GMAC Posts Massive $6.8 Million Loss On Test Taking

The Graduate Management Admission Council, the nonprofit that owns and administers the GMAT exam, has posted its sixth loss in the past seven years in 2014. While the loss of $6.8 million is less than the record $10.2 million in red ink the organization suffered a year-earlier, the organization is clearly struggling financially. If not for income from its investments, GMAC’s losses in 2014 would have totaled a whopping $15.5 million.

Over the past seven years, GMAC has piled up total losses of $32.7 million. The lone exception occurred in 2021, when test taking benefitted from a pandemic comeback, and GMAC generated $9.9 million in profit. Despite the challenges, expenses at GMAC continue to rise, with employee salaries and benefits growing by $2 million in 2024 to $26.9 million from $24.9 million in 2023. The organization reported a headcount of 133 employees in calendar year 2024, up nearly 15% from the 116 staffers GMAC employed a year earlier.

The figures come from the organization’s Form 990 filings with the Internal Revenue Service. The 2024 filling was only recently made public. With test taking volume continuing to sag, it’s unlikely the picture became any brighter for the 2025 year. Still, GMAC’s balance sheet shows that its net assets remain strong at $164.3 million, down only slightly from 2023. The organization reported $149.5 million in publicly traded securities on its balance sheet along with $9.7 million in cash at year end 2024.

A GLOBAL DECLINE IN GMAT TEST TAKING IS CAUSING RED INK TO SPILL

Increased competition from the Graduate Record Exam as well as a decline in academic programs that require standardized tests have led to a difficult environment for organization. Global demand for the GMAT dropped sharply in the past fiscal year, ending June 30th, with the number of exams taken worldwide falling 19%. Just 93,196 exams were administered globally in the 2025 testing year (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025), down from 115,286 the year before. Over the past five years, GMAC has lost more than 46,000 exams from 161,377 in testing year 2021.

With fewer prospective students taking the test, testing revenue at GMAC has declined. It fell by more than six million to $45.4 million in 2024, from $51.3 million in 2023. Only five years ago in 2019, testing revenue was as high as $74.2 million. The plunge has been even more breathtaking on a longer-term basis, with testing revenue of $84.7 million in 2015.

The revenue declines, moreover, have occurred despite price hikes for the exam. GMAC has put through two price increases for its online GMAT option, increasing the cost to sit for that exam to $300 from an introductory price of just $200 in 2020. The price of the in-person GMAT exam in the U.S. is $275, a 10% increase put in place in 2020 when the text was $250.

It has been a particularly rough slog for GMAC CEO Joy Jones, a former media executive at Associated Press, who took over the leadership of GMAC in October of 2022 and has yet to preside over a single profitable year. GMAC reported that her 2024 base salary was $595,495 with a $190,000 bonus. Jones’ full comp package, including benefits and deferred pay, came to $860,188 in 2024.

DON’T MISS: Global GMAT Test Volume Fell 19% In 2025, GMAC Confirms or Meet GMAC’s New CEO: Joy Jones’ Big Bet On A New GMAT

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