GMAT - 630 (V44/Q32)

Question

Took my GMAT today and I'm not incredibly happy with my score. I prepared for about 7 weeks, spending 5-6 hours a day, 6 days a week. Quant has always been my weakness and it proved to be the case on the test today. I scored 44 in verbal, which was the 97th percentile, but only scored a 32 in quant, which was the 32nd percentile. I felt like I completely blanked out on the Quant section. I was seeing problems very similar to ones I had seen before but, for whatever reason, I couldn't seem to come up with the formula or solution. It's like my brain stopped working. It was incredibly frustrating! I really don't want to have to study for another month to take the test again, but feel I should, especially since I'm shooting for the Top 10 league...Harvard, Stanford, etc. My GPA is 3.97 (summa cum laude, graduated second in my class) from one of the top 5 ranked liberal arts colleges in the U.S., so I feel if I can boost my score 50 points, I have a fighting chance, even though it's still below the median score for those schools. Anyway, just sharing my experience.

bakfed · Answer

hi migaveli, don't give up! Though your quant is not up there (just yet), your verbal rocks!!!

I know it sounds dreadful, but I think you should give it another time. Since you were a liberal arts major, you'll have to demonstrate to these top-notch b-schools that you're capable of handling their quant-heavy courses. Having said that, Q32 really puts you at the bottom of the food chain. Unless you have some amazing quant experiences for work or extracurricular activities, I see that quant score being a handicapped for you.

lalithajob · Answer

Nothing to worry! If you could improve on your quants to about 44, then you could easily boost your score above 700.

aim730 · Answer

Hey migaveli
You need to invest time on the things you week with in Quants 
Don't worry Quants score can be easily increased by 50 points in your case it can be more bec you don't have to worry about Verbal......
Just don't give up fighting
Best way to increase the score is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE and PRACTICE!!!!
Just believe in yourself that you can do it....
Best of luck...!!!!

gtr022001 · Answer

Yes very nice verbal score, can you tell us your verbal study strategy?

sarathy · Answer

Congratulations, migaveli - 630 is a good score. However, if you are applying to the top 10 schools, it might not be enough. Why? If I was in the adcom, on seeing that you are a liberal arts grad, the first thing i would ask myself is "Can he cope with the quant heavy courses". My first instict would be to confirm this by checking out how you fared in the Quant portion of the GMAT. 
I know its frustrating to have to study all over agaib, but believe me it will be well worth it. A jump to 45 shouldn't be that hard, and should be enough. The alternative is to take a couple of quants courses e.g. calculus and statistics. However, there's nothing like a good quant score to ease the adcom's worries. All the best!

migaveli · Answer

Thanks for your replies everybody. I agree with all of you that the Quant score is just too low to make applying to the top schools comfortable. I'm very happy with my Verbal score and know that if I just get my quant up, I have a solid chance. I think my next move is to be Jeff Sackmann's math series, which was recommended to me by bmillan01. I've gone through OG 2 times at least and feel I must need something else to take me to the next level of confidence/knowledge. Anyone have any feedback on Jeff Sackmann's stuff? I know I don't have it in me to continue 6 hours/day 6 days/week, but I'm going to probably start studying again in a few days, for a couple hours a day maybe. I won't survive if I do the same schedule again!

@gtr022001 Regarding your question, I went through the Powerscore Critical Reasoning bible and both the MGMAT Sentence correction and the Powerscore sentence correction bible, along with the Reading Comprehension one as well. These were somewhat helpful in pointing out the errors to look for, but I also found that it's hard to "memorize" all the tricks they give you, but you should at least be familiar with them. it's good to go through them once at least, especially if you're not a native English speaker (I am), and then just do LOTS of OG verbal questions. I went through all the OG 12 verbal questions twice and then the Verbal Review 2nd edition once. The more problems you do, the more you recognize the games/tricks that GMAT plays on you and you start to look for them immediately when you read sentences on the actual test. The biggest thing I noticed on the GMAT is parallelism--that's where they trick you the most often, especially with really long sentences.

suyashjhawar · Answer

Migaveli your verbal score rocks.I feel you should give it another shot.You may se e posts here where ppl getting 15-17 questions getting incorrect in quant,yet managing 45 +.All the best

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GMAT - 630 (V44/Q32)

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