INSEAD GMAT question : 690 overall but lower quant score

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Dear beatthegmat,

I am facing a little dilemma.

After a few weeks of practice, I took the GMAT. I scored a honest 690, but my score is a bit unbalanced: 56% in quant (lacked time) and 97% verbal.

INSEAD favor balanced scores (70/75% for each) but people tell me not to worry: my good grades in quantitative subjects in grad school (masters in international economics at Johns Hopkins, 3.97 GPA with honors), and my good profile should amply compensate. I have been working as an economist for the World Bank for 5 years, and have led projects and managed teams consulting governments on economic policies in Africa and Asia.

I wonder, though, whether INSEAD is likely to apply some kind of automatic elimination for scores like mine. if so, my good profile would not really help.

I'm sure the safe solution would be to work like crazy and take it again, but my calendar up to March is insane, and that's a step I'd like to make only if it really makes sense. Would you recommend me to take it again?

Thank you so much for your help !
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by Cindy Tokumitsu » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:55 am
Hello,

I have not heard of Insead applying an automatic elimination. Obviously, your strong quant grades in other contexts plus your work experience will offset the low GMAT quant score to a large extent. This low quant score will be a weakness in your application, but I believe it will not automatically doom it - I expect your application will receive a fair and serious review by the Insead adcom. They will review your application holistically and see the score in context.

As for retaking - better is always better! But it only makes sense if you are pretty sure of significant improvement for the time/effort you'd have to invest.

Best regards,
Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, Accepted.com