Wait to take the GMAT ????

Question

About 5 months i ago i took the LSAT and performed pretty nicely. I decided, however, that i didn't want to practice law. I was told that the lsat prepares you for the verbal section of the GMAT, which it did. After i decided that i didn't want to pursue law i decided to take a practice Gmatprep test. Without study (for the GMAT), i got a v39 m42 for a 660 total score.

I then ordered the Gmat official guide, and worked through the book at a very superficial level. I couldn't fully understand some of the quantitative explanations, but moved on anyways. Yesterday, about a month after i got the book, I took the second Gmat prep and score a 42v 45m, for a 710 score. Math is definitely my strong suit (got a 720 on SAT Math) but its a bit rusty. I know if i get a tutor for the math i can bump that up to a 48-50, and get a 740.

Here's my problem: 
I have about a year left to college and i have no work experience. I do have a 3.88 GPA and i am capable of getting good LOR and writing good essays. My question is should i take the Gmat in the upcoming months and apply to Business School with barely any work experience, or should i wait to take the GMAT after i have a couple years work experience under my belt.

Thanks so much!

bb · Answer

No. You should not apply for a bschool. The program you will be accepted to will not reflect your potential should you have applied properly.

Business school is designed to leverage your work experience and trying to get into one without any should not really be done and I can't think of many reasons to do.

I would suggest you graduate, get a job and take a break from the student life.

bb · Answer

By the way, you can take the GMAT now. It may get a little stale in 3-4 years (the min time you would wait to apply) but it should work just fine nevertheless. It won't be the freshness of your GMAT score deciding your chances at top 20. Just make sure you get a good score while you are young. I would aim for 750 and higher. You can do it with your verbal score, just get the quant up.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi dsw511,

You're discussing a couple of different issues, so it will help to deal with the issues individually:

First, since you're already scoring at a pretty high level on your practice CATs, there's an argument to be made that you could study a little bit more (right now) and score at an even higher level on the Official GMAT. Since the GMAT score is good for 5 years, you could 'bank' a high score relatively soon and be done with your GMAT studies completely.

Second, Business Schools typically expect 3-5 years of solid Work Experience from applicants. While some Schools will consider accepting an applicant with little-to-no Work Experience, those exceptions are relatively rare. As such, planning to apply to an MBA Program immediately after graduating with your Undergrad Degree is probably not the best idea for you. If you know which Schools/Programs that you're interested in, then you can certainly research those Programs a bit (and even contact the Admissions Offices to ask questions), so that you can gain the necessary information and think about a long-term plan.

Third, your Quant Scaled Scores on your CATs show that you're pretty good at the 'math questions' that you face, but that you're missing out on lots of the 'strategy-based' points. The Quant section of the GMAT is NOT, strictly-speaking, a "math test." While you will certainly do lots of little calculations as you work through he Quant section, there are a variety of Tactics that you can use, patterns that you can exploit and little 'secrets' to the Quant section that will make dealing with that section a whole lot easier.

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

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