Retaking the GMAT With a Score of 700+ Should You Consider It

This may seem hard for some test-takers to believe, but sometimes even the high-scorers contemplate retaking the exam. It’s not unheard of for someone with a score of 700 – or even higher – to retake the GMAT to see if they can hit a higher number. But should they? As is usually the case with admissions issues†¦it depends. Who are YOU? An MBA Applicant with a Distinctive Background Were our applicant here a Latin American brand manager or an African pharmaceutical salesperson – that is, if their demographic had little representation in the business school applicant pool – then there would really be no reason to retake the exam. Once they’ve demonstrated competence in each section of the GMAT and present a total score of 700+ – meaning, their quantitative and verbal scores placed them above the 80th percentile in each section – then their GMAT score really becomes a (nearly) non-issue and retaking the test becomes a waste of time that could have been better spent elsewhere. Who are YOU? An MBA Applicant with a Standard Background But here’s the thing: if you have a more typical background, and especially if you find yourself in an over-represented part of the applicant pool at top business schools, then the above advice just may not apply to you. You need a higher score. Who might be in this group? Indian males in engineering and computer science. Investment bankers. Management consultants. All these group tend to do well on the GMAT and send lot of applications to business schools. Are YOU applying to Top 10 MBA Programs? The GMAT score has risen dramatically this year. A couple of years ago you could talk about a balanced 700 being competitive in the top 10. No more: US News RankingProgramEntering 2017Entering 2018Increase Average7247274 1Harvard University 7297312 1University of Chicago (Booth) 7267304 3University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 7307300 4Stanford University 7377370 5Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) 724722-2 6Northwestern University (Kellogg) 7287324 7University of California—​Berkeley (Haas) 7177258 7University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor (Ross) 7087168 9Columbia University 7207277 10Dartmouth College (Tuck) 7177225 Of the ten schools in the US News top 10, five programs now have average GMAT scores of 730+ and only one (Ross) is under 720. The year-over-year increase is on average the largest I can remember or track. They are even larger than last years increase, which was the largest average increase in the previous five years. What Should YOU Do? So, if you score a 700 on the GMAT, should you retake the exam? It depends on the schools you’re applying to, and it depends on your demographic, not to mention the strength of the rest of your application. If you are applying from a common sub-group in the applicant pool with a fairly typical background and extracurricular profile, and you are aiming for a top 10 program, a 700 score will be a negative for you. You should consider a retake. For other applicants, that 700 will be just fine. Do your research, be as objective as possible, and figure out the target score – and the target schools – that are best for YOU. And if you’re still not sure, check out our webinar, The GMAT: Low Scores, Retaking Strategies for Success, for an overview of the factors to consider when deciding whether to retake or not. ; By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since 1994 when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process, and has been quoted by The  Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Poets Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants.  Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch! Related Resources: †¢ Navigate the MBA Maze: 9 Tips to Acceptance, a free guide †¢ What GMAT Score Do I Need to Get Accepted to Top MBA Programs? †¢ Should You Retake the GMAT?