Thinking about studying for the GMAT. Just need to be studying something…
Part of me feels where your’e coming from, still in a good “groove” and want to remain productive. But then the other part of me looks at the past few year of dedication and the upcoming summer and I want to say screw it. Plus unless my company is changing back to their old policy of covering for the mba, not interested for now…
I actually teach the GMAT.
I scored 770 in December 2012
passme - any advice on GMAT books? Also, are you about 510, white, dark hair with blue eyes? If so, you might be retaking the GMAT
check out manhattan gmat, they have great reviews and materials are quite comprehensive, for both Quant and verbal
you also need official guide 13 to get started on questions.
there is also another popular gmat club forum for which I am sure you can find from google.
good luck bro
I am also considering the GMAT… emotionally, it seems like a peace of cake compared to the hassle of the CFA.
There’s no pass/fail for the GMAT.
However, if you’re a white/indian/chinese male that wants to attend a top U.S. school, you’ll need to score in the 99th percentile (760+).
Wendy, that is completely false information.
Agree - completely false. GMAT is one data point in your application.
The fact that GMAT is just one data point in your application is true, but that doesn’t make my statement false.
If you’re a white/chinese/indian male with a 760 GMAT, that doesn’t mean that you’re automatically going to be admitted to a top U.S. MBA. Tens of thousands of such folks get rejected from these schools every year.
A mediocre undergraduate transcript, essay, interview, letter of recommendation, etc can also get you dinged.
Can you find examples of white/chinese/indian males with <700 GMATs at these top schools? Maybe a few, but they’re not regular-joe applicants – they have some kind of really remarkable background.
Wendy - you wrote:
However, if you’re a white/indian/chinese male that wants to attend a top U.S. school, you’ll need to score in the 99th percentile (760+).
I do know plenty of white/indian/chinese males that went to HBS/Wharton/Stanford that did NOT score 760+, so IMHO, your statement is false. You switched your argument from 760+ to <700 - that’s a different story. I do believe you need to get over 700, but not 760+.
I think we can agree that there’s not a single exact cutoff for GMAT; there are other factors that weigh in too.
But if you’re the typical (eg. unremarkable engineering etc background) white/indian/chinese male applicant and you think you’re going to get into a top U.S. school with a 710-720 GMAT, you are dreaming.
LOL, i don’t agree Wendy! Agree to disagree! 
There’s an easy way to prove me wrong:
Get accepted into Harvard/Stanford/Wharton/Columbia/MIT/Chicago with a low-700’s GMAT.
Then come back here and taunt me.
there may be slightly less of the affirmative action bs at the grad school level.
but here on AF, 710-720 gmat score is a automatic hacksaw. no questions asked.
I did - 720 GMAT. HBS and Stanford and Wharton. Went to HBS. Asian male.
And your unremarkable background? Lowly engineer looking to transition into finance?
Lowly bio major who was doing finance. Read my other post - even lowly engineers can get into the best schools with 700ish GMAT scores. I would argue the GMAT is likley the least important data point assuming you get over 700.
And geeze, engineers are not “LOWLY”! 
A story like yours will give joe-random applicants unrealistically high hopes of attending a top U.S. MBA program.