I just Beat The GMAT!

as you might suspect, there's not really going to be a straight yes/no answer to this question; if there were, it would almost certainly not be the topic of such heated discussion on such a constant basis.

in general:
* what is certain is that schools are focused most intensely on your single highest score. in fact, many schools (including stanford, for instance) actually ask students to list only one gmat score on their applications (if i remember correctly, the exact words were "please include the scores from only one examination that you wish us to consider during the application process").
while this is of course not a guarantee of anything -- the dealings in admissions are very shady, to say the least -- it should at least give us a rudimentary idea of where the schools' priorities have been set.

HOWEVER:
* i think tami above has a point, although i think she may be little bit too pessimistic about the overall impact of multiple test administrations. in particular, though, i think we have to use a little bit of common sense about this whole thing.

here's an analogy:
- imagine someone (person #1) who works all the time and makes a good amount of money, but hardly has any time to spend with family, children, etc. and essentially has no hobbies.
- imagine someone else (person #2) who is also hard-working, has achieved a better balance of work life with family and recreational life, but isn't making as much money as he/she would like.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT:
* what would be your initial reaction if person #1 redoubled his/her efforts to earn even more money, while not putting in any additional effort into other life areas (family etc.)?
* what would be your initial reaction if person #2 redoubled his/her efforts to earn even more money, while not putting in any additional effort into other life areas (family etc.)?
i think you can see what i'm getting at here -- the immediate reaction to person #1 would be something like "wow, this person's priorities are ridiculous and misplaced", while the immediate reaction to person #2 would be something more like "okay, i can see how that person might want to shore up his/her financial life a bit".
ok -- common sense, right...
it's almost certain that the same thing is also going to be true for admissions committees' consideration of applicants: if the GMAT is a weakness, relative to ALL other aspects of your application, then repeated attempts are justified. however, if you have ANY other aspects of your application that could also be considered glaring weaknesses, then too many attempts at the GMAT is going to make the admissions committees start to think that your priorities are lopsided or misplaced.

so ... if you have solid work experience, solid volunteer experience/extracurriculars, solid letters of recommendation, and solid everything else, but your gmat scores are below average for your particular demographic, then go ahead and take the test again.
on the other hand, if you have low-ish gmat scores after taking the test three times and you also have other issues in your application (e.g., you've never had a leadership position at work, and/or your supervisors don't even remember your name, and/or the grand total of your community involvement + volunteer work + any other type of societal investment is zero), then you should probably go get those things taken care of before you turn your attention back to the gmat.

in any case, i think people are looking a little bit too much for hard numbers here -- i think this is really something in which common sense, as well as an intuitive understanding of the importance of priorities and trade-offs, can pretty much give you accurate enough answers to your questions.
also, i don't mean to spoil the party -- but:
if, after considerable thought, you still have no idea how an admissions committee is going to perceive you and/or your application, then ... well, you may want to think twice about a career in management!
remember that, at the end of the day, management is all about understanding "people factors" that are absolutely NOT hard numbers and/or that are functions of a zillion inconsistent, flesh-and-blood variables. thus, ironically, the excessive desire to hunt for formulas and exact answers to questions like this may itself be an indicator that Other Fields Besides Management may be the way to go.

hopefully the above will help.