GMAT Strategy

B-school admissions folk don't only look at your score improvement just like they don't just look at your score, however, your application speaks of the 'narrative' of who you are and what your process is. Your quant went up, your verbal went down. If you believe you can keep your quant up AND improve your verbal, I'd recommend you do just that, especially since you have time on your side. Even though you think you don't...

That said, there is a misconception that if you're a native English speaker, that you should score great on Verbal. And for example, the Sentence Correction questions concentrate on FORMAL written English, as well as clarity and meaning. We give our students a quiz, which is also in our book, that helps identify how a student should go about studying for the sentence correction: for some, it's straight memorizing of rules and deep engagement of meaning and clarity. For others, it's following one's intuition because they are accustomed to close nuanced reading. Where do you fit in this spectrum? I don't know.

For Reading, a student can improve his or her score by learning how to read faster. This is an easy skill to learn (3 - 5 hours to read up to 5x faster). Students who read faster typically spend more time on the things that get them points: answering questions correctly. We see significant improvements after students read faster and get more focused.

We also offer evaluations of one's performance, which help to guide self-study or indicate how work with a tutor might help. If you're 'almost there,' working with a professional might get you over the hump and would do so with far greater speed than your doing it by yourself.

Also, you have a whole host of amazing admissions consultants here who will help to guide you in answering 'this.' Again: it also helps to work with someone who knows what you're hoping to gain by attending b-school, what your requirements are for programs/locations/etc., and what your stats are. They help you to shape yourself so your candidacy shines. Are you working with someone on that?

Keep us posted!

Hi DivineLegacy,

First off, both of you scores are outstanding scores (they're both right around the 90th percentile overall), so you can apply to any Business Schools that interest you. As such, a retest is probably not necessary. Since you're planning to apply to some competitive Schools, you would likely find it beneficial to speak with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

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