GMAT 640 high quant, poor verbal. Retake it?

Hi guys,
I have recently taken the GMAT and my score was 640 (Q:49 V:28). I am not a native speaker that's why the poor verbal. What do you recommend me do? Should I retake it? I am interested in MSF in Boston College, Vanderblit, George Washigton University and MFE in Baruch. What do u think are my chances to be accepted? My gpa is 3.5.

 

I don't want to be a dick, but a lot of front office jobs really require a mastery of the english language. I would probably take a speech class or some english lessons before starting down this road. Especially at Vandy and BC which place better in traditional banking roles vs a MFE where you could go the quant route where spotty english probably wouldn't hinder you as much.

 

2 months but my worst scores were 640 and in Kaplan. In the official test i scored around 700. I dont know maybe in the first verbal questions i was unlucky and they hampered my score. I think with a 3 week performance i will be ready again for retaking it.

 

@ninja--I recently took the gmat too and the way the works being unlucky in the beginning won't have a significant impact on your score. (it adapts the entire time not just after the first few Q's like most ppl suggest)

Sounds like you either had a bad testing day or you were nervous etc...make sure when you do practice tests to replicate testing scenarios as much as possible. Try and only take 8 minute breaks like you are allowed. I reccomend manhattan gmat review products and their practice tests. (they have an 8 book set, one for each type of question, so you can figure out if you need help with sentence corrections or whatever etc)

 

I agree with Anthony and somewhat with breakinginnew. I think the math is far more coachable than the verbal. I scored in the 99th % on the verbal but I know next to nothing of the "rules" of English (had never even heard of gerund until i saw it in my mgmat book), which are fairly confusing. Maybe that just means I would be a bad coach. But just by practicing, under timed conditions. you should be able to improve your reading comp and CR skills considerably.

It is not true that it's "700 or bust" a 670 or 680 are both attainable and vast percentile improvements.

 

You should definitely retake it if you think you can improve the verbal, but recognize that it is not just a function of being a non-native English speaker, or of a lack of command of the English language; the GMAT verbal section is quite similar to the SAT verbal, which is quite similar to the PSAT verbal, which is quite similar to the myriad other standardized tests US students take from the time they are eight. I have British friends who struggle with GMAT verbal simply because they're not used to the format, so realistically, if you do practice with the format, you should be able to improve on your current score.

 

Both math and verbal are coachable. You should study as much as you can and retake the test. Look at the applicant pool; there's a lot of people out there with both great math score and very solid verbal scores. If you could bring your verbal up to a 40 or more, I think you'd stand a much better chance of admission.

 

get above 35 in verbal, and you will have shown sufficient fluency in English given it is your second language (assuming you speak decent English and your essays are solid). Hit 50 in Math if possible as quantitative skills in my opinion looks more impressive when it comes to applications for MSF (and obviously MFE). Can't comment on BBs, but you should be less concerned about that for now.

 

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