GMAT Strategy

Hi all,

I sat my second attempt at the GMAT earlier and scored a 720 (Q44V45 with 8 for IR). This was an improvement on my first attempt three months ago (690 - Q39V45) but feeling deflated because the imbalance is still there.

As an arts graduate aiming to apply to top 10 programmes this year, I feel the quant side will be especially important for my profile, so still disappointed with 44. I've been scoring 80th percentile quant in GMAT Prep tests and there were a couple of questions today that I knew were within my reach but which I fluffed. I therefore plan to retake next month to push higher in quant.

I'd really value people's thoughts on the following questions:

1) Does retaking sound like a good decision in my case?
2) Should I book in for the next available date (e.g. 31 days) or would people recommend I leave it longer than a month? I want to leave enough time to write strong essays but still have a month or two to play with.
3) What's the max number of times I should be thinking about retaking, purely in terms of the message I send to the schools? For instance, if I score, say, 65th percentile next time, I'll probably be tempted to take it a fourth time! If I took it a fourth time, would that go down badly with adcoms or would it be worth it if I got to say 80th percentile?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi adamw,

First of all, you should be proud of making the jump to a 720. It's clear you put a lot of work in to increase your score.

In terms of a retake, I'm curious to know which schools you're looking to apply to. With a 720 in your back pocket, I'd actually suggest that you reach out to admissions officers at your top schools to see if there's a base quant score they're looking for in applicants. If you're just at the base score or even below it, that makes your decision to retake much easier.

I'm also curious to know if you have a clear idea of what's holding you back in quant. Refer back to your error log/practice exams and see if you can identify if you're struggling with an entire concept, having a timing issue, or are simply making simple mistakes. If you think you can correct the issue you're having in 30 days, rescheduling within the next month or two would be fine, but be honest with yourself when evaluating how much work you'll need to put in.

Most students take the GMAT 2-3 times. However, a 4th should be considered carefully, which we wrote about recently here: https://bit.ly/1bB09n8

Best of luck,
Rich

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the reply, and for the post to the useful article!

I'm looking to apply to top 10 schools, which is why I realise my score could still do with some work. My timing was generally pretty good on this test - I think my main issue on the first test was speeding through too quickly. However I could probably still spend a bit longer on the doable questions; today I didn't quit the ones above my level quickly enough. I also think I could still structure my answers better, which is something I still haven't got embedded, and I only used plugging / backsolving etc once or twice in the test. I also got several coordinate questions which I'm not a massive fan of!

I'll take some more time to consider where I can improve over the coming days, but I definitely feel I have a higher quant score in me! Just worried I won't be able to go that much higher on the quant in one more attempt.

Thanks..