Debating retake w 660

[lauraumn]

I took the GMAT for the first time last week and got a 660. At first, I thought I'd take that score, it's at the low end of the 80% range for schools I'm considering but I thought it'd be okay. Now, I think it's more complicated than that. On my last 3 practice tests I got 45, 42, and 43 for Quant so I feel I can do better but didn't this time. My score:

660
Quant 39 55%
Verbal 41 92%
AWA 6.0

I'm debating if a retake will put me in a better position as long I could raise my 39 to a 44 or higher to put me in the 70ish% range for Quant. The rest of the test was fine as long as I could repeat it again. However, if schools won't look at the raw scores negatively maybe it doesn't matter and a retake is a waste of time?

I'm looking at top schools (Berkeley, Sloan, and LBS) and think the 55% on Quant is going to raise a red flag since I don't have a super strong quant background (undergrad in business w/ 3.3 but work in sales / acct mgmt not finance heavy). However, I did get As and Bs in my econ, stats, finance, acct & calc classes so maybe that's a good balance?

I'd love some advice! Thanks - Laura

[MBAApply]

Retake the GMAT if you can just to bump up that quant score. It's going to be a red flag although not to the same degree as a liberal arts major (you at least have some analytical coursework in your background). In other words, there's a slightly better chance that an adcom may overlook it compared to a lib arts major, but it's going to be a big concern regardless.

Shoot for at least a 70% if you can, and ideally above 80%.

Good luck!

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com