To retake or not? 670 Q46 V36

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To retake or not? 670 Q46 V36

by scottshapiro » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:23 pm
I took the GMAT today and ended up with 670, Q46 V36. 85 percentile total.

I'm a CS grad and much more of a quant guy, so I'm surprised to have done so equal. My SAT was far more lopsided.

A week earlier, I took the free Manhattan GMAT CAT and scored 660 with roughly the same breakdown. I guess their test is pretty accurate!

I started studying 5 weeks ago with the following plan:

-Princeton Review book - for understanding the basics
-OG11 diagnostic - noticed RC was my weakest, and PS was my strongest
-Kaplan 800 - did most of the problems, focusing on RC, CR, SC, DS
-OG11 problems - did half the problems, more weighted towards RC, SC
-Manhattan CAT - performed worst on SC, DS so focused on those for the past week almost exclusively

Then I sat for the test and felt the following:
-I finished all sections within the alloted time
-I ended up guessing on 6 math questions that I couldn't figure out within 2.5 minutes
-I noticed a few math questions with writing in different fonts - experimental?
-Felt poorly about 3 of the 4 RC passages
-Felt strongly about most of the SC - probably because I focused on this so heavily lately

I'm trying to decide whether or not to retake the exam. My goal is to apply to a few top 10 schools for round 2. Apps are due in 3 months and I haven't started essays, recs, etc.

Am I better off focusing another month on GMAT with the hope of breaking 700 or starting the apps and focusing solely on those?

If I do get back to studying, any tips on how to arrange my studying and when to retake? How many hours should I plan to put in?

Thanks!
Scott
Source: — I just Beat The GMAT! |

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:20 am

by scottshapiro » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:18 pm
I think I'm going to retake...

Any tips on how to improve the following?
-weird/abstract DS questions with absolute values / prime numbers
-complex geometry questions
-specific strategies for focusing on RC passages
-specific strategies on how to tackle CR