low GMAT

The shame of a low GMAT score

April 26, 2019 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

We want to talk about something here today that we’re guilty of contributing to — inadvertently, yes, but we’ve done it.

It’s the shame that many BSers feel about their performance on the MBA admissions test.

We see this in the opposite manifestation: When someone has done well on the GMAT, they’re quick to volunteer that information to us. When someone has done poorly? They often get squirrely with us about not wanting to disclose it.

Or they don’t want to admit to how many times they’ve attempted it.

A (perceived to be) low score on the GMAT can do a number on your self-confidence. It can really wreck with your insides.

You know you’re intelligent, and capable. You tried to study. You took practice tests where you did just fine, subscores decent, above average total.

And yet… the score on the actual test doesn’t budge.

So we want to set the record straight today:

YOUR GMAT SCORE IS NOT A SIGN OF YOUR WORTH.

The GMAT score predicts very little. It certainly does not predict what job you’ll land after the MBA. It does not predict how much money you’ll earn. It has nothing to do with whether you’ll find love in this life.

The GMAT score is a crude measure at best — but it’s all the adcoms have at the moment as a tool that’s “standardized” across populations.

Of course, “standardized” is in quotes because if the GMAT really were unbiased and totally fair, then why do women score lower? Why do younger people do better? And if English is not your first language, there’s no way that’s it’s testing equivalent skills for you as it would an American (though there’s argument to be made that, depending on where you grew up and were educated, you may have an advantage based on the standards, pedagogy and practices of education in your native country).

It’s so difficult when you’re logging onto MBA applicant discussion boards or talking to current students about what it took to get in, and you’re seemingly surrounded by all these 750+ scorers.

Please remember: Those who don’t do as well are not out there broadcasting their score.

It’s the ones who have mastered the art of standardized test-taking, or maybe had a lucky day in how their guesses lined up, that end up with the scores that make you feel sh!tty about yourself.

Mastering the GMAT is not mastering anything noteworthy in life. Period. End of discussion. It is not.

There are two times in the next 50+ years of your existence here on this Earth where the GMAT will matter:

1. When a nameless faceless admissions committee member reviews your application at the school you’re aching to get into — which will happen in a moment in time when you’re not even aware that it’s happening. You will be placing an order at Starbucks or drumming your fingers on the desk waiting for your boss to show up for the meeting he scheduled with you or asleep on a red-eye flying back to New York, and some admissions person will glance at your score and then move on to the important parts of your app. Your score will be seen, and taken note of, and you won’t even know that it happened. It’s not like the clouds will part and the voice of God will boom down on you and you will hear, “Your score has been assessed, and now your Fate for the rest of Eternity is sealed.” No. It’ll happen in some moment, when your admissions person is doing her job, looking at the rest of your application and chewing on the end of her pencil as she considers everything about you that you’ve submitted.

2. When you go for your MBA interview nine months later and you’re sitting across from a recruiter from a top consulting firm, asking you why you are interested in her firm — because by now, you’ve been admitted to that school you so eagerly want to go to. In your interview, depending on the career path you’re targeting and which firm this is, and what the competitive environment is in hiring at these firms when the economy goes up or goes down, your interviewer may ask about the GMAT score. And she’ll make note of it, and she’ll continue on, asking the things that really matter, about your experience and what you’ve done in the past and why you think you’re a good fit to their firm.

That’s it. Two times, one of which you won’t even be aware of (obviously #1 happens multiple times, once for each of your apps, but just work with us, for once, would you please?).

The GMAT is unfortunately near-identical to your weight or your curves or your lack of them. It’s like the biceps you don’t have or the shortness you do. It’s one of those things that the World has taught you to fixate on, as if it Means Something. As if it Matters.

We’re here to tell you, it doesn’t.

Ask someone who’s been out of bschool 10 years if they even remember what they scored on the GMAT. We’d be shocked if anyone does.

If they did, it’s because they did well, and they fixated on that as a Sign that they have something to offer.

That’s just as much a fallacy as thinking a low GMAT means you’re crap.

EssaySnark is guilty of GMAT-shaming in some of our older posts on the blahg, where we’ve said things like “If your score is too low, suck it up and take the test again.”

While, hey, there is some value to that advice, if someone scored poorly on the GMAT out of an absence of trying.

If you don’t put in the mental effort and learn the things that they’re testing you on, if you’ve been a slacker and a skater where you do the just-enough-to-get-by thing because you’re sharp and a quick study and that’s worked for you all of your life… well then, yes, the GMAT does say something about you, but not what you think. If you repeatedly get a lame-O GMAT because you’re going through the motions and not actually trying, then we don’t have much sympathy for that.

But for the many, many BSers who really do put in the effort, who sign up for courses and pay tutors and take all of the practice tests they can find, and they STILL do poorly on the actual exam… Then please know, we’re talking directly to you when we say: It’s not your fault. It’s just the GMAT is a crappy exam.

If they let you take it in your bedroom in your pajamas with your fuzzy slippers on, it’s likely you’d do just great. But no, they have it in this inconvenient test center where the AC is on too high or not at all, with a weird dude next to you making sniffly noises, when you’re all tussed up about it because you’ve already tried three times and it’s now built up to a “thing” in your mind…. Yeah. You don’t do well on it again, well, that’s NOT YOUR FAULT.

It’s the silly fight-or-flight mechanism in your adrenocortex going haywire because you’ve made this into a massive obstacle (that isn’t even real) and you prevent your own self from success because of the fear mechanism hardwired into your brain. Because we are all animals and because we’re social creatures and because there’s an instinct you’re reacting to that goes way back in time, that you need to be successful and respected in the eyes of your peers so that you won’t be kicked out of the herd.

Yeah, that.

All that is wrapped up in this one little three-digit number. The GMAT.

It’s like your entire life depends on it.

But it does not.

Remember, most people who take the GMAT flail fabulously!! The average GMAT score is only a 556! We can practically guarantee that if you’re sitting here reading this blahg, you scored at least 100 points better than that, and probably significantly more.

You have accomplished much in this life.

You would not be in a postition to even consider a high-end MBA if you hadn’t.

You have much to be proud of, dear whippersnapper.

So next time you feel ashamed or embarrassed when someone asks about your GMAT or (same issue) what schools you made it into, hold your head high, and tell them, “I did the best that I could.”

It’s none of their business what score a computer screen spit out at you.

It does not matter.

It is irrelevant.

What counts is acting from love.

When you do that, then you are affirming your true nature.

When you don’t, then you feel horrible, and you vow that next time you will.

It’s terribly difficult, especially when you’re young, and the world is uncertain, to keep focused on what’s real.

But truly, Grasshopper, you are a wondrous being, and we know you are bound for great things.

($) “If I’m really really really really really excited about a school do you think they will let me in???”

January 3, 2019 by EssaySnark

This question coming of course from a Brave Supplicant with a really low GMAT. And the answer is…. actually, yes! Or at least, maybe! Depending on the school, and particularly if you’re trying in Round 1. In Round 2, it’s much less common for even the friendliest most culture-driven schools to be quite so accommodating….

While much of the blahg is available completely for free, the content here is reserved for members with full blahg access only ($9.95/month for six months, cancel anytime). Please login to view this content or purchase a membership.

($) Explaining a low GMAT or GRE score in your MBA apps

August 2, 2018 by EssaySnark

You know your GMAT (or GRE) score is low. You’ve debated whether to take the test again, but it’s August. You’re getting stressed about deadlines coming. What if you just write the optional essay about your low score? Shouldn’t that be sufficient? You can tell the adcom that you’ll take the test again if they…

($) If you don’t think you can do better on the GMAT

March 19, 2018 by EssaySnark

When talking about what score is “good enough” for getting into a top MBA program, we said this: If your score is somewhere in between a 700 and a 770 and if you think you can score higher on the GMAT… then we strongly encourage you to suck it up and make it happen. If…

You made it! Now do this. (Reality Check Dub)

January 19, 2018 by EssaySnark

We often offer a rah-rah post right around this time like the one from last week, directed to all those BSers who are coming off the crush of deadlines and the rush of the holiday, and they sit back and look around and wonder what to do with themselves. We usually say, “Get a hobby.”…

($) Low GMAT? Low GPA? Please don’t say these things in your essays.

August 17, 2017 by EssaySnark

First of all, if your GMAT is low, then we don’t recommend writing an optional essay about it at all. The optional essay is meant to explain, and thereby neutralize, issues and weaknesses in your app. If your GMAT is low, there is no amount of explaining that will neutralize it. The only thing that…

($) All schools do a “holistic review.” But…

June 14, 2017 by EssaySnark

So we just spent 1,000 words yesterday telling you that the schools look at everything. And they do. In every chat, webinar, and info session, you’ll hear admissions directors of top MBA programs tell you that they do a “holistic review” of their candidates, that they don’t weight any particular component of the profile, that…

A BSer asks: “why does LBS take people with 600 gmat score whilst rejecting those with 700+?”

May 23, 2017 by EssaySnark 5 Comments

A Brave Supplicant named Rahul was recently reading the post “Why is the average GMAT score at LBS so much lower?” and he asked us this:

As a genuine question, why does LBS take people with 600 gmat score whilst rejecting those with 700+. Im fully aware of the whole idea of GMAT just being part of the criteria and that application and essays and internships and experience count too. But my point is, what could someone with 600 gmat score possibly have that someone with 700 doesn’t that warrants them a place and not someone with 700. Im going to be frank and say that someone with 600 is just not as smart as someone with 700 and does not belong in LBS, I mean seriously how can one of the best business schools in the world legit accept someone with 600 whilst for courses like MiF they have a minimum of 650. I personally got 690 and I’m terrible at maths (Q: 44 V:40) despite the gmat being biased towards those who are good at maths.

There’s a fair amount of truth sprinkled about in that question but there’s also possibly some unclear thinking or simply a lack of perspective, too, and we wanted to devote a full post on this today.

The GMAT is a very difficult test. We will absolutely give you that. However, it’s hard to go along with the assertion that “someone with 600 is just not as smart as someone with 700” — and we definitely cannot agree with the claim that they “do not belong” at LBS or any other school.

Is the GMAT measuring intelligence? Or is it measuring the ability to perform well on a standardized test?

Men are statistically more likely to score better on the GMAT.

Young people also perform better than older people.

Do these stats mean that men are smarter than women? That young people are smarter than older ones?

(If you are male, or if you are young, and especially if you are both, we suggest that you be very careful how you answer those questions, even if you are doing so only in the privacy of your own skull.)

The GMAT tests for certain types of skills. It’s not a be-all/end-all test of intellectual capacity, and it definitely does not evaluate potential.

A GMAT is just one aspect to a candidacy, and it’s a very small part of the candidate.

Just like with Billy Bush, whose entire life has now become defined by one very short ride on a bus on a studio backlot, with Tic-Tacs , it’s not fair to sum up a person on the basis of a test score.

There are multiple types of intelligence, and there are many, many different types of people. If the top schools like LBS were only looking for students who are awesome at taking standardized tests, they could EASILY fill their classes with only that type of applicant. LBS could get at least a 720 average GMAT if they wanted, without even breaking a sweat.

But bschools are interested in a variety of types, because there are many many different paths that are possible from the MBA, and it isn’t only the strong standardized test-taker that are going to excel in all those capacities.

The other very important point to make, seeing as you shared your GMAT score breakdown: The schools look not just at total scores but at the individual components. EssaySnark is not sure where you are in your application process but we are quite nervous about a 44Q for someone trying for LBS. Hopefully you’re aware that that’s a significant weakness that may cause many admissions reviewers to hesitate. It depends of course on the pool you’re in and what the rest of the profile looks like.

And that’s really the most important thing. You claim to appreciate that the GMAT is only a part, and that application and essays and internships and experience count too — but they really really do. It’s not just “experience” in the context of work experience (though that does matter a lot). It’s “experience” as in “life experience.” What if the applicant is the first in her family to ever attend college, and she had to go to a school close to home because it was all that her family could afford, or maybe she was needed to help care for a sick relative? And because of her lack of resources in high school, she never got the best education in quant subjects, and that held her back in college? Or she loved reading and decided to major in literature instead? It’s not that she lacks intelligence, it’s that she didn’t have the same opportunities. This is real.

From the New York Times recently we learn that “poor students rely on their parents for college advice, and many of them end up going to less rigorous colleges than they can handle” (h/t Akil Bello aka at the moment, Proctor Dre ). We’re betting that a less rigorous college is going to produce test-takers who do worse on the GMAT. Does that mean they are not as smart? Or does it only mean that they came from a disadvantaged financial background?

Or what about someone coming in from the military, who has a strong aptitude but studied those subjects many long years ago, and was very rusty in tackling them again for the GMAT? And on top of that, he’s been constantly deployed to war zones and conflict areas, and had a difficult time getting good mentoring or support on the test prep?

You see, people are coming into it from all different circumstances. You can’t take your own experience and extrapolate to the entire universe of applicants, and you have to be very very careful about interpreting too much — or judging others solely on — a test score.

The business school adcoms are looking at the whole person. Employers who recruit at these MBA programs are equally interested in life experience and skills, beyond just the marks on the GMAT. A test score alone is not representative of who you are.

That’s why the schools ask you to write essays, and why they have extensive interview processes, too. It’s an imperfect system, but it’s what they have to work with.

They could easily fill their classes with top scoring applicants if they chose to. That’s not how it works though. They’re in the business of education, and it’s part of their mission to contribute to society. It’s not formulaic. There are many ways to evaluate potential.

Which is awesome, because it means everyone gets a fair shot at admission.

Yes they have standards. They’re not going to admit someone who they think will have trouble with the curriculum. To be sure, they’re not admitting gobs of candidates at the 600 level. Some schools even will offer a conditional acceptance for certain candidates, where they require that you bring up your score before they’ll let you enroll. The test scores are not insignificant.

But they’re just one piece of the puzzle, and they don’t tell the whole story. There’s plenty of candidates with a 700 who come across as true jerks. Or they just don’t put in the work that’s required to communicate themselves effectively in the app. They’re not showing themselves to be differentiated. A high test score is not an instant pass, just as much as a low one is not an immediate rejection.

The adcoms know a life cannot so easily be distilled down to one small component.

EssaySnark suggests a widening of the perspective. Let’s not be so quick to paint others with such a broad brush.

We think Billy Bush, circa 2017, would agree.

Update: Akil Bello, test prep wiz, tweeted this in response:

@EssaySnark also the stat you quoted in the NYT seems at odds with this (though it is #MBA vs undergrad). https://t.co/fZPXWB8Q0I

— Proctor Dre (@akilbello) May 23, 2017

Direct link to the post he references about underrepresented minorities and standardized tests is here .

Update #2: This article on leadership and controlling emotions includes a list of the “types of intelligence” as identified by Howard Gardner from Harvard in 1983:

Linguistic—good with words

Mathematical—good at numbers

Musical—good with rhythm and sound

Visual-Spatial—good at thinking in three dimensions

Bodily-Kinesthetic—good at physical activity

Intrapersonal—good at understanding oneself

Interpersonal—good at interacting with other people

The GMAT tests two or maybe three of these.

($) Timing your waitlist update to the MBA adcom

April 10, 2017 by EssaySnark

We got a question from yet another waitlister and thought we’d share some thoughts with all of you: Hey guys, Been a tough season – 4 rejections & 2 wait lists. I read your waitlist guide, and would like to send an email to the adcoms with documentation showing I’ll be promoted June 1, and…

We tried. We really did. But we’ve caved.

October 10, 2016 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

So many times over the past year and a half, we’ve been tempted to blahg about the person who’s become the Republican candidate for President of the United States. So many teachable moments – and some positives, too, actually! There has been debate in Snarkville about it (not nearly as heated as the debate last night!) but in Fall 2015 we decided we’d just leave it alone. We don’t want this to be a political place. You come here for snark about bschool admissions; there’s more than enough snark out there on the interwebs about all of this other nonsense. We wanted this to be a safe space (ha!) where you could enjoy living in a parallel dimension where none of that RL stuff ever invaded.

But then last week we posted a snippet of a field report from a last-year BSer that referenced a political candidate and on Friday, we were served with an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

Anyway, it’s not like we’ve never used politics or current events as fodder for the blahg before. We referenced the 2008 Democratic Primary debate between Obama and Clinton in a 2014 “Are you likeable?” post about interviewing. And we actually covered what we’re going to talk about today last year in this post about hacked emails where Sony executives made jokes in poor taste about the President.

What we got on Friday was a scandalous recording from ten years ago where this Presidential candidate said some things about women, which prompted the candidate to release a video Friday night ostensibly apologizing for what he said. (If you have not seen either or both of these videos yet, what rock have you been hiding under??? We’re not about to link to them directly, they’re easy enough to find on your own if you need to catch up.)

In the apology video, the candidate made the classic assertion:

“Anyone who knows me knows these words do not reflect who I am.”

Why on earth is EssaySnark going to such pains to lay all of this out for you?

It’s because it’s the most common assertion in the world and it pretty much always is bogus.

When you say to the adcom, “My grades in college do not reflect my abilities.”

Or when you say, “My GMAT score does not…”

Well guess what?

These things DO reflect. In fact, by the very nature of them – words, behavior, test scores, GPA – that’s EXACTLY what they do.

The only thing we have to evaluate our fellow human being and to see what they’re made of is the things that they do and the things that they say.

That is ESPECIALLY true in your MBA applications.

Your academic record is a sum total of all of your abilities – or if not your abilities, your willingness to put forth the effort.

The words a person speaks come from their thoughts. Nobody will ever say something that does not originate in their mind. If you’re claiming that your mind is not a reflection of who you are, well, sorry but that does not fly.

Same with this classic (and useless) excuse about academic performance or results of a standardized test.

When you trot out this “does not reflect” line, you’re basically insulting your audience. You’re saying, “Look, this happened, OK? Much as I’d like to pretend that it didn’t, and have tried to hide it, now that it’s out in the open and part of the record, I guess I need to deal with it. But you shouldn’t judge me on it. Why not? Because I say so.”

If you find yourself in a situation that you need to explain something negative from your profile to the adcom in your MBA applications, then…

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THAT is how you handle a difficult situation from your past. THAT is how you neutralize a negative in your profile – or even, best case scenario, turn it into a positive. THAT is how you avoid insulting your adcom reader’s intelligence with the fallback and totally transparent and empty claim that everyone says when they’re busted with something that they shouldn’t have done, but they did.

To bring this around to a positive and mention the original reason for the Snarkville debate on whether or not to reference this man on the blahg: Everyone by now has heard him speak. What struck us even a year ago and continues to this day is his speaking style. He speaks in short, declarative sentences using simple language and structure. Most of his sentences are of the basic form: subject -> verb -> object. (Usually with some big adjectives and adverbs thrown in.) This style has been evaluated as speaking at a third-grader’s level , or by others in a more rigid analysis, a sixth-grader , which to some sounds like a criticism, but it’s actually a technique that invites clarity.

We are not about to suggest that anyone model their MBA essays on this person’s style – but we will say that writing more simply is usually an advantage in your applications. (We will leave the question of the content of this person’s speech for you to evaluate.)