Retake advice/strategies for GMAT score 720 (Q48, V41).

[anandinnz]

I wrote the GMAT a couple of days ago and I got a score of 720 (Q48 (80th percentile) and V41 (92nd percentile)). I know this is a good score. I am looking to apply Wharton/Booth and few others and I know this score meets the median score for both those schools. The next month is kind of light for me at work, so I thought I could retake it if necessary. I don't want to go through the trouble of an application, and find out I get wait listed because of this score, as I understand these schools are very competitive. I don't how well my profile will stand out with others, so I want to hit GMAT with my best shot when I have some relatively freer time at work. I am male of Indian descent with engineering background but raised in New Zealand, so I am native speaker of English.

My scores in Manhattan GMAT ranged between 690 and 760 and GMAT prep's were 770 and 730. So from this point of view the score was a disappointment. But I felt the GMAT seemed to be a notch higher than GMAT prep.

I have been through the Manhattan guides, Manhattan tests, OGs, GMAT prep question banks.

Can anyone point out strategies to improve my quant from Q48 to Q50? In the GMAT in particular I was under the cosh for time and probably guessed the last three questions but I think the real problem was there were in particular several tough geometry questions that seemed to butcher me. Is this a recent trend? I guess GMAC probably rotates the question pools every so often so its impossible to make trends :). I felt I couldn't reach the harder bin 720+ questions (if there any such problem levels). My expectation was that harder questions would be some combination or some crazy data sufficiency number properties but I turned out to be very wrong.

How have you guys developed your mathematical intuition to face such problems? Is it just practice? Is it that you have seen "similar" problems like this before?

And also any pointers to improve my verbal by a couple of points? I guess 41 may mean I missed 7 questions or so? The SC in exam seemed to be confusing and unlike anything I have seen before. Some of them seemed to be testing some obscure rules unlike what GMAC said about the main focus "meaning". CRs seemed to be tricky and RCs long but okay. But still not sure where I missed those questions. Based on your guys experience, what would the average person do to improve from say a V41 to V44?

Is it worth taking your Manhattan gmat prep course / private tutoring or any others that help me reach my goal: improve my 720 to 750/760.

[StaceyKoprince]

How have you guys developed your mathematical intuition to face such problems? Is it just practice? Is it that you have seen "similar" problems like this before?

Essentially, yes. At the highest level, it's really about problem-solving skills - the ability to think your way through something that shares aspects of things you've seen before but also possibly has twists that you need to react to.

Try our Advanced Quant book. It focuses on the actual solving / flexible thinking stuff. (It's not a book of: here are obscure formulas and really hard math concepts to learn. It really is about how to think. :)

For SC, you scored in the 92nd percentile, so it's certainly possible that you did see some questions that were testing more obscure rules. (And the remedy for that is literally obsessive review of every official question out there - but I don't really recommend that unless you want to get into the test prep business!)

It's also likely that you saw questions that were harder to "break down" because of the way they were written and so you weren't sure how to deal with particular kinds of differences. See this:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

At your level, you would likely be bored in a regular class, but you could benefit from some very targeted private tutoring. Tutoring's really expensive, but you wouldn't likely need a ton.

I've saved the most important thing for last. Talk to some admissions consultants. Tell them your whole profile, where you want to apply, everything. Then see whether they advise you to take the test again vs. spend that free time doing something else to shore up some more concerning area for your application. It may be more important for you to try to take on a leadership or training role at work or something like that!

[anandinnz]

Thanks for your great advice Ms. Stacey. I will go through the advanced quant book. I guess for math the key is getting the trick before its too late and learning to think better :).

Strangely enough for SC, in the exam, the hardest questions seemed to be the smaller sentences, and not the long convoluted ones.

Do you recommend any admissions consultants in particular? I guess some of them will be biased in advice as to sell/market their application preparation services to you.

[StaceyKoprince]

Ah, that's the other thing that can be really hard: the really short underlines are almost always testing really obscure things. Oh, right, and that totally makes sense because you had a fantastic verbal score - yep, so you were getting the "we bet you've never heard of this rule!" questions. :)

Re: admissions consulting, I've spoken with the founder of MBAMission several times and really like what he's had to say. Any consulting company is, of course, trying to sell services, but if anyone gives you the hard sell, then you know you don't want to work with that company. Trust yourself to know - if you feel uncomfortable, say no thanks.

And there shouldn't be anyone telling you, "oh, you must use a consultant" or whatever. When people ask me if they have to take a GMATPrep class, I say no, definitely not. Plenty of people study successfully on their own. But I'd be happy to tell you the advantages of taking a class if you want to know. :)