Signing up for a retake, what do I need to focus on?

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I have taken the GMAT twice. I got 640 the first time and thought my nerves/anxiety had a lot to do with the low score. Going into the second time, I felt confident and really prepared but I still ended up with the same score of 640. My splits were nearly identical (Q44 and V33).

Based on the splits I received twice, any recommendation for a retake strategy? I have exactly one month and this is my final shot. If I don't get a good score, I'm most likely going to forget about the MBA.
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by [email protected] » Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:44 pm
Hi limitedbygmat,

If you can answer a few questions, then I'll be happy to advise:

1) What resources did you use to study?
2) When is your exact Test Date?
3) What schools are you planning to apply to? And when?

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by limitedbygmat » Sat Nov 09, 2013 12:57 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi limitedbygmat,

If you can answer a few questions, then I'll be happy to advise:

1) What resources did you use to study?
2) When is your exact Test Date?
3) What schools are you planning to apply to? And when?

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

1) For the first exam, I used OG, OG Verbal, OG Quant, MGMAT Books, Aristole SC and some Kaplan books. I used whatever I could find. For this recent retake, I relied on Knewton mostly for its 50 point guarantee which unfortunately didn't happen. I also completed numerous practice exams to see my mistakes.

2) I took my GMAT today (11/8) so I have to wait 31 days until the next retake. I haven't registered yet but I'll be taking it for the final time in the second week of December. After getting the identical score twice, it has given me doubt on whether I have what it takes to get a better score.

3) I'm aiming for US schools in the top 10-16 as well as Northwestern 1 year. I am planning to apply R2 for all the schools with the majority of the deadlines in early January. One of the schools has R2 deadline in early December so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet with my current 640.

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:31 am
Hi limitedbygmat,

Your score breakdowns don't provide much information regarding what you need to do to improve your score.

I suggest that you take some practice tests and carefully analyze them to identify your area(s) of weakness. While analyzing your practice tests, there are four main areas of weakness you should watch out for:
1. specific Quant skills/concepts (e.g., algebra, standard deviation, etc.)
2. specific Verbal skills/concepts (e.g., verb tenses, assumption CR questions, etc.)
3. test-taking skills (time management, endurance, anxiety etc.)
4. silly mistakes

For the first two weaknesses, the fix is pretty straightforward. Learn the concept/skill and find some practice questions to strengthen that weakness. To focus on one topic at a time, you can use BTG's tagging feature to isolate one concept. For example, here are all of the questions tagged as statistics questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... statistics
See the left side of that linked page for more tag options.

If your test-taking skills are holding you back, then you need to work on these. For example, we have a free GMAT time management video at https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1244. Then you should hone your test-taking skills by taking more practice tests.

Finally, if silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes during your prep so that, during tests, you can easily spot situations in which you're prone to making errors. I write about this and other strategies in the following article for BTG: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/09/ ... n-the-gmat

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by [email protected] » Sat Nov 09, 2013 11:59 am
Hi limitedbygmat,

I'm going to email you some personal suggestions, but it is worth noting that a 640 is a solid score (just shy of the 80th percentile) and is high enough that you should feel comfortable applying to all the schools that you're planning to apply to. With a higher GMAT score, you'll likely improve your chances at getting accepted (as well as open up the possibility of scholarships), but you're not in bad shape right now.

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