What’s the lowest GMAT score possible, and how many test-takers get it? Will a low GMAT score ruin your chances of MBA admission? In this article, I’ll go over the lowest GMAT score you can get on the exam, how common it is, and the minimum GMAT score you’ll need to get into your MBA program of choice.

What Is the Lowest GMAT Score Possible?

So, how low can you go when it comes to a GMAT score? The lowest GMAT score possible is a 200. The range of possible GMAT scores is 200-800. This range applies to the total score, which combines the Verbal and Quantitative scores.

Below are the score ranges for the GMAT total score, as well as each individual section:

It’s somewhat uncommon for students to get either very low or very high scores on the GMAT. Relatively few students receive below a 400 or above a 600; according to the GMAC, two-thirds of test-takers receive a score between 400 and 600.

If you fit in this group and are struggling to improve your score, check our PrepScholar GMAT’s comprehensive online course. It’s an affordable option that is so effective it comes with a 60 point score improvement guarantee!

Percentile Rankings and the Lowest GMAT Score

As I explained above, a 200 and similarly low GMAT scores are not at all common, according to the percentile rankings released by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). Percentile rankings, which you’ll receive for the total score as well as for each individual GMAT section, tell you how your score fares in comparison to your peers. If you get a percentile ranking of 80%, for example, it means that you scored more highly than 80% of your peers, while 20% of your fellow test-takers scored as well or better than you.

Here are the percentile rankings for GMAT total scores of 350 and below from GMAC for the last three years:

A score of 200 corresponds to 0% percentile ranking, meaning that 100% of your fellow test-takers got a a 200 or higher. However, it’s not impossible to get a score in the very low range: the first percentile of test-takers (those who score a 200 or 210)  includes more people than you might think, given that it represents 1% of the hundreds of thousands of students who take the GMAT every year.

So, while uncommon, a significant minority of students do get very low scores on the GMAT. Even if you start off with a low score on your GMAT practice tests, don’t panic. Many test-takers improve their scores significantly as long as they prepare well.

Minimum GMAT Score for MBA Programs

There is no single minimum GMAT score for MBA programs, and most schools don’t have a hard GMAT cutoff. However, if you’re looking at top 20 programs it will be almost impossible to get in without at least a 650 (and in many cases that will still be too low).

To find out what GMAT score you’ll need to get into a prospective business school, the best resource is the school’s incoming class profile on its admissions page. Class profiles generally list the average GMAT scores, or the middle 80% range of scores, for the most recently admitted class of students. These profiles will give you a good barometer of how your score fits into a given program.

Here’s a chart of the average GMAT scores of the incoming classes at a few top-tier and mid-tier MBA programs:

Generally speaking, you should aim for a score of 700+ to get into the highest-ranking MBA programs, while most mid-tier business schools accept students with GMAT scores of 630-680. There are some programs, particularly part-time programs aimed at working professionals, where a score as low as 550 is acceptable.

But remember, the important thing is the minimum GMAT score for MBA programs that you’re interested in, so make sure to look up the expectations for every school you’re applying to.

Top-Tier MBA Programs and a Low GMAT Score

Many students wonder if it’s ever possible to get into a top-tier MBA program with a low GMAT score. The answer is yes, but don’t count on it. Not all schools report their lowest admitted student’s GMAT score, but a few do. Harvard Business School rather famously admitted a student with a total score of 570 in 2014. The Stanford MBA Class of 2018 admitted a student with a total score of 590.

However, remember that these scores are outliers. Usually these students have an outstanding MBA application in other respects, such as exceptional personal circumstances (like overcoming significant obstacles to get where they are, for example). The vast majority of students admitted to top-ranking business schools have GMAT scores close to (or above) their school’s average.  It’s better to aim for schools where your score is the norm rather than the exception.

There are also some business schools that don’t require GMAT scores at all. This policy is especially common for Executive MBA programs, which are geared towards working professionals who have already proven their capabilities with relevant experience in business. If you already have six or seven years of experience and your GMAT score is very low, an EMBA might be worth considering. Prestigious programs that don’t require GMAT scores are available at Stern School of Business at NYU, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, among others.

What’s Next?

Want to understand your GMAT scores more fully? Learn the complete GMAT score range and what it mean.

To learn more about how business schools view your GMAT scores, check out our expert guide to the GMAT total score.

If you’re not sure whether to take the GMAT or not, check out our complete list of MBA programs that don’t require the GMAT.

The post What Is the Lowest GMAT Score for MBA Admissions? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Many ambitious business school applicants set their sights on a 720 GMAT Total score. A 720 GMAT score is often thought of—rightly or wrongly—as something of a cutoff for the “M7.” The M7 is the informal group of seven prestigious business schools considered to have the world’s best MBA programs: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Booth, Columbia, and MIT Sloan.

But how accurate is this mythologizing of the 720 Total score? Do you have to get at least a 720 to get into a top business school, and will it guarantee you admission? Conversely, is a 720 GMAT score really good enough for the elite business schools? If you’re applying to the M7, should you retake the GMAT and try to score even higher—even if you already have a 720? Do you need a 730 GMAT score for Harvard or Stanford? And what do the top 20 schools think about the 720 GMAT score, or the top 50, or the top 100?

In this post, we’ll give you all the answers to these questions, deconstructing the common thinking about the 720 GMAT score and delving into actual data from M7 business schools as well as thoughts on the GMAT from their admissions offices. Finally, we’ll help you think through the 720 and other score goals in terms of your own application and target business schools.

How Business Schools Evaluate Your GMAT Total Score

Business schools are all different—even the best ones—and thus they all have different expectations and uses for your GMAT scores. Generally, the GMAT is used to predict your likely first-year performance in comparison to fellow business school applicants, as studies have shown that a higher GMAT score is a fairly reliable predictor of a more successful first year in business school.

That said, every single business school in the M7 states that they evaluate applicants holistically, meaning that the GMAT is only one part of your application. None of them have a GMAT score “requirement” that you must attain to be accepted.

In short, what the top business schools do want to see from your GMAT score is that you did well enough to prove that you can succeed in a rigorous MBA program. Of course, they also want to make sure that they either maintain or gain in external rankings, and the GMAT score composition of their student body does factor into such evaluations. So there’s a certain element of prestige for the school that’s at play in your GMAT score as well, though it’s hard to pin down exactly how much.

With that said, let’s talk about the mythology of the 720 GMAT score.

Is 720 a Good GMAT Score for Top Business Schools?

Is 720 a good GMAT score? On a basic level, yes: 720 is the 95th percentile GMAT score and is generally considered an excellent score overall. The top 7 schools are slightly more competitive, which we’ll get into below. But a 720 is the about the average GMAT score for the top 10 business schools in the country, so if you are applying to a top 10 business school, you should aim to either hit or surpass a 720 to land safely in the Total score averages for those schools. This way, you’re not an applicant that would be lowering your school’s GMAT score average and thus potentially negatively affecting their ranking.

However, it’s important to know that a 720 GMAT score doesn’t guarantee admission anywhere. No GMAT score—not even an 800—can ensure that you get into the school of your choice, because business schools don’t look at scores in a vacuum like that.

On the positive side, this also means that you can get into one of the top business schools with a score lower than a 720—even one of the M7. A 95th percentile GMAT score is a safe spot to be in, but it’s not any kind of “cutoff.” The GMAT data released from the M7 schools themselves shed light on why people fixate on the 720—but they also show that the 720 GMAT score isn’t a bottom line.

GMAT Score Averages and Ranges for the M7 Business Schools

Every year, the top-ranked business schools release GMAT score data on their websites as part of the class profiles for their incoming classes. Class profiles are worth visiting directly at some point—they offer a wealth of information about how you might fit into various schools in terms of demographics, work experience, GPA, undergraduate major, and GMAT score.

Using this information and US News & World Report’s 2017 business school rankings, we have calculated that the average GMAT Total score for the top 10 business schools in America is currently about 722.4, almost exactly at that 720 mark. This data is where the 720 “cutoff” mindset comes from.

However, when we start to look beyond that, the data tells a more complicated story. Below is all the GMAT score information released by the M7—the seven highest ranking business schools in the US.

Note that while all of the M7 business schools release data on GMAT scores for their incoming class, they vary on the type of GMAT data that they release to the public, which makes it difficult to compare and contrast. For example, Harvard Business School releases the middle 80% of scores and the median score, while Stanford Business School releases the entire range of scores and the average score. Still, we can use this information to evaluate your own GMAT Total score.

This data is for the class of 2018, the most currently available data set:

In the following sections, we’ll talk about what this data means for high scorers, low scorers, and everyone in between.

Can I Have a Low GMAT Score and Still Get Into a Top Business School?

You may have been heartened to see that, when released, the ranges of Total scores for students attending these excellent business school is actually quite wide. Columbia, Wharton, and Stanford have all admitted students who scored in the mid to high 500s. We can safely guess that some of the other schools do as well, even though they don’t release that data.

However, the middle 80% Total score ranges begin at a much higher score than the overall ranges, meaning that the 550-590 scorers are outliers. These students must have had an incredibly compelling application outside of their GMAT score to be admitted.

Ultimately, this information clearly shows that if you are scoring in the 500s on the GMAT and you want to go to a top business school, you should spend as much time as you can studying to improve your score. If you find yourself hitting a wall at or below that score level, then you should probably set more realistic business school choices for yourself, as the low 500s is just not enough to prove to admissions that you can handle the rigorous academic workload of a top MBA program.

If you’re scoring in the high 500s or low to mid 600s but you have an absolutely stellar professional and academic background, then you can see that you still have a chance to be admitted. If this is you, then you might want to take a look at our breakdown of The GRE versus the GMAT to see if you should potentially switch tests. More and more top-ranked business schools—now including Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Sloan, and Columbia—are accepting the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT. If your score is significantly higher on the GRE, it might be wise to submit that instead of the GMAT score, so that your test scores don’t put up a red flag on an otherwise excellent application.

Should I Aim for Higher Than a 720 GMAT Score?

You probably noticed that the average GMAT scores for all the M7 schools except for Columbia are higher than 720, so if you’re applying to those schools, you might want to set your sights on a 730 GMAT score instead of a 720.

But in general, once you hit 720, you have signaled to elite business schools that you’re certainly academically prepared for an MBA curriculum, and there’s no need to take the GMAT again—unless you’re confident you can do significantly better. The 720 GMAT score is a baseline—it is great to do better if you can, it’s just not worth making yourself crazy over. If you have a 720 and another applicant has a 730 GMAT score, that 10-point difference is unlikely to be the deciding factor.

That said, if you believe you can get a 750 or above, it certainly will help your application. But unless you’re fairly sure that you can do so (as in, you haven’t already studied your heart out and know that there’s room to improve significantly), your time would arguably be better spent doing something that demonstrates your passion and commitment toward the kinds of pursuits an elite MBA prepares you for.

The main exception to this is if you’re looking for scholarships. Generally, because higher GMAT scores in their student body translate into higher rankings, business schools seem to be more willing to give generous scholarships to students with higher GMAT scores in order to entice them to attend. Again, a 730 isn’t likely to make much of a difference over a 720, but a 750 or above would certainly be impressive. A 750 GMAT score puts you in the top 2% of scorers worldwide.

Overall GMAT Score Guidelines for Top Schools

Based on the data, a “safe” GMAT score for the M7 business schools falls in the 720-750 range. “Safe” doesn’t mean guaranteed acceptance: it just means that your GMAT score is impressive and indicates that you can handle a challenging MBA curriculum. The 750-800 range counts as “very impressive,” and if you’re looking for scholarships, the higher the better.

An “okay” score for the top schools is a 690-710. You’d be below the average, but you’d still fall in the middle 80% for most of the M7 schools—though you’ll have to make sure you have a great GPA to back it up.

Scores in the low to mid 600s is risky territory for the top schools, so you’d better have excellent personal and professional experiences and a strong GPA to offset it. With a score below 600, it’s exceedingly difficult to get in—schools admit maybe one or two candidates a year at that score level.

If you’re aiming for the top schools, you should probably retake the GMAT if you haven’t broken 700, and spend as much time as possible studying and preparing beforehand. We highly recommend checking out PrepScholar GMAT’s comprehensive online course, which offers a 60 point score improvement guarantee to help make sure you hit your goal score!

As mentioned above, the class profiles are an excellent source of information with which to compare and contrast yourself as an applicant. Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses as an applicant when picking schools to target.

The Next Rung: Is 720 a Good GMAT Score for the Top 25 Schools? What About the Top 50?

There’s more leeway outside of the top seven or top 10 business schools, though GMAT scores on the whole have gone up in recent years.

The average GMAT score for the top 25 business schools is 706, and the average for the top 50 schools is 683.

Taking out the top 10, the average for schools ranked 11-25 is 695, and the average for schools ranked 11-50 is 674.

So, yes, a 720 or 95th percentile GMAT score is a very excellent score once you get past the top 10.

If you’re scoring in the high 600s or above, you’re in the safety zone for a top 50 program. For the top 100 programs, that number stretches into the middle and low 600s.

Bottom Line: What does a 720 GMAT Mean for You?

Is 720 a good GMAT score? Yes. But there’s no GMAT score that is guaranteed to get you into a top business school, and above the mid-500s, there is no score that is guaranteed to get you rejected. Still, you should aim to hit the 720 mark if you’re applying to a top 10 business school, and a 730 GMAT score is an even better target if you’ve set your sights on the M7 (except for Columbia). A 750 or above helps if you’re looking for large scholarships.

What’s Next?

Check out our guides to low GMAT scores, high GMAT scores, and average GMAT scores by school for more information about how your GMAT score measures up.

You can also use our target GMAT score worksheet to determine what score you should aim for based on the schools you’re applying to. Happy studying!

The post Is a 720 GMAT Score Your Ticket to an Elite MBA? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Worried about paying for your MBA, but proud of your GMAT score? You might be eligible for funding! Many business schools offer partial or full scholarships for high-achieving students. But is there a specific GMAT score you need in order to secure a scholarship? Can you get a GMAT scholarship?

In this article, I’ll go over the average GMAT scores that tend to secure funding for business students, as well as some examples of specific school-based and organization-based MBA scholarships. You’ll get a good idea of how to find scholarships you’re eligible for and what kind of score you’ll need to have a shot at landing them.

Can You Get Scholarships for High GMAT Scores?

Many students wonder whether a high GMAT score can get them an MBA scholarship. The short answer is yes: While MBA programs usually don’t list a specific minimum GMAT scholarship score that will guarantee you business school funding, business schools and external scholarship programs often offer partial or full funding to high-achieving students. Often, a high GMAT score is a key component of how “high-achieving” is defined.

However, it’s important to note a high GMAT score isn’t enough to secure a scholarship. Both business schools and external scholarship-granting organizations usually take multiple factors into account, including GPA, writing samples, and letters of recommendation, all of which contribute to a holistic picture of a candidate’s likelihood of success.

Let’s take a look at the kinds of MBA scholarships available and how your GMAT score plays into your chances of receiving them.

What Kinds of GMAT Scholarships Are There? 

There are two kinds of MBA scholarships available: those offered by individual schools to prospective students, and those offered by external funding sources. Let’s go over both types and if there are scholarships for high GMAT scores.

School-Based GMAT Scholarships

Many MBA scholarships offered directly by business schools are need-based, meaning that the amount of financial aid you receive in the form of grants or loans is determined by your family income and other socioeconomic factors. For these scholarships, the GMAT isn’t taken into account.

However, most business schools offer merit-based scholarships as well. These scholarships are highly competitive and vary widely by amount and eligibility criteria. The GMAT is a significant factor in eligibility for these scholarships, which are awarded based on a student’s academic and personal achievement.

However, no business school lists a minimum GMAT scholarship score. Instead, business schools usually offer a mix of general scholarships for overall academic excellence and targeted scholarships aimed at a particular demographic (such as students of color or female or LGBT students) or at students with a special interest (such as an interest in a career in healthcare management).

For each of these scholarships, a scholarship committee that is specifically responsible for allotting funding will consider each student’s work history, academic achievements, career intentions, community service, and demographics to make a determination on eligibility for funding.

Visit your prospective schools’ financial aid websites or contact the MBA administration directly to find out about scholarship opportunities, some of which you’ll be considered for automatically when you apply to an MBA program and some of which will require a supplemental application (such as additional writing samples or letters of recommendation).

At Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, for example, there are a wide variety of scholarships available for incoming students, including targeted scholarships like the Diversity Scholarship (for students from underrepresented backgrounds) and the McGraw Foundation Excellence Grant (for students planning to use their MBAs to protect the environment), as well as the more general Kellogg Scholarship, which is awarded to select students who demonstrate exceptional academic abilities and leadership skills.

While none of these scholarships list minimum GMAT scores as a requirement or are specifically “high GMAT score scholarships,” all require GMAT scores as part of their applications. Also, all of them expect applicants to demonstrate academic excellence, of which your GMAT score is a key indicator.

Next, let’s look at scholarships for high GMAT scores offered by external funding organizations.

Organization-Based GMAT Scholarships

There are also many MBA scholarships available from external funding sources for high-achieving students. Many of these are offered to students from target demographics (race, gender, work history, MBA specialization, religious identity, region, etc.). Most scholarship-offering organizations, like business schools, don’t list a minimum GMAT score for eligible students; there are no specific scholarships for high GMAT scores alone.

However, we do know which organizations take the GMAT into account as part of a scholarship application, as the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) releases a list each year of all institutions and organizations that are qualified to receive students’ GMAT scores. You can find the updated list each year to search for a high GMAT score scholarship.

Let’s take a look at all of the scholarship-granting organizations on GMAC’s list that are qualified to receive GMAT scores.

What GMAT Score Do You Need for MBA Scholarships?

So, what score do you usually need for a GMAT scholarship?

Most business schools, as I noted, don’t advertise a minimum score for GMAT scholarships, so it’s hard to know exactly how to get a scholarship through the GMAT. However, merit scholarship committees generally look for a GMAT scholarship score well above the average at their school. You can check out the list of average GMAT scores at your prospective business schools or the class profiles of incoming students at your MBA programs of choice to see how your score matches up.

If your GMAT score is considerably higher than the average score of incoming MBA students, you’re likelier to be eligible for additional funding and to get a scholarship through the GMAT than if your GMAT score is average or below average for a particular business school.

A good rule of thumb is that for top 20 schools, you’ll need a score of 720 or above to be competitive for merit-based scholarships. For mid-range (top 50) schools, a 700 is a solid score to be competitive for GMAT scholarships. 

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bother applying for funding if you don’t have a 700, because sometimes other factors (GPA or a unique personal background, for example), can override a lower GMAT score. Still, your odds of being a competitive scholarship candidate will be much higher with a score of at least 700.

If you have a high GMAT score (700 or above), you’re especially likely to get a scholarship at a mid-ranking school. Schools looking to move up in MBA rankings (such as those offered by Poets&Quants or U.S. News and World Report) are often willing to offer financial incentives to students with high GMAT scores in order to entice high-achieving students to attend their programs. So if you’re a high scorer looking for a generous scholarship or full funding, the middle range of business schools might be a good fit.

Wrap-Up: GMAT Scholarships and Your Exam Score

The bottom line is that achieving a high GMAT score is an important step if you’re hoping not to have to pay as much (or at all) for business school. A GMAT score over 700, and over 720 if you’re applying to top 20 MBA programs, will go far in securing funding for your business school journey. 

What’s Next?

If you’re looking for more information about what GMAT scores will get you into your prospective MBA programs, look no further than our guide to the average GMAT scores at top business schools.

Looking for more information about GMAT fees? Find out more about how much the GMAT costs here.

General GMAT questions? Our comprehensive GMAT FAQ sheet will help.

The post What Is a Good GMAT Score for Scholarships? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Many MBA hopefuls aren’t sure what their GMAT scores mean. What is a good GMAT score? What’s a bad GMAT score? How about a really exceptional one? And most importantly, what are the average GMAT scores at your top choices for business school?

In this article, we’ll go over what makes a GMAT score good, GMAT score ranges of admitted students at various MBA programs, and how to set your own target GMAT score.

What Is a Good GMAT Score, Really?

Business schools are all different and have different expectations and uses for your GMAT scores. Generally, the GMAT is used to predict your likely first-year performance in comparison to fellow business school applicants, as studies have shown that a higher GMAT score is a fairly reliable predictor of a more successful first year in business school. There is no one score that will guarantee you admission, though (even if you get a perfect 800 total score). There’s also no one score that will necessarily deny you admission all on its own, either.

When it comes to GMAT scores, the main takeaway is this: ultimately, the most important thing to remember is that a good GMAT score is the one that gets you into the business school of your choice.

As of 2018, the mean total GMAT score is 556.04, but that doesn’t mean you just have to get above a 550 to get into the school of your dreams. At many schools, even a 600 would be a very low GMAT score. At top MBA programs like Stanford, Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley, and Dartmouth, the average GMAT score of incoming students is above 720.

However, some well-respected schools with high post-MBA employment rates don’t have the same expectations, and have average GMAT scores of less than 600. This is often especially true for part-time and/or online programs geared towards working professionals or those who are somehow lacking in significant relevant academic experience.

GMAT Percentile Rankings

When you apply for MBA programs, you’ll be competing against your peers for a limited number of coveted spots, so your GMAT score will have to compare favorably to theirs. This means that your GMAT percentile rankings are arguably even more important than your score itself.

GMAT percentile rankings, which are provided on your score report, let you know how you did on the exam as a whole and on every section of the exam in comparison to other test-takers. For example, a total score (that is, the Verbal and Quantitative sections combined) of 650 will give you a percentile ranking of 75%. A 75% percentile ranking means that you got a higher total score than (or equal total score to) 75% of your peers and a lower total score than 24% of fellow GMAT test-takers.

650, then, is a good starting benchmark for a high GMAT score: it usually hovers around the 75% percentile ranking spot, which is a solid place to be relative to your fellow applicants. A low GMAT score, on the other hand, is anything under 550.

Percentile rankings are recalculated every year based on the past three years of test-takers. This means that while the possible scores for each section remain the same every year, the percentile rankings change (usually very gradually) from year to year.

Here are the GMAT percentile rankings from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) for the past three years, beginning with the total score and followed by section-specific charts for the Verbal and Quantitative sections, the Integrated Reasoning section, and the Analytical Writing Assessment:

Note the differences between Verbal and Quant percentile rankings: A score of 51 would put you in the 99th percentile for the Verbal section and in the 96th percentile for the Quant section. A score of 46 would keep you in the 99th percentile in Verbal, but put you in the 60th for Quant! This gap exists because more students score highly on the Quant section than on the Verbal section, partly due to an increasing number of international students (many of whom have trouble with the Verbal section) taking the GMAT.

The percentile rankings for the Integrated Reasoning section show us that 7% of test-takers get a perfect score on the section, since a perfect score of 8 would put you in the 93rd percentile. A high GMAT score on the Integrated Reasoning section is roughly considered to be 6 or above.

11% of test-takers get a perfect score on the Analytical Writing Assessment. A high GMAT score on the AWA is usually considered to be 5.0 or above.

Which GMAT Sections Are Most Important?

Business schools consider the total GMAT score first, followed by the individual Verbal and Quant sections. Having a significantly higher score in one section over another may indicate your particular strengths or weaknesses to your prospective program.

So what about the Integrated Reasoning section and the Analytical Writing Assessment? Many students wonder how important these sections are to business schools. After all, they aren’t calculated into the overall total score.

The short answer is that both of these sections matter, but not quite as much as the Verbal and Quantitative sections or the total score. For one thing, the Integrated Reasoning section is newer than the others; it was added in 2012, so it’s not quite as tried-and-true as an analytical tool for schools. And while the schools you apply to receive and read a copy of your Analytical Writing Assessment essay, there are many other places on the application for you to provide writing samples. So it makes sense that a business school admissions committee might not regard a 30-minute essay written under pressure as the #1 means of evaluating an MBA applicant.

The longer answer is that:

1. It’s hard to tell just how much value MBA programs place on the IR and AWA sections, as schools usually don’t publicly report section-specific information. In fact, they usually only report the average total score for incoming students.

2. There is some evidence that the Integrated Reasoning section in particular has become more significant to business schools in recent years. One 2015 survey indicated that 59% of MBA admissions officials claimed to evaluate the Integrated Reasoning section as a significant aspect of an applicant’s profile, in comparison to 41% of the same pool of officials just a few years prior.

3. The Analytical Writing Assessment can be especially beneficial for non-native English speakers. If you can do well on the timed writing assessment, it’s a great indicator of your fluency in English, as MBA admissions officials can know for sure you didn’t have to take too much time to complete it and didn’t have outside help during the test. This can boost your chances of admission.

In short, prepare for both of these sections just as you would for the others. Regardless of their overall significance, an extremely low or extremely high score in either section could certainly affect your application.

For more information about how the Graduate Management Admissions Council suggests that schools use the Analytical Writing Assessment to evaluate applicants, check out these guidelines.

What Is a Good GMAT Score to Get Into Business School?

Like we went over previously, there is a wide range of GMAT scores that can gain you admission to your business school of choice. Generally speaking, top 10 MBA programs consistently look for GMAT scores of 720 or above. For mid-to-high-range business schools (those consistently ranked between 25 and 80 on annual rankings lists like U.S. News), average scores of incoming students are usually in the 600-700 range.

So, where can you find the average GMAT scores at your favorite prospective programs? MBA class profiles, like this one from Harvard Business School, are usually published yearly, as soon as an incoming MBA class is admitted and accepts their offers of admission. Class profiles are a treasure trove of information about how you might fit into various schools in terms of demographics, work experience, GPA, undergraduate major, and, yes, GMAT score.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at average GMAT scores at a range of 15 different MBA programs. Note that the ‘middle 80% range’ is reported by some schools as part of their class profiles. It includes the range of GMAT scores of all incoming students, excluding the bottom 10% and top 10% of scores:

What Is a Good GMAT Score for You? Setting a Target

Remember that the main criterion for a good GMAT score is that it helps you get into the business school of your choice. A high GMAT score for one applicant could be a low GMAT score for someone else— it just depends on what your business school plans are.

Thus, the first step in GMAT preparation is setting your own target score. This will help you know what kind of prep you need to do: do you need to brush up on a few targeted areas? Or do you need long-term, in-depth instruction? It will also help you calculate how many hours you’ll need to study.

Let’s go over how to determine your target GMAT score. Follow along with my sample chart as we go.

Step 1: Print Out the Worksheet

Before you do anything else, you should print out this worksheet:

We’ll walk through how to customize it below.

Step 2: List Your Programs

Next, you’ll need to come up with your list of prospective MBA programs so we can make a chart like the one in the previous section that’s tailored to your individual list of schools. Write the list in the column on the left. Here’s a sample:

Step 3: Find the Average GMAT Score for Each Program

For each school, find the average GMAT score of the most recent incoming class. Each school’s website nearly always includes the most recent class profile, which is where you’ll usually find this info. If for some reason you can’t find a class profile (which will be very rare), you can try the school-specific MBA Forum at GMAT Club. Write the average GMAT score in the right column. If the school only provides the middle 80% range of GMAT scores, use the top score in the range to be safe:

Step 4: Choose Your Target Score

Lastly, choose the highest score in your right column. You can either leave it as is or add 20-30 points to it if you want to have a bit of a cushion. This will be your target GMAT score:

Remember that earning your target GMAT score or higher won’t necessarily guarantee you admission. But if you reach it, you have a good shot of getting into at least one of your selected MBA programs. And having a realistic goal will help you prepare without getting lost in a sea of other numbers and comparisons.

Recap: What Is a Good GMAT Score?

Let’s review:

• A good GMAT score is one that gets you into the business school of your choice, no matter what anybody else thinks.

• A good ‘baseline’ GMAT score is 650. Top 10 business schools usually expect GMAT scores of 720 or above.

• The MBA class profiles of your prospective schools will usually provide you with the average GMAT of incoming students. This average will give you a good idea of where you might fit in relative to other applicants.

• Use your target GMAT score to decide how and when to prepare for the exam.

What’s Next?

If you’re ready to start prepping for the GMAT, check out our expert guide to determining how long you need to study for the exam.

Still curious about how to interpret your GMAT scores? Learn more about the GMAT Total score and how schools look at it.

Looking for a section-by-section tour of the GMAT? Our complete guide to the GMAT format breaks it down.

The post What Is a Good GMAT Score? A Bad One? An Excellent One? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

The Verbal section of the GMAT often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to discussion, and there’s very little free information out there focusing solely on this oft-neglected part of your Total score. So if you’ve navigated to this article, you’re probably wondering: how high of a score do you need to do “well” on the GMAT Verbal? How do business schools assess Verbal scores and percentiles, and what’s a good score for your target schools? You might be wondering exactly how much your Verbal score affects your Total score as well. 

Luckily, you’ve come to the right place! The below guide will give you all the important context for understanding the Verbal score on the GMAT. We’ll give you the entire GMAT Verbal score range, the general parameters for a “good” score and a “great” score, and all the guidelines for setting a target Verbal score for yourself.

How Is the GMAT Verbal Section Scored?

First, let’s quickly review how the Verbal section is scored. Just like Quantitative scores, Verbal scores on the GMAT reach from 0 to 60 in single-digit increments. However, in practice, the top of  the GMAT Verbal score range is 51—so a 51 is considered a perfect score on either section. 

Along with your scaled score, you will also be given a percentile ranking. This corresponds to the percentage of test-takers whom you scored higher than. For example, if you scored in the 75th percentile on the Verbal section, this means you did better on that section than 75% of people who took the exam. This percentile is based on the last three years of GMAT scores, so if you took the test in 2014, your 75th percentile score would encompass all GMAT-takers from 2012 through 2014.

Thus, while scaled scores are static, percentiles can (and do) change over time. Percentiles help contextualize your scores by comparing them with those of other applicants, and they are assessed by business schools along with the scaled score to see how you measure up.

What’s a Good GMAT Verbal Score Overall?

Now that we know how scoring works, we can get right into what constitutes a good GMAT Verbal score. At a basic level, a good GMAT Verbal score is one that gets you into the program of your choice, which means it can vary quite a lot depending on where you plan to apply.

However, we can still draw some rough conclusions about what generally qualifies as a good score. To see the full GMAT Verbal score range and get a sense of how your score stacks up, check out the GMAT Verbal percentile table below.

(Data used is from 2013 through 2015, the most current available data from GMAC.)

As you can see, it is very, very challenging to score highly on the Verbal section. Scores above 44 are rare; anywhere in the 45 to 51 range puts you in the top 1% of test-takers. A score of 40 or above puts you in the top 10%. A score of 36 puts you in the top 20%. A score of 28 or above puts you in the top 50%. The mean (average) score on the Verbal is a 28.6, up one point from 27.8 ten years ago.

So a 36 or above would generally be considered a “good” score on the Verbal section. This puts you in the top 20% of test-takers and, even outside of percentile rankings, demonstrates to business schools that you can safely handle all the reading and writing required of you in an MBA curriculum (more on this below).

But the Verbal score doesn’t just stand on its own: understanding how the Verbal score raises or lowers the Total score is just as important for assessing what a “good” GMAT Verbal score means in context.

How Does the GMAT Verbal Score Influence the Total Score?

As stated above, it’s important to know that your Verbal score will both stand on its own and factor into your Total score. The Total score is a scaled score encompassing the Verbal and Quantitative sections: it reflects a combination of your performance on both for a more holistic measurement of your aptitude. It is the score referred to most often and is the most important part of your GMAT score for your business school application.

The good news: This two-section combination means that there are multiple ways to get the same Total score on the GMAT. The exact way in which the Quant and Verbal scores are mediated is proprietary to the GMAC, but from data from years past, you can roughly say that one point up on one section and one point down on the other will yield about the same Total score. For example, a 51 on the Verbal and a 35 on the Quant would yield about a 700 Total score, as would a 50 and a 36, as would a 49 and a 37, and so on all the way through a 35 on the Verbal and a 51 on the Quant.

Now, the bad news: GMAT Quant scores have skyrocketed in recent years—in turn raising Total scores. This is largely due to the changing demographics of test-takers worldwide: according to the Wall Street Journal, “Asia-Pacific students have shown a mastery of the quantitative portion” of the GMAT, and these students now “comprise 44% of current GMAT test-takers, up from a decade ago, when they represented 22%.”

By contrast, as stated above, scores on the Verbal section have risen by just 1% over the last 10 years. But the rise in Quant scores still means that it’s harder to land in the same Total score percentile as students from years past—you’d have to do extremely well on the Verbal to compensate for the increased Quant competitiveness.

But don’t get too demoralized! While understanding these percentile trends is important, it’s good to remember that the scaled scores themselves are static. Scaled scores are designed to be an absolute, timeless metric for judging how prepared you are for academic success in a graduate-level management program. Business schools absolutely expect that someone who scored a 40 on the Verbal in 2017 is just as likely to succeed in the classroom as someone who scored 40 on the Verbal in 1987, even though the corresponding percentile rankings have changed since then.

How Much Do GMAT Verbal Scores Actually Matter to Business Schools?

At this point, you understand what a good score on the Verbal section is and how this metric can raise or lower your Total score. But what do business schools think about all this? Do they care equally about the Quant and the Verbal, or is your Total score by itself the only thing that matters?

Unfortunately, schools don’t release statistics on Quant/Verbal score breakdowns—just the Total score itself—so it’s difficult to tell what qualifies as a high or low Verbal score at a given school. This omission also reflects the the general importance of the Total score.

However, surveys of and interviews with admissions personnel indicate that business schools generally give more weight to the Quant score, as graduate-level management courses are largely math-intensive. Moreover, schools do give some leeway to international ESL (English as a second language) students, who aren’t as likely to score highly on the Verbal section as native English speakers.

Ultimately, business schools definitely prefer a balanced score on both sections to one with a drastic difference between the two. As stated above, not all equal Total scores are created the same. Doing terribly on either the Quant or the Verbal, or having a drastic difference between scores, signals to admissions that you might lack the skills necessary to succeed in all parts of an MBA curriculum.

In general, because business schools care more about the Quant section and because it is extremely hard to score highly on the Verbal, your scores are far more likely to raise a red flag if Quant is the one on the low side.

For example, if you get a 720 Total score on the GMAT by getting an amazing 51 on the Verbal but a 37 on the Quant, that would put you in the bottom 40% of Quant scorers and would definitely call into question whether or not you could handle the math-intensive coursework in an MBA program. However, if you get a 720 by getting a 51 on the Quant and a 36 on the Verbal, that would still put you in the top 20% of Verbal scorers—which likely wouldn’t raise any red flags about your ability to succeed in class.

There’s also an element of personal variability to consider: If your professional or academic background is light on math, it will be more important for you to do well on the Quant section to demonstrate to admissions that you can handle the corresponding work in an MBA curriculum. On the other hand, If you’ve taken a ton of high-level math courses and have worked in a math-heavy field, you’ll likely be well prepared for the Quant anyway and may want to spend more of your study time on Verbal—to show your target schools that you’re just as capable of reading and writing at management level.

What’s a Good GMAT Verbal Score for Top Business Schools?

What are the best business schools looking for when it comes to your GMAT Verbal score?

Every year, the top-ranked business schools release the average or median GMAT Total scores for their incoming classes. Using this information and US News & World Report’s 2017 business school rankings, we have calculated that the average GMAT score for the top 10 business schools in America is currently about 722.4. This includes Harvard Business School, Stanford, University of Chicago (Booth), University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), Northwestern University (Kellogg), MIT (Sloan), Dartmouth (Tuck), Berkeley (Haas), Yale, and Columbia.

Note that to get a 720 Total score—which hits this average and places you in the top 10% of scorers worldwide—you’ll likely need at least a 36 on the Verbal. And that’s only if you get a perfect 51 on the Quant!

So, if, you’re targeting top business schools like these, a good, though ambitious, goal would be to aim for at least a 40 on the Verbal, which would put you in the top 10% of test-takers (as you can see from the GMAT Verbal percentile table above). If your Quant scores are stellar, then it’s okay to dip into the high 30s on Verbal—but really nailing the Verbal section can’t hurt in your quest to stand out from the pool of high-scoring Quant applicants.

Now that you’re an expert on GMAT Verbal scores and how they are assessed by business schools, let’s discuss how to determine what a good one is for you personally.

How to Determine a Good GMAT Verbal Score for You

The first thing to do is to make a chart with the business schools you are targeting and their average (or median, if they don’t list the average) Total GMAT scores. You can use our handy GMAT score target worksheet to do so. The worksheet will help you figure out what your target Total score should be based on the highest score on the list.

However, it won’t help you set a goal for the section scores, which involves a bit more guesswork. Remember that a good verbal score for you is one that gets you to that goal Total score, so the trick is to estimate roughly where you need to score on the Verbal to reach your overall goal.

First, determine your baseline score (or starting point). Download the GMAT Prep Software and take a practice test. Do your best to simulate test-day conditions (a quiet room where you won’t be interrupted, no food or water except during timed breaks, and so on). After you’re done, the software will calculate your scaled scores, Total score, and percentile rankings for all five sections, including the Verbal.

Based on the difference between your Total score and your goal score, you can estimate how much you need to improve on Verbal and Math: a 2-3 point increase on Verbal or Quant corresponds to a 20 point increase of the Total score. (This estimate is based on crowdsourced data and is not 100% reliable, but it should give you at least a rough idea.) Then you can set Verbal and Quant score goals that will get you the Total score you’re aiming for, keeping in mind that your Quant score will ultimately be more important than your Verbal score.

For example, if my baseline is 650 Total, 33 Verbal, and 47 Quant and my goal is a 700, I’ll want to increase about six points across the two sections. I’m currently right around the 70th percentile on both sections, but I have a lot more room to improve on Verbal, so I’ll set my Verbal goal as 38 and my Quant goal as 48.

Ultimately, a good Verbal score for you is one that enables you to hit the Total GMAT score that would put you safely in the average for your target schools, without letting Quant dip too far below it.

What’s Next?

Check out our guide to what makes a good, excellent, and bad GMAT score for more on how business schools assess your performance on all sections of the GMAT. If you’re still feeling iffy on the basics, you should read our comprehensive breakdown of how GMAT scoring works first.

When you’re ready to get started, read through our 23 expert GMAT study tips to jumpstart your test prep. Do you find that you’re totally burned out by the time that you even get to the Verbal section? You’re not alone: read our nine tips for making it through the full GMAT length.

To increase your Verbal score specifically, study our GMAT Reading Strategies guide (coming soon).

Happy studying!

The post What’s a Good GMAT Verbal Score? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Unlike a diamond, a GMAT score isn’t forever. But how long do GMAT scores last, exactly? After five years, GMAT scores are no longer valid for business school admission. After 10 years, you can’t even see them!

If you’re applying to a business program, you’ll need to send scores that are five or fewer years old. Read on to find out the exact policies around how long GMAT scores last and how these policies affect your test-taking schedule.

First, let’s take a closer look at the rules for GMAT score validity.

How Long Are GMAT Scores Valid?

GMAT scores are valid for five years from the date you took the test. You can sign into your account at MBA.com to see any GMAT scores that you accepted in the past five years.

If you want to see scores from a GMAT that you took more than five but fewer than 10 years ago, then you can gain access to them via a special score report request. You’d have to call customer service and pay a fee of $28. This hard copy score report is mostly available for your own benefit, since business schools won’t accept GMAT scores that are older than five years.

If you took the GMAT over a decade ago and want to see your scores just for old time’s sake, then hopefully, you wrote them down. Any GMAT scores that are 10 years or older scores are long gone. You wouldn’t be able to get ahold of them unless you kept your own personal record.

As you just read, you can access scores that are older than five years (but younger than 10), but business schools probably won’t accept them. How long are GMAT scores valid for business schools?

Will Business Schools Accept Old GMAT Scores?

Business schools consider GMAT scores to be valid for five years. This five-year mark typically starts five years prior to a school’s application deadline. Any scores older than that don’t fulfill application requirements.

Harvard Business School, for example, had a Round 1 admissions deadline of September 7 in 2016. To apply, students had to send scores from a GMAT taken after September 7, 2011.

Stanford Business School has a similar policy. To apply for its Round 1 September 21, 2016 deadline, students had to have taken the GMAT on or after September 21, 2011.

Most schools set the cutoff five years prior to their application deadline. If you’re not sure if your scores make the cut, you should contact the admissions office to learn more. They should be able to tell you the exact date from which GMAT scores are considered valid.

While most schools will accept GMAT scores that are five years old, a few only want scores from the “Next Generation GMAT,” the redesigned version that was introduced in 2012.

Columbia Business School, for example, says that scores are valid for five years, but then it adds this caveat: “Both the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) and Integrated Reasoning (IR) sections are required if you take the GMAT.”

Since the IR section was introduced in 2012, GMAT scores from 2011 wouldn’t be valid. Old GMAT scores only count if they come from a test taken in or after June 2012, as that was the first month that the GMAT contained Integrated Reasoning.

If you’re solely concerned with accessing your GMAT scores, then all you need to know is that they’ll stay in your MBA.com account for five years. If you’re using them to apply to business school, though, then you should contact admissions offices to make sure you know any school-specific policies.

In other words, don’t assume that there’s a one size fits all rule when it comes to GMAT score validity in business school admissions. Each school is different, and each can set its own rules. Make sure you know what they are before applying.

Now let’s say that you took the GMAT more than once in the past few years to improve your scores. Will business schools see all your scores from every time you sat for the GMAT?

Do Business Schools See All Your GMAT Scores?

When you take the GMAT, you have the option of keeping or canceling your scores. Right after you finish taking the exam, you’ll see your unofficial score report with your IR, Quantitative, Verbal, and total scores (everything but Analytical Writing Assessment). Based on these scores, you can decide whether to keep or cancel the test.

In past years, business schools could see that you canceled scores from a test sitting. As of 2015, though, canceled scores are no longer indicated on score reports. Even canceled scores from tests taken prior to 2015 will no longer appear on score reports.

You don’t have to worry about schools knowing how many times you took the GMAT. If you crashed and burned during your first try, no one has to know but you.

You also now have the option to reinstate canceled scores from any test taken on or after January 1, 2014 for a fee of $50. You can reinstate scores up to four years and 11 months from your test date. This reinstatement period is a month shy of five years to allow time for processing your request.

Now that you have a sense of the rules around GMAT scores, let’s consider what they mean for your planning. How do these policies around score validity, cancellation, and reinstatement affect your test taking schedule?  

How Do GMAT Score Policies Affect Your Schedule?

The five-year rule for GMAT scores doesn’t affect most people’s test taking schedule a great deal. Generally speaking, people start preparing for the GMAT when they decide to go to business school, so they don’t have to worry about their scores being too old.

There are three main scenarios when GMAT score policies might affect your plans. Read on to see if any of them apply to you.

Scenario #1: You’re Worried Your Scores Are Too Old

If you took the GMAT years ago and are unsure if your scores are still valid, then you should check with each business school that you’re applying to. That way, you can confirm that you’re meeting individual, school-specific application requirements.

Most schools will accept scores that you took five years prior to their Round 1, Round 2, or Round 3 application deadline. Others only want scores from the most recent version of the GMAT, which was first administered in June of 2012.

You could start by looking for this information on each school’s admission website. If you can’t find it there, then you should email or call up the admissions office and ask about its GMAT policy.

Scenario #2: You Want to Take the GMAT as an Undergraduate

If you’re an undergraduate thinking about taking the GMAT, you should consider whether you’ll be applying to business school within five years. Most applicants have at least two to three years of work experience on their resume before applying, so you might be cutting it close.

As long as you meet the five-year cutoff, taking the GMAT during or right after college can be beneficial. Since you’ll still be in academic mode, you may not have to study as much as you would if you waited until several years after graduation. Your math, verbal, and test-taking skills might be as sharp as they’ll ever be.

If your plans change in subsequent years, you can always take the GMAT again, as long as you are able to pay the $250 registration fee again or get a voucher that covers all or part of the cost.

Scenario #3: You Need to Reapply to Business Schools

Finally, this five-year rule for GMAT validity is useful if you don’t get into business schools the first time around and decide to try again the following year. You won’t have to take the test over again, because you can send the same results along with your new applications.

The only reason you would take the GMAT again is if you seek higher scores. Otherwise, your scores will be just as valid for the following year’s admissions as they were for the current year’s, as long as they haven’t passed the five-year mark.

Unless any of the above three scenarios apply to you, the five-year rule of GMAT score validity probably won’t affect your test taking plans all that much. As we finish up, let’s go over some key points you should remember regarding our original query, How long are GMAT scores valid?

How Long Do GMAT Scores Last? Final Thoughts

When asking ourselves, “how long do GMAT scores last?”, it’s useful to come at the question from two angles.

First, we can think about how long the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) holds onto GMAT scores. GMAC keeps GMAT scores for five years, and you can access them online or over the phone. The organization also allows you to request a special score report for GMAT scores between five and 10 years old.

The second angle we should consider is how long GMAT scores are valid for business schools. Like GMAC, most business schools accept scores up to five years old. This five-year cutoff typically starts five years from the application deadline.

Because each school sets its own rules, you need to check requirements on a school by school basis, especially if you’re worried about your scores being too old.

What about if you’re interested in taking the GMAT, but don’t have any concrete plans to apply to business school yet? In this case, you may opt to take the exam if you feel you could get an especially strong score.

As long as you apply within five years, your scores will meet the application requirement. There doesn’t seem to be any advantage to sending scores that are a year old compared to scores that are three years old.

This five-year rule can be useful for anyone who wants to take the GMAT early and then be free to focus on the rest of their business school applications. As long as you fulfill business school requirements, then you can feel confident sending off your GMAT score reports.

What’s Next?

When you take the GMAT, you’ll have to decide whether to keep or cancel your scores. But what makes a good GMAT score? Check out this guide to find out.

What’s a competitive GMAT percentile for business school? Consult this guide to see how GMAT section scores and total scores match up with percentiles.

Are you scoring at or above average on your practice tests? This article on average GMAT scores explains what scores you need to stand out from the pack.

The post How Long Do GMAT Scores Last? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Every year, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) takes a close look at everyone’s GMAT scores. They find the average GMAT score for all test takers, plus they calculate mean scores by different demographics, like gender and region of citizenship. All of this number crunching helps GMAC see trends in scores over time and ensure that the GMAT is a valid test for people across the world.

Read on to learn how everyone does on the GMAT and to see whether your scores are competitive. You’ll also find data on the average GMAT scores of accepted students at almost 50 business schools!

Let’s start with the most recent data we have on GMAT scores for all test takers. What is the average GMAT score?

Average GMAT Score for All Test Takers

In 2016, the average GMAT score was 558. This average was taken across all 261,248 test-takers worldwide, as reported in GMAC’s 2016 Data to Go Report Series.

The average GMAT scores by section are based on a sample of over 750,000 individuals who took the GMAT between 2013 and 2015. 

You might be surprised to see that average Quantitative scores are a lot higher than average Verbal scores. Math scores have gone up over time, perhaps as more and more student from math-proficient countries across the world take the GMAT.

As the test becomes more international, students have especially strong math skills but weaker verbal skills, since English may not be their native language. As a result of this trend, you’ll find that it’s now harder to rank in a high percentile for Quantitative than it is for Verbal.

We’ll discuss trends in average GMAT scores over time in more detail below, but first, let’s take a look at the GMAT average score by gender and region of citizenship.

Average GMAT Score by Gender

The most recent data we have on average GMAT scores by gender also comes from GMAC’s 2013 Profile of GMAT Candidates Executive Summary. This chart shows the GMAT average scores for men and women for testing year 2013. 

Overall, more men take the GMAT than women, and they also average higher total scores.

In addition to finding mean scores by gender, GMAC also analyzes data by region of citizenship. The chart below shows GMAT average scores by region for 2016.

Average GMAT Scores by Citizenship Region

To give you a sense of testing trends in your region of citizenship, GMAC crunched the numbers for Africa, East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regions across the world. This chart shows the GMAT average scores by region for testing year 2016.

Some regions average higher than the worldwide mean of 558, while some fall lower. The Australia & Pacific Islands area takes the prize for highest GMAT score averages, with a whopping 610! (Note it also had the lowest number of exams taken, so the students coming from this region may be especially well prepared.)

If you’re interested in average GMAT scores by each individual country, you can find this data in GMAC’s official report.

Have average GMAT scores always looked like this? Read on to see how scores have shifted over the years.

How Have Average GMAT Scores Changed Over Time?

Has the GMAT average score increased, decreased, or stayed the same over time? To answer this question, consider the chart below showing the average total scores worldwide from 2012 to 2016.

For the most part, average GMAT scores have increased over time. This increase in average total scores likely reflects the overall increase in Quantitative scores.

As mentioned above, there are more excellent math scores on the GMAT than ever before. As a result, you need a higher score to rank in a high percentile for the Quantitative section today than you did in years past.

Besides making percentile rankings more competitive, does this trend in average scores affect what scores you need to get into business school?

What Is the Average GMAT Score for Business School?

For the most part, the average GMAT scores of students who are accepted to business school tend to be higher than the average scores across the world or by citizenship region. In fact, the average worldwide score of 558 is on the low side for many business schools.

So, what scores do you need to get in? That all depends on where you’re applying. Top schools tend to expect scores over 700, while less selective schools leave more wiggle room.

Let’s consider the GMAT average scores of accepted students at almost 50 business schools, some that are highly selective and others that are less so.

The most selective business schools have an average GMAT score of about 720, but less selective ones accept students with scores in the 500s or 600s. You can also find a few, like Nicholls State, that will accept students with GMAT scores in the 400s, but you may have to balance out a lower than average GMAT score with a higher than average undergraduate GPA.

Remember, all of these scores are just averages, meaning some students got in with lower scores and some students had higher. In addition to your GMAT scores, your essays, recommendation letters, academic records, and work experience are also important parts of your application.

When setting a goal for the GMAT, it’s more important to find the average scores of accepted students at business schools than average GMAT scores overall. If you’re applying to a school that’s not on this list, how can you find the average GMAT score of accepted students?

How to Find Average GMAT Scores for Business Schools

Most schools publish data on the GMAT average score of accepted students every year. You should be able to find this information in the admissions section of the school’s website. You can search around the school website or use a search engine to look for, “school name + average GMAT score.”

If you can’t find this information, then you should feel free to call up or email the admissions office of the school. While they probably won’t give you a score cutoff, they should be able to tell you the average GMAT scores of students who got in last year.

By doing this research, you can set specific goals for your own GMAT section and total scores. Then, you can start preparing to meet those goals and make your business school application the strongest it can be.

In closing, what can you take away from all this data on average GMAT scores? Let’s go over some final thoughts about average GMAT scores and how they can help you evaluate your own GMAT performance.

What Is the Average GMAT Score? Final Thoughts

GMAC analyzes the huge collection of GMAT data every year to calculate average scores for all test takers. By looking at average scores, you can gain a sense of how competitive your own scores are compared to those of other prospective business school students.

At the same time, you should be more concerned with the average scores of students who have been accepted to business schools that you’re interested in. For the most part, business programs want scores that are higher than the worldwide or national average.

In fact, the global average of 558 is quite low for many business school programs and would likely eliminate your application from consideration to the most selective business schools in the country and world.

When setting your own target GMAT scores, you should emphasize average scores from business schools, rather than the GMAT average score from the Graduate Management Admission Council. That way, you can figure out what you need to score and work towards achieving competitive GMAT scores.

What’s Next?

Now you know all about average GMAT scores, but do you know how the test is scored? Check out this GMAT scoring guide to learn everything you need to know.

In addition to section and total scores, you’ll also get a percentile ranking. Head over to our GMAT percentile guide to learn what this ranking means and how section and total GMAT scores correspond to percentiles.

Have you decided on a GMAT test date yet? Check out this full guide to choosing a GMAT test date and time that will help you do your best.

The post Average GMAT Scores: Where Do You Rank? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

To truly understand the GMAT, you need to break it into pieces. There are four sections in the exam, each with its own challenges and demands.

There are some shared themes throughout the GMAT sections, but each stands on its own and requires unique preparation. This guide will go over the four GMAT sections in full so you know exactly what to expect from each one and how to get ready for exam day.

To start, let’s go over a general overview of the four GMAT test sections.

What Are the 4 GMAT Sections?

The four sections of the GMAT are Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), Integrated Reasoning (IR), Quantitative, and Verbal, always in that order. The AWA and Integrated Reasoning sections are 30 minutes each, and the Quantitative and Verbal sections are 75 minutes.

Altogether, the four GMAT sections take three and a half hours to work through. This chart shows the length of time, number of questions, and average time per question in the four sections of the GMAT.

The AWA section asks you to write an essay in response to a prompt, but the remaining GMAT sections are multiple choice. The Quantitative and Verbal sections are unique because they are both adaptive.

On an adaptive section, questions are selected as you go to match your ability level. If you’re getting questions wrong, then the subsequent ones should be a little easier. If you’re acing everything, then the questions should get progressively more difficult.

This adaptive format means that no two versions of the GMAT are exactly the same. It also means that it’s important to answer all of the questions in each section so that the scoring algorithm can get the most accurate measure of your skills.

The GMAT sections are unique, but they all draw on your critical reasoning and problem solving skills. As the GMAT is a test for business school, the exam often asks you to examine evidence, draw conclusions, and evaluate solutions. All in all, the GMAT tests the writing, math, verbal, and data interpretation skills you need to succeed in business school.

Now that you have a general sense of the GMAT test sections, let’s take a closer look at each one, starting with AWA.

GMAT Section #1: Analytical Writing Assessment

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section asks you to write an essay in response to a short prompt. You’ll get an excerpt featuring an argument and then be asked to evaluate the strength of that argument.

You will be given a set of instructions, followed by the short argument you need to assess. Your instructions will always say this:

You’ll also be reminded that your job is to evaluate the argument, not to present your own opinion on the topic.

Helpfully, GMAC published a comprehensive list of most of the AWA prompts it’s ever used. Below is one example, but you can practice writing essays from this full list of GMAT AWA prompts.

Your essay will be graded between 0 and 6 in half-point intervals, and you’ll get the score on your official GMAT score report about 20 days after you take the test. Your essay will be graded by one person and one machine. A third grader may offer input if the two scores differ by more than a point.

You can check out the rubric that graders use to score the essays. An essay with a top score of 6 “clearly identifies and insightfully analyzes important features of the argument” and “effectively supports the main points of the critique,” along with other requirements.

Beyond familiarizing yourself with the AWA rubric, what can you do to get ready for the AWA section of the GMAT?

Tips for the AWA Section

How can you write an essay that will earn you a high AWA score? There are several challenges in this GMAT section, not the least of which is time. Since you only have 30 minutes, you should be strategic about how you divide up your time.

You might spend three to five minutes at the beginning familiarizing yourself with the prompt and writing a quick outline of your essay. Then, you should spend the majority of your time, perhaps 20 to 24 minutes drafting and leave three to five minutes at the end to proofread and revise.

Structure is very important for the AWA essay. You don’t want to go off on a rambling narrative, but instead should stick to a four to five paragraph essay with a clear introduction, two to three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Since the arguments are brief, most will have some assumptions and blind spots. It’s your job to pick out the two to three major flaws and describe them with specificity. You should also bring in effective supporting examples that support your analysis. As mentioned in the prompt, these may be counterexamples that would weaken the argument in the excerpt.

As you strengthen your AWA essay writing skills, you should read highly scored sample essays and familiarize yourself with the AWA rubric. Write timed practice essays from real AWA sample prompts and grade them yourself or with a friend. Above all, aim to write an essay with a clear structure and specific examples.

GMAT Section #2: Integrated Reasoning

Integrated Reasoning is the newest of the GMAT sections. It was introduced in 2012 to bring skills of data interpretation and evaluation into the GMAT.

This 30-minute section asks 12 questions, each of which integrates your verbal, math, and reasoning skills. The questions are multi-part, so in reality, you have quite a few more than 12 questions to answer in Integrated Reasoning.

There are four main question types in Integrated Reasoning. They are graphics interpretation, multi-source reasoning, two-part analysis, and table analysis questions.

Graphics interpretation questions feature a graph, chart, or other kind of graphic. Below the graphic, you’ll have two fill-in-the-blank statements. To choose your answer, you’ll use a drop down menu, as in the sample question below.

This sample question includes a rather unusual graphic. Other graphics interpretation questions might feature more typical graphics, like bar graphs, scatter plots, or pie charts.

Multi-source reasoning questions present three tabs of information, and you’ll need to click through each one to get the full picture. These tend to the be the most time-consuming question types, as they have several questions that accompany the same information.

This sample question shows a multi-source reasoning question and one of three accompanying questions. On the real test, you’ll be able to toggle between the three tabs.

Two-part analysis questions contain two columns, and you’ll choose one answer for each. The questions may be entirely math, entirely verbal, or a mix of both.

Finally, table analysis questions present a table of information that you must manipulate to find the answers to a series of questions. You can sort the table by column to answer the accompanying questions. When you sort a column, it will rearrange itself in alphabetical or numerical (low to high) order.

The question will include three statements, and each statement will appear next to a dichotomous answer choice, like true/false or yes/no. To find your answer, you’ll need to consider each statement in relation to the information in the table.

This sample question asks you to select “Yes” if the statement can be proved true with the information in the table. If it can’t, then you would select “No.

Throughout the Integrated Reasoning section, you’ll get information in a variety of formats, like passages, tables, charts, graphs, or other unusual graphics. Your job is to interpret the data, draw conclusions, and evaluate statements.

Beyond familiarizing yourself with the four question types in Integrated Reasoning, what else can you do to get ready for this challenging section?

Tips for the Integrated Reasoning Section

One of the biggest challenges of the GMAT Integrated Reasoning section is figuring out what a question is asking you. You should practice answering all four IR question types. The problems are not very intuitive, so having seen and solved these question types before will automatically help.

In most cases, you should read the question before spending much time looking at the graphs or passages. You might glance over a graph or passage to get your bearings, but then you should read the question to figure out what you’re looking for. Once you understand your assignment, then you can look more closely at the data to locate your answer.

The reason it usually helps to read a question first is because each graphic, table, or passage will have a lot of extraneous information. You don’t need to know everything about each information source. Instead, you need to sift through the data to find specific information.

As mentioned above, tables will have sorting functionality, so you can rearrange columns to help you answer a question. You could arrange a column in alphabetical or numerical order. If a question is asking you to compare a car with a high speed versus a car with a low speed, to give one example, then you could sort the chart by speed from lowest to highest. That way, you can make sure you’re looking just at the cars with the highest and lowest speeds.

As you look at the data, make sure to pay close attention to units. A graphic may show speed in hours while a question asks about speed in minutes, to give one example.

Not only do you need to be comfortable reading various types of graphs and charts, but you also need to be comfortable using the on-screen calculator.

Finally, keep in mind that the Integrated Reasoning section calls for an integration of your math and verbal skills. In addition to data interpretation, you’ll need the same reading comprehension and fundamental math skills in this section that you will in Verbal and Quantitative.

You’ll need to work efficiently, know when to guess and move on, and divide your time in a way that will allow you to answer all of the questions before the timer runs out.

GMAT Section #3: Quantitative

The Quantitative section is all about math. It’s your first adaptive section on the GMAT, and it asks 31 math questions in 62 minutes. There are two question types in the GMAT Quantitative section, problem solving and data sufficiency.

Problem solving questions are typical multiple choice math questions that you must solve for one correct answer. Here’s one example of a problem solving question involving algebra.

Data sufficiency questions are more unusual. They present a problem followed by two pieces of information. Then you need to decide whether the first statement, the second statement, both together, or neither give you enough information to solve the original problem.

Here’s an example of a data sufficiency problem involving geometry. All data sufficiency problems will have these same five answer choices.

Quantitative questions are challenging, but you might be relieved to hear that they don’t test especially advanced math. The main concepts tested are arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, plus you’ll get word problems that will call on one or more of these skill areas.

You won’t have to do particularly advanced calculations either, as you can’t use a calculator in this section. On average, you have about two minutes per question.

You’ll have to work quickly and efficiently to do well in the GMAT Quantitative section. What else can you do to meet your goals?

Tips for the GMAT Quantitative Section

To prepare for the GMAT Quantitative section, you should review fundamental math concepts in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, as well as practice answering word problems. Once you’ve reviewed concepts, you should drill these skills by answering lots of practice questions and taking timed practice tests.

Timed practice tests will help you develop a test-taking rhythm, so you can get to all of the questions in time. You’ll also know when you’re wasting too much time on a question and would be better off guessing and moving on.

Beyond answering lots of practice questions, you should also memorize the answer choices for data sufficiency questions. These will always be the same, and you don’t want to waste time figuring out what they’re asking on test day.

You don’t have to write out a full solution to data sufficiency questions. Instead, you should do just enough to know whether you have enough information to solve a problem.

You won’t get a calculator here, but you can use provided note boards and markers. Take advantage of these materials to write out your work. Writing out problems will help you keep your thinking straight, plus there’s enough arithmetic in this section that mental math will only take you so far.

GMAT Section #4: Verbal

Like the Quantitative section, the Verbal section of the GMAT is adaptive. The difficulty levels of the questions fluctuate as you go along to match your ability level. The Verbal section tests your reading, reasoning, and grammar skills with 36 multiple-choice questions.

The GMAT Verbal section has three question types: reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and sentence corrections.

Reading comprehension questions are probably the most time-consuming, because you’ll have a passage to read along with three to five accompanying questions.The questions might ask about main point, specific details, tone, purpose, organization of ideas, or other features of the passage.

Here’s one example of a passage and two of its five accompanying reading comprehension questions.

The second question type, critical reasoning, is reminiscent of the essay prompt in the AWA section. It gives you a few factual statements or a short excerpt of an argument, followed by a multiple choice question. This question type asks you to consider evidence, draw a conclusion, or evaluate the statements in some way.

Here’s one example of a critical reasoning question in the GMAT Verbal section.

Finally, sentence corrections mainly ask about grammar. You’ll get a (typically wordy) sentence with a word or phrase underlined. If the underlined portion has a grammatical error, you’ll choose an answer that shows what it should say instead.

If the underlined portion is correct, then you’ll go with the first answer choice, which will always look identical to the underlined portion.

As you can see, the Verbal section tests your reading comprehension and grammar skills. What can you do to set yourself up for success in this GMAT section?

Tips for the GMAT Verbal Section

To prepare for Verbal, you should approach each question type separately.

For reading comprehension questions, you need to sharpen your speed reading skills. Rather than wasting time reading each and every word of a passage, skim the paragraphs with an eye on structure, tone, point of view, and purpose.

Critical reasoning questions require the same critical eye as the AWA prompt. You’ll want to practice evaluating and analyzing arguments with an eye on assumptions, flaws, and unfounded claims.

Finally, you should study rules of grammar to get ready for sentence corrections. You might get tested on parallel structure, subject-verb agreement, or other common rules.

The sentences in these questions are often extremely wordy, so it can help to break them up into their component clauses and mentally cross out the superfluous ones. On a sentence with a subject-verb agreement error, for instance, there may be a long clause between the subject and the verb to distract you. Try blocking out the extra clause so you can focus on the important parts of the sentence.

Now that you have a sense of all four sections of the GMAT and how to approach them, let’s consider how they function during the admissions process. Do admissions officers look at all four section scores equally, or do they care about some GMAT sections more than others?

How Important Are GMAT Section Scores in Business School Admissions?

While GMAT section scores are used in business school admissions, they actually take a backseat to the GMAT total score. As mentioned above, the total score is based on Quantitative and Verbal scores, and it ranges from 200 to 800. When applying to business school, your GMAT total score is the most important value on your score report.

While admissions officers remain relatively close-lipped about how they evaluate applications, it seems that they use the total score in their initial review of an application. If the score is up to scratch, then they move on to review section scores as a secondary factor.

Since the total score is based on Quantitative and Verbal scores, this means that the Quantitative and Verbal sections are more important in business school admissions than AWA or Integrated Reasoning.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore these other two sections, as an extremely low score could stand out as a red flag. However, they’re not your top priority when studying for the GMAT.

The one exception is for non-native English speakers taking the GMAT. The AWA score becomes more important when admissions officers are assessing your English level, particularly in writing. If an applicant sends a strong essay but a low AWA score, then this discrepancy could cause concern.

It’s also useful to note that Integrated Reasoning is new, but it’s been growing in importance from year to year. In 2012, only 22% of business schools said it was important, as opposed to 59% in 2015 according to a Kaplan survey. As time goes on, the IR score will likely continue to take on weight in the admissions process.

Essentially, your GMAT total score is more important than your individual section scores, and your Quantitative and Verbal scores are given more weight than AWA or IR scores. As for these two major sections of the GMAT, is one more important than the other?

Quantitative Vs. Verbal GMAT Scores: Which One’s More Important?

When it comes to Quantitative and Verbal scores, is one more important than the other? Some admissions officers suggest that section scores take on more weight depending on your educational background.

If you majored in the humanities, then officers may pay more attention to your Quantitative score to make sure you have the math chops to do well in business school. If you were a math major, then they may look at Verbal scores to ensure your reading comprehension skills are up to scratch.

Because of the math-heavy curriculum at many business schools, some officers have suggested that the Quantitative score is the more important section score.

In a Poets and Quants interview, Dee Leopold, the former managing director of admissions and financial aid at Harvard Business School, said, “people have to be able to do the analytics. Not everyone has to be an Excel monkey and build models, but you do have to be numerate and not phobic about numbers. When you don’t see evidence to do the guts of the work here, you realize you are putting this person at risk unnecessarily.”

The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley similarly emphasizes the importance of math skills in its admission requirements, stating that, “the Admissions Committee looks carefully at quantitative proficiency when making its admissions decisions.”

Both Quantitative and Verbal scores are important, but some schools emphasize that they need to see evidence of proficiency in math to make sure that prospective students can handle a math-heavy business school curriculum.

This shouldn’t affect your test prep a great deal, as you should spend time getting ready for both the Quant and Verbal GMAT sections. However, it does mean that a high Verbal score may not be enough to balance out a low Quantitative score.

If you’re uneasy about your Quantitative performance, then it may be worth retaking the GMAT so you can send off an application that shows evidence of your proficiency in math. In closing, let’s go over some final thoughts about the GMAT sections and how to prepare for each of them.

GMAT Sections: Final Thoughts

There are four distinct GMAT test sections, each with its own demands and idiosyncrasies. What the sections have in common is an emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking.

Whether you’re writing an essay, interpreting a graph, solving a math problem, or reading a passage, you’ll need to keep a critical eye, evaluate information in front of you, and sift through a large amount of data to identify what’s most important and discard what’s not.

While each section calls for specific preparation, any studying you do will likely help you across the entire test. By developing your critical thinking skills and efficiency as a test-taker, you’ll be better prepared to tackle the challenging GMAT sections and to focus throughout a long, demanding test.

While you should study for all four sections, you should prioritize the Quantitative and Verbal sections, as they are most important in the business school admissions process. By achieving your target scores in these sections, along with solid AWA and IR section scores, you can show the admissions committee your commitment to joining the business school community.

What’s Next?

The GMAT is a tough test, but it’s definitely possible to achieve your target scores. Check out this guide to learn just how difficult the GMAT is and how to tackle the challenge.

Have you come up with your GMAT study plan? This guide gives you 23 essential tips for designing a customized GMAT study plan that will help you achieve your goals. (coming soon)

Taking GMAT practice tests is an essential part of any study plan. Check out this full list of free practice tests you can take online!

The post The 4 GMAT Sections: What to Expect on the Test appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

What’s the highest GMAT score possible, and how can you get it? How common is the GMAT max score? Do you need it to gain admission to your MBA program of choice?

In this article, I’ll go over the highest score in each GMAT section, tips on how to get it yourself, and how a perfect GMAT score can help you get into business school.

What Is the Highest GMAT Score?

The highest GMAT score possible is an 800. When we discuss the GMAT score, we generally mean the total score, which includes both the Verbal and the Quantitative sections. The Integrated Reasoning and Analytical Writing Assessment sections are not included in the total score.

Below are the score ranges for the GMAT total score, as well as each individual section:

How Can You Get the Highest GMAT Score?

So, how can you score that coveted perfect 800 GMAT score? There are a few reasons why we can’t know for certain how many questions you need to get right in order to get the GMAT max score. Firstly, the GMAT is a computerized adaptive test (CAT), which means that the test adapts to the test-taker’s abilities as he or she takes the exam. Getting a medium question incorrect will result in fewer moderate or advanced-level questions and more easy ones, while getting easy or medium questions correct will lead to more moderate and difficult questions to gauge your overall level relative to your peers.

Since your GMAT score relies not only on how many questions you get right, but on how many easy, moderate, and difficult questions you get right, there is no one magic number of right answers that will guarantee you an 800.

Secondly, the GMAC (the Graduate Management Admissions Council) doesn’t offer specific annual stats on how many questions you can get incorrect and still get an 800. There are actually three ‘scores’ you receive in each section: the raw score (as in, how many questions out of 37 you get correct on the Quant section, how many questions out of 41 you get right on the Verbal section, etc.), the scaled score (1-60 for both Verbal and Quant), and the percentile ranking (which tells you how well you did on that section or the total score in relation to your peers).

Recent unofficial student reports indicate that a scaled Verbal score of 51 (approximately raw score of 35-37 out of 41) and a scaled Quant score of 48 (approx. raw score of 30-34 out of 37) , could result in an 800. So could a scaled score of 48 on the Verbal section and a 51 on the Quant section.

The important things to note here are that 1) you can have a slight discrepancy between your Verbal and Quant scores and still get an 800, but not a significant one, and 2) you can get a few questions incorrect and still get the max GMAT score.

What we can know for sure is that to get the GMAT highest score, you’ll need to do well on both the Verbal and Quant sections, get very few answers incorrect in each section, not skip any questions, and answer difficult questions correctly.

How Common Is the Max GMAT Score?

Not very. GMAC reports that very few students score very low or very high. In fact, two-thirds of GMAT test-takers score between a 400 and a 600. Very few students score below a 9 or above a 44 on the Verbal section, or below 7 or above 50 on the Quant section.

GMAT percentile rankings tell you how you did in comparison to other students—for example, a percentile ranking of 40% would mean you scored higher than 40% of students, and 60% of test-takers scored the same as or more highly than you—and they can tell us something about the highest GMAT scores, too. Here are the GMAT total score percentile rankings for the last three years for scores between 650 and 800:

Note that a 760 or above would put you in the 99th percentile, meaning that only one percent of fellow test-takers get a 760 or above. This means, of course, that the number of students who actually get the GMAT highest score of 800 is exceedingly small. Out of the approximately 200,000 GMAT tests taken every year, only 2,000 score 760 or above.

Even though an 800 is a lofty goal, it’s not impossible.

Will a Perfect GMAT Score Get You Into Business School?

So does a perfect GMAT score really matter? Will a perfect GMAT score get you into the business school of your dreams? First, for reference, here are the average GMAT scores for recent incoming classes at five top-tier MBA programs:

Note that all five of these top-ranked MBA programs have average GMAT scores of 710+, and in many cases incoming students have average GMAT scores of 720 and above. So you certainly don’t need an 800 to get into these top schools.

Score ranges give even more clarity: At Stanford, the most recent class profile lists a range of 590-790 among admitted students (which means no one scored a perfect GMAT score of 800!). At Harvard Business School, the incoming class of 2018 has a middle 80% score range of 690-760, which means the bulk of students fit into this range, and a few students scored even higher.

Generally, you’ll only need a GMAT score of 720 and above to be admitted to a top-ranking MBA program, so don’t worry if you don’t have a perfect score. Most of the students that your favorite business school admits don’t have one either. The rest of your application is important: GPA, work experience, letters of recommendation, and essays and other writing samples.

Of course getting an 800 can help you stand out, since getting the GMAT max score is so rare. But keep in mind it’s not a guarantee of admission, since in the admissions officers’ eyes, a 780 is quite similar the same as an 800. After you pass the academic GMAT cutoff, the rest of your application is what matters.

How To Get the Highest GMAT Score: Prep Strategies

So if your goal is the highest GMAT score possible, how can you get there? There’s no guarantee, but here are a few strategies:

1. Prep extensively. You’ll need to put in a lot of prep time if you want the max GMAT score, even if you start out strong in your first practice tests. Use the GMATPrep study software to complete practice tests under simulated test conditions and track your progress.

2. Target your weaknesses. Aiming for a perfect 800 on the GMAT will take some fine tuning. When you review your practice tests, take note of your weaknesses. Do you have trouble with trigonometry or geometry? Do you find Critical Reasoning or Sentence Correction questions more challenging in the Verbal section? Get more specific than that if you can, too: Do you have trouble correcting run-ons in Sentence Correction questions? Focus your review on that weakness. Honing in on your weak spots is the only way to shoot for an 800.

3. Make sure you’re strong in both the Verbal and Quant sections. As I noted, you’ll need high scores on both the Quant and the Verbal section to end up with a perfect GMAT score. If you’re a little weaker in one, focus the bulk of your prep time on that.

4. Analyze official questions on GMAT practice tests. Particularly for question types you struggle with, try breaking them down into their various parts. Which part of the question confuses you? Find an answer explanation and compare it to your own line of thinking. Where does your logic break down? Getting an 800 will require this level of specificity in your GMAT prep.

GMAT Highest Score: The Bottom Line

You don’t need to obsess over getting a perfect GMAT score of 800. Getting a 720 or higher will get you into almost any business school, and a 750 or higher would be considered highly exceptional at even the most selective MBA programs.

However, if your goal is an 800, plan your GMAT prep accordingly. Devote many hours to your prep, target your weaknesses, break down question types to analyze where you’re getting it wrong and make sure you’re scoring well in every GMAT section.

What’s Next?

Check out our guide to GMAT Percentiles for help understanding GMAT percentile rankings in more detail.

Still confused about how the GMAT is scored? Our complete guide to GMAT scoring will give you more in-depth info about GMAT scores as a whole.

The GMAT is intimidating, but is it hard? Read our expert analysis of how difficult the GMAT actually is for more info.

The post What Is the Highest GMAT Score? Can You Get a Max Score? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

What is the average GMAT score at top business schools? What does the average GMAT score at your prospective business school mean for you?

In this article, I’ll go over the 50 highest average GMAT scores at MBA programs, how to find the average GMAT score by school, and what those average scores mean for your MBA admissions.

Understanding Average GMAT Score by School

The overall, worldwide average GMAT score of test-takers is 551.94. However, that number incorporates everyone who take the GMAT, including those who don’t end up applying or getting into business school.

Generally speaking, you’ll need to score much more highly than the average prospective MBA student to get into most business schools. Average GMAT scores at top 50 business schools are especially high, ranging from the 700s at top-ranking MBA programs like Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and the University of Chicago, to the 650+ range for mid-ranking schools.

Average GMAT scores have also gone up over time at nearly all MBA programs. At U. Penn’s Wharton School of Business, for example, the average GMAT score of incoming students went up 14 points between 2011 and 2015 (from 718 to 732). At Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, the average GMAT score rose from 638 to 664 in the same time period, a 26-point increase.

These increases are partly due to the influx of international students taking the exam, as many students from outside the U.S. score more highly on the quantitative section than do American test-takers. Another factor is the schools’ desire to move up in MBA rankings, which are partly based on average GMAT scores. MBA programs seeking to move up the rankings ladder often offer more scholarship money and other incentives to high-scoring students.

Average GMAT Score by School: The Top 50 

Let’s take a look at the top 50 average GMAT scores by school. These averages include only full-time U.S.-based MBA programs and are based on data compiled in 2016.

Remember that most of the info available out there is on the average (mean) GMAT score, which can be skewed by outliers like one or two very low or very high scores from exceptional students. A few schools release info about their median GMAT score, which means there are an equal number of scores below and above that score. These are noted in the chart.

As you look through this data, keep in mind that that PrepScholar GMAT’s online course comes with a 60 point GMAT score improvement guarantee, which will get you closer to your dream school’s average GMAT score!

How to Find the Average GMAT Score by School That Matters for You

In order to plan your GMAT prep, you’ll need to set a target GMAT score based on the average scores of the admitted students at the schools you’re considering. Doing so let’s you see what kind of score you’ll need to be in the running and how much studying you’ll have to do to get there (or, in extreme cases, whether a schools is feasible for you at all).

To find the average GMAT score by school, first look for the most recent class profile, where business schools list demographic data about their admitted MBA students. You can usually find this page on schools’ websites or by searching “[business school] class profile” on Google. For example, here’s Stanford’s class of 2018 profile which was the top hit when I searched “stanford business school class profile”:

If a school doesn’t list this info on their website (you can also check the section on test scores), try looking at other publications and sites. Poets and Quants and US News will list this data for many schools and are extremely reliable, but make sure to treat any data from less reputable sites cautiously.

Once you’ve found the average GMAT scores of each of your prospective business schools, you can use them to set a goal score. Your target GMAT score should be the highest average GMAT score in your list, or, to be safe, 20 points higher than that score. For more information on setting a target score, check out What’s a Good GMAT Score?

What If Your GMAT Score Is Lower Than Average?

If your GMAT score is low, don’t lose hope (after all, Harvard Business School did enroll a student with a 510 GMAT in 2014, so nothing is impossible). Average GMAT scores by school just give the middle of the program’s GMAT range, some students score higher while others score lower. If you’re just slightly below your goal (10-20 points), you shouldn’t worry too much — you’re still well within range for your target schools, even if your GMAT score won’t stand out the way you might hope.

If, on the other hand, your score is well below the average for your target schools, the best option is to prepare further, focus on your weaknesses, and retake the GMAT. Many students take the GMAT several times, and it isn’t looked down on by business schools. You can’t take the GMAT more than once a month, but you can take it as many times as you like. It’s not an inexpensive test, though, so you should get yourself as ready as possible before taking the exam a second or third time.

If you really can’t raise your score and are still 30+ points below average, you might want to adjust your list of schools. That might mean simply applying to some less competitive business schools that accept students with lower GMAT scores or looking at less traditional MBAs, like international, online or part-time programs. While there are some disadvantages to part-time and online MBA programs in particular, like fewer networking opportunities, there are many accredited, high-quality schools outside of the conventional realm.

Finally, if you’re really concerned about your GMAT score, there are some business schools that waive the GMAT requirement for students with extensive work experience or prior academic achievement. Check out our guide to MBAs that don’t require the GMAT (coming soon) for a list.

What’s Next?

MBAs That Don’t Require the GMAT (coming soon) will give you a guide to business schools to check out if you aren’t planning on taking the exam.

Not sure if you should retake the GMAT? (coming soon) Check out our article to help you decide whether to take the GMAT more than once.

Wondering what’s actually a good GMAT score? Our guide to good, bad, and excellent GMAT scores will help you set a target GMAT score, depending on your preferred business school.

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