One In Four Now Cancel GMAT Scores

GMAT test

THE AVERAGE GMAT GAIN FOR A SECOND-TIME TEST TAKER? 3O POINTS

Those who take the GMAT a second time typically increase their scores. An analysis requested by Poets&Quants from GMAC on the latest data shows that candidates who take the GMAT exam a second time have an average score increase of 30.3 points on a test where scores range from 200 to 800.

Test takers who score between 600 and 690 on the first try average gains of about 20 points on the second and nearly 30 on the fourth try. Candidates who score between 500 and 590 at first average increases of 35 points on the second test and a whopping 60 points on the fourth go round.

Some of those increases may reflect the fact that more students are first taking the exam to get a baseline score without prepping for it. If a test taker scored between 700 and 790 in the first sitting, admittedly a wide range, the average gain on the second try is just ten points. Even worse, those high scorers on average see no gain at all on the fourth attempt (see chart below). GMAC says that two of every three test takers score between 400 and 600.

AVERAGE GMAT SCORES HAVE RISEN IN EACH OF THE PAST FIVE YEARS

Overall, GMAC said that its test was taken 261,248 times in 2016, a 5.6% increase from 247,432 a year earlier. Roughly 65% of the test takers were sitting for the exam with the intention of applying to an MBA program, with 32% wanting to use their score for specialized master’s degrees. While this past year saw an increase, largely attributable to the relatively new cancellation policy, the total was well off the 2014 testing year when 286,526 exams were taken.

GMAT test takers last year scored an average 558 on the test, up four points from the 554 they scored a year earlier. More notably, however, average scores have risen in each of the past five years, moving up ten points from the 548 mean score in 2012. But the increases weren’t across the board. In India, for example, the average GMAT score this year was 577, down five points from 2012. In the U.S., average scores outpaced the overall gains, rising to 14 points to 547 from 533 in 2012.

Average scores also were up in the United Kingdom to 598, an increase of 11 points from 2012 when they were 587. In Singapore, the rise was even higher, by 20 full points, jumping to 615 this year from 595 in 2012. And the highest average score? After setting aside Bermuda where the mean score was 639 but the test was only taken seven times, test takers in New Zealand clearly beat the GMAT, scoring an average 624, up from 584 in 2012.

GMAT TEST TAKERS ARE GETTING YOUNGER

Test takers are also getting younger, fueled mostly by the growth in specialized master’s degrees available to students directly from their undergraduate experiences. The mean age of a GMAT candidate has fallen in each of the past five years to 25.6 years this year from 26.1 years in testing year 2012.

Women test takers have increased over the five-year timeframe but not dramatically. This year, 45.2% of all GMAT tests were taken by women, or 118,027 out of the total of 261,248 tests. That’s up from 42.9% in 2012, or 122,843 of 286,529 tests.

DON’T MISS: AVERAGE GMAT SCORES AT THE TOP 50 BUSINESS SCHOOLS or AVERAGE GRE SCORES FOR THE TOP 50 BUSINESS SCHOOLS