Ask Stacy Blackman

Hi Stacy,
I am pretty close to the deadline for Haas part-time and starting to debate one point. In the essay, if my academic records are a true reflection, I decided to explain my poor verbal GMAT score.

I feel that my GMAT verbal score (V 28 51%) doesn't truly reflect my verbal and written communication skills. During my application to engineering graduate school, I scored 660 in verbal (93 percentile) in GRE. I also scored 647 out of a maximum score of 677 in TOEFL. I also scored a 5.5 in AWA.

Do you think I should even provide an explanation as my overall GMAT score is 650 with Quant at 90%? My only concern is that I belong to one of the most competitive pools- Indian software engineers where GMAT scores are typically above 700.

Your suggestion in this matter will be truly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jay

I am in the same dillema - explaining my poor verbal GMAT score in the optional essay. I have 660 in GMAT (v 31, q 49, AWA 5) in my second attempt and I feel that my GMAT verbal score doesn't truly reflect my verbal and written communication skills given that I scored 5 in AWA and 106/120 in TOEFL (reading 29, listening 29, writing 25, and speaking 23). Additionally, my work involves generating high quality technical reports and interacting with customers around the world on a daliy basis and therefore an excellent written and oral communication skills.

My only concern here is that I took two attempts to improve my verbal score and still did not succedded in doing so. The first attempt score was 620 (v 27, q 48, AWA 4.5). Will this not counter my argument my confidence regarding my english abilities. Do you think I should even provide an explanation regarding my low verbal score. I belong to one of the most competitive pools- Indian engineers where GMAT scores are typically above 700.

I would really appreciate your view on the same.

Lisa Anderson wrote:I would have to concur with Stacy's post above. I do think you should provide a brief explanation with supporting evidence of your verbal abilities because of the high level of competition.

Good luck,
Lisa

Thanks Lisa. That fixes a big issue in my application.