WSJ: Test Redos Give GMAT Scores a Lift

Source: The Wall Street Jurnal

by John Simons,
Oct. 5, 2016.

Higher test scores have intensified competition to M.B.A. programs

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]verage scores on the most widely used business-school entrance exams are going up, but that doesn’t mean students are getting any smarter.

Thanks in part to new rules that allow test-takers to cancel low scores and try the test again, more prospective M.B.A.s are taking the Graduate Management Admissions Test, or GMAT, two, three and even four times to boost their scores.

Admissions experts say the rising scores have intensified the competition to get into top schools. Typically, students who take the GMAT have their results sent to schools they are considering. In the past, schools received all scores from students, but since 2014 the group that administers the test has allowed test-takers to learn their scores instantly and cancel results they don’t like—leaving admissions officers none the wiser.

Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted, an admissions consultancy whose clients mainly apply to elite M.B.A. programs, says roughly half of her clients retake the test at least once, up from a third a few years ago.

Overall, 28% of GMAT takers sat for the exam more than once in the last full testing year, up from a historical average of 23%, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which administers the test.

Test scores typically account for about 20% of admissions decisions for full-time two-year M.B.A. programs, along with interviews, undergraduate transcripts, essays and recommendations. Between the 2014 and 2015 testing years, the average GMAT score for all exams taken rose four points, from 550 to 554.

Over the same period, the average result applicants sent to M.B.A. programs jumped 15 points, from 574 to 589, according to GMAC.

Kelly R. Wilson, executive director of masters admissions at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, says seeing all of a candidate’s GMAT scores “adds texture” to an application, but “what’s most important is the highest score they attain.”

GMAC made the changes to its test-score reporting after surveys revealed that M.B.A. applicants felt the testing process was too stressful. Candidates can now review and cancel a test score within 72 hours, and applicants can retake the exam after a 16-day waiting period.

The goal is “to minimize anxiety among students,” says spokesperson Jennifer Garfinkel. “We want them to be more confident and controlled when they take the exam.” Candidates who take the test a second time increase their scores, on average, by 30.3 points, according to GMAC.

Kelly Murphy, 29, has sat for the exam three times this year. When she took the test for the first time in May, she knew that candidates accepted to her top program, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, score an average of 726. After learning that she scored just 660, she canceled the result.

“Test anxiety is part of the equation for me,” says Ms. Murphy, who works at a nonprofit in the Chicago area. “But because the cancellation policy is generous, it wasn’t sealing my fate.” She chose to retake the test and began an online test-preparation course where she learned test-taking tips and took practice exams. When she sat for the GMAT again in July, her overall score rose to 680.

Ms. Murphy added tougher math to her daily test-prep routine, and took the test for a third time last month, notching a 730. Between now and January, she will submit applications to Booth and other schools for the 2017 academic year. The test costs $250 for each attempt.

Consulting and test-preparation firms have retooled their offerings to adapt to the GMAT changes. Rich Cohen, co-founder of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based EmpowerGMAT test preparation service, says his company created a series of two- to three-week “score booster” online study plans designed to make the most of the 16-day waiting period between tests.

Veritas Prep, a test preparation and admissions consulting firm based in Malibu, Calif., urges even those who ace the test to “take a shot again,” according to Scott Shrum, the company’s operations chief.

“Let’s say they have a 690 and they’re applying to Harvard [Business School] where average is 730. We now tell people, ‘look there is not a lot of risk. Go take the test, cancel it if you score lower,’” he says.

There is a fine line between boosting a score and fixating on it. Bara Sapir, founder and CEO of Test Prep New York warns her clients against becoming too obsessed with repeated GMAT retakes. She says she’s seen students become overly aggressive “about wanting to take the test again and again and knock it out.”She recommends moderation.

“It is a good metaphor for business leadership,” she says. “Are you a calculated risk-taker or are you haphazard?”