Scored 720. What ff I retake the GMAT and score lower?

[ezequiel.halac]

Hi - I took the GMAT in May and scored 720 (Q48 V41). I've been able to score 49 and 50 in Quant in GMAT Prep. During the exam I got nervous and I think I could have done better in Quant and get that 50. Here are my questions:

1) If I retake and get something like Q50 V41, would that shoot up my score to something like a 750?

2) If I retake and end up getting a similar or lower score, how do schools see that? Lets say that I do worse and get a 680. Would the schools ignore the lower score, even though its the latest score, or will they consider both scores for admissions?

How much better is a 740-50 score than a 720? Will it make a difference?

Thanks,

Ezequiel

[StaceyKoprince]

No, a 2-point increase in quant will not lift the overall score by 30 points. They don't release this scoring mechanism, but I'm finding reports on line of Q50, V41 leading to 750 scores in 2009 / 2010, and then later 2010 / 2011 reports of the same score mix with a 740 overall. (Note: if you do this search yourself, there are some posts out there that are bogus - people just trying to promote some service or book. Look for reports from people who do not then talk about how great XYZ resource was. Some of those are legitimate, of course, but some are also fake marketing things where the person posting didn't actually check that certain subscores still lead to a certain overall score today.)

So it's probably more like a 740 today. Possibly a 730 - the quant percentiles just dropped last month.

The next question. Do you need a Q50? :) See this:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... es-update/

If you want it for yourself, or because you think you'll apply for a quant-focused job that will want to see your GMAT score, then okay. But going from 720 to 740 isn't likely to make a huge difference on your b-school application.

If you do take again and get a lower score, the schools won't care. They'll just take the highest score.

So there's no real downside for the test itself. The only potential downside is how else you'd spend that time. If it would take away from time to make the rest of your application package outstanding, then that's not a good trade-off. But if you have the time and feel like you *want* to do this, go for it!