Don't cancel your score!

by **candancezimmerman** Tue May 21, 2013 2:47 am

I just posted an update from when I started my MBA journey 2 years ago!

You can read my whole story of taking the test, retaking it, and I'm getting ready to start school at Kellogg/Northwestern this fall!
retake-advice-t13464.html

My major piece of advice for test day takers is don't psych yourself out and cancel your score like I did. As I mention in my above update I was able to find out my cancelled score because of a computer glitch, and it confirmed I got exactly the same score on the math section the time I though I bombed as I did on the retake and in practice tests.

Also I know a lot of people in here are debating retakes, and I did too. I really wanted that 700 score and 690 was so close. From my experience:
1) Most of my friends who did retake continued to score within +/- 10-20 pts of their original score.
2) 680/690 is enough to get "in the range" to be admitted to a top bschool. I have friends at UVA, HBS, Haas and now me at Kellogg with these scores.
3) I'm personally very happy I did not retake so I did more both at work and outside of work which reflected in my bschool essays.

For #2, of course it depends on your whole profile but I avoid specifics on that because honestly after going through the app process you realize that age/gender/company is not enough to fully capture what you are submitting so I don't think it's really healthy to dwell on and try and compare profiles. Suffice to say we didn't do anything out of this world like cure cancer but we did have great recs and worked very hard on the essays.

Best of luck!
Candance