GMAC To Launch A Tool That Lets Applicants Submit Their Best GMAT Scores

The Graduate Management Admission Council today (June 16) announced the planned launch of GMAT Superscore, a free feature that will automatically calculate a candidate’s best aggregate score by combining their top section scores across multiple attempts of the latest version of the GMAT. 

Set to launch in early August, the tool will appear in candidates’ MBA.com accounts and on Official Score Reports sent to schools – meaning a candidate’s strongest verbal score from one sitting could be paired with their strongest quant score from another, producing a higher overall result than any single test date achieved on its own.

GMAC says the move addresses what it calls score anxiety, the tendency of otherwise strong applicants to second-guess an off day on the exam to the point of withholding scores, narrowing their school lists, or abandoning the application process altogether.

ADDRESSING ‘SCORE ANXIETY’ IN THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS

“Very qualified candidates sometimes walk away from the testing process with less confidence than their abilities deserve,” says Joy Jones, GMAC’s chief executive, “often because one section score or one testing experience doesn’t tell the full story.”

By ensuring that no single attempt defines a candidate’s profile, the organization argues, GMAT Superscore allows persistence and preparation to pay off and gives test-takers more confidence to apply broadly.

The change is grounded in research GMAC says supports “superscoring” as a predictor of success, building on practices long used in undergraduate admissions with the SAT and ACT. The nonprofit notes that its psychometricians see evidence the approach translates well to the graduate level, and it plans to work with business schools on validity studies examining how well the superscore predicts academic performance.

Significantly, the change applies retroactively to anyone who has already tested on the current GMAT Focus Edition, and candidates with applications already in process will be able to contact GMAC after the early August launch to request an updated score report reflecting their superscore, without paying for an additional test.

A PUSH FROM GMAC’S TOP RANKS

In a news release, Jones frames the launch as part of GMAC’s commitment to making sure that persistence and preparation are rewarded. “Every candidate has the opportunity to put their best foot forward when it matters most,” she says.

Adam Witwer, GMAC’s chief product officer, calls GMAT Superscore part of the organization’s continued investment in candidate-friendly innovation. “Giving test-takers peace of mind by showing schools their best performance in a holistic way,” he says.

Admissions officers appear receptive. Eddie Asbie, executive director of admissions and scholarships at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, says the change gives applicants a clearer way to demonstrate their strongest work across all sections rather than being judged on one attempt, and adds that it could also encourage candidates to think more strategically about when and whether to retake the exam.

“We are pleased that applicants will soon have the opportunity to submit a superscore, enabling them to demonstrate their strongest performance across all sections rather than being evaluated solely on the results of a single test attempt,” Asbie says in the news release. “This also allows candidates to approach retesting more strategically. Overall, this change provides applicants with greater flexibility and helps reduce some of the testing pressure associated with the admissions process.”

MORE RETAKES, BUT FEWER CHRONIC RE-TESTERS

Stacey Koprince, director of content and curriculum at Manhattan Prep, a test-preparation company that offers courses, tutoring, and study materials for exams including the GMAT and Graduate Record Exam, says the GMAT scoring change is likely to cut both ways on re-testing behavior. She expects superscoring to increase the share of candidates taking the GMAT twice, since test-takers now have an incentive to bank a second attempt as a hedge against an off day on any one section.

At the same time, she says, the change should reduce the number of candidates who test far beyond that.

“I think the record that I’ve seen among my students is nine times,” Koprince says of repeat test-takers. With section scores now combinable across sittings, she says, those candidates may no longer feel the need to keep retaking the full exam in hopes of a single clean sweep.

The move is not a surprise to test-prep providers, Koprince says. Manhattan Prep students have reported being asked about superscoring in GMAC surveys over roughly the past six months, and questions about whether the GMAT would adopt the practice have come up regularly in her classes, particularly from students already familiar with superscoring from the SAT and ACT.

“Every class that I teach, somebody asks, ‘So can we do superscores on the GMAT?'” Koprince says. “Their students are already used to it from undergrad.”

She notes that she recently learned that some business schools have independently been asking applicants to submit all of their scores and calculating their own superscores for admissions purposes.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR TEST PREP & SCORE REPORTING

Koprince says Manhattan Prep already advises clients who can afford it to budget for two GMAT attempts as a contingency against illness or a bad testing day, and superscoring strengthens that recommendation – especially for students dealing with test anxiety or stamina issues, for whom a planned second sitting could now offer a more direct path to a higher composite score, fees permitting.

She also points to GMAC’s approach to score reporting as an attempt to address equity concerns. Test-takers will continue to select a single sitting to send to schools, as they do today, with the superscore included as an additional data point on that report, leaving schools to decide whether to weigh the single-sitting score or the superscore in their evaluations.

Koprince says she was glad to see that flexibility built in, since automatically defaulting to superscores could otherwise advantage candidates with the means to test multiple times. “I was glad to hear that they had actually thought about the equity issue and the fact that not everybody can afford to take the test multiple times,” she says.

The GMAT remains the dominant assessment in the field, accepted by more than 7,700 programs at upwards of 2,400 business schools worldwide. By comparison, the GRE is accepted by more than 20,000 business, law and graduate programs around the world, and is less commonly used than the GMAT specifically for MBA admissions. More information on GMAT Superscore is available at MBA.com.

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