Applying to business school is never an easy process, especially when juggling your personal and professional life. You don’t want to take the GMAT more times than necessary, but you definitely want the highest possible chance to get into your target business schools.
Whether you should re-take the GMAT depends not only on the question of whether you already have a good GMAT score, but also on the question of how much effort it would take you to raise it.
If you have a great score, just outside or in the 90th percentile, and you’ve already spent a lot of time on your GMAT study, you may be ready to move on. Everyone else should consider the merits of a retake, even if they’ve already achieved a good score. At many MBA programs, average GMAT scores are increasing, and raising your score can benefit you.
Watch our video to understand why you owe it to yourself to truly maximize your GMAT score:
Rules of thumb such as “anything in the 80th percentile or better” are categorically false, which we’ll explain later when discussing how GMAT scores feed into MBA rankings.
Your target score depends on where you’re applying and on your profile (which determines who you’ll be compared against).
The starting point here is to research the average GMAT scores for your target schools (provided in the appendix at bottom) and use this as a baseline. A lower score may suffice if you have distinctive experiences or come from an under-represented group, but you may need to have an even higher score if you come from an over-represented group. Be honest about whether your experiences are truly distinctive; top MBA programs attract many accomplished applicants.
This average GMAT score, adjusted for your profile, can give you a guideline for the score that will make you competitive. You should also consider:
There are several reasons why MBA admissions officers care about your GMAT score.
Business schools look at your GMAT score to ensure that you can keep up with their academic program. Here, your score is used to evaluate whether you have the necessary quantitative, verbal, and critical thinking skills to complete the coursework, which includes subjects like finance, economics, and strategy. The #1 job of an admissions team is to recruit students who can succeed in the program!
Business schools care about rankings because … applicants care about rankings! When a school’s ranking improves, it will attract a larger and better-qualified pool of applicants. Enrolling a stronger group of students enhances the classroom experience and leads to better employment outcomes, both of which tend to further strengthen the school’s reputation and ranking. Naturally, business schools love this.
Until the 2023–2024 U.S. News MBA ranking, the GMAT was a direct factor in a program’s position on the list. That is, the average GMAT score of the incoming class was a major rating factor and one that the school could directly influence with its decisions.
However, in the 2023–2024 ranking, median GMAT/GRE scores replaced mean GMAT/GRE for the first time. U.S. News wrote that this change was intended to “limit the rankings impact of outlier scores, including low scores from otherwise promising applicants.”
“The use of median test scores may impact admissions decisions in subtle ways. Namely, extremely high scores may become less valuable, and extremely low scores may present less of a handicap. David White, Founding Partner of Menlo Coaching, explained the logic in a recent note.
Imagine two artificially simplified classes an MBA program could recruit:
Group A: 650, 700, 730, 730, 740
Group B: 650, 700, 730, 750, 780
The median for both groups is 730, but the means would be 710 and 722 respectively. Under the old U.S. News ranking system, Group B’s higher scores would be more likely to sway the admissions committee, as the 750 and 780 would bring up the school’s rating in the test score section. But under the new system, there is no inherent reason to choose Group B over Group A.”
Of course, there are other reasons that AdComs might still prefer high GMAT scores—for more on this topic and an in-depth discussion of the U.S. News MBA ranking methodology, visit our page, “Should You Trust the U.S. News MBA Rankings 2024?“
In many cases, your GMAT score is important in terms of potential employment opportunities. Many employers in finance and consulting (such as Bain, McKinsey, and BCG) use the GMAT as a factor when deciding which students to interview. Having a high score can position you as a strong candidate and give you a competitive edge.
There are several clear indicators that you have extra points in the tank that could be unlocked with the right GMAT study plan and knowing how to best prepare for the exam.
Because the official practice exams include questions that have been used on past live exams, official practice exams are an accurate diagnostic tool for assessing your progress. (Read more about why you should trust only the official practice tests). If you were overwhelmed on the day of the live GMAT and didn’t perform nearly as well as on your practice exam, you should consider retaking the exam.
For the reasons described on our GMAT tutoring service page, you should strongly consider using a tutor if you’ve relied only on self study or group classes until now. Tutors can help you to reach a higher score, and to do so faster than you could on your own. For example, the GMAT tutoring page features a video from our tutoring client Skylar describing how after 250 hours of study using materials from Kaplan, he achieved a +80 point improvement in only 10 hours of tutoring (plus homework!) with Menlo Coaching.
At Menlo Coaching, our GMAT prep program is designed around efficiency: we help you get you the maximum test results possible, in the least amount of time.
It is not crazy to retake if you have received a 98th or 99th percentile overall score. On the GMAT Focus Edition, there is now more room to move on the far end of the curve so retaking the test could result in a 10-point increase that impacts your admissions decision.
As explained in the section about MBA rankings, the question is not “Is my score good enough?”, but “What’s the marginal effort to raise my score, and is it worthwhile?”
Graduated summa cum laude? Incredible score on the SAT or the ACT? If so, you should be able to score well on the GMAT. If your GMAT doesn’t measure up to your other academic achievements, it’s a sign that you should probably study more and retake.
| Business Schools | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford GSB | 738 | – | 738 | 733 | 734 | 732 | 737 |
| Harvard Business School* | 740 | 730 | 730 | 730 | 730 | 730 | 729 |
| The Wharton School | 728 | 733 | 733 | 722 | 721 | 717 | 714 |
| Northwestern Kellogg | 731 | 729 | 727 | 727 | 730 | 732 | 732 |
| Chicago Booth | 728 | – | 732 | 724 | 730 | 731 | 730 |
| Columbia Business School | 729 | 729 | 729 | 726 | 727 | 732 | 724 |
| MIT Sloan* | 730 | – | 730 | 720 | 727 | 728 | 722 |
| Dartmouth Tuck | 726 | 726 | 724 | 720 | 723 | 722 | 722 |
| Berkeley Haas | 733 | 729 | 726 | 727 | 725 | 726 | 725 |
| Virginia Darden | 716 | 720 | 715 | 703 | 713 | 718 | 713 |
| Yale SOM* | 720 | – | 730 | 720 | 721 | 724 | 727 |
| Duke Fuqua** | 715 | 720 | 713 | 700 | 705 | 704 | 702 |
| Michigan Ross | 719 | 720 | 722 | 710 | 719 | 720 | 716 |
| Texas McCombs | 704 | – | 708 | 704 | 704 | 703 | 703 |
| Cornell Johnson* | 710 | 710 | 710 | 700 | 697 | 699 | 700 |
| UCLA Anderson | 710 | 711 | 714 | 706 | 719 | 719 | 716 |
| NYU Stern | 732 | 733 | 729 | 723 | 714 | 712 | 714 |
| Carnegie Mellon Tepper | 710 | – | 691 | 680 | 687 | 690 | 691 |
| UNC Kenan-Flagler | 696 | 706 | 696 | 694 | 697 | 703 | 701 |
| Emory Goizueta** | 709 | 690 | 692 | 690 | 684 | 685 | 682 |
| USC Marshall | 722 | 732 | 716 | 707 | 708 | 705 | 703 |
| Georgetown McDonough | 695 | 697 | 705 | 691 | 694 | 693 | 692 |
| UW Foster | 710 | – | 704 | 692 | 695 | 696 | 693 |
| Rice Jones | 702 | – | 705 | 689 | 710 | 706 | 711 |
To hear how we can help you raise your GMAT score, check out our GMAT prep course, our GMAT tutoring, or send us a note directly at [email protected].
Many MBA applicants struggle with fitting their GMAT preparation in alongside their application materials and external commitments, like work and family. And this only gets more difficult as deadlines approach.
We’ve compiled a guide to the MBA application timeline, outlining what you need to do and when you should do it.
Chris Kane
Head of Test Prep & VP
Education: BA
Chris has over 20 years in GMAT prep, racking up 20,000+ hours of experience. As Menlo Coaching’s curriculum architect, Chris emphasizes official materials and rigorous study plans. As an instructor, Chirs can diagnose a student’s weak points and apply targeted practice to help them achieve elite scores.
Take our 2-question pop quiz and test your GMAT readiness.
