Share this post

A conundrum that a lot of students are faced with after the intensive three and a half hour exam is that of ‘The GMAT score’: Should I accept my score? Or should I reject it?

It almost seems like a tease, the GMAC gives you ‘two minutes’ to decide whether you want to accept your score. After hours of preparation, and a highly absorbing, and enervating three hour session, how do you decide whether to abandon your score? (The Verbal, Quantitative and Integrated Reasoning Sectional scores are displayed; AWA scores are sent to you later, along with the other scores). Well, let’s try and deconstruct this. You can decide whether your score is good enough if you are mentally prepared beforehand.

Also remember that if you reject your score, and you want to reinstate it at a later stage; you just need to pay a $50 processing fee.

Let’s get a little more technical and understand the rules of the GMAT score-game:

  1. The default option is to cancel the scores, which means that if a test-taker chooses nothing, his or her score will be rejected.

  2. If you accept your scores, and realize later that your college cut-off is higher, or you have some other reason, the GMAT gives you a 72 hour window from the date of the examination to cancel your scores; again at a fee:$25.

You might be wondering: Oh! What a hassle! There’s no need to panic, we have a quick checklist that might help you clear your mind and make an informed decision:

  1. Understand the sole purpose of the GMAT; most of you are going to write this exam with the goal of securing your admission into top universities across the world. A thorough research will help you understand the cutoff scores, and average scores, which might help you gauge whether to accept your scores pretty easily. If you have not hit the cut-off of a few universities that you really want to get admitted to, the decision becomes very easy.

  2. Certain universities require a very balanced GMAT score, while others require specific cut offs across the 2 sections. Study the pattern well in advance.

  3. If you are within 5% of the average scores of the b-schools that you are applying to, you stand a good chance; ofcourse, you need to also have a really good profile which would add to the strength of your score.

Do not get disheartened with a lower score. Whether you have a good day or a bad one, be ready to fight it out, and give it another shot; whatever the score. We encourage you to prepare thoroughly, and be confident before giving the exam.

If you would like to know more about the test, please do schedule a visit to any of our centres and we’d be more than happy to help you out with the GMAT!

All the best!

Share this post