The Application Process

'I got a 720, should I retake my GMAT?'

Such posts are all too common across these forums and if you look closely, a good majority of these are from Indian candidates.

This short post goes out particularly to all the Indian Applicants out there. While I hope this is useful to others as well, I intend to discuss this key issue which is very peculiar with Indian candidates.

Indians are obsessed with numbers. No wonder that as per GMAC statistics it is estimated that Indian candidates are more than twice as likely to retake the GMAT compared to their American counterparts! The blame has to go to the Indian education system which is too numbers centric, and convinces us that it alone makes or breaks everything for us. Please understand, your GMAT score is important. However, it is only one part of your overall application. A school evaluates your overall candidacy and your GMAT is just a part of it. And there is usually no cut-off!

You should consider your application as a bucket with different weights in it. One of these weights is your GMAT. The other weights are your work profile & achievements, quality of your essays, extra-curriculars, interview performance etc. You have to ensure the highest overall weight. Just working on your GMAT to improve from, say, 720 to 740 will not add much of an additional weight. That weight will have to come from other factors - your application, essays, recommendations.

Quality of your application can add a lot of additional weight and that requires your attention. Indian candidates are not natural at writing great applications. And that again is attributed to the fact that usually Indian candidates have little experience of such an exercise during their academic/professional years. However, rather than spending more time on this, they tend to rush through this part. This, in a lot of cases, seriously undermines the quality of the application and proves suicidal.

In summary, here is what you need to do. Target a range when you prepare for your GMAT and if you have come close to that, keep it and move on to the next challenge - your application. Yes, you could have done better but retaking is probably not worth it. Take your applications seriously and do a great job at it - that will serve you better.

Please feel free to write your comments / questions / disagreements if any. I will be happy to engage.

Note: Next article will be around adding personality in your application (again a weak point for Indian Candidates in particular!). Please subscribe to stay posted.

Anshul Gupta

Hi Anshul , Thanks for the great article . But in many different forums , blogs(some even written by adcom heads themselves) , etc its mentioned that Indian / Chinese pool is very competitive ,so if one wants to apply to a US B school in the range of 10 - 25 ,one has to get at least 720 or more in order to distinguish oneself . I gave GMAT and got a 710 . After the test I have been contemplating should i give it another shot . Since I come from an IT background . Isnt it necessary for an Indian male to get 720 or more for top US B schools ?

I agree with Anshul. No, it is NOT necessary for you to re-take the GMAT if you've already scored a 710. After 700, there is a STRONG diminishing returns for the amount of time you put in to retaking the test and the amount of added favor you will receive from schools. Instead, as per Anshul's post, focus on writing kickass essays, getting kickass recommendation letters, having kickass extracurriculars, and making kickass rapport with the Adcoms of the schools of your choice.

In short: make the rest of your application kickass. It's a WAY better investment of your time and energy.