Should I Cancel My GMAT Score?

Many test-takers wonder whether it’s a good idea to cancel GMAT scores. In fact, you may have seen stories online of test-takers with all sorts of scores wondering whether business schools will look more favorably on their applications if they keep or cancel certain scores.

Whether your GMAT score is considered “good” or “bad,” depending on your situation, it may be a wise strategy to cancel your score. So, how do you know when to cancel a GMAT score and when to keep one? And what if you want to reinstate your score after you’ve canceled it?

In this article, we’ll look at how and when to cancel GMAT scores, some important GMAT score cancellation rules, and some real-world scenarios you may face when deciding whether to keep or cancel your score.

First, let’s review your options for canceling GMAT scores and what the process is.


Test-takers have two options if they want to cancel GMAT scores: they can either cancel a score at the test center on test day or cancel within 72 hours after the test appointment. Let’s explore both of these processes.


When you are at a test center, immediately upon completion of your GMAT, you will see your Unofficial Score Report on the computer screen. This report will contain your Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning section scores and your Total Score, as well as the percentile rankings associated with each of those scores. (Since the Analytical Writing Assessment is not scored by the computer, you will not see that score until you receive your Official Score Report.)

The computer will give you 2 minutes to decide whether to accept or cancel your scores for that exam. If you don’t make a selection within the 2-minute window, the computer will automatically cancel your scores.

So, it’s essential that you have not only a score goal but also a score threshold in mind before you sit for your GMAT. Your score threshold is the minimum GMAT score you’re willing to let schools see. Research the average scores at your target schools and set thresholds for your section scores as well as your Total Score.

If you elect to cancel your GMAT score, the good news is, you won’t have to pay a fee for doing so. Canceling your score at the test center right after you finish your exam is free, regardless of what country you’re in.

When you cancel your score at the test center, you do not receive a printout of your unofficial score report, and of course, your canceled score does not show up on your Official Score Report and thus is not visible to any schools you send GMAT scores to. In fact, schools will have no indication that you even sat for the exam associated with your canceled score. As far as schools know, the only GMATs you’ve taken are the ones that appear on the Official Score Report they receive.


Test-takers also have the option to cancel a GMAT score after they leave the test center, as long as they cancel the score within 72 hours of the start time of their exam. So, for instance, if you took the GMAT at noon on a Tuesday, you need to cancel that exam score before noon on Friday.

To cancel your GMAT score after you leave the test center, simply log onto your mba.com account. Keep in mind that the option to cancel your score may take up to 24 hours to appear in your account, depending on where your test center is located. So, don’t panic if you log into your account an hour after your exam and are unable to cancel your score yet.

Canceling your score online after your exam costs $25, but for some test-takers, having the flexibility to cancel later is worth the added cash. If, for instance, you don’t have a cancellation strategy in place, or for some reason you start to doubt your strategy, canceling online later is a good fallback.

Keep in mind that if you purchase an Additional Score Report within the 72-hour cancellation window after your exam, you will no longer have the option to cancel your score online for that exam. So, as you can see, there are many reasons to have a solid score cancellation plan in place before you sit for your GMAT!


So far, we’ve discussed how to cancel your GMAT score when you’ve taken the GMAT at a test center. But what if you take the GMAT at home instead? Well, canceling a score from a GMAT Online exam is not permitted — but don’t panic just yet. There are a couple of reasons why it doesn’t matter that you’re not allowed to cancel GMAT Online scores.

For one, the Official Score Report for the GMAT Online is kept separate from the Official Score Report for any GMATs you take at a test center. So, let’s say you took the GMAT once at a test center and once at home, and your score on the exam at the test center was significantly higher than the score from your online test. You have the option to send only your score from the GMAT you took at the test center, and schools will never even know that you took the online test as well. Likewise, if your GMAT Online score was the higher of the two, you can choose to send just that score, and schools won’t see your score from the test center or know you sat for another GMAT.

Another reason you don’t have to worry about not being able to cancel your GMAT Online score is that if you retake the GMAT Online, you can pick which scores you send from your online tests. So, let’s say you take the GMAT Online twice (the maximum number of times you can take the online test). In that case, you can choose to send just the score from your first online attempt, just the score from your online retake, or your scores from both online attempts. So, although you can’t cancel a GMAT Online score, you have full control over which scores (if any) you send.

Now that we’ve reviewed how and when you can cancel your score, let’s talk about how to reinstate your score.