Retaking the GMAT really depends on your application profile–in most cases I would say probably not. 690 is a solid score but everything needs to be taken in context.

This student, who just reported his 760 GMAT Score, originally scored 690.

690. Decent score. The problem? He was waitlisted.

Now of course, your entire application profile is evaluated–not just your score. But upon further inspection of the 690 score, you’ll notice this student did extremely well on Quant but not so hot no Verbal.

Here was the break down: Q50, V32

Admissions committees don’t just look at your overall score! They look at the breakdown between quant and verbal to make sure there is not too much of a discrepancy between your two scores. In this case, the discrepancy was wide enough that one could speculate that perhaps the admissions committee members did not like this score imbalance between the two sections.

Adcom wants their business school students to be well-rounded—not particularly strong or weak in an area. Having a good score that is also balanced is important. In fact, a slightly lower quant score and slightly higher verbal score that would also result in a score of 690 would have been preferred over the extremely high quant score and lower verbal score.

This MBA applicant recognized this issue and decided to retake the GMAT. In fact, he enrolled with GMAT Pill for the purpose of closing this gap.

Not only did he score in the 99th percentile this time with a score improvement of 70 points from what was already a pretty decent score, he also got a call from the admissions committee literally the next day telling him he was not off the waitlist and now accepted into the business school!

Such an inspirational story that I hope motivates those of you preparing for the GMAT as a part of your career development.

But does extending the availability of lectures to students at home effectively increase their learning? Many would agree that it does – students can watch and rewatch lectures to fully grasp a concept. It is incredibly convenient and removes logistical barriers to learning – such as getting to and from class.

However, people should not overemphasize technology’s contribution toward educational learning. Yes, its benefits may include convenience and accessibility. But more important to our goals as educators is 1) the Quality of teachings and 2) Students’ ability to absorb and learn those teachings – rather than the use of fancy technology.

Whether students learn in a real classroom lecture or benefit technologically from learning in the comfort of their home, they are still up against the same barriers to learning – the ability to absorb a professor’s teachings. Students must be alert and be able to grasp a professor’s train of thought from the beginning or risk “being lost” in his lecture talk for the remainder of the class. It is no wonder that many lectures leave students dozing off, often wondering whether they are victims of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). The responsibility of following the professor’s train of thought is a difficult one and without help, many students will be unable to keep up.

Thus, in the context of technology improvement, we must not only make improvements in the areas of convenience and accessibility, but also in the dimensions that matter most in education – quality of teaching and ability to learn. The future of educational learning will lie in innovations that successfully improve students’ ability to grasp a professor’s teachings. We will see developments in Learning Management Systems/ E-Learning and streaming capabilities, but don’t let fancy computer technology lead you to believe that educational learning is improving. Don’t forget that effective educational learning is highly dependent upon students’ ability to absorb the teaching and the quality of the teaching itself. Thought process learning, which is the cognitive teaching method I use in GMAT Pill, is one new teaching method aimed in this direction. Going forward, along with continued developments on the technology side, I expect to see further advancements in effective teaching styles. These advances will propel educational learning forward into the next decade.