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.

Applying to business schools can be intimidating. What if you don’t get in? Are there any programs you’ll almost definitely be accepted at? If you’re looking for the easiest business schools to get into, look no further.

In this article, I’ll go over what makes an MBA program’s application process less competitive and help you decide whether a less selective business school is right for you. You’ll also find lists of MBA programs with high acceptance rates and the the easiest top MBA programs to get into based on average GPAs and GMAT scores.

What It Means for a Business School to Be “Easy” to Get Into

There are two main factors that contribute to a business school being easy to get into: a high acceptance rate and low GPA and GMAT requirements.

Many MBA programs are highly selective. The average MBA acceptance rate at the top 10 business schools is only 14.5%; the most selective program, at Stanford, admits only 6.1% of applicants each year.

However, you can find plenty of high-quality MBA programs with much higher acceptance rates (all the way up to well over 50%), and where successful applicants regularly have lower GMAT scores and lower average undergraduate GPAs. Whatever your GMAT score or undergraduate GPA, you can most likely find an MBA program where you have a good shot of acceptance.

So where do you find easy business schools to get into?

You can find the average GMAT scores and GPAs of incoming MBA students on a business school’s class profile, and use those to find the easiest MBA programs to get into. Here’s an example from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where the average GMAT of an incoming student is 715 and the middle-80% GPA range is 3.2 to 3.8.

Using recent class profiles, you can find plenty of business schools with high acceptance rates and where the average GPAs and GMAT scores of admitted students aren’t sky-high. This is a great way to find easy MBA programs to get into.

At UT San Antonio Business School, for example, the average undergraduate GPA of incoming students is 3.2, and the average GMAT score is 600. At Cal State University San Bernardino Business School, the average GPA of incoming students is also 3.2, and the average GMAT score is 540.

As you explore potential MBA programs, to find schools that would be easy for you to get into, look for ones where the average GPAs and GMAT scores of incoming students are below yours. Having a higher GMAT score or undergraduate GPA than most of your fellow applicants ups your chances of a successful application.

Looking at the average GMAT scores and GPAs of students at your prospective business schools is better than simply looking at acceptance rates, because an acceptance rate alone doesn’t give you enough information. A school that might be easy for you to get into because of your GPA and/or GMAT score, for example, might not have an exceptionally high acceptance rate.

Next, let’s take a look at some of the easiest MBA programs to get into: those with the lowest average GMAT scores and GPAs among incoming students.

Easiest Top 50 MBA Programs to Get Into Based on GMAT Score and GPA

Looking for a highly ranked business school, but concerned about a GMAT score or GPA that’s on the lower side? What’s the easiest top MBA program to get into? Here are the 15 easiest business schools to get into out of the top 50 MBA programs (according to Poets&Quants): the first list includes the programs with the lowest average GMAT scores and the second covers those with the lowest average GPAs.

15 Top 50 MBA Programs With the Lowest Average GMAT Scores

15 Top 50 MBA Programs With the Lowest Average GPAs

10 MBA Programs With the Highest Acceptance Rates

Applying to MBA programs with high acceptance rates is a good way to up your chances of admission. Some business schools, regardless of average GPA or GMAT scores, accept a high percentage of the students who apply.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, these are the 10 MBA programs with the highest acceptance rates. If you’re looking for easy MBA programs to get into, you might want to consider the following business schools. Two—the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Tulane University—regularly receive rankings in the top 100 in the U.S. News and World Report.

Is a Less Selective Business School Right for You?

It might be tempting to just apply to the easiest business schools to get into, but is a less selective MBA program really right for you? Let’s go over some of the pros and cons of applying to easy business schools to get into.

Benefits of Less Selective Programs

Although less selective programs are usually less popular, there are some real benefits to attending one.

#1: Easier Path to Admission

The biggest pro to applying to easy business schools to get into is, of course, a higher chance you’ll get in! Applying to the easiest business schools to get into means that you don’t have to apply to as many schools, so you’ll save on application fees.

Also, if you’re worried about a low undergraduate GPA or low GMAT score (or don’t want to spend the time and money to take the GMAT again), applying to MBA programs with high acceptance rates will up your chances of admission and be a less stressful waiting game.

#2: Cost

Many MBA programs with high acceptance rates boast lower tuition rates than more highly selective ones.

At the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a year’s tuition is $68,868 (and a year of full expenses for a single student living on campus could come to as much as $112,797).

Meanwhile, at the less selective University of Colorado, Boulder, Leeds School of Business, a year of resident tuition is $17,892, while non-resident tuition is $33,300 for a year. Other business schools with high acceptance rates often have similarly low tuition rates and other expenses, leaving you with less debt.

Easy MBA programs to get into may also offer more scholarships to an applicant with a solid academic record or a high GMAT score. Many low-to-mid ranking MBA programs are looking to move up the ranks in the U.S. News and World Report and other publications, and are willing to provide incentives to especially promising students in the form of funding.

So if you’re one of the top applicants to a less selective school, you’ve got a better shot at a partial or full scholarship, teaching or research assistantship, or fellowship than you would at a more competitive MBA program.

Drawbacks of Less Selective Programs

Unfortunately, just because a program is easier to get into doesn’t necessarily make it the right choice for you. Keep these issues in mind when considering where to apply.

#1: Fewer Recruiting and Networking Opportunities

More selective MBA programs attract more instructors, workshop leaders, and recruiters from top financial firms and other frequent MBA employers (such as Google) than less selective programs do.

Since two of the main reasons students cite for applying for MBA programs is the chance to get recruited for employment and to network with potential colleagues, the fact that especially prestigious employers are usually drawn to more selective MBA programs can be a major downside.

MBA graduates from less selective programs may also have a harder time finding full-time employment right away after they finish their degrees. 100% of Harvard MBA grads are fully employed a year after graduation.

Meanwhile, only 36.4% of full-time MBA grads from the much less selective Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business are fully employed a year after graduating.

#2: Lower Starting Salary After Graduation

While where you get your MBA doesn’t wholly determine your earnings after graduation, a big-name school can help. A less selective MBA program is less likely to snag you a six-figure salary immediately upon graduation, though there are, of course, exceptions.

After earning an MBA at Harvard Business School, a graduate’s average base salary is between $110,000 and $160,000 if they enter the financial services field.

Meanwhile, at Belmont University’s Massey Graduate School of Business, a graduate’s average base salary is $53,000. Your business school’s overall reputation definitely plays a role in whether you get employed and how much you’ll get paid once you do.

What’s Next?

Want more info about how your GMAT score measures up to other business school applicants? Our list of average GMAT scores by school will show you where you stand.

Ready to apply? Check out our expert tips on how to successfully apply to MBA programs.

Don’t want to take the GMAT at all, but still want to get your MBA? Our list of 67 MBA programs that don’t require the GMAT will help. Many of them are MBA programs with high acceptance rates.

The post The 40 Best, Easiest Business Schools to Get Into 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.

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.

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.

The post Average GMAT Scores by School: How Do You Compare? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

When you get your official GMAT score report back, you’ll see a number of different scores. In addition to your verbal, quantitative, analytical writing, and integrated reasoning scores, you will find a box for your total score.

What is the GMAT total score? What does it mean? Why does it matter? In this guide, I’ll explain what the GMAT total score is and how it’s calculated, as well as give information about how schools use the total score and what a good GMAT total score is.

What Is the GMAT Total Score?

There are four sections on the GMAT: verbal, quantitative, analytical writing, and integrated reasoning. Your GMAT total score report consists of five parts: total scaled score, verbal scaled score, quantitative scaled score, analytical writing assessment, and integrated reasoning score.

The GMAT total score is a scaled combination of your verbal and quantitative scaled scores. The range for the scaled verbal and quantitative scores is 0 to 60. The range for the total GMAT scaled score is 200 to 800.

It’s also important to note that when people talk about their GMAT scores, they generally mean GMAT total scores rather than individual section scores.

How Is the GMAT Total Score Calculated?

So, we know that the GMAT total score is made up of your scaled verbal and scaled quantitative scores. But how is it calculated?

As I mentioned before, your total GMAT score is made up of your scaled quantitative and scaled verbal scores. Those are both scored on a range of 0 to 60. There are three factors that determine your score for each of those sections, and, by extension, your total score: the number of questions you answer correctly, the number of questions you answer, and how difficult the questions you answer are.

Let’s talk about what that means. Remember, the GMAT is different from most other standardized tests because it’s adaptive. That means that questions will get harder or easier based on how well you’re doing. In other words, every test taker will see a slightly different set of questions and be scored based on the questions he or she sees.

The first factor is pretty simple: you get points based on how many questions you answer correctly. The more questions you answer correctly, the more points you get. So, if you answer 25 questions correctly, you’ll get more points than someone who answers 19 questions correctly.

The second factor is also pretty straightforward. You need to answer every question on the test. For the quantitative section, you have to answer 31 questions in 62 minutes. For the verbal, 36 questions in 65 minutes. Answering all the questions will get you more points than skipping some questions.

The third factor is definitely the most complicated. Every question on the GMAT has an assigned difficulty coefficient. What that specifically means is somewhat complicated and not publicly disclosed by the GMAT, but, basically, a bunch of smart psychometricians use a scientific process to assess how difficult every question on the GMAT is. This means that test takers who see more difficult questions get a benefit.

Think about it like taking an Advanced Placement course in high school. Often, AP courses carry extra weight, so getting an A in an AP class will actually count for more than a 4.0. The same is true of questions on the GMAT. More difficult questions carry a higher weight than easier questions.

All of these factors play into your scores for the verbal and quantitative sections of the GMAT. Your verbal and quantitative scaled scores are then used to determine your total GMAT score, though GMAC doesn’t explain exactly how.

How Important Is My GMAT Total Score?

Of the scores that you will get on your official GMAT score report, the total GMAT score is without a doubt the most important. Schools will also pay attention to your Verbal and Quantitative scores, especially if there’s a major difference between them, and, to a lesser extent, the Analytical Writing and Integrated Reasoning, but the total GMAT score is still the most important.

The GMAT total score is the only score factored into a school’s ranking. Schools therefore place a higher emphasis on the total score because it helps to boost their standings among their competitors. Neither the integrated reasoning nor the analytical writing assessment factor into school rankings.

Again, the vast majority of business schools place considerably more weight on your total GMAT score, and the Verbal and Quant scores that contribute to it, than your Integrated Reasoning or Analytical Writing scores. However, that doesn’t mean that you should just ignore your IR or AWA scores. Having lower scores (below 4 on the AWA and below 5 on the IR section) can hurt your application.

The IR section, in particular, has been gaining in importance over the last few years as schools become more familiar with it. the integrated reasoning section is still relatively new. It was first launched in June 2012, so it’s only been around for about four years as of when this article was written. Initially, this made it hard for schools to compare candidates who had different scores on their reports.

According to a survey by Kaplan Test Prep, only 41% of admissions officers considered an IR score important in 2014. That number rose to 59% in 2015. The IR section gives schools a good indicator of your ability to evaluate information that’s presented in multiple formats from multiple sources. Expect it to continue to grow in importance alongside the GMAT total score.

The AWA section is also a good way to show competent writing skills to business schools. The AWA can go a long way towards showing how well you have mastered writing analytical essays to admissions councils, particularly if your native language isn’t English.

What’s a Good GMAT Total Score?

What is a good GMAT total score? This can vary from test taker to test taker. For all test takers, however, a good GMAT total score is the score that helps you get in to the program that you want to attend.

That being said, a total GMAT score of 650 or above will put you into the top 25% of all test takers. That’s a great place to be. Putting yourself into the top 25% of test takers makes your application stand out, especially in the current competitive admissions cycles. However, as I said before, what a good GMAT total score really is different for every applicant.

Before we get into understanding how you can determine a good total score for you, let’s look closer at average GMAT total scores. According to GMAC, the average total score for the GMAT is 551.94, with two-thirds of test takers scoring between 400 and 600. Scores below 9 and above 44 for the verbal section and below 7 and above 50 for the quantitative section are rare.

Your percentile ranking can be useful in understanding how your test score corresponds to other test takers. Your GMAT score percentile links your score and the percentile of everyone who takes the GMAT. So, if your score percentile is 76%, that means that you did better than 76% of test takers.

Here’s a look at how total GMAT scores correspond to percentile rankings.

As I said before, the total GMAT score you aim for will vary depending on what schools you’re applying to. It’s important to do some research on the average GMAT scores of admitted applicants at the programs you’re interested in. You can find this information in a number of different places. Most schools publish their average GMAT scores on their admissions page.

You can also try to call the admissions office if the average scores are not available online. Third-party resources like U.S. News also publish information on average GMAT scores. Remember, only the GMAT total score contributes to a school’s ranking. Check out the chart below to see the average GMAT scores of admitted applicants for a some sample business schools.

While there are many factors that go into having a well-rounded business school application, a great GMAT total score can really boost your competitiveness as an applicant. Because GMAT scores contribute to the annual rankings published in U.S. News & World Report, many schools aim to admit candidates with high scores to increase the overall ranking quality of their program.

Remember, however, that there are many components of your business school application. Make sure you spend time trying to put together a strong application across the board, rather than spending it all trying to score 800 on the GMAT. A well-rounded application with college grades, letters of recommendations, and a solid GMAT total score will help you more than having a perfect GMAT score and weak other parts.

What’s Next?

Not sure how the GMAT is scored? Check out our complete explanation of how GMAT scoring really works.

Take an in-depth look at average GMAT scores to learn how your score compares.

Finally, find out more about what makes a good GMAT score and how to set the right goal for you with our complete guide to understanding GMAT scores.

The post GMAT Total Score: What Is It? What Does It Mean? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

If we had to define our relationship with GMAT scoring on Facebook, we’d have to go with “It’s complicated.” Everyone’s test looks a little different, and the GMAT uses adaptive testing and equating to assign comparable scores across various versions of the test. So how is the GMAT scored, exactly?

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about GMAT scoring. To start, let’s go over the score ranges for section and total scores.

How Is the GMAT Scored? What Is the Score Range?

There are four sections on the GMAT, Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), Integrated Reasoning (IR), Quantitative, and Verbal, in that order. You’ll get a score for each of these four sections. You’ll also get a total score, which is made up of Quantitative and Verbal. AWA and IR don’t count toward your total score.

Your AWA GMAT score can have half points, while your IR, Quantitative, and Verbal scores come in intervals of one. Your total scores are presented in intervals of 10. This chart shows the GMAT score range and score intervals of each section.

You won’t have to wait long to get your GMAT results. In fact, you won’t have to wait any time at all.

Right after you finish the exam, you’ll get an unofficial GMAT score report with your IR, Quantitative, Verbal, and total scores. At this point, you can decide whether you want to keep your GMAT scores or cancel them and try again another time. If you decide to keep your scores, you’ll get your official GMAT score report, which includes your AWA score, about 20 days later.

Before looking closer at each section, let’s talk about the total score between 200 and 800. Where does it come from, and how is it calculated?

How Is the GMAT Total Score Calculated?

As mentioned above, you’ll see your GMAT total score immediately after you finish taking the test. The total score falls between 200 and 800, and it’s based entirely on your Quantitative and Verbal scores.

Both the Quantitative and Verbal sections are adaptive, meaning that the difficulty levels of questions changes to match your ability, and everyone’s test looks a little bit different. This adaptive format also means that we have no clear way of calculating Quantitative or Verbal scores and, as a result, no clear way of calculating the GMAT total score.

On a non-adaptive test, we could take the raw score, or number of questions you get right, and turn it into a scaled score. The GMAT, though, doesn’t just take how many questions you got right into account. It also considers how difficult each of those questions were, as well as how many questions you answered.

To assign Quantitative, Verbal, and total scores to everyone’s test, GMAC uses a complex scoring algorithm. This algorithm is central to its business, so GMAC isn’t exactly planning to spill its secrets anytime soon. When it comes to the GMAT total score, we must accept a certain degree of mystery about its origins.

What we do know is that the GMAT total score is based on how many math and verbal questions you got right, how many you answered, and how difficult each question was. We also know that there is a score penalty for not finishing the section, so you should try to answer every question in each section. It’s better to get a question wrong than not to answer it at all.

While we can’t crack the code of the GMAT scoring algorithm, we can deduce some intel about how the sections are scored. Let’s take a closer look at scoring in the GMAT Quantitative and Verbal sections.

GMAT Scoring: Quantitative and Verbal Sections

The Quantitative and Verbal sections share several similarities. Both are just over an hour long (Quant is 62 minutes long and Verbal is 65 minutes), and both are scored between 0 and 60 in one-point intervals. It’s rare for anyone to score below a 7 or above a 50 in Quantitative or below a 9 or above a 44 in Verbal – this would place you in the bottom or top 1% of all test takers, respectively.

As discussed above, both the Quantitative and Verbal sections are adaptive, meaning that your selection of questions changes as you go through the test. Basically, adaptive testing works like this — if you get a question right, then your next question will be a bit more difficult. If you get a question wrong, then your next one should be easier.

Again, GMAT uses a complex algorithm to select questions with a difficulty level that matches your ability and to assign comparable scores to different forms of the test. Each Quantitative or Verbal question you get will refine your section GMAT score a little more to get an accurate measure your skills.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) keeps its complex algorithm under lock and key. What we do know if that it’s important for you to answer every question in a section before time runs out, or you’ll face a severe score penalty.

We also that know that on average, more people score highly on the Quantitative section than on the Verbal section. The result of this imbalance is that you need to score especially highly in math to rank in a high percentile, as rankings are now very competitive.

Finally, we know that some of the questions in both sections are experimental. These questions are given to test out new material for future tests, and they won’t count toward your GMAT results at all. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing which ones they are.

Now let’s take a look at the somewhat more transparent scoring system of the Integrated Reasoning section.

GMAT Scoring: Integrated Reasoning Section

Unlike the Quantitative and Verbal sections, the 30-minute Integrated Reasoning section is not adaptive. You’ll get 12 questions, a few of which will likely be experimental. The whole section will be scored between 1 and 8 in intervals of one.

While everyone will get different questions, all test takers will get the same four question types: graphics interpretation, two-part analysis, table analysis, and multi-source reasoning. If you find yourself getting a disproportionate number of a certain question type, then some of those might be experimental. However, you really have no way of knowing which ones won’t be scored.

While GMAC doesn’t share the way it converts raw IR scores to scaled scores, we can guess that each question is worth about a point. The exact way your scores get adjusted may change depending on the overall difficulty level of your group of questions. If you got an especially tough IR section, then you may have a little more room for error than someone who got easier questions.

Even though most IR questions feature multiple statements, you don’t have the opportunity for partial credit. You must get all parts of a question correct to get points.

You’ll see your IR score when you finish the GMAT, but it doesn’t count toward your total scores.

GMAT Scoring: Analytical Writing

We have the clearest sense of how the AWA section is scored. Your essay will receive two independent ratings between 0 and 6. One of these ratings will be performed by an expert reader, and the other might be done by an automated essay-scoring engine. According to GMAC, this machine evaluates over 50 structural and linguistic features.

Readers are sensitive to the fact that not all test takers are native English speakers. If their rating differs from the machine score by more than one point, then a third reader will provide an evaluation and help give the essay a final score.

Your essays will be scored on the quality, organization, and development of your ideas, your supporting examples, and the strength of your writing. You can check out the rubric that graders use to evaluate AWA essays here.

To get a top score of 6, you must present a “cogent, well articulated critique of the argument” with logical organization, clear transitions, variety in diction and syntax, and superior control of language. A 6 essay doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, you can have minor flaws and still get a top score.

If something seems off about your AWA score, then you can request a rescore within six months after you take the GMAT for a fee of $45. This score will be final, even if it ends up being lower than the original one.

Now that you have a sense of how scoring works on the GMAT, let’s consider an important question that’s on everyone’s mind when they start learning about the test — what makes a good score on the GMAT?

What’s a Good Score on the GMAT?

So, what’s a good score on the GMAT? That all depends on where you’re looking to gain admission to business school. Schools don’t set a strict cutoff, but you can get a sense of what they want by looking at the average scores of accepted students.

Total scores above 700 will make you a competitive candidate for selective business schools, with the top 10 schools, like Harvard Business School and Wharton, averaging around a 720.

As for the average of all GMAT test takers? That’s a bit lower at 551.94. If you’re looking to evaluate your score based on its competitiveness, you can do so by looking at your percentiles.

Each of your scores will be assigned a percentile that tells you how many students you scored better than. Scoring in the 80th percentile, for instance, means you scored better than 80% of other test takers.

The chart below shows how total GMAT scores match up with percentiles. You’ll see total scores in intervals of 50, but you can check out this guide to how percentiles work on the GMAT for the full list at every score interval.

Anything above a 560 means that you scored higher than average. You’d have to score higher than 700 to make it into the 90th percentile.

To figure out what’s a good score for you, you should research business schools, pick out your top ones, and figure out the average GMAT scores of accepted students. Beyond figuring out your target scores, how else can you prepare for the test?

What GMAT Scoring Means for You: 5 Prep Tips

While GMAC keeps a proprietary hold on its scoring practices, what we do know about how the GMAT is scored can help us refine our approach to taking the test. Consider the five tips below as you get ready to take the GMAT.

#1: Aim to Answer All of the Questions

While we don’t know exactly how raw scores convert to scaled scores, we do know that answering all of the questions is extremely important for your final scores. There is a steep penalty for failing to answer all of the questions in a section.

On average, you have about two minutes per question. Of course, it may make sense to devote more time to certain question types than to others. To develop a sense of pacing, you should take practice tests and stay aware of the timer.

The timer will tell you what question you’re on and how much time you have left as you take the test. If you find yourself wasting too much time on a question, then you should make your best guess and move on. To get your best scores, your priority is answering all of the questions in each section before time runs out.

#2: Don’t Try to Evaluate Difficulty Level

As you know, the Quantitative and Verbal sections are adaptive. Your selection of questions gets adjusted to match your ability level. As you take the test, though, you should try to put this out of your head completely.

Trying to gauge your progress as you work is a waste of mental energy. You have no way of knowing how the algorithm is working or how your score is being adjusted as you go along.

Rather than trying to determine whether a question is easier or harder than the previous one, simply focus your energy on solving the problem. You’ll see your scores soon enough.

#3: Treat All Questions Equally

There’s a persistent myth that the first 10 questions in the Quantitative and Verbal sections are most important to your section scores. However, we have zero evidence saying that this is true.

Instead, it appears that your scores are continuously adjusted as you go along. To achieve your target score, you should treat all questions as equally important, rather than spend valuable time on the first 10 and rush through the others.

#4: Forget About Experimental Questions

Just as you shouldn’t try to evaluate your own performance as you’re taking the test, you also shouldn’t try to root out experimental questions. They will blend in with all the other questions.

As many as 25% of your questions on the GMAT could be experimental, but you don’t know which ones they are. To get a high score, you should treat all questions equally rather than trying to uncover those which won’t count. There’s really no way to game the system to boost your GMAT score.

If you find yourself feeling discouraged that a question totally stumped you, just tell yourself it was probably experimental and didn’t count anyway. You never know, a tough question might be unscored material. Rather than letting it get in your head, use this mental strategy to keep on plugging away.

#5: Just Keep Swimming

This advice is as good for GMAT test takers as it is for forgetful blue tang fish. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of scoring and question selection as you take the GMAT, but all you should be doing is focusing on the questions.

You have to solve tough problems, apply advanced reasoning skills, and do your best over a three and a half hour exam. Rather than wondering how your scores are being adjusted through the math and verbal sections, you should “just keep swimming” along while aiming to answer all of the questions before time is up.

Don’t let a tough question shake your confidence, because you can’t return to it, and it might have been experimental anyway. You can obsess over confusing questions after you finish the test and take a look at your scores.

As we finish up, let’s go over some key facts you need to remember about GMAT scoring and how it affects your approach to studying for and taking the GMAT.

How Is the GMAT Scored? Final Thoughts

Right after you finish taking the test, you’ll get a preview of your GMAT results. This unofficial GMAT score report will tell you your Integrated Reasoning score, Quantitative score, Verbal score, and total scores.

At this point, you can decide whether you want to keep or cancel your scores. Since you only have two minutes to decide before your scores are automatically canceled, you should go into the test knowing which scores you’d keep and which ones you’d discard.

GMAC uses complex algorithms to assign comparable scores across different versions of the test. Even if you get an easier or more difficult group of questions than your neighbor, your GMAT score should be comparable. Scores are adjusted to match your ability level and the difficulty level of the questions on your particular version of the exam.

Since the scoring system is complex, there’s really no way to game the system. You should treat all questions equally, and try not to get distracted by the adaptive format or the fact that there are experimental questions scattered throughout the exam.

Try your best to develop a solid test-taking rhythm that will help you answer all of the questions before time is called. By devoting hours to prepping for the GMAT, you can become a strategic and efficient test taker and achieve your target GMAT score.

What’s Next?

Now that you know how the GMAT is scored, learn more about what your score means with our guide to what a good GMAT score is.

Are you ready to start studying for the GMAT? Check out this guide for the best GMAT study strategies, including targeted prep tips for each section.

Do you know how the GMAT is structured? This GMAT format breakdown explains what’s on each section, plus it has sample questions of each question type.

The post How Does GMAT Scoring Work? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.