I just Beat The GMAT!

Hey guys

I am an Indian girl with a bachelor's in biotech from a top 5 university in India and a master's in microbio from a mid range university here in the US. I have about 2 yrs of work experience working for big biotech names. But due to visa reasons I havenot been working for about 2 years now. I worked in IT for a few months, now I have been volunteering for a non profit educational institution. You can clearly tell I am not a typical MBA candidate. But I got into biotech for the business side of it. I wanted my work experience before I got into an MBA but unfortunately it's only a 2 year experience and R&d that too.

I studied hard for 5 months and took my gmat yday. Got a 580 - 41Q 30V. It was a bizarre experience. All my practice tests were on the 620 -660 range. Even MGMAT. I was hoping for at least a 640. The weird thing is I didnt feel like I didnt know any question on quant. I knew how to solve all of them starting from Q1. I think that means, I must have made some careless mistake early on,which took me on a downward spiral, right?
Verbal was the weirdest. Questions were hard. Harder than any practice test I ve seen. 4 comprehension passages all long difficult ones. I thought I was doing well may be. But The score was shocking.

I am retaking on OCT 21st. Dilemma is if I should start doing app work and continue taking practice tests or if I should apply for round two and not rush my app work now.
I attended veritas classes, I used their material for studying. I completed OG 13 and OG 13 review on quants. I partially completed verbal on OG 13 and OG 13 review. I took veritas practice tests, one gmac and a few MGMAT practice tests - about 7 tests altogether.

Any suggestions on prep/test taking/applying/ general cheering up would be helpful. Thank u

Hi Rich

1) What is your goal score?
My goal score is 680. Meaning anything less than that I wouldnt be jumping with joy. But 650 and above I wont be sad.
2) What schools are you planning to apply to?

See here is the tricky part. I am unable to select schools without knowing my score range. I live in the bay area. I d like to stay here if that s possible. Having said that, I am willing to leav the bay area if I get a really good school. Berkeley is out of the question because I have been unemployed for 2 yrs, I have a master's degree in microbiology and a bachelor's in biotech but I dont have sufficient work experience - SO I don't know how to pick schools. But I have UT AUSTIN , USC, NYU(stretch may be), UC davis, Cornell, Boston university ( they have a healthcare/biotech focussed MBA) on my list right now. I will apply to smaller programs just to be in the bay area like Santa Clara University and San Jose state.

And now that R1 deadlines r gone in many schools, and I failed badly in my gmat, I might have to reevaluate after my second attempt?

3) Can you provide the scores for each of your CATs (including the date you took it and the Quant/Verbal Scaled Scores)?
Q -41 V-30 IR -5

4) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT every time (including the Essay and IR)?
No, IR I took many times. Not always. Essay - I would spend that half hr reading essay responses to that topic and then proceed to IR. I wouldnt actually write them, no. I did that just once.

5) Did you take any of the CATs more than once?
My practice tests - I did a buch of them. I didnt repeat any though.
I attended veritas classes. Group classes. So I have access to their tests. The scores were

veritas test 1 -47 V 29 Total 650
Veritas test 2 -Q 42 V 33 Total 640
Gmac test Q43 V 32 Score 620
MGMAT 1 - Q37 V30 Total 560 ---- > ( This one I thought was an outlier, cos I spent close to 6 mins on one question, which I wouldnt have done on any other test which made me miss 3 questions in the end)
Veritas test 3 -Q 42 V 28 Total - 610
MGMAT 2 - Q40 V36 Total 630


6) What did you do the day before your Test?
I went through formulas and I looked up some probability questions, combinatorics and mixture solution kind of questions and went through forums in general for last min advice I went through sentence correction flash cards.

7) How well did you sleep the night before? slept pretty well. No problems there. Went to bed early. But I was anxious the whole day and in general in a foul mood

8) How long was the ride to the Testing Center? It was at 8 in the morning. I woke up at 5 30, showered, had breakfast and left home at 7. The test center was 20 mins away. I reached with time to spare.

So I did retake my GMAt last month and I got a 610. I got a whopping 85 percentile on verbal and bombed badly on quants. I hope that the fact tht I have an engineering degree and a master's in science and work experience in research would help the committee believe in my quant skills despite my score. I am still going to go ahead with my applications because I have already spent 2 yrs waiting for something to come up. I dont want to waste anymore time. And no I am not going to retake GMAT now because I do not have time,( first round deadlines are gone and 2nd round deadlines are here) nor do I believe that one parameter could carry so much weightage. It still costs lot of time and money to take the test. WIsh I had taken my gmat earlier.
I have decided to apply to Santa CLara Univ, UC Irvine, USC, UC davis, UT austin and BU. UC irvine also has a MS in Biotech Management degree which I am also researching about. BU has an excellent healthcare/biotech focus program. I am also looking at taking up business math or business basics courses on coursera to get a head start and to make up for my poor quant scores. Hope it makes some difference. This s where I stand currently. will keep u all posted abt applications. Thank u for the support