Verbal Disappointment - Retake?

[Rmartello2]

Hi there,

I took the test yesterday, and I was somewhat disappointed with my score. Namely, my verbal score was a bit of a surprise. Here are my CAT scores:

GMATPrep 650 39q 40v
Manhattan 640 38q 39v
Manhattan 690 42q 41v
Manhattan 690 38q 45v
Manhattan 680 37q 45v

As you can see, my weak point is obviously math, but I consistently fell within 90-99 percentile on verbal. My actual test result was as follows:

650 42q 37v

I was happy with hitting my top target on Quant, but I was very disappointed in my Verbal (81st percentile). The hardest thing to deal with is my perception of the actual test was that Quant was significantly easier than the CATs (which would explain my score) and Verbal was pretty in-line with the CATs, if not a little easier. I know a 650 falls within the 40-50 point range of my CAT average, but I really feel I should've done far better on Verbal, which I think would've put me closer to the 680-700 range, which is the mean score range for most of my target schools.

Any suggestions? I'm obviously considering retaking it, but I'm mainly just struggling to accept my Verbal drop. Thank you

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

It can definitely be disappointing when you struggle with a particular portion of the exam compared with how you had been scoring on practice tests. I will say based on my prior 7 years of experience teaching GMAT prep, when I saw similar things happen to my students, it was usually most ideal for them to re-take sooner rather than later... if you are already scoring higher on the realistic CATs, it generally indicates that you are capable of that level (as you can't really out-perform an adaptive test). But you can always score lower than your ability, by having a bad day. Not to mention there is a margin of error for every score anyway, so just taking it on a different day could lead to a different score (generally within a 30 point overall score range). So it sounds like you are planning to re-take and boosting that verbal score will likely help your overall which will be better for your applications. Good luck to you!