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Low IR score - Will it impact.?

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sharadchandra45: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 9:05 am

Low IR score - Will it impact.?

by sharadchandra45 » Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:46 am

Hi,

I recently took the GMAT and scored 710 (V-39/Q-49).

I got 5.5 on AWA but choked on IR and got a lowly 3 on that. Reason for low IR score is that i somehow forgot during the exam that I have to answer all sub-parts of a question in IR correctly to get credit. Instead, I paced myself to answer more questions quickly, irrespective of whether I got all sub parts right or not.

I'm targeting top european b-schools like INSEAD, LBS and Oxford. Please let me know if my lo IR score will have a detrimental impact on my chances. Should I retake the test. Please advise.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Ask Admissionado | Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:46 am

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times; Followed by:332 members

by Jon@Admissionado » Wed Sep 05, 2012 1:58 am

You are asking a tough question here. The greatest difficulty is that this is the first time that anyone is seeing these scores, so we don't have years of experience and statistics regarding the score.
HOWEVER, it is safe to assume that the main GMAT score is and will remain the most important one. (It is after all the score considered when evaluating rankings, for example). That's not to say that a low IR score won't have some affect. However, I think that if you have a 710 and you are aiming to apply this year, an IR of 3 may not be enough to warrant a retake. You don't have all that much time, and the time you do, you will likely need for your applications.

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kadiribipin: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:07 am

by kadiribipin » Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:36 am

Hi,

I read ur post in this forum regd low IR score.
I gave the GMAT on 3rd Dec(got 710) but I am also expecting a really low IR score.
To begin with, I havent recieved my official GMAT score yet.p

@ Sharat - Plz Let me know in how many days you recieved ur official score ?
How are you planning to defend your IR score ? Have you applied anywhere yet and are the admissions teams considering the same ?

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kadiribipin: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:07 am

by kadiribipin » Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:39 am

@Jon,

Can you plz add on to the above ...
What strategies to apply to defend a low IR score

Any idea whether Tepper,Duke,Emory,Rottman,NUS etc are considering IR scores ?
If so to what extent ?

Also let me know if there are any good schools which I can target with a score of 710 and ~ 5 years work ex in IT (India) which are not considering IR.

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times; Followed by:332 members

by Jon@Admissionado » Wed Dec 19, 2012 10:49 am

It's not that schools "aren't considering IR" After all, they do have the numbers and will use them. they're gonna see that candidate X has this score and candidate Y has that... And all schools will consider to some extent. But, it's just simply not as important as the full score. so will you be worse off than someone with the same GMAT but better IR? Yes. But still, it's no big deal. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

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kadiribipin: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:07 am

by kadiribipin » Wed Dec 19, 2012 11:01 am

Thanks Jon...

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jysail15: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 6; Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:02 pm

by jysail15 » Tue May 28, 2013 4:10 pm

Jon,

what's your opinion about IR this year? Is a 700 GMAT score with a low IR, such as 2 going to significantly hurt an applicants chances where it would be worth taking the GMAT again.

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times; Followed by:332 members

by Jon@Admissionado » Wed May 29, 2013 12:19 am

Well, although a middling score won't get noticed, a particularly low score (like a 2) will always get noticed. So you gotta think 1. how are you gonna explain it? 2. how are you gonna make up for it.

It is still less important than the overall main score, but when you score so low, they will expect an explanation. Whether or not it warrants a retake depends on many other factors, like when you are applying, where, how you did on the main score, etc.

Hope this helps, and if you have further questions, don't hesitate.

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jysail15: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 6; Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:02 pm

by jysail15 » Wed May 29, 2013 5:30 am

Jon,

Thanks for the feedback. In my particular circumstances I'm looking to apply this year. To be honest the reason I did so poorly on the IR section was just not studying for it. I got a 48 on the quant section, so I'd hope that would help balance out my low IR score. Other than the GMAT I believe I have a strong application with good educational background (3.44 GPA at a top 20 liberal arts college) and good work experience (3 years at a top consulting firm such as Deloitte, IBM, or Accenture). I've also worked abroad in Afghanistan, doing economic development and leading several efforts there. My target schools are UC Berkelely, Northwestern, NYU, UVA, and Cornell. Taking all of this into consideration, any reason to suspect it's necessary to take the GMAT again?

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times; Followed by:332 members

by Jon@Admissionado » Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:39 pm

Tough call. A bit borderline really. I'd say that since questions are already released, it is probably better for you to just get started on your applications. I mean everything else looks quite good, but it would be better if you prepared some sort of explanation. Like "I was unprepared because of xx and yyy" and then show some work-related POSITIVE things that PROVE that you have the skills that the IR section tests.. so like "In work we do xx and yyy." I mean everyone is allowed one weakness, and yours isn't a huge one, so with a bit of fancy writing, and a good application, I would hope that they would not make a big deal of it.

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emotion5ickne55: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:14 am

by emotion5ickne55 » Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:01 am

Jon,

Thanks for providing so much helpful feedback on this issue. I'm in the same boat, but my situation is slightly different. My 3rd attempt at the GMAT, I got a 710 (47Q/40V), but my IR score was a 3. 2 months prior, I took the test and got a 670 with an IR of 7. I studied IR as much as I did the previous time, and am not sure what went wrong, aside from being nervous. Should I retake the test for a 4th time for the sake of my IR score, or find a plausible way to explain it to the admissions department, or possibly move onto the GRE?! I'm targeting top 10 schools in the USA for my apps next fall.

Thanks in advance.

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times; Followed by:332 members

by Jon@Admissionado » Sun Aug 11, 2013 11:40 pm

Well, I think my answer is similar to what I wrote above - if the IR is your only weakness, don't worry about it, and don't retake. But if it's an accumulation (one weakness among many) and if you think you might get a higher regular score, than maybe, maybe.

But my tendency is to think that if you have a 710, you don't need to retake.

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nikhil.jones.s: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:23 am

by nikhil.jones.s » Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:29 am

Hi Jon,

I just gave my GMAT yesterday and scored a decent 730.

IR-3 - 23rd Percentile.
Q-49 - 81st Percentile.
V-40 - 90th Percentile.
Overall-730 - 96th Percentile.

Yes, exactly, the pain point is 3 in IR. Graphs and DI have never been a problem. In fact the low score was very surprising and annoying. I cannot recollect to have scored as lower than 5 in any of the mocks that I gave.

Anyway, the main reason why I am posting this is because I want to know the impact of IR score on my application. I am planing to apply in 2016/2017 after a good 2-3 years of experience.
The schools that I am looking at are:
ISB, INSEAD, NUS, IE, IESE, Columbia, HAAS, Duke, NTU, Tepper, Booth, Darden, Tuck.

Just to fill you in with a brief description of my profile,
I have a decent profile with a good number of extra curricular activities and leadership accolades, including an international exchange program. Captained school and university in a number of football tournaments. I also headed the fest organising body of college. Scaled up the fest to a national level. I am also currently involved in a start up along with my work. However, I have a poor gpa of 6.3/10 from my undergrad college. I'm currently working in EMC as an Associate consultant, working primarily on Big Data Analytics.

Thanks in advance

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 am; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times; Followed by:332 members

by Jon@Admissionado » Mon Feb 24, 2014 1:13 am

"Decent"???????

Are you kidding me dude???!!!

A 730 is FANTASTIC! Not decent...

Congrats.

IR? Don't worry about it. At all. You are good. Just break out the champagne, and celebrate your score, and move on to the next step in your application process.

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[email protected]: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 7:29 am

by [email protected] » Fri Dec 26, 2014 7:48 pm

HI Jon,

I took my GMAT Yesterday and I got a score of 700. But the issue is that I have got a very low score of 2 in IR. I'm not sure how I got such a low score.
Can you please let me know if this would affect my overall application.

I have about 5 years of experience, 3 years as a mobile application developer and 2 years as a Product Owner/Business analyst.

Thank you very much for your advice.

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