Last year at this time I was all gung ho about my GMAT. I was aiming at a 700+ score. With all me research pointing that a score of the 700+ will land me in my dream bschool.
One year and been there and can't do that later, yes I am sarcastic on myself, I feel my score is still not enough. I need a 760+. On numerous occasions I have tried to convince myself that I should give GMAT one more try but sooner or later due to multitude of reasons, I came to the conclusion that I will not be able to perform at the same level as before and just in case if I get a score lower then my previous attempt, it will dent my confidence to such a level that recovery will be next to impossible.
But in between these thoughts, one question which always comes to my mind is why are "MBA aspirants" always after a higher GMAT score. I understand if you have a 600 or a 650 then you want to be in the zone, if you don’t have an astronomical profile to make it up for the lower score. But what is the difference between a 95%tile and a 98%tile holder. Now there are couple of views on this first being 98 and 95 has a huge 3% between them, which if you take the 10,000 GMAT test takers is 300 people. The other view is that the diffrence is probably a correct question in Quant section and another correct in Verbal. Any person who has done GMAT prep can tell you that 2 question is just a matter of luck. You can probably guess in the test and get those two questions might be correct.
This brings me to the next question, why then B schools which such learned ADCOM make such a fuss about GMAT score. For me it is sheer game of numbers. I mean imagine 10 people competing for a seat in B school. If all of them come from Engineering background but with different strengths, what other options does an ADCOM has then to break the deadlock based on the numbers even if it mean10 GMAT points.
For the aspirants what it means is, research a school, check what the median and mean of scores are , target a score, achieve that and then work on the App and the essays. There is no point in fretting over a 20 point of your GMAT. Yes I agree it can make difference between a acceptance and a wait list, but in my view the ROI on the effort you will spend on the GMAT to achieve that ever elusive 20-30 point jump is less then the ROI you will get if you can spend the same effort in learning language, obtaining a certification or by working on your essays.
So the conclusion is target a score and get it, but don’t try to achieve the impossible.700 is as good as 720 and even as a 740.
Although, a voice inside me still says, 700+ is not enough, you need to get a 790 to guarantee a place ;-)
