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Should I retake?

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Should I retake?

by sast8 » Sat Oct 01, 2016 5:18 pm
I scored a 630 (39Q, 38V). Obviously I have a huge split between quant and verbal. How bad is this? The school I'm looking at has an average GMAT of 610 but says if you score under the 30th percentile on any section you probably won't be admitted. I don't know if I should retake it or not? I took 6 practice exams and my average quant score was a 38.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Sun Oct 02, 2016 5:57 am
sast8 wrote:I scored a 630 (39Q, 38V). Obviously I have a huge split between quant and verbal. How bad is this? The school I'm looking at has an average GMAT of 610 but says if you score under the 30th percentile on any section you probably won't be admitted. I don't know if I should retake it or not? I took 6 practice exams and my average quant score was a 38.
You might benefit from posting this in the admissions consulting section: https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

If you do decide to retake, you'll want to make that you're making some significant adjustments to your test-taking strategy. So the first thing you'll want to do is to thoroughly review your practice tests and assess your strengths and weaknesses. Make if your goal to consistently hit 45+ on the quant before sitting for the exam again.
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by [email protected] » Sun Oct 02, 2016 9:23 am
Hi sast8,

From your post, you have not described anything that would necessitate a retest, so the simple answer to your question is : NO, you don't 'need' to retest. My immediate thought is that you might be mis-interpreting something that the School has stated, so I'd like to know a bit more about that:

1) What specific School/Program are you interested in?
2) Can you provide a link to (or a copy of) the text that the School provided that concerns you?

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by sast8 » Sun Oct 02, 2016 10:20 am
I am interested in the MS Accounting program at SUNY Buffalo. The website says:
"Applications are viewed holistically. While the faculty admissions committees do not have absolute minimums for admission, it is unlikely that prospective students with a score below the 30th percentile on any section of the GMAT will be admitted"

Do you think I would be cutting it too close with a quant percentile of 39? Thanks for the response.
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Sun Oct 02, 2016 10:37 am
sast8 wrote:I am interested in the MS Accounting program at SUNY Buffalo. The website says:
"Applications are viewed holistically. While the faculty admissions committees do not have absolute minimums for admission, it is unlikely that prospective students with a score below the 30th percentile on any section of the GMAT will be admitted"

Do you think I would be cutting it too close with a quant percentile of 39? Thanks for the response.
It all depends on how strong the other elements of your application are. So while the admissions committee is not going to rule out the possibility of accepting you based on your quant score, when they're tabulating your strengths and weaknesses, that 38 is not going to be a relative strength. If your quant score were below 30th percentile, it would be an easy decision to retake. If your quant score were above, say, the 65th percentile, it would be an easy decision to forgo a retake. You need a way to honestly evaluate how your profile stacks up against other prospective candidates. This is a hard thing to do. But information such as the average quant score of admitted students, average amount of work experience, overall acceptance rate, etc., should all factor into this analysis.
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by sast8 » Sun Oct 02, 2016 1:49 pm
Thanks. I am applying to the MS Accounting program, so work experience is not required. I'm unable to find information regarding the MS Accounting program's acceptance rate or average quant scores, but for the business school the acceptance rate is 48%. My GPA is a 3.5 and the business school's average gpa is a 3.4. I also did well in stats, calc, and Econ courses during undergrad, and completed an internship, so should I bring that up in my essay to offset the low quant score? However, I did do quite poorly in an accounting class I took. Other than that, I think my grades have been pretty much in line with the average at UB.
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by [email protected] » Sun Oct 02, 2016 5:32 pm
Hi sast8,

Many Business Schools (and other Grad Schools) use the word 'holistically' to describe their respective application review processes. It's a fancy way of saying "we don't have a checklist, but we know when someone 'looks good' and we really need to see how the entire application pool looks before we make all of the decisions on who to invite." From what you've described, there aren't any obvious 'weak spots' in your application, but there also isn't anything that stands out as particularly exciting or interesting. That last part really is important - beyond having the necessary qualifications (which you appear to have), you also have to properly "market yourself" to each Program that you plan to apply to. To that end, some really well-written essays (and a good interview, if the School grants interviews) would probably do more for you than a slightly higher GMAT score.

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