Hello WSO,
I am preparing for my GMAT in order to apply for top a 20 MBA program. After preparing for a month and a half, my GMAT practice scores seem to be pretty lousy (sub 620). I was always a terrible standardized test taker. I could do well in my APs, school/ college work, Math exams (Calc, Stats, etc), but I had tough time with critical thinking exam problems such as the SAT and now GMAT. I got into a ok college with a GPA 3.65 major finance minor econ, so I don't think of myself intellectually inferior, but I am a point of desperation.
I may not be able to apply for an MBA program, due to this gmat score problem, and I wondering if I am intellectually capable of achieving a score above a 700 or even a low 650. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar situation and how did they over come the GMAT.
Did you get a low score and still get accepted into your top 20 mba program? Did you get a special tutor? Use a special prep course? Bribe the GMAC (joking)? Pay Russian hackers to rig your score(joking)?
I am planning on appylying for the class starting in 2018.
Many thanks in advance
OP, there could be so many non-issues here and it honest all depends. Here are a few tips I found to be most helpful:
Other people have made great points; I'll add mine as someone who improved from a low 600's on my first GMAT practice test to clearing above a 750 on the real thing and received a BB offer from a non-target B-School and non-target undergrad.
Asking if you can get a low score and get into MBA programs is the wrong way to think about it. You might break in with a low GMAT balanced by some other extraordinary factors such as work experience or under-represented diversity (URM or gender), but you will then run into the challenge of recruiting for banking with a low GMAT. (Yes, we check the resume for it, and if it isn't there, we assume it's sub-700 and will ask in informationals or first-round interviews).
For non-target candidates, this is just another data point nail in the coffin that will impede your recruiting efforts. Also, since it is almost 100% within your control, unlike your undergraduate GPA which is already cemented, you should prioritize getting a 700+ score at this stage above almost all else. If you are not an under-represented minority, you will have even less room for error. Definitely get all your ducks in a row.
If you really want to do what it takes to get a 700+ GMAT score, you need to put in effort (hundreds of hours) and study efficiently (targeted on improving your weaknesses). Others in this post have already covered what it takes, and I would https://www.reddit.com/r/GMAT/top/?sort=top&t=all</a">add Reddit's experience to the mix. Happy to answer other questions that are not personally identifying.
[P.S. MS does not change the validity of my advice, if you have an argument, reply to my comment]
Some great comments and advice here.
I would also recommend checking out Magoosh. Their videos and practice problems are fantastic and the whole premium package is only $149. Their videos cover every topic in enough detail to really grasp how concepts work, how the GMAC structures questions, and how to avoid various pitfalls. As a caveat I used it mainly for quant with a little verbal and IR as well.
I went from scoring 690 on my first real test (June, using MGMAT and GMATPrep questions and practice tests) to 750 (98th percentile) on my second attempt after using Magoosh. The key, however, isn't the material you use, but how you use it and how disciplined you are. After scoring that 690 I was demoralized but vowed to work harder to improve my score since I had scored 720 on a couple practice tests. After signing up for Magoosh I watched every single quant video and about a quarter of the verbal videos (where I needed improvement). I usually watched the videos and did practice problems through Magoosh's online portal and mobile app for 2-4 hours per night and 6-8 hours on Sundays. On Saturdays I would go into the office and take a practice test in the morning to replicate real test-taking settings and have a quiet place to concentrate.
Hope this is somewhat insightful and best of luck! Stay focused and disciplined, know your weaknesses, and improve on them and you'll be fine.
Buy the Manhattan GMAT books. They are the GMAT bible.
Buy the Official GMAT guide with its however many hundreds of questions.
Work the MGMAT books. BUT, and this is huge -- don't passively read. Read a concept, read it again if you need to, read it 5x more times if you really need to, and then do 10+ problems, of varying difficulty. I'm serious. This is absolute key. Passive reading may work for some, but for many it'll be a waste of time and effort. The GMAT is a test you can learn -- the best way to do this is through doing problems after each concept. If you get something wrong, go back, understand what you got wrong, and then re-do the problems the next day until everything is right.
It takes different people ridiculously different amounts of time to study for the GMAT. I know a friend who needed 2 months to get a 780. No joke. I know another who studied for over a year and could never break 720. Another studied on and off (I strongly recommend against this) for just under a year to get a 760. I took 6 months to get to a 750.
Discipline is key. Constant repition is also. Every day you should be doing some kind of GMAT work, even if you take only 10 minutes to answer the GMAT Club's questions of the day.
Don't get discouraged. See #4 and #5 when you do. Different people need different amounts of time. Discipline is key.
OP, I'm on vacation and forgot my laptop, so I apologize in advance for not reading all the posts on this thread, but you didn't even list how you've prepared, making it almost impossible to give you guidance. Here is what I did as an undergrad to score a 700. I am confident that if I retook the exam, I could score well over 740 because I really did not do a good job at preparing for quant the first time around.
I don't know how the essay section has changed, but Google "GMAT Chinese Burned" and read that guy's post. Again, that essay part might now be gone.
Get the Manhatten books (should be ~$150 or so), all THREE official guides (the fat one, the verbal, and the quant), and the advanced math Manhatten book.
Set a deadline. I personally study much better if I know that I only have X more days/weeks. I also study better on a tight schedule and if I give myself one day a week off. Find what works best for you.
I don't think you broke out your score, but if you're a native English speaker (I'm not) you should be scoring very high, as in >95th percentile, on verbal. If you're struggling with verbal, start reading more. Google "GMAT fiction", print out that list from GMAT Club, and dust off you library card. The verbal section should be a cake walk if you read quality books regularly.
Forget the unofficial practice tests. I would only use the official tests. I got mine in a CD, but I think GMAC lets you download them now. Call me crazy, but I don't see the point in taking practice tests that are not official. To do well on the GMAT, you need to understand the concepts so that you can use tricks to solve the problem. If you're solving the problem outright, you're losing valuable time. Because of this, more difficult problems from unofficial practice tests make no sense. Just my two cents. YMMV and all that.
Once you are in the upper 600s or low 700s, try to get books specific to one area. Jeff Sackman (sp?) makes great quant stuff. There are great LSAT books that help with critical reasoning. You will need to Google this yourself as I took the GMAT a while back.
I hope that helps. Don't apply with your current score. You're really doing yourself a disservice. I honestly think you just failed to prep correctly. Good luck.