Should I retake the GMAT? -700

[myounis02]

Hi!

I graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineer and a 3.3 GPA in 2005. Since then I've worked for two years with an international construction company on a natural gas facility construction project in Qatar as a field engineer. Then I came back home to Canada and worked in the oilsands in Alberta. First for two years and a bit as an Estimator for a major Canadian oilsands mining/heavy civil construction company and now for the past 5 months as a Sr. Estimator with a major construction/engineering company with a focus on oilsand facility construction (mechanical vs mining/civil projects).

Last January I decided I wanted to pursue an MBA to get out of the oil and gas industry. My ultimate goal is to work in non-profits or renewable energy service inclined industries and essentially to become an Entrepreneur. Alternatively, I'm also considering potentially working for a strategic management consultancy firm, at least initially.

So today I crossed my first milestone, taking the GMAT. I scored 48 in Quant, and 38 in Verbal with a total 700 score. I was a little dissapointed because in over 3 weekends I took 4 of mba.com's (I had 2 from a previous year on disc) computer based tests and scored 720 in each one (with my math/quant fluctuating up and down each time).

My target schools are Columbia, Stanford, and Berkeley. Now I'm wondering whether I should retake the GMAT or if it would do more harm than good to do so. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Edit: just wanted to add that I finished the quant sec 12 mins early and the verbal 15 mins early so lack of time wasn't an issue

[mbamission]

Hi myounis02,

Thanks for writing in. A 700 is a strong score that should be neither a point of strength or weakness at most schools. You are, however, targeting two of the most competitive schools out there, so you will have to show several other strengths to go with your score.

Retaking the exam is really a question of how much time you have to prepare and how confident you are you could raise your score by more than 20 points. Depending on your answers to those questions, you may want to invest the time writing focused essays and explaining your story to the schools.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[pranavrock]

Hi

I am a student from IIT Delhi,india and have recently taken gmat - 720 (quant 50, verbal 36).my verbal % is 78 and awa is 4.5 and i have heard about some 80 % funda in top b schools.This thing is troubling me.do i need to retake the gmat if i am aim at top b schools.I have a strong acad record as such and my work ex is considered as good.

thanks

pranav

[mbamission]

Hi Pranav,

The 80%-threshold is considered a general guidelines; I do not think you need to retake the GMAT with the hopes of improving by just two percentage points.

Good luck!

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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[jalaj.chhalotre]

I have the same query... Should I retake the GMAT?

I had my first attempt at GMAT yesterday and i scored 700 (Q49, V36). However, I am disappointed because I was expecting 720-740.
___
MBA target session: Aug -2011
Target College: top 10 -top 20 colleges in US as per financial times ranking.
Work Exp: 5 yrs, completely as a Siebel CRM techno-functional consultant across geographies in multiple domains such as finance, telecom, and public sector.
Academics: above average but not too good.
Citizenship: India
___

If I donot retake gmat- which schools i can target with present gmat score?

-Jalaj

[mbamission]

Hi Jalaj,

A 700 is high enough so that it will not "exclude" you from any school really. It sounds like your college academics might be a weakness though. While it's tough to recommend specific schools based on this limited information, I suggest doing some research at schools in the #10-20 range to see which might best match your post-MBA ambitions the best. I hope this was helpful and good luck!

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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