need help! Retake or not

[youngandrestless]

Hey guys,

I took GMAT for the first time this week and have 650 total. (Q=36, V=42). I think I messed up quant a little too much, actually left 1 question unanswered. Wonder if this would have had an impact on my quant score. Does anybody know whats the penalty for not answering a question?

Iam mulling over the question whether I should retake or not. Any suggestion/advice? BTW: Iam now officially in 48 percentile quant bracket whereas my math skills are not bad as I have done fairly well in college math (calculus and Eng.math). That makes me feel strongly in favour of retaking the test.

[mayonnai5e]

It really depends on a lot of factors. Are the schools you are targeting reachable with 650? Are you trying to get into a career with a heavy quant background? How much time do you have to invest if you were to make another attempt? Do you feel the Q score really was the maximum score you could have gotten?

V42 is very good as it stands. If you do decide to retake the test and focus on Q while not neglecting your V lessons, you should be able to raise your Q score up considerably. Quant, in my opinion, is easier to improve than verbal, which depends on language fluency (which cannot be improved rapidly in a short amount of time). However, if you feel your Q score is the max then I wouldn't bother retaking it.

[beatthegmat]

mayonnai5e is spot on, as usual.

[youngandrestless]

thanks a lot mayonnai5e. Iam going to retake the GMAT. Last time I did OG11. Wonder if you can point out some books/references for intense quant prep.

[mayonnai5e]

https://del.icio.us/beatthegmat

Check out that link; there are math related links you can visit there. Also, you might want to check out the Kaplan 800 book - it has some good quant materials. I especially like how that book has certain focus topics that it concentrates on instead of going over every possible obscure formula/topic that you could ever need (but very unlikely to see) on the real exam.