Retake? 680 GMAT on first try, Q47, V36

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Retake? 680 GMAT on first try, Q47, V36

by Merih » Tue Oct 01, 2013 2:13 pm
Hello all,

First off I want to say thank you to this incredible forum for all of the resources, webinars, and other stuff that I've been able to take advantage of.

I took my GMAT this morning, and scored a 680 w/ Q47 and V36. That was 70th percentile and 80th percentile respectively, and an 85th percentile overall.

I took 4 separate practice exams over the course of the previous months. The results were as follows:

GMATPrep Exam 1(April 6): 630 (Q 40, V 36, IR 8)
Kaplan CAT 1 (August 28): 600
Kaplan CAT 2 (Sept 13th): 600
GMATPrep Exam 2 (Sept 20th): 700 (Q47, V40, IR 8)

If you told me three months ago that I would score 680, I would've taken it in a heartbeat. But, the fact that I saw 700 pop up two weeks ago on a practice exam got my hopes up...I was hoping for a repeat performance today.

A little background info would help with my question I guess. I'm a 24 y/o african american male from the USA, I work in government in operations and have a degree in Civil Engineering.

What do you think guys, should I retake the GMAT?

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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 01, 2013 6:22 pm
Hi Merih,

A 680/Q47 is a really good score, and you can comfortably apply to any US School. Remember that there's more to the application process than just your GMAT score, so be sure to put the proper effort into the rest of your application. Barring a really special set of circumstances, you won't need to retake the GMAT.

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Rich
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by Merih » Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:19 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi Merih,

A 680/Q47 is a really good score, and you can comfortably apply to any US School. Remember that there's more to the application process than just your GMAT score, so be sure to put the proper effort into the rest of your application. Barring a really special set of circumstances, you won't need to retake the GMAT.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Thank you Rich for your response.

While I got my Civil Engineering degree ahead of schedule, my GPA wasn't the best. In the meantime I have taken college courses in Business Statistics and Financial Accounting at my local community college, and received A's in both.

I know for sure that my GPA is going to impact the admissions process for me. I've tried to take additional steps to offset this impact. I'm hopeful that the GMAT score, additional coursework, and passing the my state's engineering license board exam will help me gain admission!

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by [email protected] » Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:52 am
Hi Merih,

You might find that speaking with an Admissions Consultant would be helpful. While GPA is one of the aspects of the overall application, it becomes less and less relevant as you gain more (and/or interesting) work experience. As such, work experience and GPA tend to work "in tandem" - if you don't have a lot of work experience, then GPA matters a lot. If your GPA isn't great, then that's not necessarily a deal-breaker. Just make sure that some of the other aspects of your application "make up" for it.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by Merih » Mon Oct 07, 2013 5:40 am
Official Scores Update:

Verbal: 36 (80%)
Quant: 47 (70%)
Total: 680 (85%)
AWA: 5.5 (80%)
IR: 8 (93%)