GMAT advice appreciated

[garbus222]

Guys, can you please advise me openly what are the potential risks/disadvantages if I retake GMAT (this would be 3rd attempt) and score worse than my best attempt so far?

Points to consider:
- my best result to date (2nd attempt) is 700 (90%): Q50 (94%) and V34 (69%). AWA 6.0
- my 1st attempt was 640: Q48 and V30. AWA 6.0
- I'm very happy with Q50 (high-end for me; normally scoring 47-49)
- I'm unhappy with V34 (practice tests indicated 38-40)
- I'm worried with Verbal 69% (way below 80/80 rule) and that's why I'd like to retake GMAT
- Reasonably speaking I think I can improve my Verbal by 3-5 points
- Reasonably speaking I should expect lower (than 50) Quant (around 48)
- I'm not a native speaker (I'm from Eastern Europe), so this offsets (a little bit) lower Verbal
- I'm targetting H/S/W/Tuck/Kellogg/Insead/LBS
- I'm ok to take GMAT for the 3rd time.

Is there any potential risk I don't see? If - in worst case scenario - I score lower than so far (on both Quant and Verbal) will it impact negatively my application? I'm assuming that schools will take my best score, so there is no any risk associated with 3rd attempt - am I right or wrong?

[StaceyKoprince]

For most schools, they don't care if you take the test up to 3 times. It really does depend on the school, though, and sometimes even the individual admissions person who looks at your app. What I'd do is write to the admissions departments of the schools and explain the situation - ask them what they'd recommend. If they recommend taking it again, go for it! If they say the 69th percentile in verbal won't affect things (especially with a 6.0 AWA - nice!), then don't worry about it! If you get conflicting responses, you'll have to gauge what to do based upon the strength of the language (e.g., you can take it again if you want vs. we recommend that you have a verbal score above 80th percentile...) and based upon the schools you most want to go to.

Don't forget to be very polite, spellcheck / proof your email, etc. They will likely track any communication you have with them - so make this a (small) point in your favor. You can show your interest, and you can show your professionalism and organization, by asking good questions.

If you do ask and are willing to share with us what the schools advise you, we would love to know!