GMAT:630 Should I retake?

[FrankStein]

I gave my Gmat yesterday and scored:630(Quant:49 , Verbal:27 & IR:3 ) with a 15days of preparation. I scored a 530 on GMAT Prep1 without any preparation and was able to increase it to 630.

I have 2 years of work experience. GPA=3.

Can someone please help me out with the following:
1)OPTION-1: Apply to colleges with the present score.
i)Which colleges should i target with this score.
ii)How is the scope in future for European Colleges(I was thinking of only US Bschools,but let me give a try at these too).


2)OPTION-2: Retake GMAT:
i)Will it be too late to apply for Fall-2016??(If I were to retake the test,I would do it on Dec12)(R2 deadlines end by first,second week of Jan).

Feel free to ask any question.

Regards
FS

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

I gave my Gmat yesterday and scored:630(Quant:49 , Verbal:27 & IR:3 ) with a 15days of preparation. I scored a 530 on GMAT Prep1 without any preparation and was able to increase it to 630.

I have 2 years of work experience. GPA=3.

Can someone please help me out with the following:
1)OPTION-1: Apply to colleges with the present score.
i)Which colleges should i target with this score.
ii)How is the scope in future for European Colleges(I was thinking of only US Bschools,but let me give a try at these too).


2)OPTION-2: Retake GMAT:
i)Will it be too late to apply for Fall-2016??(If I were to retake the test,I would do it on Dec12)(R2 deadlines end by first,second week of Jan).

Feel free to ask any question.

Regards
FS

You still have time for a retake before second round deadlines hit. Just make sure that if you choose this option, you aren't sacrificing quality from the other aspects of your application. If you give us a rundown on what material you used for your prep the first time, we'll have some recommendations for what might useful for this second attempt.

[[email protected]]

Hi FrankStein,

There are a variety of factors that go into selecting the Schools that you'll apply to. Here are some things to think about:

1) Is there a particular company that you want to work for or industry that you want to work in? Certain degrees are more appropriate than others if you have a specific career goal.
2) What do you want your MBA to do for you?
3) Do you want to go to School full-time or part-time?
4) Are you willing to relocate? Are you comfortable with working through a program that is primarily online?
5) Are you going to be applying for scholarships?
Etc.

The answers to these questions will impact whether you should be retaking the GMAT or not. There's still plenty of time to figure all of this out, retake the GMAT (if necessary) and complete your application(s) on time.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[FrankStein]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

@David: I have joined Magoosh Online Course 10days before I gave GMAT.I used to get most of the CR questions right. Low verbal score in actual test can be accounted to my poor reading speed and lack of indepth knowledge of Grammar. In Quant, I worked on 100 Questions of OG in both problem solving and DS.
If i work little on quant, I think I can hit a 51. But need some serious help with verbal.

@Rich:
1) Is there a particular company that you want to work for or industry that you want to work in?
I want to move into Financial Sector after completion of MBA.No specific company.

2)What do you want your MBA to do for you?
I want to pursue my career in investment banking.Therefore a school that has a strong faculty in this aspect, has ample opportunities for improving my overall personality and helps me build a strong network will be good.

3)Do you want to go to School full-time or part-time?
I want to do a full time MBA -- a 2year degree.

4)Are you willing to relocate? Are you comfortable with working through a program that is primarily online?
I am willing to relocate.i want to do an on-campus course.

5)Are you going to be applying for scholarships?
Yes.But if i get into a good B school without a scholarship, i am ready to take a hit.

Please provide me clarification on the following:
1)Which schools can I apply for with my present score.
2)How many days before the deadline do i have to send out the information to the school.

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

@David: I have joined Magoosh Online Course 10days before I gave GMAT.I used to get most of the CR questions right. Low verbal score in actual test can be accounted to my poor reading speed and lack of indepth knowledge of Grammar. In Quant, I worked on 100 Questions of OG in both problem solving and DS.
If i work little on quant, I think I can hit a 51. But need some serious help with verbal.

If you struggle with Sentence Correction, you may find our lesson helpful: https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/free-gmat-lesson/
Additionally, if you haven't done so yet, you'll want to work through the Official Guide questions, and perhaps pick up two more official practice tests: https://www.mba.com/us/store/store-catal ... ack-1.aspx
Make sure you spend time unpacking why every wrong answer choice is incorrect. If anything is unclear, post here.

[MartyMurray]

Hi Frank.

You just didn't get enough practice in GMAT verbal.

You could do much better at CR and RC with even just a little practice and getting better at seeing which answers are trick answers and things like that.

Even getting SC answers right is largely just about knowing how to hack the questions. Yes sure, it helps to have some knowledge of certain grammar rules and sentence construction concepts and conventions, but practicing hacking your way to right answers is also a key part of getting better at SC.

If you do decide to retake on December 12, the time that would give you should be plenty to drive that verbal score significantly higher. Let's say you get your verbal score to 38 and, thinking conservatively, get 50 in quant. The total score you would see then would be around 720.

If you do decide to go that route, be sure to see what GMAT verbal is actually testing, which is reasoning skills. GMAT verbal is not an English test, really, and just learning a bunch of rules and strategies will not get you to that target score, as many people have realized to their chagrin. I see people who can recite all kinds of rules and who know about all kinds of strategies having trouble scoring above low 30's in verbal. To score high in verbal you need to use reasoning skills similar to those you use to figure out the right answers to quant questions.

A key question you can ask yourself any time you don't get one right is "Without learning any particular new thing how could I have gotten this one right?"

Here's a good example. The other day a guy who before this had been preparing for a year and who had taken a course at a major test prep company saw his CR hit rate skyrocket in just a few days just by changing his approach to make it more of a logic based hacking approach than it had been.

You have about a month and a half. So be sure to do right from the start what he did eventually. Start practicing verbal questions, learn to use logic, reason, and hack hack hack, and see your score go up.

[[email protected]]

Hi FrankStein,

Since you've better defined your overall MBA Program 'goals', you can now research the Schools that offer what you're looking for. With each School, you can learn about the average GMAT Score (and middle-80) for the various Programs and that will give you a much better sense of how your score compares.

Once you have a definitive list, you would also likely benefit by talking with an Admissions Expert about your overall profile. There's a Forum full of them here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-an-mba-a ... t-f40.html

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich