With the GMAT Focus Edition Exam, it is no longer possible to cancel your GMAT score. But don’t worry, you won’t need to! You now have much more control over who sees your scores and how.
Read on for the details.
Send Your GMAT Focus Scores After the Exam
Here’s a big change from the old GMAT: with the GMAT Focus Exam, you wait until after the exam to choose which programs you would like to send your score to. That means you will know what your score is before you have to decide to send it anywhere. If you don’t like the score, you don’t have to send it, as simple as that.
See Your GMAT Score at the Test Center, Choose the Programs at Home
Immediately after you finish your GMAT Focus Exam, you will see an Unofficial Score on the screen. In order to send this score to any programs, you will need to wait for GMAC to finalize the score. GMAC says that this process takes 3-5 days, although I have seen it happen in as fast as 24 hours. (Don’t count on that, though; plan for 5 days to be safe.)
Watch your inbox – or just check your account on mba.com obsessively. Once the score is made final and available on mba.com, you have 48 hours to choose up to 5 programs to receive it, free of charge. If you want to send it to more than 5 programs, or if you wait past the 48-hour deadline, you’ll need to pay a fee to send each GMAT score.
The official score report sent to each program will include your Section Scores and Total Score and their corresponding Percentile Rankings for a single GMAT Focus Exam. If you have taken the exam more than once, those other attempts will NOT be visible to the business schools – unless you have paid to send them an older score, too.
No More Unofficial Score Report for GMAT Focus Edition
In a policy change, test centers will no longer print out a copy of your Unofficial Score Report for you. With the old GMAT, I sometimes had students take the exam on the day before an application deadline, if they knew that the program would accept an upload of their Unofficial Score Report by the deadline. Getting that Unofficial Score Report in-hand used to be an advantage of testing at a test center instead of online. This is NO LONGER the case, because there is no longer such a thing as an Unofficial Score Report.
With the GMAT Focus, whether you take the exam online or in a test center, you cannot take a screenshot of your unofficial score. Argh. So remember it as best you can. If you need to discuss your score with someone before it becomes final, I’d suggest just trying to remember your percentiles for Total Score, and the percentiles for Section Scores on Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Data Insights. In most cases, your Official Score report will be available within about 3 days in your MBA.com account.
Bright Outlook Bright Tip:
Contact each of your target programs before you prepare your application.
When you contact an admissions officer before you apply, they can give you insight into your potential fit for the program you’re considering – and perhaps even draw your attention to other relevant opportunities.
Prepare a few questions before you reach out to make the most of the communication; this could include asking about the GMAT Focus score range they consider competitive.
The Big Picture: Admissions is about MUCH more than one test score
I’ve been working with GMAT candidates worldwide since 2013. I’ve been lucky enough to meet with numerous admissions directors from top MBA and Master programs in Europe. All of them emphasize that the GMAT is only one component of the admissions decision. Programs are looking at your overall profile as a candidate:
- Educational background: field(s) of study and grades
- Experiences in different countries, cultures, and industries
- Perspectives and experiences you can bring, including the ability to collaborate on diverse teams
- Fit between your goals and what the program offers
For MBA programs and Masters that require work experience, admissions teams also carefully consider your work history and career path to date.
The GMAT is just one aspect of your application. Your score alone won’t make you the best or the worst candidate for any program.
Resources:
Official Score Reports – MBA.com mba.com/exams/gmat-exam/scores/official-score-reports
