GMAT Verbal & Essays

Ugh - I can't beleive this GMAT has taken the better half of this year for me. It's now December and I gave my GMAT 2 days ago in order to hit 720+.

Here is my score:

Take 2: 660 - Q (48), V (33)

Take 1: 640 - Q(44) V(38)

So obviously i had to improve on my quant on my second try which i did. However, i took the first take with NO EXTENSIVE PREPARATION in Verbal except for SC. I lost my concentration on RC and CR during my first take and still managed to get 81st percentile in verbal. I thought i could easily do better so i studied extensively for verbal as well - RC and CR. As it turns out, 2 months of additional studying was detrimental to my score.

I am no alien to written english or to critical reasoning. I don't know what i should do now.

I am def hitting top b-schools R2 deadlines next month. Should i retake the gmat 3rd time and hope for a better verbal score.

Any advice/help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

I'm in the same position as you. I'm sure you know that R2 deadlines are coming in one month. And since you've already taken the test twice, I'm assuming you also know that you have to wait 30 days to take the next test.

So given that information, it's definitely near impossible for you to make R2 deadlines unless your deadlines are a little further than Jan 7-8th (i.e. harvard, wharton, UCLA, etc). OR you're planning on getting the apps done first, and take the test on, or near, the day of app submission.

The other possibility for you is to lower your school expectations. A lot of the schools have their 20-80% range's lowside at 660. Considering what the applicant pool is going to be like, I'm sure it's gonna be hard this year.

My advice would be:

1.) Tone down the schools you want to apply to.
2.) Apply anyways and hope for the best, but make sure you essays are air tight
3.) Wait for next year if you absolutely believe you can make 720+, but only you know your own capabilities for achieving that goal.

Best of luck man.