Hi

I have taken GMAT twice and my scores are low 2nd attempt (Q-48 and V-26). I had a horrible exp at test center and believe that contributed heavily to my score. All the tests that I had ever taken my verbal never went below the range was 33-39.

Should I re-attempt third time in next 2-3 months or just take a break for an year and restart ? Will it affect my admission chances ?

hi -


if you don't mind telling, what was that horrible experience?
we've heard plenty of reports of subpar management of timing, etc., but this sounds like it's a much bigger deal than that.

also, you quoted TWO gmat scores, which are strikingly close to each other. did you have this horrible test-center experience both times?
(if so, it goes without saying that you should take your next test administration at a different test center, even if that means traveling)


depends.
are you in any sort of hurry to attend business school?

if not, then waiting wouldn't hurt, especially if you're in a poor headspace.
given the experiences you've described above, you may be in too negative of a place to re-attempt the exam too soon.

really, it's all based on YOU and where your mind is at this juncture. if the bad test-center experiences have thrown you into a bad place regarding the test, then you're probably better off waiting. if you're still upbeat about your preparation, then you may want to consider taking the test again this year.



to what tier of schools will you be applying?

by the way, schools (with a very small # of exceptions) only look at your highest scores. so if you overcome the test-center problems and score way higher than you did before, then your previous scores will become completely irrelevant.

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the response. Please find the response inline.

if you don't mind telling, what was that horrible experience? I am not sure whether for general public but for me certainly it falls under horrible experience and I think that might have (not sure) messed up my score. During the verbal section, the neighbouring office started carpentry work and there were noise of hammer use which disturbed my whole concentration. I contacted the help staff and they provided me ear plugs which did not help and ultimately ended with a V26 score :-(.
I wasted initial 30-40 minsuts of my verbal section in adjusting to this.

Just wanted to know if is there any way this can be reported and are there any chances of me getting some chance of re-attempt or this score cancellation?

also, you quoted TWO gmat scores, which are strikingly close to each other. did you have this horrible test-center experience both times?
No the experiece that I mention was only second time. First time, I feel that I was not prepared enough.

are you in any sort of hurry to attend business school?
I want to join ASAP. but not sure how to get a good score. While appearing second time, I was expecting a atleast an okay score of around 650-700 but 610 only.

if not, then waiting wouldn't hurt, especially if you're in a poor headspace.
given the experiences you've described above, you may be in too negative of a place to re-attempt the exam too soon.
What would be the logical timeframe when I should appear, because Quantitative-48 seems to be okay and even if you consider that i got this score without any distraction and may need to work extensively on verbal section.

there is often noise at test centers. in some big city test centers (such as the one in nyc), especially if they're relatively close to street level, there is ALWAYS random noise - it's just part of the environment. if you're noise sensitive, you may want to actually call test centers and ask the staff about the noise level.

in any case, you should probably PRACTICE WITH NOISE, since it's a good idea to replicate your test environment. even if there is absolute monastery-style silence in the test environment, there will still be several other students around you typing away on those obnoxiously loud keyboards, so you'll still be dealing with ambient noise.
therefore, you should find some type of semi noisy environment (even if that just means tuning a radio to static) in which to practice.
if you DEPEND on absolute quiet in order to study, all you're doing is handicapping yourself. not a good idea. (it's never a good idea to practice in ideal conditions. for anything. ever.)



you can't cancel your scores. the only chance you had to do that was directly after the exam.

you can indeed report the noise. although if your test center is in a city, there's probably not much that can be done about it (that kind of noise is only allowed during business hours).
if this is a huge problem, then you may want to try scheduling your test for a saturday or sunday.



this will depend on where your weaknesses lie.

if your principal weakness in verbal is SENTENCE CORRECTION, then you're going to need MORE time for preparation - but, ultimately, you should be able to gain more points than you could on other areas.
reason: SC basically consists of learning rule after rule after rule after rule, pretty much one at a time.

if your principal weakness in verbal is CR or RC, then you should be able to gain points more quickly, but you probably won't be able to gain as many points as you would in SC.
reason: most trouble with CR or RC is based on misunderstanding the fundamental nature of the problems. (for instance, most people don't understand that "inferences" mean things that 100% HAVE TO be true, and so pick inferences that are based on extra assumptions.)
you can correct these mistaken assumptions pretty quickly - leading to a large initial gain - but, after that, gaining any further points tends to be really hard.