How Many Attempts You Can Take The GMAT?

The GMAT Focus Edition, known for its rigorous assessment of analytical, quantitative, and verbal skills, is a crucial step for many aspiring business school students. Given its difficulty, it's not uncommon for test-takers to be dissatisfied with their initial score and to consider retaking the exam to achieve a higher result. 

The GMAT Focus Edition allows multiple attempts, offering students the opportunity to improve their performance. In this guide, we will explore the specific time limitations and overall restrictions on how many times you can take the GMAT Focus, providing clarity and strategic advice for those aiming to optimize their scores.

How Many Attempts You Can Take The GMAT?

If you’re unhappy with your score, it’s essential to consider how you plan to improve before testing again. The GMAT examination is conducted multiple times a year. There is no single date in the year when you can appear. It is easy to take the test right from your home throughout the week and 24 hours a day. 

Know more about: GMAT registration fees: Payment Method, Reschedule, How to Pay

However, a student can only appear on the test five times in an annual year and not more than eight times in their lifetime. Thus, the GMAT exam can be taken once every 16 days on the calendar. 

Understanding the GMAT Retake Policy

How many attempts can you take the GMAT? The GMAT exam has specific rules regarding the number of times a candidate can retake the test. Here’s a breakdown of these rules:

1. Single Attempt Limitation:
   • You can take the GMAT once every 16 calendar days.
2. Annual Limitation:
   • You can take the GMAT up to five times within any rolling 12-month period.
3. Lifetime Limitation:
   • You can take the GMAT a total of eight times in your lifetime.

These restrictions are designed to ensure that candidates have sufficient preparation time between attempts and to maintain the integrity of the exam.

Know more about: GMAT Score validity

How Frequently Can You Take The GMAT?

The GMAT can be taken once every 16 days, as long as it doesn’t exceed 5 times per year or 8 times in a lifetime. If you intend to retake the GMAT, plan to make every effort to improve your score significantly.

Give yourself ample time to study before your next attempt. You should seek the help of a tutor or take advantage of a review course. At any rate, have a good study strategy to prepare and improve your score.

Downsides To Taking The GMAT Multiple Times

It is important to consider your target school’s average GMAT score for acceptance. Retaking the GMAT Focus is unnecessary if you’ve scored higher than this. Suppose you’re in a situation where you’ve scored lower than your target school’s ideal score. In that case, it’s a good idea to retake the exam after allowing yourself adequate study time to ensure that a score improvement is warranted.

You might consider retaking the GMAT if you received a low Quant score despite being strong in college math classes. For one, this might be an easy chance to up your score without much work, and two, this low score might cause business schools to worry that the curriculum may be too rigorous for you.

Secondly, if your verbal score is low and you’re not a native English speaker, schools could potentially worry about classroom participation and recruiting. Finally, retaking the exam would reflect positively on your application if you’re looking to apply to a top-15 MBA school and know you can improve your score by at least 20 points.

Realistically, business schools are looking for the highest scores. However, that doesn’t mean that seeing that a student who took the GMAT Focus more than once is negative. Ensure that you’re planning on retaking the exam for a valid reason because schools might see retaking the exam three times and getting the same score as a negative factor.

Another important aspect is that some schools will be looking at your highest scores for each section, so be sure to brush up on your target school’s practices before planning to retake the GMAT.

Overall, schools want to see a candidate who can take the assessment and achieve their target score. Whether this takes one try or three, most business programs will look only at the highest score, with testing history not holding much weight.

Overview Of The GMAT Focus

The Graduate Management Admission Test, also known as the GMAT, is a piece of your business school application that is of utmost importance. The standardised, computer-adaptive exam is required on most business school applications.

The exam shows business schools how prepared students are to complete graduate-level work. Overall, scoring high on this assessment can show MBA programs that you’re a serious and prepared candidate and could boost your application to the next level.

The GMAT contains three sections that test an applicant’s critical thinking and analysis skills. These are the primary focus of the exam because these skills are most often used during MBA graduate-level coursework and beyond.

The three sections are Data Insights, Quantitative, and Verbal. Each section is designed to test different skills but overall assesses critical thinking and problem-solving.

Data Insights offers 20 questions in just 45 minutes. Within this section, students will see multi-source reasoning, table analysis, graphics interpretation and two-part analysis questions. Each of these question types deals with conceptually interpreting and synthesising information from different formats.

The Quant section of the GMAT boasts 21 questions and is 45 minutes long. This section encompasses mathematics problem-solving skills, computation, and data interpretation.

Lastly, the Verbal section asks participants to complete reading comprehension questions and critical reasoning problems. Participants are allowed 45 minutes and 23 questions total.

The total time length of the assessment is 2 hours and 15 minutes. The time limits for each section are one of the most difficult obstacles of this exam.

GMAT Focus Edition Eligibility Criteria 2024

The GMAT Focus Edition, conducted by the Graduate Management Aptitude Council (GMAC), is open to candidates worldwide. There is no partiality based on religion, sex, background history, educational qualification, etc. However, aspirants need to consider the basic GMAT eligibility criteria, and below are the grounds that must be fulfilled for the application of GMAT exam registration.

Age Criteria

A candidate must be 18 or older to apply for the GMAT exam without consent. Should a candidate not meet the required age (13 to 17), written proof from the guardian must be submitted to take the exam. The good thing about the GMAT is that there is no specified upper age limit. Many GMAT aspirants aged over 30 appear for the test every year. Many of them achieve tremendous success in the exam, enabling them to fulfil their dream of pursuing an MBA from a premier management school.

Qualifications Requirement

Anyone with a bachelor's degree from a recognised institute can take the GMAT Focus Edition exam. There is no minimum or maximum academic qualification limit for the test taker. Many examinees are either students in their pre-final or final year of college or working professionals. However, you can still take the exam as an add-on even if you do not fall under these categories.

Number of Attempts for GMAT

A candidate can sit for the GMAT Focus Edition exam five times in 12 months, with a 16-day gap between each re-attempt. A candidate can take up to eight attempts in a lifetime. If you score a perfect 800 on the GMAT, you must wait for five years before retaking the test, as it is the maximum score on the scale. Additionally, you need to restart your GMAT registration every time you make a fresh attempt.

Conclusion 

Understanding how many attempts you can take the GMAT is crucial for planning your MBA journey. With the ability to retake the exam multiple times, you can improve your score and enhance your business school application. By strategically preparing for each attempt and making the most of the retake policy, you can maximise your chances of achieving your desired GMAT score.

Remember, the key to success is not just the number of attempts but the quality of preparation and the lessons learned from each experience. Good luck!