons to be a good candidate for the schools that you are targeting.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi ColumbiaBaby.

You could work on some of your weaker quant areas for a weak or two and prepare for verbal for some reasonable amount of time, maybe 40 hours, and knock the ball out of the park. So, I say go for the retake.

For insights into how to ace GMAT verbal, see these posts.

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

Three Key Practice Tips for Mastering GMAT Verbal

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

A 740 is a great score. If you can bump up the score to a V44 or V45, you should get a 760 with the Q49. Had a student for example get a V45 760.

They went from a V41 to a V45 in about 10 days (6 hours SA tutoring). You may find this tip from them helpful to boost your verbal:

"I would say the simplest thing is to read and understand what the passage is saying for any question type. You are guessing if you lack understanding. Reading carefully and slowly and digesting the information is actually the fastest / most efficient way to go about verbal. You will end up losing out on accuracy AND time if you try to skim, or you read faster than you should. You will miss info and have to rescan, even more inaccurately because of the time crunch.

This is especially helpful for CR. On hard CRs I would spent like 2 min on the passage to figure out what exactly it’s saying and I’m being asked before even looking at the answers. Once I had a solid understanding eliminating / finding iffy answers was very simple."

This is especially helpful for CR. On hard CRs I would spent like 2 min on the passage to figure out what exactly it’s saying and I’m being asked before even looking at the answers. Once I had a solid understanding eliminating / finding iffy answers was very simple."

All the best!

5 Verbal tips

EducationAisle · Answer

Considering that:

i) You are targeting top global schools

ii) In mocks, you have exhibited the potential to get 760 on GMAT

iii) There is still time before the application season kicks-in

I believe that a re-take will not hurt.

All the best!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ColumbiaBaby,

First off, a 7840/Q49 is an outstanding Score, so you can comfortably apply to ANY Business Schools that interest you. As such, a retest is not necessary. Since you are interested in some highly-competitive Schools though, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile and plans. Those Experts should be able to answer your Admissions questions and help define the specific areas of your profile that could use some improvement. There's a Forum full of those Experts here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ask-admissio ... tants-124/

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

KarishmaB · Answer

Female/liberal arts will not be over represented at B schools. 740 is very competitive and above the average score for most schools. You won't be adding many brownie points by kicking up your score by another few points (except if you aim for and get an 800

). You will do well to instead spend your time on your apps and make them shine. It will take multiple rounds and is very time consuming.

Got a 740 (Q49, V42) should I retake?

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