The GMAT Lowdown

By QS Contributor Updated Aug 18, 2014

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Introduction
GMAT preparation
If at first you don’t succeed…
Your GMAT score
What is a good GMAT score?

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TopMBA.com gives the lowdown on the GMAT, and offers tips on how to prepare for it and achieve a high score.

Amongst future MBA applicants, one of the most common concerns is achieving an acceptable score in the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT).

In fact, many applicants often neglect other aspects of their MBA applications in order to focus their time on preparing for the infamous management education admissions test.

The reason for the test is that, while admissions essays and interviews can prove difficult to compare, business schools use an applicant’s GMAT score as a common gauge to judge many applicants on paper.

GMAT preparation

During your GMAT preparation, if you have chosen to use one of the many ‘GMAT prep’ companies, then you should have a rough idea of the score you are capable of. However, you should always keep in mind that preparing for the test, and actually taking the GMAT are very different.

Whatever you have scored during your preparation phase, it is unlikely that you will achieve the same grade. This is partly due to test day pressure, but also as a result of the differences between the practice GMAT questions and the real ones. For instance, some preparation companies will purposely make their questions more difficult, in order to prepare their students for every eventuality, while others may make them easier in order to encourage students to stay with them.

For those that are going it alone, many benefit from creating their own study plans, and sticking to them. Of course, these will always differ between applicants as some will not need to put in as much study time, others will not be able to due to other commitments, and some simply won’t have the inclination.

“I set aside two months to study for the GMAT every day after work, Monday through Thursday for one to two hours, and on weekends for larger chunks of time, typically four or more hours,” explains successful Wharton MBA applicant Esther Cruz.

“I then took one week off work before the exam to hone my skills and solidify everything I had learned. I took one practice exam per week for the last month before the test and one per day for last week before the test.”

While Cruz chose not to invest in the services of a GMAT tutor, she did decide to purchase some of the many study aids available.

“I found that the most useful resources for studying were [GMAC’s] Official Guide and the Manhattan Review – I found that some of the other resources were either artificially difficult or artificially easy.”

If at first you don’t succeed…

In a vague sense of business bravado, many applicants might not admit to their peers that they sat the GMAT more than once. However, if you’re not happy with your score first time round, then the option of re-sitting the test can be fruitful.

Amit Mahajan admits that he took the test more than once in order to get the score he needed to gain admittance to Cranfield School of Management’s MBA program.

“Cracking the GMAT was not an easy task for me since I took it very lightly in the beginning. Later, I had to face the consequences of my negligence by sitting it more than once to get the desired score.”

While MBA admission departments are made aware of how many times an applicant has taken the admissions exam, it’s not always seen as a negative factor. The important issue in the eyes of those judging your application will be that you have used a second or third chance at the exam to improve, learning from your mistakes. Here, the only secret to success is hard work.

Encouragingly for others in the same boat, Cruz was not happy with her original GMAT score. However, through her hard work and perseverance, she managed to increase her score by around 200 points, roughly taking her from the top 46th percentile, to the top 98th.

“When I first began taking practice tests, my score started in the mid-500’s, which was discouraging. However, I ended up in the mid-700’s, which proves that anything is possible with lots of hard work!”

Your GMAT score

Students receive five scores on the GMAT: an overall score, ranging from 200 to 800; a quantitative sub-score ranging from 0 to 60; a verbal sub-score ranging from 0 to 60; a score for the Integrated Reasoning (IR) section, ranging from 1-8; and a score for the analytical writing assessment (AWA), ranging from 0 to 6. While participant’s scores for the AWA section will be available to the business schools they apply to, they do not count towards the overall GMAT score. Instead, the quantitative and verbal results form the overall score of between 200 and 800.

All four GMAT scores are given a percentile rank, which highlights what proportion of test takers scored lower in each part of the test. The higher the percentile rank, the higher your GMAT score when compared to other test takers. For example, a percentile rank of 55 means that you have scored higher than 55% of other GMAT test takers.

This method of scoring will also be available to business schools that you choose to apply to, and will allow them to see how respectable your score is when compared to everyone else’s.

On the analytical writing section, each essay is given a separate grade on a zero to six scale by two different graders, one human and the other a computer. This means that the examiners marking the GMAT essays are more likely to adhere to the strict rules in the GMAT, as they are aware that a computer will be checking their scoring.

If both the computer and the human’s grades for an essay are the same, that score will be assigned. If the two scores are somewhat different, then another person will read the essay to determine the grade.

What is a good GMAT score?

The simplest and most accurate answer to this question is the higher your percentile, the better your GMAT score. However, it really does depend on which business schools you plan on applying to, and even then your application will not rely entirely on your GMAT score.

Information on the average GMAT scores that successful applicants have at different schools is available on TopMBA.com’s business school profiles. Find out what the average GMAT scores are for the business schools you wish to apply to, and then develop a preparation plan to achieve it.

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