GMAT Score and Bschool Chances (740, 76% math)
Recently took the GMAT and unofficial score report was 740 (97% percentile), but imbalanced with a 99% in Verbal and a 76% in Math. Only want to go to business school if I can attend Top 5/Top 8. (e.g. Wharton, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, etc.)
I understand math is more important than verbal in the eyes of admissions. I did major in Economics (as well as English) in college and get pretty good grades, so I am capable of more complicated math than what is tested on the GMAT. I struggled with the time constraints. However, my feeling is this score is probably insufficient. Would you advise retaking the test?
Any input appreciated. And yes I realize I am a bit of a shithead for the 76%.
If the rest of your profile is strong and you have good grades in quant-based courses from college, then you are probably a reasonable candidate. 76% is a bit low but not a deal breaker at most of the schools except possibly Wharton. Your overall score is good and quite competitive -- I wouldn't sweat it too much, though if you are targeting Round 1 of this year you still have plenty of time to study and retake. Hard to say if it's worth it without seeing the rest of your profile.
if ur usa citizen little weight is placed on verbal..76 is horrible
Both of these statements are completely wrong.
B-schools still place weight on your Verbal score even if you're a US citizen. The expectations are higher, but the score still matters just as much as it does for a non-US citizen.
76th percentile is definitely not horrible. As others have stated, this is something like 85-90th percentile among US test-takers.
OP, your score is totally fine. Indeed, it is fantastic. The only school that might flinch at the Quant score is Wharton. To the extent you have other evidence of strong quant skills on your resume (econ undergrad, technical job), that will compensate for the 76th percentile on GMAT. I would definitely not re-take.
I see. I am in business development for major Chinese IT company...have been based in China for 2.5 years now and have pretty strong Chinese language skills. I figure that's a pretty attractive soft, but sounds like I should study up on the math and retake the test.
But yes am white male US citizen
Not sure -- I've seen people get into Booth (for example) with worse profiles and similar quant scores. It depends on execution and who you are competing against. I wouldn't describe a 76% as good per se, but it's definitely not horrible. The quant section is skewed upward by foreign quant-heavy students. A 76% overall is somewhere closer to a 85-90% for US students (don't quote me on the exact number but you can run a search and track down the GMAT percentile tool that was floating around a few weeks ago).
I think the bigger hurdle for you will be trying to convince the adcom that you have good experience since frankly business development for a Chinese IT company could mean practically anything. The Chinese language skills could help, but there are already plenty of Chinese students applying to these programs, so you need to have a reason to want an MBA that is related to China (such that you could leverage your language skills). If you "just" apply as a kind of box checking exercise and represent yourself as the white dude in China with some okay experience but no clear objective that requires an MBA, I think your chances are fairly low.
Yes I understand. I was intentionally vague, but I suppose that makes it more difficult for you to provide an accurate reply. Suffice it to say I can represent myself better than "white dude".
http://www.gmac.com/NR/rdonlyres/AC32AD20-FDFD-49E8-8958-23608517C757/0…
Insightful tool regardless of selection bias. Took the test in Shanghai and everyone there was Chinese. Woman must have been laughing at my quant score when she printed it out.
I have heard it said that if you scored poorly on one segment of the GMAT, that adcoms will look at other portions of your application and figure out from there whether it was a fluke or not. In other words - someone who scored like 50% in Verbal but was an English Lit major at some fancy liberal arts college will probably get a pass. In your case, I would think that your Econ undergrad degree is proof enough that you can handle math. Bet you're probably just used to tougher math than is on the GMAT.
With that said... with a 99% verbal score, if you retook the GMATs and managed to bump your Quant up to 99% as well, you could easily be looking at a 770+ GMAT. That ought to be worth a little more in the eyes of adcoms, right? I wouldn't know for sure, though.
羊人即使经过经济学课, 数学还是都不可能比中国儿童的更好. 傻瓜.
羊人即使经过经济学课, 数学还是都不可能比中国儿童的更好. 傻瓜.= Even if Yang Ren after the economic class, mathematics impossible to be better than the Chinese children. Fool. ------ According to Yahoo translate lol
People get all worked up about the 80/80 split thing. But unless your quant and verbal scores are extremely skewed, most schools will only care about your overall score. Most schools only report the mean total score of their student body...not the mean quant/verbal breakdown. So you'd absolutely want a 740 with a 76/99 split than you would a 720 with an 80/80 split.
嗯。考试以后我听到监考人叫我二百五·。 我没办法。我怪英文。
They called you a what, now?
A 250....basically a retard. They love numbers here
You could still get into the 'soft' skill schools that are in the M7 like Kellogg - I don't think it would benefit you to retake with that score. Like the other posters said - show your quant strengths in other ways like courses taken in undergrad or by taking quant courses at the local university as an adult.
The percentiles have dropped a lot. 76% is 47 now, which is around 94% for Americans only according to GMAC. I wouldn't call the score exactly embarrassing considering that most people at top schools are around or below that level. Yale, which is a well-known GMAT whore, used to disclose breakdowns for its class and 47-48 was the average quant score last year.
Yeah my math was a 47. Verbal a 46.
Thanks everyone for input.
Here is some more input...
After submitting my application to Booth last year, my quant percentile dropped (it went from a 77% to a 76%) and I e-mailed the adcom to ask if this would negatively affect me.
This was their response: "We generally consider your overall GMAT score, among other information, in our holistic evaluation process more than your GMAT section breakdown when evaluating for academic aptitude."
I have the same quant % as you and I have never taken calculus course in my life and I do not come from a quant background...however, I still got into two top 5 programs that are very quant heavy.
I really think that the 80/80 split thing is a myth. It's your total score that matters.
Appreciate the follow-up. Seems there is no clear rule then. Do you mind sharing your overall GMAT score?
^ 760 (47, 47)
I am also coming at this as an American applicant from China. I got a 750, but with an even bigger split (48 verbal, 46 math). I have, so far, gotten in everywhere I applied, including schools that are considered quanty like Booth.
Because the median quant score for Chinese test takers is either 49 or 50 and is close to that for students from India, there has been a trend in recent years of the quant scores going up and the verbal scores going down slightly. While people still talk about an 80/80 split, I think that schools are figuring out how to be a little more flexible. It has simply become easier for a native speaker to get an 80+ on the verbal section and harder to do so on math.
It looks like your scores put you in the 94th percentile for Quant and 97th percentile for Verbal among American test-takers. My guess is that will be the more relevant split based on my experience thus far in interviews and dealings with adcoms.
加油!
很厉害。恭喜你。
How was the interview process coming from China? Skype? Beijing/Shanghai/Hong Kong based alumni?
Curious about this, too, for when I eventually apply. Is there less of a chance of being interviewed? Is there some sorta disadvantage there? I'd think not, right...
If you have time, retake and focus on the math. Top five is always a crapshoot and being a WM you have a very large, competitive candidate pool. Emphasize your quant skills in your job as well as your Chinese language skills and experience--these are real differntiators. If you can't get the math portion up, still apply early rounds and you should have a shot. By the way, don't get hung up on the rankings. You shouldn't limit yourself to top 5. Yes, H/W/S are always there, but those schools have very different cultures, and if you are a good fit at HBS you may not fit in as well at Stanford and vice versa. Schools bounce around the rankings, so you should broaden your focus at least to the top 10, choosing schools with which you have a good cultural fit.
Bryant, what is your view on an alternative transcript as a way to make up for a lower-than-desired GMAT quant? I scored a 730 overall (45V45Q - 74th %ile Q). Although satisfied with my overall score, I was of course frustrated by my quant. I am not convinced I can do much better on the quant side (the best I have ever managed on a practice test was a 48Q), so I took and earned As in MBA-level Statistics and Calculus classes. Does this make up for a less than stellar quant score? Or does it depend on other aspects of the profile?
Thanks for the detailed writeup, Jonny. Yeah, it does look like I might have a tough time trying to crack HBS. Too old and not Engineering enough :\
Ah well. I guess I can still hope for Sloan/Booth/Columbia.
how does working as a corpfin analyst at a BB fair as work experience when applying to a top school? I earned a 720 GMAT but was only in the 78% percentile for math. I am a WM
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