GMAT Turns 60: MBA News

By QS Contributor Updated Jun 15, 2014

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Introduction
GMAC CEO celebrates 60 years of the MBA admissions exam

The Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), the leading standardized exam for graduate business students, celebrates its 60^th year today.

GMAC, the Graduate Management Admissions Council, is a not-for-profit education organization and created the GMAT with a focus on providing a standard graduate and MBA admissions tests for leading business schools.

The first exam was administered on February 6^th 1954 to 1,291 potential students at over 100 locations, the majority in North America, but also in cities such as London, Paris and New Delhi.

Since its beginnings, it has been taken 9 million times, with 250,000 GMAT tests now taking place annually at 600 test centers in 113 countries. Widely accepted as the preferred MBA admissions test at the world’s top business schools, the GMAT is used by over 6,000 management programs in 83 countries across the globe. The exam currently tests reasoning, analytical writing and the ability to use and interpret data to solve business problems.

GMAC CEO celebrates 60 years of the MBA admissions exam

“The GMAT has evolved from a paper-and-pencil test delivered a few times a year to a computer adaptive test available year-round, all over the world,” says Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO of GMAC. “Alongside management programs that have become more complex, global enterprises, the GMAT exam has evolved to measure the skills needed for success, and to help match students from around the world with the schools and programs in which they can thrive and grow their careers and their lives. The GMAT exam isn’t just a test you take – it’s the test that takes you places.”

Represented at its inception by top business schools such as Columbia, Harvard and Northwestern, the GMAT was created in order to bring fairness and consistency to graduate business and MBA admissions. Although all nine representative schools in total were from the US, the GMAT developed an international focus in order to promote graduate management education on a global stage.

Learn more about the GMAT ›