Retake advice/strategies for GMAT score 720 (Q48, V41).

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I wrote the GMAT a couple of days ago and I got a score of 720 (Q48 (80th percentile) and V41 (92nd percentile)). I know this is a good score. I am looking to apply Wharton/Booth and few others and I know this score meets the median score for both those schools. The next month is kind of light for me at work, so I thought I could retake it if necessary. I don't want to go through the trouble of an application, and find out I get wait listed because of this score, as I understand these schools are very competitive. I don't how well my profile will stand out with others, so I want to hit GMAT with my best shot when I have some relatively freer time at work. I am male of Indian descent with engineering background but raised in New Zealand, so I am native speaker of English.

My scores in Manhattan GMAT ranged between 690 and 760 and GMAT prep's were 770 and 730. So from this point of view the score was a disappointment. But I felt the GMAT seemed to be a notch higher than GMAT prep.

I have been through the Manhattan guides, Manhattan tests, OGs, GMAT prep question banks, a few GMAT club tests.

Can anyone point out strategies to improve my quant from Q48 to Q50? In the GMAT in particular I was under the cosh for time and probably guessed the last three questions but I think the real problem was there were in particular several tough geometry questions that seemed to butcher me. Is this a recent trend? I guess GMAC probably rotates the question pools every so often so its impossible to make trends :). I felt I couldn't reach the harder bin 720+ questions (if there any such problem levels). My expectation was that harder questions would be some combination or some crazy data sufficiency number properties but I turned out to be very wrong.

How have you guys developed your mathematical intuition to face such problems? Is it just practice? Is it that you have seen "similar" problems like this before?

And also any pointers to improve my verbal by a couple of points? I guess 41 may mean I missed 7 questions or so? The SC in exam seemed to be confusing and unlike anything I have seen before. Some of them seemed to be testing some obscure rules unlike what GMAC said about the main focus "meaning". CRs seemed to be tricky and RCs long but okay. But still not sure where I missed those questions. Based on your guys experience, what would the average person do to improve from say a V41 to V44?

Is it worth taking any gmat prep course / private tutoring or any others that help me reach my goal: improve my 720 to 750/760.

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by AbhiJ » Fri Jun 29, 2012 2:09 pm
Focus on quant, try to hit 50. You will reach 740-750.