Not Quite a Home Run Swing - 720 (Q48 V41)

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Not Quite a Home Run Swing - 720 (Q48 V41)

by MOnQuest » Sat Oct 01, 2011 4:33 pm
I gave my GMAT today and scored a 720 (Q48 V41)

Before I discuss anything else, I want to first thank the BTG community for being so helpful all along. Although I've not been an active participant, I've gained a lot of information from this site and its forums that have helped me immensely in improving my score.

I actually started out on this quest 3 months ago with a target of 750+ so that I can aim for the top 5-10 colleges in the US. I had to make a trade off decision on the exam date as I wanted to get the scores in time for the Round 1 deadlines (2012) of some colleges at least. However, I am disappointed with my score today and I wanted to get expert opinions on how I should go about from here on.

Though I had a good start with the essays (thanks to the free GMATPrep videos and the Chineseburned templates), somewhere along in the Quant section, I took a detour from my disciplined approach and spent too much time on couple of questions. It was enthusiasm mixed with nervousness that made me do that stupid thing where I should have just guessed and moved on. As a result, I ended up in a situation where I had to solve the last 6 questions in less than 6 minutes. As I expected, this impacted my score in the end. Verbal was a breeze and 41 was in my usual scoring range.

My typical scores in both the practice GMATPrep tests were 730 and 740 and after a reset, I was able to reach the 750 mark. I exhausted my MGMATs in the first two months of my prep and my highest score there was 710.

I am aspiring to do an MBA from one of Tuck, Harvard, Booth or Duke (my top choices). Given below is a snapshot of my profile and it will be helpful if any of you experts can let me know my chances and if I should retake my GMAT. Most of my friends told me that I need a 750+ score to get a shot at these universities. I am confident of crossing the 750 mark if I go for it in another month or two.

Nationality: Indian
Education: Engineering degree from one of top 10 engineering colleges in India (CGPA: 8.1/10)
Experience: 6 years in IT company based out of Bangalore, India
Working in the US office for the last 2 years
Awarded best employee award in 2009 (given to top 5-6 out of 1500 employees)
Varied experience ranging from software architecture to leading development teams

Extra Curricular: Not much recently but was an active secretary for my department club in college

The big question now is - should I RETAKE the GMAT? Had I received a score of 740+, I would have closed my GMAT books. Its hurting me even more as I know the exact areas where I could have clearly done better. I'm looking forward to reading your inputs - Thanks in advance!

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by la56 » Sun Oct 02, 2011 11:45 am
Congrats.

First, 720 is a great score and it puts you in the desired range for all the top 10 colleges.
After talking to couple of admissions officers from the top universities i have come to a conclusion that anything above 700 looks the same to them.

Here are the exact words from an adcom (dont ask who and which univ)

"If the gmat score is an 800 or a 790, yes its an eye opener and we might give them couple of more points but other than that all ranges are broad 700's, high 600's and low 600's".

Hope this helps.

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by MOnQuest » Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:01 am
Thank you for your kind words. The problem is that I'm from an over-represented section of the applicant pool (Indian/IT/Male) and folks from this group typically come with scores of 750+ which puts me at a disadvantage. Though I have a decent GPA, its not stellar and my extra-curriculars are not all that great either. GPA is something I can't do anything about but I'm planning to spend the next year working on my extra-curriculars.

Only yesterday I had a conversation with one of the AdCom members from a top-10 school and they told me that though my score is slightly above their average, it doesn't put me in any favorable position. They said I can go ahead and re-take if I'm expecting at least 30-40 point increase.

At this point I'm confused as to how much time and energy I should spend on applications and school visits this year when the Adcom itself is giving me such pessimistic feedback. I don't want to take the test immediately (within next 40-50 days) as I won't be able to do justice. This time, I want to aim for 780 and prepare myself in a more robust fashion.

As always, suggestions are welcome!

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by AbhiJ » Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:05 am
If you want 780, go get it, refuse to listen to the naysayers.

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GMAT Score:700

by prodizy » Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:13 pm
Hey MOnQuest,

congrats on the great score. The following blog post may be helpful:

https://blog.accepted.com/2011/10/13/he- ... ns+Blog%29
My journey towards the MBA: https://theroadlesstravellled.blocked/

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by saketk » Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:17 pm
One of my friend's friend from Delhi got admit from HEC paris. Guess what her score was - 640