Take GMAT again?

[SimonR715]

Hi,

I took the GMAT last week (first attempt) and scored 710 (Q 49, V 38, IR 8, AWA 6). Although it is a 90th percentile score, I am not completely satisfied. While the MPREP CAT scores were in line with my final score, I could score 760 and 770 at the Official Practice Exams. My quant score reflects pretty much my abilities and confirmed my practice exam scores. As I am a non-native English speaker, my verbal score depends to some extend on the topic and even on luck, because sometimes I have difficulties with vocabulary at a low question level, whereas I do fully understand very difficult questions. As a result, I think, that I could have done better in the Verbal section. Now I'm facing the dilemma to decide, whether I should try it once again.
My background: I am a final year undergraduate student (business administration) at the University of Mannheim (Germany). I'm currently spending a semester abroad at the University of St Gallen (Switzerland). In addition, I am a candidate for the CFA level I exam in December. According to the mba.com GPA conversation table, my current 1.5 GPA in Germany equals a 4.0 in the US. Upon graduating in Summer 2019, I would like to start a one year MSc program in Finance at one of Europe's top business schools (HEC or LBS). Afterwards, I would like to work in investment banking for two years and apply for a top 10 Business School in the US. Would you recommend an additional GMAT attempt?
Thank you very much.

[mbaMissionMichael]

Hi and thanks for your post.
Since you think you can improve your verbal score, I do recommend you take the GMAT again. Schools will only look at your top score, so you have nothing to lose (aside from your time spent studying). Even if you happen to get a lower GMAT score this next time, schools will not look at that negatively, and if anything, they will appreciate the fact that you were dedicated to take it more than once.
Good luck!

[SimonR715]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your fast response and your recommendation. Althought I didn´t invest lots of time or mental effort (I simply revised the Sentence Correction part thoroughly and took a few quant and verbal practice problems in the last 7 days), I scored 760 (Q 49, V 44, IR 7) today.
Now, for my planned applications, I have one additional question: As I am a native German speaker, I have to provide an appropriate TOEFL score. I took the test one year ago without any preparation (I simply had to score >90/120 for my semester abroad) and scored 109/120. Althought the score in general seems to be sufficient for any business school, it is quite mediocre. I am confident, that I could easily score very close to 120 with some preparation time, but I don´t know, whether it is worth the time and money. I am not sure, whether a stronger TOEFL score is a significant advantage.
Thank you so much.

Kind regards
Simon

[mbaMissionMichael]

Hi Simon,

First of all, congrats on an excellent GMAT score.

As for your TOEFL, a 109 is still very strong. If I were you, I would spend the time instead on working on the rest of your application, such as creating that compelling story that makes you distinct and someone who schools will want in their classroom.
Good luck!