EssaySnark

  • about
  • contact
  • help
  • sign up
  • login
CLICK FOR MORE!
  • Essay Questions
    • Harvard
    • Stanford
    • Wharton
    • Chicago Booth
    • Kellogg
    • MIT Sloan
    • Tuck
    • NYU Stern
    • Columbia
    • Yale SOM
    • Berkeley Haas
    • UVA Darden
    • Duke Fuqua
    • Michigan Ross
    • UCLA Anderson
    • Cornell
  • Strategy Guides
    • MBA Reapplicant Guide
    • Pitching Entrepreneurship as Your Post-MBA Career
    • Applying to European Business Schools
    • School-Specific MBA Application Guides
      • Harvard 2022 MBA Strategy Guide
      • Stanford 2022 MBA Strategy Guide
      • Wharton 2022 MBA Strategy Guide
      • Kellogg 2022 MBA Strategy Guide
      • Chicago Booth 2022 MBA Strategy Guide
      • Columbia 2022 MBA Strategy Guide
      • *MORE SCHOOL-SPECIFIC GUIDES HERE*
  • MBA Consulting
    • Free essay reviews
    • What stage are you in?
    • Military MBA
    • Testimonials & Reviews
  • My SnarkCenter
    • My Strategy Guides
    • My Favorite Posts

($) Taking the GMAT: How many times is too many? 2019 edition

November 5, 2019 by EssaySnark 3 Comments

This post first went up about a year and a half ago, and has been refreshed for reposting in Fall 2019.
 

We wrote about this way back in 2014 but times have changed. The most important change is one that you probably haven’t given much thought to at all: The GMAT lets you cancel your scores and the schools will never know.

This clandestine-cancel feature is, we believe, behind the sky-high scores that the top schools started reporting in class profiles about three or four years ago (Class of 2019). Almost every school you can name got a record high that year and it was the most competitive admissions seasons on record. We saw BSers with incredible apps get turned away right and left. Thankfully GMAT scores have marginally been leveling off since then — even dipping down slightly at a few schools, though the trend has been mostly sky=-high status quo.

Since many BSers are looking at GMAT scores and wondering if they need to take it again — or, sometimes, getting a little obsessive around scores and planning to take it again even if it probably is not necessary — we figured we’d talk about something that is not often discussed.

And that is, can you take the GMAT too many times?

How many tests is too many?

There are no absolutes in this math, but we do have to caution you that yes, it’s possible to test too many times. If you try the GMAT too often without improving your score substantially, then that can serve as a headwind against your candidacy. It’s not like three tests is fine and four is too many… But if you go to six tests in a short period of time? Yeah that can definitely work against you.

The GMAC people have also instituted a lifetime limit which is also a relatively new evolution in how the GMAT is administered. Now they only let you take the test five times within a rolling 12-month period, and eight times total. These seem like high numbers but obviously the limits were only implemented because people were getting excessive. (The lifetime limits prevent GMAT prep instructors from taking the test constantly so it could be seen as a competitive measure as well.)

The most important factor in determining your test strategy is remembering that even though you cancel a score and it’s not sent to the school, some adcoms want you to disclose the attempt. All schools word questions in their online apps differently so it’s something you’ll need to investigate when you fill out your dataset. However, certain schools do ask for the number of times you’ve tested — not the number of valid tests or the number you did not cancel. We know that some admissions consultants claim that you can just enter the number of valid test results there, but that is not what the adcom is asking when they’ve phrased the question that way.

Call us a silly snark, but we think you should answer truthfully in all aspects of the app.

Our threshold number of how many tests is appropriate in the current era of cancel policies is: 3 or 4 tests with 1 or 2 of them canceled.

If you first took the GMAT when you were still in college and now it’s several years later and you’re getting ready to apply for your MBA, then having 3 recent attempts on your record is fine, up to 5 or so altogether.

Everything is very case-by-case, but we start to get nervous when someone has already tested three times and they’re talking about taking it again.

Want to know our assessment of your specifics? Our Comprehensive Profile Review will go into all the details of your background and your score history and help you to understand advantages and possible payoffs for trying one last time.

If you’ve never taken the GMAT before, then we strongly suggest that you reject the advice we see from many GMAT instructors where you take the GMAT the first time intending it to be practice.

Only EVER take the GMAT for realz. Don’t wing it. Don’t use it as a dry-run. Make every one of your precious few opportunities be The One. You don’t want to take this thing multiple times. Don’t add up your test count for a ridiculous reason.

And if you’re thinking, “Yeah, I really should try one more time,” then go into it with guns a-blazin’. Hunker down with your studies and COMMIT. If you’ve taken it before, only take it again when you KNOW you’re ready and you feel confident (to the extent anyone can with this bugger of a test) that you’ll bump your score higher. If not, don’t go through the motions and pretend. Be wise to your game.

And answer those questions on the app truthfully. The adcom will respect you for it.

Filed Under: app dataset, GMAT/GRE, retest strategy

« Previous: ($) Are you too old to get into business school?
Next: Another “Oh crap. Round 2” post »

So who the heck is EssaySnark, anyway?!

We're the snarky experts in MBA admissions!

Sometimes amused and often appalled by what candidates write in their MBA applications to top bschools, EssaySnark created this little blahg to share common mistakes. Learn from them and avoid making admissions directors laugh (or want to hurl) when they read your essays. If you are hoping to have your essay reviewed anonymously on the blahg for free, submit it for consideration.

Want EssaySnark's personal assistance with your MBA applications? Start with our menu of consulting services and please read the Help FAQ to learn how we operate. Still have questions after doing all that? Email Team EssaySnark at gethelpnow at essaysnark dot com.

Good luck on your apps, Brave Supplicant!

Here's what others have said about this:

  1. giantasparagus says

    March 6, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    So if someone takes the test 8 times because they decide that’s how they want to spend their free time in college, and open up an MBA application 5 years later, are they completely screwed?

    The scores would have expired, and they can’t take it again.

    Not that it applies to me, but inquiring minds want to know!

    Reply
    • essaysnark says

      March 6, 2018 at 7:18 pm

      Yes, they’re screwed! We know of at least one person who tried to appeal it since GMAC implemented the rule change all-of-a-sudden and it was no dice. They can always write the optional essay though! And there’s the GRE too. So, there are options, and testing-8x-in-college means that the adcom would probably be impressed and worried all at the same time. 🙂

      Reply
      • essaysnark says

        March 6, 2018 at 7:20 pm

        Correction: The person who tried to appeal it had still-active/valid scores on the score report. Not sure if GMAC will be more lenient if all scores had expired. Seems like they’d have to be, right?

        Reply

Tell us what you think. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign up for the 'Snark via email

Enter your address to get weekday blahg posts by email.

UPCOMING MBA APP DEADLINES

  • INSEAD Jan '24 Intake Rd 2
    in 3 weeks
  • INSEAD Jan '24 Intake Rd 3
    in 2 months, 4 weeks
  • INSEAD Jan '24 Intake Rd 4
    in 4 months, 1 week
   
   

CLASS OF 2025 MBA APPLICATION STRATEGY GUIDES

From a former BSer:
"love the guide books!"




    The 2022 Stanford MBA Application Guide - for "what matters most" in your MBA application!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Stanford GSB for the Class of 2025
   
    The 2022 Harvard MBA Application Guide - updated for the Class of 2025!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Harvard Business School!
   
  The 2022 Wharton MBA Application Guide - even more advice on how to get to a win with those essays!
SnarkStrategies Guide for The Wharton School - with clear guidance for the 2022 essays!
   
  The 2022-2023 Columbia MBA Application Guide
SnarkStrategies Guide for Columbia Business School for 2022-2023 applications
   
    The 2022 MIT Essay Guide covers the org chart, the cover letter and 'introduce yourself' video, plus the new optional short-answer question on "the world you come from" -- and everything else you need to know!
SnarkStrategies Guide for MIT Sloan MBA - totally revised for the Class of 2025!
   
    The 2022 Kellogg Essay Guide - with a full methodology to identify your 'lasting impact' and your 'values'
SnarkStrategies Guide for Kellogg MBA - revised for 2022!
   
    The 2022 UVA Darden MBA Application Guide gives insights on the essays, Early Action, the possibility of a test waiver, and everything else going on here!
SnarkStrategies Guide for the Darden MBA - updated for the Class of 2025 requirements!
   
   
The Yale SOM MBA Application Guide for Class of 2025 candidates!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Yale SOM - updated for 2022
   
    The 2022 Berkeley-Haas MBA Application Guide - updated for the Class of 2025 application!
SnarkStrategies Guide for Berkeley Haas - refreshed and updated, with brainstorming exercises and structured maps to help you focus your stories!
   
    The 2022-2023 NYU Stern MBA Application Guide that covers the essays, the EQ Endorsement and test strategies!
SnarkStrategies Guide for NYU - discusses your requirements for the Class of 2025 essays!
       
   
   
Get started now - without doing any work! The Comprehensive Profile Review will help you start your strategy for your MBA applications.


EssaySnark® is a registered trademark. All content copyright © 2010–2023 Snarkolicious Press · Privacy Policy