690....do i want more? oh i dont know...do i?

Question

Okay so wow it's been 3 months to the day that i took the GMAT for the first time: q47 v38 690 (grr!)

I'm going to be very (de)brief:

Started studying at the end of Feb with the goal of taking in June. (4 full months)

Bought several manhattan books (which i loved), OG12 (i loathed), was given a few veritas books (pretty good), GmatClub tests (awesome but hard).

CATs I mainly used the 6 from manhattan - they are great practice...the quant is def more complex than the real test, the verbal was just weird? the overall scores seemed to be good predictors, but the content itself isnt neccessarily the same. the analysis tools are awesome and so is the forum on their website (to understand what you got wrong).

the GmatPrep quant felt almost the exact same during the real test. The verbal on the real test was similar but harder?

Also bought the 800score tests for 40 bucks i think. really good practice quant questions, but not a good CAT at all. I would recommend them purely for practice because the concepts in quant are right in line with the real thing. The overall scoring is redic and inaccurate. The verbal is a total joke.

My results:
3/27 Manhattan 1 Q43 V35 640
4/10 Manhattan 2 Q43 V35 640
4/24 800score Q38 V44 650
5/08 Manhattan 3 Q43 V41 700
5/15 Knewton Q38 V37 600
5/22 Manhattan 4 Q46 V42 720
5/31 Manhattan 5 Q44 V39 690
6/06 GPrep 1 Q44 V39 680
6/13 GPrep 1 ® Q47 V42 720
6/16 Manhattan 6 Q46 V45 740
6/20 GPrep 2 Q46 V44 720
6/26 GPrep 2 ® Q46 V40 700

So while I don't think my 690 was terribly low for what I had been scoring, I do think I could/should have done better than my 38 on verbal. I was pretty bummed out for a while (altho I was glad it was over) but I gotta say there is something psycological about a 690.

I've read all the re-take posts out there and while I don't necessarily think I "need" to re-take it, I have this itch to pony up and get after it again. I don't think I'm applying til fall 2011 so I'm very close to signing up for the knewton 50 point guarantee and aiming for a late november retake.

Thats my story in its barest form. Questions/thoughts ??

lagomez · Answer

I think it depends on where you want to apply and your background.

Dreamy · Answer

Competitive score. As you have scored well in both the sections, its not necessary. But you have loads of time before applying. If you are planning to apply to top ten schools having a score closer to the school avg helps.

MrFriendship · Answer

thanks for the responses guys. i'm looking at schools in the 10-30 range so I think if I can bump by score by 20+ points it will make me a more competitive candidate. or maybe thats just in my head. either way has anyone with a score in the high 600s used knewton's 50 point guarantee? curious to see how that might have turned out for folks...

whiplash2411 · Answer

I agree with lagomez. I think a 690 is a good score but if you feel like there were some glaring errors that you made and you could improve upon, you could retake. As for Knewton, I think it's a good deal but you should also check out the cons - too focused on the 600-650 prep, the harder ones are too hard and so on. Check out the Knewton thread in the GMAT Prep Companies forum.

bakfed · Answer

If you're gearing for schools in 10-30's range, I think your 690 will do just fine. Of course, schools that are ranked at 11th and 12th are still going to be harder to get into, but as you get down to the 30th school, a 690 should be more than sufficient. However, even with the schools that are ranked "11th" or "12th", you still have a shot in it as you will be close to their average scores. If, for some reason, that you feel the need to take it again, you should really aim for something that's higher than 720; otherwise, I think most would agree with me that your 690 and a 710 aren't really going to be that big of a difference.

MrFriendship · Answer

@whiplash - that is good advice, I'd hate to take the course and find myself reinforcing concepts I already understand rather than expanding considerably on my abilities. On the other hand I've pretty much self-learned everything so perhaps being "taught" the material will have the impact I'm looking for. From a monetary persepective I don't have much to lose with the 50 pt guarantee...but of course there is always the time/energy thing.

@bakfed- as you have predicted, my goal schools will be much closer to 10 than 30...I also agree that I should be aiming for closer to a 750 than 710 in order to justify the effort. I see you have made an impressive increase on your quant score from 44 to 49. Care to share how you managed that feat??

dc3828102 · Answer

Hey sameermunshi,

I was in your shoes about 8 months ago with the same score breakdown(q47 v38).

My GMATprep results were also about similar to your results as well.

I'm not saying whether you should or you shouldn't. But do not put yourself in a situation "what if."

MrFriendship · Answer

DC - thanks for the input and congrats on the awesome score! I just read your debrief and it's very inspiring. I had already decided before I started this thread (well, 90%) that I'm going to re-take because to some degree I actually miss the challenge of it and I know I can do better. Is there anything you did differently while studying quant before your 3rd attempt? The 49 is very impressive, and I feel right now that my ceiling is 47...

Really appreciate it!

Really appreciate it!

dc3828102 · Answer

To improve my quantitative score, I went through GMATclub tests as well as reviewing my concepts using MGMAT review guides.

Although some of the GMATclub tests are tricky for the sake of being tricky, the different derivations that the tests throw at you will prepare you for the tricky questions in the real GMAT.

Sometimes, it just takes time for the concepts to sink in and the retake of GMAT may be just what the doctor ordered!

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690....do i want more? oh i dont know...do i?

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