710 Gmat Retake? 48Q 78% , 38V 84%
A little background.
Went to a small liberal arts college (majored in accounting 3.6 gpa).
Audit at mid tier public accounting firm (right below big 4) for 1.5 years. Passed CPA.
Internal Audit at 2B revenue manufacturing company for 2-3 years upon app.
Decent extracurricular activities, but nothing mind blowing.
White male, 4 or 5 years experience upon starting a program.
I took the exam about a year and a half ago and it was my second attempt and highest score (other was 670), so I would have to relearn the material.
Also I have about 5 months free before I would apply for this coming year if I decide to do that.
Thoughts on retaking the exam, and my profile in general. I am looking at the two Chicago schools since they would be the most convenient if I can pull it off, and then the next tier of Ross, Darden, Johnson etc.
800 or bust.
Come on now. Based on my profile would a 730 or 740 help me get into places that I couldn't get into with a 710? Specifically, Kellogg and Booth.
I think general consensus is that for top programs 700-740 is "check the box" and a 750 and above might benefit your application a bit.
Full disclosure: I'm just regurgitating what I have read here and at gmatclub.
If english is your first language, I think you could actually see a lot of improvement in Verbal - work on the idioms, etc. Harder to make up more in quant but I think you could easily pop up to 90 percentile on verbal.
Run the numbers though, I agree unless you think you'll see at least a 30 pt bump, spend the time on the essays instead.
I think you are fine. Rather than waste your time trying to increase your score by 10-30 points, work on the essays and letters of recommendations. People forget that B-School applications have fallen a bit the past couple of years, meaning entrance requirements follow.
You may struggle to get into Booth, but I think you have a good chance at Kellogg and your Tier 2 schools.
Thanks for the responses. Good reminders from everyone that 700-740 is more of a check the box requirement than a make or break. How does my experience look against against others and would I be in an overly populated group of applicatants coming from public accounting/internal audit at certain schools?
You need to find a way to differentiate yourself. Clearly you will be a dime a dozen, so to speak, in terms of work experience. But, that doesn't mean you cannot use your existing experience to benefit your application.
^^Agree with this.
You would be better off spending that time starting a little side business or doing some 'free' audit work for some start-ups or non-profits. Focus on doing something that will make you different, not more of the same.
Regards
You should definitely retake it since you can improve verbal a lot by getting better at sentence correction and logical reasoning. Your quant is fine, so spend most of your time on verbal. Go through manhattan gmat's sentence correction guide and for logical reasoning i actually recommend that you study the LSAT because those questions are a lot harder than the GMAT, and if you can do well on those you will crush the GMAT reasoning questions.
Just a data point for you - I took the GMAT a few years ago when I was 22 with little preparation and got a 710 (49Q / 38V). Spent some time with the Manhattan GMAT verbal books, specifically sentence correction, and retook last month and bumped it up to a 750 (49Q, 45V) fairly easily. Was consistently getting 50Q / 46V on practice tests (760-780). Once you do some reps with the Manhattan books, the verbal stuff becomes almost second nature and you don't really have to think much. I breezed through the verbal. Just one data point though, so take it with a grain of salt.
Thanks everyone. I think I might be more conflicted now than before, but still I appreciate everyones insight.
Wont hurt to retake
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