710 to 700- take a third time?

[PatrickA750]

Hi All,
Feeling pretty disappointed, and was hoping for some advice here. Just as some background I have been studing for the GMAT since August 2015. I know studying over this long of a time period isn't the best, but I work in consulting and have developed a pretty good reputation as a "go-to" for my superiors; consequently, I work ~80-90 hours a week so my studying was confined to the weekends only. A little longer than a month ago I took the GMAT for the first time and scored a 710 (Q 44; V42). I was't entirely happy after receiving this score so I scheduled a retake and communicated to my superiors that I needed a little more free time to study, which they tried to oblige with. I made it my effort to study EVERY DAY no matter how late I was at work and took off four days from work preceding the date of the exam to prepare. The result of this second GMAT was 700 (Quant 47; Verbal 40). The verbal is really bothering me, I've taken 10 practice CAT's and my range for verbal was a 40-44, so I scored towards the bottom of my range on my second test. The highest I have ever scored on quant during these practice tests was a 49, but most fluctuated within the 44-46 range, so the recent 47 is fine with me.

I'm from the Philly area and it's my dream to go back for school, and I've been to Wharton sponsored networking events specific to my field and really liked everyone I met. I've also been to Columbia for similar events and enjoyed the people there, albeit I am not as close to the community yet. Although these two school have occupied most of my thoughts while studying, I looked forward to being done and exploring a majority of the top institutions to find somewhere I fit best based on feel and how their program fits into my plan, not necessarily the ranking. As corny as it sounds, a major driver of my happiness these past two years has been the dream that I will get into one of the top B schools, and the GMAT seems to be what is really going to ding me.

What do you all think, is it worth going at it a third time? I've studied for a little over a year and took every precaution I could to make sure this one went right, including taking the time off to get myself in the right mindset, which I do not think I can afford to do again. What's really bothering me is if I "super score" my two scores, you get either a 720 or 730 depending on the chart you use and I would have been more than happy walking away with either of those scores on my recent test. My access to my prep software expires in mid-December so I would have to take it again soon, and I am a little disheartened/frustrated by the whole situation, but I want to be admitted badly. If I were to take it again and get a 730, would that have a large impact on my chances at either of those institutions or top schools in general, or is the fact that they'll see my quant was a little low before and I tried to rectify it enough (assuming they will look at both of my scores)? Thanks for all the insight and advice to hopefully come.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

It sounds like you've put a lot into your preparation for sure, and I can understand your frustration. A 710, your highest, is still pretty solid fyi. And the schools will take the highest score, so no worries about that. All things considered, if you feel that a slightly higher score is fairly within-reach, then it doesn't hurt to try, just in case it makes that difference. If you did, just give it one last shot, book it asap, and don't do much additional prep... you have the ability already, but sometimes a different day/different mindset/different q's, you could still seem improvement. That's great that you are focusing on overall feel and fit with the school. Keep us posted on what you decide for the GMAT and next steps and happy to continue to advise!

[PatrickA750]

Just following up on this. I retook a third time and got a 710 (Q 48, V40). Pretty disappointed because my past three practice tests were 740 (MCAT), 710 (GMAT Prep pack 2), 740 (GMAT Prep Pack 2) all taken in the past two weeks under testing conditions. Do you all think it's worth a fourth try? Let's say I take it one more time, and get a 730 with something like Q48, V 41, would my chances be significantly higher? Or at that point does it look like I am "score hunting"? I want to be done with the GMAT and move on, and manhattan was a great help so far, but if I am this close would a fourth time really benefit me?

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,
Sorry to hear that the 3rd time didn't provide the improvement you were hoping for, especially based on your practice test scores. I think you could go either way. I think it's very reasonable to be 'done' after 3 tries, so no worries at all at this point if that is the choice you make. On the flip side, if you feel you'd never know what you could have done if you don't do it one last time, and feel you were capable of more, you could book a last one asap, maybe not even prep much if at all and show up and see how it goes, if no improvement cancel, if 730+ could keep it. The schools are going to be focused on your highest score no matter how it all plays out. A 730 would marginally help vs 710 at some programs... but again it's also fine to say I've done my best at this point... food for thought on either side! Keep us posted.

[PatrickA750]

Hi there,
Sorry to hear that the 3rd time didn't provide the improvement you were hoping for, especially based on your practice test scores. I think you could go either way. I think it's very reasonable to be 'done' after 3 tries, so no worries at all at this point if that is the choice you make. On the flip side, if you feel you'd never know what you could have done if you don't do it one last time, and feel you were capable of more, you could book a last one asap, maybe not even prep much if at all and show up and see how it goes, if no improvement cancel, if 730+ could keep it. The schools are going to be focused on your highest score no matter how it all plays out. A 730 would marginally help vs 710 at some programs... but again it's also fine to say I've done my best at this point... food for thought on either side! Keep us posted.

Thanks for the post Jennifer. Unfortunately I can't get a decent time until February, so I would have to continue studying for ~1.5 months minimum to stay where I am at. If you don't mind me asking, do you (or anyone else) have any insight as to what the thinking would be regarding a school seeing a higher total score vs looking at the individual subscores? It's my understanding that most schools only "take" your highest single score (so in my case a 710), but they also look at all of your reported scores in the last 5 years to get a better idea of your history. Since I reported all three of my tests, they would see that I got a Q48, V42 over two separate tests, which I understand still isn't as good as a 730 on a single test, but do you think the difference in an application would be that large?

The only reason I am asking is because when taking my practice tests, I honestly felt as comfortable with my answers on the practice test I got a 710 on when compared against the ones I got a 740. I'm open to putting in another two months of studying if it'll help my profile a decent amount, but if I were to get a 720/730 with something like Q48, V41 or Q47 V42 would it make a difference as adcom will see that I had previously tested as high or higher on previous tests and was just trying to hit it on one.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,
Well remind me, are you applying this year or in future? If you have deadlines soon obviously that is a factor. If not and you felt you could do better, I'd take a break for a bit and just do 2-3 weeks of brush-up studying before if you can't get a date until Feb (and wow that seems really far out!!).
To your point, the policy of the school is to 'take' your highest score, which you can self-indicate. Yes they have access to others, and MAY look briefly but many do not. It also varies by school, most apps just have you type in your highest score and sub score, and that's what's considered in the process. Someone back-end verifies your score report of course but that level of analysis you describe may not necessarily happen. Of course it may occasionally and a few schools allow you to list more scores on the actual app, even though they still 'consider' the highest, so it'd be more top-of-mind.

Certainly if the adcomm was concerned say about someone's quant score, they could and maybe would reference your score report to see if you did better. But to me at this point the issue is the overall highest score... and no they won't necessarily try to 'create' a highest score with the 2 highest sub-scores. One of the factors even if smaller (but it's still there) is whoever they admit at 710 if their average is 720/730, is technically lowering their class average... doesn't matter what subscores they had different dates if that makes sense.

Not sure if that was helpful, feel free to sign up for a free consult at any point if interested in dialoguing about it by phone, www.mbamission.com/consult.
Good luck!!