Hello !
I am about to apply to B schools for an MBA, but I don't know how much my profile can be valued (in particular for low GMAT result). I am looking for a top 1-year programme (I don't need so much an MBA to be content with any B-school) and my targets are: Insead, Kellog (tier 1 choice); HKUST, IMD (Tier 2); Cornell, Oxford (tier 3).
I would like to ask you some suggestions linked to my profile and my goals.

1) Male - age 26 (27 in December) from Italy.
2) Bachelor and Master degree in Management Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano with a final grade of 102 out of 110.
2) In October 2019 I will have 3 years of experience in the Corporate Finance (M&A) team of one of the big 4 (in Italy we are the market leader for number of transactions and among the three top players for value of the transactions) including 6 month secondment as specialist directly supporting the General Manager of one of the leading Italian banks.
3) Promoted in January 2019 from Executive (analyst) to Associate.
4) GMAT result of 610 (Q 41-41%; V 33-68%; IR 7-82%).
5) Goals: switch from M&A advisory to direct investment management (PE/VC) with particular focus on Fintech (leveraging my engineering background and the experience in financial services) also with the help of the MBA period (for example Insead and HKUST have "fintech clubs" I think are really useful.

I think my biggest problem is the GMAT result... Do you think I should retake it? I have no chances with this score?
The thing I really don't understand is how they can give so much importance to something you just need to study tons of hours... I work min 12 hours a day and it is really difficult for me to find the time to study also for the test...

Thanks for your help!
Carlo

Yes, you should retake it and get more work experience if you want to target these schools. Do you have any leadership experience outside work? That would also help you. With your current profile you are not competitive at a top 50 school.

Read the post on GMAT tiers linked from my profile page.

[quote]
The thing I really don't understand is how they can give so much importance to something you just need to study tons of hours... I work min 12 hours a day and it is really difficult for me to find the time to study also for the test...
[/quote]
It's for exactly this reason that there is so much value placed on the test. The focus and drive it takes to prep for and then take a rigorous test like the GMAT and get a high score proves to them that yeah, you are ready for the rigors of an MBA program.