I would definitely retake the test and try to emphasize studying for the verbal section. Your quant score is very good and your overall score is good...good enough to apply to those schools. If you go to MBA Livewire, you will see people who got into Duke, Georgetown and UNC with a GRE score lower than 315. I received an interview invite from Georgetown McDonough with a 315 last year (157V,158Q). I remember attending a webinar during which the admissions director mentioned that she generally looks for a 315+ on the GRE with a balance between the scores on the quantitative and verbal section. That could also explain why some students get rejected with a high GRE score--if they score very high in math, for example, but low in verbal then that could signal a red flag to the admissions committee. Consider Candidate A who has a 170Q and 150V and Candidate B who has a 158Q and 157V. Candidate B might be a more attractive candidate even though his total score is lower because Candidate A's verbal score is weak (this could also be why business schools tend to post the middle 80% distribution for each section rather than a middle 80& distribution of combined scores).

Try to score at least 157+ on the verbal section. That will bring you to about a 319 and will look a lot more--it will show you have proficiency in BOTH reading and math which is obviously needed to succeed in a top MBA program. I am studying to retake the test myself. I recently retook it for a third time and scored 316:157v and 159q. My target is to score 160 on each section. I am also in the same situation...for most schools in the bottom of the top-25 I think my score is fine. For schools in the top-10, however, my GRE is a little bit low.

And even if you are not able to accomplish that, I would still apply. My girlfriend recently took the LSAT and scored a 157...a decent score but not quite up to par with the schools she applied to (Georgetown, GW, William and Mary). She considered taking a gap year to retake it but she went ahead and applied anyways. She got into W&M with a partial scholarship. Don't forget to reflect on other aspects of your application. At the end of the day, the GRE is just one metric admissions committees use to evaluate a candidate.

Hi Jujuman,

Thank you for such an insightful reply. I was thinking the same way. I am going to apply to schools with my score, whatever it maybe. I applied to the UNC 4th Round yesterday and I think that I have submitted a competitive application package with good references. However, I haven't studied for the vocabulary part of the GRE verbal, most of my points come from the RC and CR qs in the mock. I only started preparing for GRE about a week back and 314 was one of my two initial mock scores.

I plan on taking the GRE in a week just to submit the scores but I think that I will dedicate a good 2 months to improve the verbal portion of the test. I think its doable.

Although, UNC adcoms told me in a recent webinar that they admit high score in the 325+ area and asked me to target the same. I was a bit surprised because the poets and quant's avg GRE scores article narrates quite a different story. https://poetsandquants.com/2020/03/23/a ... rograms/3/

Oh well, I am going to try my best and see where it goes.

Funny coincidence, my GF got an LSAT 160 and applied to 26 universities and ended up getting in to a few with full scholarships. I guess its our turn to follow? haha

Thank you,
Ari Banerjee

P.S: BTW, what happened with the McDonough Interview? Did you not take the offer because you are targeting top 10 schools?

P.P.S: whats livewire? Do you have a link that you could share with me please?

Here is a copy of the link. This site shows live results. There are two sections on the site: Decisionwire and Livewired. Livewire is where users post recent updates on their application (applied, interviewed, rejected, waitlisted, accepted) as well as their stats (gpa, gre/gmat). The decisionwire section is where users also post their results but show what school they decided to attend. Go to clearadmit . com /livewire



I withdrew my application because I didn't feel like I was ready, and I felt like I could put together a stronger application. I am only one year out of college and just got a new job so I definitely want to get more work experience before I try an apply. I am also in the Navy (I recently joined as a reserve) and am trying to get some financial aid through them.

Hi man! Did you take the exam? How did it go?

Me too, to be honest, I would like to know

That video says that the bonus points only exist in Verbal?

No also on the quant side

awesome

Really helpful