Saturday, June 27, 2015

Some Changes are Coming to the GMAT in July 2015

Very recently MBA.com announced two new features that will have some affect on GMAT test takers effective as of July 19, 2015. Here are the changes which you can read from the source here:

(1) Cancelled scores will no longer appear on the score report. Note: this change is retroactive, meaning that all previously affected scores will be erased too.

(2) The time required to wait in-between GMAT attempts will be reduced from 31-days to 16-days.

There are other, smaller changes, again read the article yourself, but these two are the ones that will have the greatest impact on test takers I believe.

Just how big will the impact be? I would guess that test takers will be much more likely to cancel scores now. I don't necessarily think that is a good thing. I can see some test takers targeting 700+ who will elect to cancel a 670. I would not necessarily advise that course of action. What if the 670 turns out to be your best score? You can still only take the test 5 times from the 12-month period following your first test. It would be a shame to cancel a 550, cancel a 580, cancel a 600, cancel a 670, and then be forced to keep a 610 because it is your 5th test of that period.

550 (cxl)
580 (cxl)
600 (cxl)
670 (cxl)
610 (keep?)

Yikes.

I suppose the quicker time in-between retakes benefits those who decide late to apply at all. Now thy may have an extra attempt or two to put together a score. So this may cause a slight uptick in application volume. I am sure schools will be happy with that.

So the final verdict: use your new found powers wisely!

John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com