Best to take it during school or after graduation? Thoughts?

my assumption with any of those tests is it's better to take on an off semester, a light load, or after graduation, just because the prep for them sucks

took it during school but before I really had to work hard for school (beginning of semester, also UK system so we dont have homework every week like you US peopel seem to do)

basically did 2/3 hours of prep a day for about a month, got 750 in the end so that's decent, but kicking myself a little bit for not working a little bit harder and getting a 780 or something.

Why not do both? Take it once during school to get a feel for it and then if you dont like the results, prep and take it after. This is what I did with the GRE and improved my score dramatically.

some schools want all your scores

so, if you don't get it right the first time, but do better the second time, they'll disqualify people for being learning disabled?

does that mean i'd need a doctor's note to be able to get the same education as Stephen Hawkings?

I know you're probably high again but it's "Stephen Hawking" and I don't think any course at Cambridge requires the GMAT

thank you for correcting my inapproriate use of an "s".

PP you got a 750? You do realize that's about the 99.5 percentile right? Based on the idiocracy you post on these forums I wouldn't even believe you could get a 660. Why were you shooting for a 780? There is no school in the country that would treat a 780 any differently than a 750.

You seriously lose more and more credibility with every post you make.

maybe you shouldn't base it on what he posts on these forums....

i got test scores that put me into the top 99% of people dumb enough to take the test.

I'm of the belief that you can pretty much train anyone of average or greater intelligence to do well on tests like the SAT and GMAT. All you need to do is get practice questions/study manuals and teach people how to answer the questions and do what PP suggested.
My cousin (who is now in med school) is a prime example of this type of thing (although with the MCAT). With mommy and daddies money she got extensive tutoring/practice and did rather well She definitely doesn't understand 3/4s of the stuff though but that has little to do with succeeding in these types of tests.

I *wish* doing well in my professional exams was as straight forward as that:( They actually expect to show understanding and think on the spot.. not just regurgitate crap... kind of.
I hate US accounting with a passion now.

Martian, there is some truth to that. You can train people what to look for and how to eliminate some answers. I don't believe you can train a person of average intelligence to place in the 90th percentile on these tests.

Especially with the quantitative parts, there is a lot of calculation and thought process required to answer questions properly in a short period of time. Even with training, at best they will only be able to eliminate 2 or 3 of 5 incorrect responses.

The GMAT is an addaptive test. The questions get harder and harder as you continue to get them correct

PP is from the UK? LOL

also not having homework every week (in the UK) depends upon what subjectyou're studying and where you study.

hmmm, thought PP was from Damascus. probably too much booze on the brain.

it's 98th percentile of test takers and it's under the mean score for a Chicago Booth PhD in Finance (not far enough below to matter but a 780 is safer) as well as some other top PhD programs

pretty much the only uni level courses I know of that require weekly work are at Oxford and Cambridge, and even then the work is not assessed and it's not even weekly for every course (for instance I think Part I of the history tripos at Cam probably involves an essay every two/three weeks)

edit: meant that in a "really?" way, not a "you're wrong way"

Depends on how soon you want to go to business school and if you actually believe if business school is worth it. Most schools won't accept the test if it is more than 5 years old. Considering that the average age in b-school, at least where I go to school, is 27/28, you would have to time it well to take the test while in undergrad.

Nationally I think it's like 29.5 yrs old for an avg first year student. Top 25 B-schools rarely will accept people straight out of undergrad. A gmat score won't get you in if you're young because everyone is going to be 700ish

http://www.economist.com/whichmba/which-mba-top-25

if avg. age of students is 27, you're probably doing your application at 26 which means you might be able to squeeze in a score from your undergrad

edit: ok avg. age is 27 only in a few cases, but it's probably skewed upwards as well... very few under 25s on those programs but several over 40s drive up that mean significantly

Also important, if you have five or more years of work experience with a positive progression in responsibility a lot of schools will waive the GMAT.

Since it's a graduate business school test the average age is up there.. but I'd take it close to school for the grammar section. Math is cake just freshen up on your geometry basics

I'm going to take it within 1 year and I've asked around. From what I've gathered, it's better to take it near the end of school &/or right after graduating. Whatever you've already learned will still remain (slightly) fresh in your mind, which could be helpful considering the new section they've added to the exam.

Then again, you'll want to keep in mind that most top graduate schools require at least 2 years of working experience. If you plan on working more than 5 or so years, it'll probably be best to take it later on.

/bonus ^_^