GMAT Scores
The maximum score for the test is 1600: verbal and quantitative sections are each worth 800 points.
The student can get the results at the test center immediately after the GMAT-CAT. This is not an official score as the results of the writing section come later. The writing mark (on 6) is reported along with the score, but is not included in the score for the other sections.
GMAT scores are valid for five years, although some business schools might insist on a recent score.
What is a good GMAT score?
- The average score for GMAT test takers over the last few years is somewhere in the high 500’s
- A ‘good’ score would be over 600
- A ‘very good’ score is one which crosses the 700 mark
As a rough guide, a score of 600 indicates a percentile ranking of about 70; a score of 700 approximates to the 90 percentile. (The percentile rank indicates the percentage of people taking the test who performed worse than you.) The average (mean and/or median) scores for students admitted to the 50 top ranking MBA programs is apparently 660. These are ball-park figures: it is easy enough to find the average GMAT scores for the intake in a given year to individual business schools.
Note that as well as an overall score and a percentile, the test report includes the scores and percentiles for both the verbal and quantitative sections of the test. Sometimes a student’s composite score looks very good, but shows a great disparity between the verbal and quant sections – this is unlikely to go down well with the admissions committees.
One thing is certain: the scores of those admitted to B-schools have been rising in recent years. Some people with lower scores than the average for any given school are admitted because they have other assets that add to the diversity of the school. In effect, this means that for a person with nothing outstanding to offer in terms of academic prowess or work experience, the score he or she needs to stand out from the crowd of applicants at a top ten B-school has to be 720 or more.
Next steps
To improve your score, try our GMAT practice tests by clicking one of the question types in the menu. They're free.