Absolutely shattered!!!!!!

[venkpeters]

I have been preparing for GMAT for the past two years. I gave my GMAT last month, august 7th and scored 650(43Q, 36V), after one month of intense full time preparation i gave GMAT today, September 17th and scored a devastating 530(40Q and 23V).
My Mock GMAT scores
GMAT prep 1 – 750(49,42)
GMAT prep 2-760(50,42)
And all my Manhattan GMAT scores range from 700 to 750…
But one thing I realized is I have really wasted my time prep for this exam, I could have spent my time for something useful and fruitful for my life. It is of no use to rely on the GMAT prep scores, and it is completely out dated. I am not sure in what way GMAT has changed in this one month span, as I am hearing so many real stories like me. I am completely broken now. I did verbal exceptionally well today, I couldn’t not even believe that I have secured just 23 in verbal; I have no other words to say. I am not going to play this fool game again.

Guys I would like to know whether I can apply for b-schools with my first GMAT mark that is 650. If yes, will the recent paltry score affect the admission? Please tell me I don’t want to get into ISB, I am planning to look for other decent B-Schools where I can get into with 650 GMAT score. I think that will be a better idea. Please guide me.

Thanks all for your support, all the best for your exams..

[LeVas]

650 is enough for many good schools in Europe...and most of them will consider your highest score.

[joogle]

Don't get disappointed. GMAT is ONLY factor in the admission process. After all you've got a good score, 650.

Be happy than broken!

[cubicle]

hi venkpeters,

If you are not coming from Indian IT male pool (i.e diversity factor is there) and if you have good ECs , ISB is reachable.
Otherwise, you can try 1. Queens Canda 2. Said-Oxford UK etc. But do remember the present economic situation and even if the recession is over whether job market will improve or not.

Better than that take GMAT once again( and there is a great chance that you will cross 700+ marks) and apply for R2

[mini_india]

Hi venkpeters, do NOT be shattered. Do *not* lose hope. University of Leicester is among the top 10 in UK and it does not ask for GMAT scores for admission to its MBA program. There are several other decent universities in UK that do not ask for GMAT scores at all. Perhaps, you'd like to consider one of these options. I'd suggest that you look to Europe for a full time MBA program 'cos the options are aplenty there. Recession and a lack of a more international mix of students due to stringent policies have led to introduction of new policies and changes in existing ones to attract talent from outside of Europe, esp. Asia. I wish you the very best!

[venkpeters]

Thanks all, meanwhile i am from indian IT pool, now i dont have any other options, moreover i have given gmat for 3 times already. I dont have hope on gmat now. I feel its just a probablity game. There is no corelation between hardwork, knowledge and the score one get in gmat. If it is there is, there is no chance of one getting such a low score after getting 650 in gmat. Even the gmat website claims that there gmat is the only exam which has very less deviation. I mean if one get 600 marks the same person will have only 6% deviation when he writes the gmat again.

This is what i read from the GMAT website "If a person’s true performance on the GMAT exam is 650, the chances are more than 90 percent that his score will be in the 610-700 range each time he takes the GMAT test."

This information can be found in this link..
http://www.gmac.com/gmac/NewsandEven...MisleadYou.htm

[himanshujain1987]

hi venkapeters - I understand your agony. But dont you worry about your 530. from my experience, I can tell you that - most b schools take your highest score - bcoz they themselves want to shoot up their gmat averages - apply to European universities- they are less demanding in terms of gmat - which particular specialization are u looking at??

[venkpeters]

I am looking for international business management.. Esp one year mba programs.

[Shifu]

I've had a similar experience. I gave my GMAT last year and got a sad 640. This score is not enough for me to get into my dream school. This time I was better prepared and was getting a 700+ in pretty much every test I gave. I still got a horrible 540 on 26th Aug 09 and frankly I have no clue why! 540 is something i will never get on a test paper even if i am half asleep. I thought my verbal section was not so bad and i got a horrible 19 percentile!!

540 was such a super shock that when i saw the result on the screen I thought maybe i need to rub my eyes again and the score will become atleast a 640 if not a 740

Have booked the date again on 5th Oct and hope to do better this time.

I have already done OG 10 and 11 and have given lots of Manhat tests along with GMATprep. Anything else that you guys could suggest that i can do to boost my score, esp. in Verbal?

[venkpeters]

After hearing so many stories what i suspect is GMAC is purposely deflating the scores of the candidates. The reason is very simple, since many schools started accepting GRE as a replacement for GMAT, GRE has become a threat to the GMAC business, and it seems that GRE has prepared a score converter tool which converts the GRE score to GMAT by directly dividing by 2. GMAC is against this, GMAC claims that there is no way that GRE can be correlated with the GMAT because If a person scores even 1600/1600 in GRE he will only get 650-700 in GMAT, since GMAT more difficult than GRE. To substantiate this claim GMAT has to show that many number of test takers are not even reaching the score of 700, consequently GMAC is bringing the mean scores down now.

If you guys read the article in this link you will know the real picture..
Don?t Let the GRE Tool Mislead You