i received a private message regarding this thread.
a couple of comments:
* if you are going to apply mostly or entirely to first-tier american schools, then retaking the test with this score is a bad idea. you've already earned a score that is at or above the median at basically every business school in the world, and, just as importantly, your quant and verbal scores are fairly balanced (in terms of both percentiles and numerical scores). at first-tier schools, the further gradations of the scoring scale are just not that relevant; that is, even if you were to retake the test and score 40 or 50 points higher, the new score probably wouldn't make much of a difference.
also, if you are lacking in any other relevant consideration -- e.g. if you haven't had much leadership or entrepreneurial experience, or if you don't have many distinguishing factors -- then retaking the test is
definitely a bad idea. if you already have a 720 and need work on other areas of your application, but you choose nevertheless to keep working on the gmat score, then the top schools' admissions committees will almost certainly conclude that you don't know how to set priorities correctly and will summarily reject your application, most likely without any sort of callback.
* on the other hand, if you are going to apply to second-tier american schools, then retaking the test may be advisable if you are fairly sure you can score higher. second-tier schools are always looking for opportunities to boost their schools' numbers, so many of them will offer generous scholarships (sometimes even including room and board in addition to tuition) for candidates with extremely high gmat scores.
--
given the advice above, you most likely shouldn't be retaking the exam (unless your primary plan is to apply to second-tier schools), so i'll keep my comments on quant brief:
1) if you are scoring 47 on quant, then it's basically a certainty that you know all of the actual mathematics that you need for the test (and far, far more). therefore, studying mathematical principles will most likely be a waste of your time, if not actually counterproductive.
2) in working with many students whose quant scores are in your current range, i've noticed two problems common to almost all of these students:
- insufficient mental flexibility: the students try to solve every problem with "textbook" methods only, and don't ever try alternate methods if they get stuck. to resolve this issue, you should spend some time studying "backup methods" and implementing them in your practice; check out the february 4 lecture here:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm
- insufficient organizational skills and/or simply not writing down enough steps on the paper. it's easy to dismiss silly mistakes as just "silly mistakes", but surprisingly few students actually address the core issue behind repeated silly mistakes -- namely, the students either aren't organized enough in their written work or are simply trying to do too many steps in their head (hint: NEVER do math in your head, except possibly for simple calculations such as 5 plus 8).
