A question regarding taking gmat more than 3 times

Good question - a few thoughts:

1) If you need to take the test a 4th time, well, you need to take the test a 4th time. The first three are a sunk cost, so there's not much use in worrying about them. A 680 on your 4th try is significantly better than sticking with your 590 from your third try, so in many respects the answer is "it doesn't really matter...you have to do what you have to do".

2) Similarly, to me this is one of those situations in which ignorance is bliss - if, on your second try at the GMAT, you're worried that "what if this is my last chance?", that stress is more likely to hurt you than help you. So even if you're a little uncertain, you're better off believing that you have multiple opportunities if just so that the safety net allows you to perform more relaxed and confident.

3) From what I understand about admissions it's pretty rare that a 4th/5th/even 6th attempt is going to, on its own, count against you. With your GMAT score, you self-report it on your application form and schools go to their files to confirm your score. The score report in your file will have your previous scores on it, but the number on your application - the number in front of them for most of the process - is the one you report...your highest score. So in many cases schools make their decisions without really looking at your entire GMAT history.

Furthermore, the more I've been around the GMAT and admissions the more I've come to believe in this question. "Does it logically make sense?" That is, if someone asks "are the first 10 questions much more important than the rest?", I'd respond "would that make logical sense?". And it wouldn't - why would the GMAT offer 37 or 41 questions if they were really only concerned about the first ten? Well, in this case, does it make sense that schools would start getting skittish about an applicant on a 3rd or 4th GMAT try? I'd say it's doubtful - the GMAT is a hard test (a fact which leads to this very website and my own biweekly paycheck, so I'm pretty psyched about that) and it's certainly conceivable that someone would underestimate the difficulty on try 1 and really underperform; then botch her time-management on try 2 and have a really strong verbal score but a low quant; then on try 3, study quant like a maniac but lose a little focus on verbal and end up lower than she hoped overall as a result; then on try 4 put it all together for a great score. Would a top business school really be so elitist as to tell that candidate not to bother applying? In some lights, you can see that as an asset - her perseverance shows that she really wants to go to a top school and is willing to work extremely hard for it. Why would they look at her, say, 710 final score as somehow lesser than the 700 of someone who got it on the second try?

Now, there may be cases out there in which an admissions officer looking at a handful of candidates saw someone's score report and felt that his score pattern just wasn't strong enough when compared to the other, similar candidates. But I'd bet that's pretty rare and probably has more of a uniqueness to it. If a score report shows 400-410-390-430-690...well, why did it take you until try 5 to show improvement? But if a report shows 480-540-610-690...that's someone who worked hard, stuck with it, and eventually mastered the thought process necessary for success. Why wouldn't you want to read those essays and learn more about that candidate?

Brian, thank you so much for this post. I have scores of 520, 580 and 570 with 570 being the recent score.
I am planning to take up GMAT again in the month of December.
Your words are very encouraging !