{"id":26286,"date":"2014-11-13T10:56:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T17:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=26286"},"modified":"2014-11-16T15:10:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T22:10:07","slug":"analyzing-your-gmat-score-4-questions-to-ask-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/analyzing-your-gmat-score-4-questions-to-ask-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing Your GMAT Score: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Broken-MBA-300x230\"<\/a>Do you need a perfect score on your GMAT to gain acceptance to a top-tier business school<\/a>? No. But you definitely need your score to be high enough<\/em> so that your application is seriously considered, so that the rest of your application isn\u2019t fighting an uphill battle to overcome a sub-par GMAT score.<\/p>\n

So, is your GMAT score good enough? To figure this out, you\u2019ll need to ask yourself the following questions:<\/p>\n

1. Who am I?<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

Who you are matters because admissions decisions don\u2019t follow a strict formula or algorithm based entirely on numbers. You need to evaluate your score in the context of your demographic profile.<\/p>\n

For example, if you\u2019re a guy from India in the IT field<\/a> who just spent the last five years sitting at a desk coding and crunching numbers, then you\u2019re going to need a more competitive GMAT score than if you\u2019re a gal from Chile who spent the last five years working for a energy-related non-profit that shuttled back and forth between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica.<\/p>\n

Again, even our Chilean social enterprising world explorer will need a score high enough to get her application looked at, but once she makes it past that point, she\u2019ll have no trouble keeping their attention.<\/p>\n

2. What does the rest of my application look like?<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

It is<\/em> possible to recover from a not-so-ideal GMAT score, but that is if and only if<\/em> the rest of your application is flawless (or nearly so).<\/p>\n

If you have an almost perfect GPA, stunning application essays<\/a>, amazing letters of recommendation, and a resume that shows that you\u2019ve worked hard and succeeded, then you\u2019ll be in a position to prove to the adcom that you\u2019re a fantastic candidate and that the GMAT is just not your thing (again, it still needs to be good enough to get your app looked at).<\/p>\n

3. Which b-schools am I applying to?<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

It goes without saying that some GMAT scores will be highly competitive at some programs and not even close to competitive at others. To see if your score is \u201cgood enough,\u201d you need to visit your target schools\u2019 websites and see what their GMAT range is. Don\u2019t just look at the average; the range will give you a better idea of how low they\u2019ll go before weeding out an application based on GMAT score alone.<\/p>\n

4. What is my score?<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

If you scored above the 80th<\/sup> percentile on both the verbal and quant sections of the GMAT then you should consider yourself in the clear and good to go to apply to highly ranked MBA programs (assuming that the rest of your application is top-notch as well). If you received lower than that, that doesn\u2019t mean that you need to retake the GMAT<\/a> (necessarily), but does mean that you need to look at your GMAT in the larger scheme of things and consider retaking the GMAT if<\/em> you feel your profile needs it and you are aiming for those top programs.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve asked yourself these questions and done some serious soul-searching, you\u2019ll have a much better idea of what your next steps should be \u2013 going ahead and applying to your target b-schools this year, waiting and applying to your top choices next year (or even the following year) while you work on improving your profile, applying this year, but to lower ranked programs, etc.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, please be in touch if you need help analyzing your stats and determining where and when you should apply to b-school. We\u2019re here to help!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Join<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Accepted.com:<\/a><\/p>\n

Related Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 That GMAT Score: Implications for Your MBA Application<\/a>
\n\u2022 Low GMAT Score? Don\u2019t Panic\u2026Yet.<\/a>
\n\u2022 GRE vs. GMAT: Trends<\/a><\/p>\n

Accepted.com's experienced admissions consultants<\/span><\/a> can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages<\/span><\/a>, <\/i><\/b>or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs<\/span><\/a> to designing a dazzling resume<\/span><\/a>, constructing engaging essays<\/span><\/a>, or preparing for intense interview<\/span><\/a>s<\/span><\/a>\u2026and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 \u2013 we know what works and what doesn't, so contact us<\/span><\/a> to get started now!<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog<\/a>, the official blog of Accepted.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you need a perfect score on your GMAT to gain acceptance to a top-tier business school? No. But you definitely need your score to be high enough so that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,939,775,113,243],"tags":[1894,257,1896,39,12],"class_list":["post-26286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-mba","category-accepted","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-blog","tag-gmat","tag-gmat-score","tag-mba","tag-mba-admissions","tag-the-mba-application-process","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26286"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26345,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26286\/revisions\/26345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}