I just Beat The GMAT!

I have taken my first attempt today morning. Following is my break down.

Quant: 45 (71 percentile)
Verbal:39 (87 percentile)
Overall: 690 (88)

I am originally from India and have been living in the state side for the past 18 years. Quant was supposed to be my strong section, but I barely finished answering all the questions in time & in the last 10 questions there were more of them answered with time constraint and almost wild guess in 2-3 questions. I think that might have effected my Quant score considerably.

Verbal was usually my achiles-heel but fared reasonably well today. At the point of 10 minutes remaining, I was left with only 3 questions. I should have paced the verbal section reasonably but I did not. Overall I am surprised by the score, I was not scoring more than 650 in GMAT prep & in the one GNEWTON test I took(it gave me 550 actually). The day before the test I took the second GMAT prep test and got a 580.

I am gearing towards applying from EMBA and need to check with current students and ad-coms if they would suggest me to retake the test. Considering the lack of time I spent on preparing(except for being a long time reader of Economist and WSJ), too much time wasted on Angry Birds recently, Christmas party on the day 2 nights before and the drinks that associated with it and the SUnday night Cowboys game I have watched till 11PM last night, I think I did at a reasonable level.

My only regret is, If I had scored 1-2 questions correctly in each of the sections; I would have been in the 700 category and not thinking about retaking. But I have no regrets.

Last but not the least, the daily verbal questions from BTG also have helped.

Woo-hoo, thunderdan!! It is not often that we hear people do BETTER on the actual test than they scored on the practice sessions - and most certainly we can't recall anyone saying they were surprised (in a good way!) by how they performed. Very nicely done!!! It's also so funny that you did well on the verbal when you expected the reverse. Angry Birds and Christmas parties and football games aren't gonna stop YOU from nailin' it!! Awesome.

On the question re: EMBA - first off all, current students wouldn't be a great source for info on whether your score is good enough, and in our experience, adcom members rarely tip their cards. It's sorta an unfair question to them anyway; they look at the GMAT score in the context of the entire application, and without you actually SUBMITTING your app so that they can evaluate the whole thing, then they can't quite say if it's "good enough." BUT what you can do is check whether your score hits in the 80% range of accepted students to your target EMBA program, and our guess is that yes, it absolutely does. So that's your answer.

EMBA programs are typically much more flexible with their admissions policies and so even at the most highly regarded bschool, a 690 score can put you in the running for acceptance to the EMBA track.

Of course, now you have the essays ahead of you!! And those are a little harder to pull off without some prep and rework. Please please please don't wing it on the essays!!! You should be ready for some grueling days/nights ahead as you wrestle those to the ground now.

Anyway, congrats on the very strong score, especially since it seemed near-effortless -- not a story we often hear!! Great job. Good luck on the rest of the application elements now!!!! Let us know how things go for you.

EssaySnark

Thanks for responding and giving pointers on the next steps.
I did have my fair share of preparation for the test.
1. I finished the OG with the process prescribed by BTG 60 day program.
2. Finished up Manhattan SC & CR.
3. Went thru errors in OG and redid them.
4. Thanks to my Employer, joined Knewton prep.
5. Finished half way thru their syllabus and took 1 of available tests.
6. Taken GMAT Prep and scored only 580 on the day before the test.
7. Scored 690 on the test today.

Following was my schedule over the weekend, with some more spare time for the test and my own zone, may be I could have done better:
a. Friday evening hosted Daughter's birthday with her close friends at a kids play place.
b. Friday night slumber party for kids.
c. Saturday morning make nice breakfast for kids & send them home.
d. Saturday night Christmas party at neighbour with lots of wine.
e. Sunday prepare and final push for GMAT, score miserably in practice test.
f. Watch Cowboys loose a close one on Sunday night.
g. Raise early and take GMAT at 8AM and score a 690(88 percentile)

Hindsight is 20/20 and I will be taking the test with more practice of available tests next month.

I received notification of the official score report that can be downloaded electronically.

Another Surprise -- Got 6.0 in AWA. I did hardly 2 essays of writing preparation for each of the Passage types.

Interesting is that for 'Analysis of Issue' I wrote couple of examples that supported the argument but also against it. The issue warranted that approach and I gave sufficient details in the conclusion to substantiate it. Reading a lot of WSJ and Economist over the years definitely helped me here.

Analysis of Argument - I have 4 paragraphs and approximately 650 words. For the Analysis of Issue, I had 5 paragraphs and around 700 words. So I would suggest precise examples with lots of words with no clear mistakes in your flow will definitely help.

Hi thuderdan,

You have a very good score. Nice job.

If you are considering EMBA, I do not think that a retake is advisable. If your goal is to cross the 750 mark, of course you have to retake. But, if you retake just to increase by 20 or 30 points, it might send a signal that your priorities are not right.

My suggestion is instead of a retake, do more research on the EMBA programs and concentrate on your essays and interviews. I am sure, you will get to a good EMBA program.

I am looking at EMBA programs as well. Had a similar experience to yours (job with back to back travel across the coast, taking care of my kid, 2 hour commute each way to work) so great job and great score! Where have you applied and have you heard back from anyone?