GMAC Announces a Lifetime Limit of 8 GMAT Exams

Question

Big news for those of you (like me) who have taken the GMAT several times:  the GMAC has announced a lifetime limit of 8 GMATs ! For some of us who have already met or exceeded the 8-exam limit, this announcement means an effective banishment from taking the GMAT ever again.

It buried the news in a blog post from June 2015:  https://www.mba.com/us/the-gmat-blog-hub/the-official-gmat-blog/2015/june/july-19-new-gmat-exam-features . This new rule is also mentioned at the very end of the  Test Policies  page.

As a GMAT tutor, I'm disappointed. I enjoyed taking the test at least once a year to stay sharp and up-to-date, and it seems unfair to have an upper limit.

https://www.drivecms.com/uploads/mcelroytutoring.com/Screen%20Shot%202016-12-06%20at%207.07.49%20PM.png

https://www.drivecms.com/uploads/mcelroytutoring.com/Screen%20Shot%202016-12-06%20at%207.28.53%20PM.png

Skywalker18 · Answer

This is a surprising move :shock:

. But very few people – I presume only GMAT instructors will probably fall in the category of 8 attempts or more. So the loss in revenue for GMAC will be negligible. But I am still unable to figure out why GMAC took such a move at the first place.

bb · Answer

How did you find out? Did you try registering for the test? Just curious.

I am surprised as well. I may have seen it when it was released during the introduction of the 16-day rule (and 5 times a year rule) but probably discarded mentally since the 5 times a year is likely to be the kicker for most applicants.

Nevertheless, limitations are never great.

Carcass · Answer

This upper limit does not make any sense

keats · Answer

When did this happen? Was there any official notification? The blog says *lifetime limit updated Nov 2016*. However, I just came to know about it just today. On one hand, GMAC gives you an option to cancel your scores that won't be visible to the Admissions Committee and on the other hand, it sets up an upper limit. That apparently seems quite contradictory.

bb May be someone can put this question to the GMAC in GMAT Summit asking about the motive behind this move?

bb  May be someone can put this question to the GMAC in GMAT Summit asking about the motive behind this move?

bb · Answer

Good point Keats. I will ping Mohater about it. The summit is on Friday.

PS. My guess is that this may be a counter measure to make it a more level playing field in case someone keeps retaking the GMAT (rich vs poor) but I would guess the 5 takes per year out to handle it.

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Skywalker18 · Answer

Hi bb , Although having an upper limit does not make sense to me , but the larger issue here is the retrospective application of this new amendment . It seems unfair to me

. Consider a scenario(a very expensive one though

) in which a test-taker has exhausted the 8 attempts because he/she did not know of the upper limit as it did not exist when he/she took the exams . So this will be the end of GMAT journey for such a test-taker :cry:

.

arijit2 · Answer

Well for people who take multiple attempts to try and achieve the score- this news is a bummer. 
I've been on a similar path but I've kept on cancelling/postponing --> I'm guessing hopefully they shouldn't count apart from the one time I actually gave a test and cancelled the scores.

This just increases the pressure on not the First time 700+ Students ten folds.

mcelroytutoring · Answer

The GMAC is a monopoly, so I suppose it can do what it wants, but a little bit more transparency would go a long way. As far as I can tell, there has been no official announcement of this new policy, almost as if it intentionally wanted to bury the news to avoid controversy. At least the GMAC summit is coming up soon, and I'm sure that this topic will be broached by GMAT Club representatives.

I also take issue with the wording of the post, which I presume was written on the last day of November or sometime shortly before then. "Lifetime limit updated November 2016" makes it seem as if there were already a lifetime limit in place, when this was clearly not the case until the day this news was released. You can't update something that doesn't yet exist, so it would be more accurate to write "lifetime limit implemented November 2016" or something similar.

I do agree with bb that this policy will help mitigate the outsized advantage that richer students possess, where they can simply just keep taking the GMAT (and cancelling their scores) until they receive their desired scores. The GMAC would be wise to play this angle, as makes sense from the egalitarian perspective of "leveling the playing field" for students who can't afford to shell out $2,500 to take the GMAT 10 times.

If you think about it, there was a 5-test limit every 12 months, but you could conceivably take 10 GMAT exams in a 15-month span, once the required duration between tests was lowered from 31 days to 16. That strategy obviously won't work anymore, since you are capped at a total of 8, including cancelled scores (but probably not cancelled test dates or postponements).

I've never known the GMAC to turn down an opportunity to make money, though, so there is likely an ulterior motive at play. Maybe the test writers are also trying to prevent tutors like us from getting too familiar with the test content and the scoring algorithm, even when we are following the rules and paying for the test like everyone else.

keats · Answer

In such a case, GRE seems to be a great alternative when most of the business schools have already open arms to it. Well what baffles me more is the fact that GMAC, apparently, will lose business this way

There definitely has to be a great reason to do this

LeoGT · Answer

Hi 
I somhow dont understand what *12 month period mean*?
It is counted from the first attempt or the period from jan to december ?

Posted from my mobile device

Skywalker18 · Answer

Hi Mns1203 , 12 month period will be any time period of 12 months not the 12 calendar months in a year . Consider a scenario , if you have taken 5 exams with an interval of 16 days between two exams , you won't be able to take another shot i.e 6th attempt till 1 year from the date of your first exam . Hope this helps!!

wizzard · Answer

Are we completely sure that the 8-limit rule includes cancelled scores?

Can this be asked in the upcoming Summit?

Thank you

bfarooq · Answer

I think it because they dont want GMAT instructors who score in the 99th percentile to get a hold of the content. I have heard many Chinese prep companies paying students in China to take the test and release questions so the company can prepare questions accordingly. Anyway, it is just a rumor.

I think in a way they are just trying to prevent 99th percentile scorers to not get a feel of the questions because ultimately they taylor their content towards students with making questions similar to the GMAT that way.

bb · Answer

I have heard similar rumors as well and not only in China but other countries including Mexico.

The best part of those places is that they supposedly give their paying patrons access to real questions but nobody can really verify that they are real. So you can guess how real they are. Good scam business. :-)

Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Well this is indeed shocking to me. At first I could not get the limit of 8 exams for lifetime but finally it really shocked me even though I may not attempt the gmat for 8 times. https://www.mba.com/global/frequently-as ... #question2

mcelroytutoring · Answer

Looks like GMAC has updated its  Test Policies  page: it now reads "lifetime limit effective December 17, 2016." I'm guessing that this means that it's OK to exceed the lifetime limit if your exam is scheduled before that date? It doesn't matter much, though, as that date is only 9 days away.

Or, perhaps it could be interpreted to mean that you don't start counting toward your 8 lifetime GMAT limit until after December 17th? I would guess no, but the language is unclear. I'm looking forward to hearing some clarification from GMAC.

https://www.drivecms.com/uploads/mcelroytutoring.com/Screen%20Shot%202016-12-08%20at%2010.09.42%20PM.png

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

It seems clear that this rule has been put into place as a step toward reining in the copying of test questions for the purpose of distributing them to people. Supposedly, cheating is one of the reasons for the upward drift of the scores associated with quant percentiles.

Also, it seems possible that since students no longer have to show cancelled scores, there has been a surge in people's taking the test many times, and there is some reason that GMAC prefers to shut that down. I can say that I have seen people taking tests almost on impulse, without much chance of hitting their goals.

Meanwhile, given that there is some degree of randomness in scores, with the ability to take the test without reporting scores, a person could take the test many times and report only the the best score achieved, one that might be an outlier.

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

I welcome the GMAC's measures to prevent cheating; however, they could have been much more transparent about this move. Overall, I think this is a positive change: the GRE is famously prone to cheating in the region where I am currently based, and I would not be surprised if the GMAT without the lifetime limit turned out to be just the same.

By the way, the GMAC's explanation for this lifetime limit is documented in this post: gmatclub-to-attend-gmac-test-prep-summit-228726.html#p1774454

newlegacy7 · Answer

Thanks for sharing. I never actually took note of this. But unfortunate GMAC has to do this.

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GMAC Announces a Lifetime Limit of 8 GMAT Exams

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