Last Updated on May 12, 2023
It’s not news to any MBA hopeful that the GMAT is a difficult but defining step on the path to business school. What isn’t clear, however, is how high to shoot when it comes to a GMAT score. So, what exactly is a “good” or “great” GMAT score? As we’ll discuss, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of what a good GMAT score is. Of course, there are some benchmarks that anyone applying to business school can use to determine what score to aim for when engaging in GMAT study.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how business school admissions officers weigh the GMAT against other factors in an applicant’s profile, how to figure out what will be considered “good” or “great” by your schools of choice, and 5 Golden Rules for deciding whether to shoot for a good GMAT score or a great one.
- Your GMAT Score Can Work For or Against You
- How Your GMAT Score Is Balanced With Other Factors
- The Influence of GMAT Score Percentiles
- How Good is a Good Enough GMAT Score?
- How GMAT Section Scores Are Viewed by Business Schools
- The 5 Golden Rules For Setting Your GMAT Score Goal
First, let’s look at how business schools use the GMAT to evaluate applicants.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of what a good GMAT score is.
Your GMAT Score Can Work For or Against You
Business schools generally take a holistic approach to evaluating their applicants, meaning that they never take one factor in isolation when deciding whether to admit an applicant. Nevertheless, business schools tend to regard the GMAT as a reliable predictor of a student’s ability to succeed in business school. So, if your GMAT score falls toward the lower end of the school’s class profile, your GMAT score could become a red flag on your application. On the other hand, if your GMAT score is at or above the average score at your target school, then admissions will look upon your application more favorably.
So, you can see how crucial a good GMAT score may be in convincing your dream school that you deserve admission, particularly if you need to offset weak factors in your application or distinguish yourself among applicants with similar profiles. Let’s talk about those two scenarios now.
KEY FACT:
A good GMAT score may be crucial in convincing a school that you deserve admission, particularly if you need to offset weak factors in your application or distinguish yourself among similar applicants.
How Your GMAT Score Is Balanced With Other Factors
In order to balance the overall class profile and form a diverse class, each business school has a quota for applicant profiles. Consequently, you will be compared with other applicants whose profiles are similar to yours. Some applicants, such as people employed in consulting or investment banking, are overrepresented in MBA applicant pools for some schools. Because they are overrepresented, such applicants typically need to earn higher GMAT scores to stand out among their peers.
An above-average GMAT score also can offset a GPA that is low for admission to a particular school or poor performance in quant-specific courses on your undergraduate record. On the other hand, if you have a below-average GMAT score for a particular school, you will need to demonstrate that you are “above average” in other areas of your application, in order to show admissions that you have the ability to cope with the school’s coursework. In other words, MBA admissions officers will look for other signs of academic proficiency, such as a stellar GPA or CPA/CA/CFA certification. Keep in mind, those other indicators may need to be quite strong if your GMAT score falls short of your target school’s average.
Luckily, earning a competitive GMAT score is entirely within your control. If you work hard and study smart, your GMAT score can be a bright spot on your application.
KEY FACT:
MBA applicants in overrepresented groups, such as people working in consulting or investment banking, typically need to earn higher GMAT scores to stand out among their peers.
The Influence of GMAT Score Percentiles
As we’ve already seen, when it comes to GMAT scores, the definition of “good” varies from school to school and from applicant to applicant. However, there is a general score range that is considered “good” based on the GMAT percentiles associated with that range, relative to the 3-year median score published by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). Currently, this “good” score range is 650 to 690, or scores with a percentile ranking between 73% and 85%. As you’ll see in the chart below, this range is significantly higher than the latest 3-year median GMAT score of 563.43 (41st percentile).
| Total Score | Percentile Ranking |
|---|---|
| 800 | 99% |
| 790 | 99% |
| 780 | 99% |
| 770 | 99% |
| 760 | 99% |
| 750 | 98% |
| 740 | 97% |
| 730 | 96% |
| 720 | 94% |
| 710 | 90% |
| 700 | 88% |
| 690 | 85% |
| 680 | 82% |
| 670 | 80% |
| 660 | 77% |
| 650 | 73% |
| 640 | 68 |
| 630 | 66 |
| 620 | 62 |
| 610 | 58 |
| 600 | 55 |
| 590 | 51 |
| 580 | 48 |
| 570 | 45 |
| 560 | 41 |
| 550 | 38 |
| 540 | 36 |
| 530 | 32 |
| 520 | 30 |
| 520 | 28 |
| 510 | 26 |
| 500 | 24 |
| 490 | 22 |
| 480 | 20 |
So, a score of 670, which is ranked at 80% (a strong GMAT score percentile), means that 20% of test-takers scored higher than you scored and is generally considered a good score. However, while a score such as 670 is much higher than the 3-year median and is thus considered “good,” that score may or may not be good enough when viewed in light of your overall applicant profile or your target school’s average or median score.
KEY FACT:
The definition of a good GMAT score varies from school to school and applicant to applicant; however, a score between 650 and 690 is generally considered good.
So, exactly how good does your GMAT score need to be in order for you to stand out among your peers? Let’s take a look.
How Good is a Good Enough GMAT Score?
In general, a good GMAT score is one that is equal to your target school’s median or average score, and a great GMAT score is one that exceeds the school’s median or average. Another useful rule of thumb for ensuring that your GMAT score will be considered “good enough” for admission to your target school is to aim for what is known as “the middle 80%.”
KEY FACT:
In general, a good GMAT score is equal to your target school’s median or average score, and a great GMAT score exceeds the school’s median or average.
The middle 80% is the range within which the majority of people in a school’s current class scored, with 10% of the class scoring higher than that range and 10% scoring lower. Of course, those ranges can be quite broad; for instance, the chart below shows that the middle 80% of the current class at MIT Sloan earned GMAT scores ranging from 690 to 760 — a 70-point swing.
| # | School | GMAT Score Range | Median | Average (Mean) GMAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard (HBS) | 590-800 | 730 | 731 |
| 2 | Wharton | 540-790 | 730 | 732 |
| 3 | Stanford | 600-790 | n/a | 734 |
| 4 | INSEAD | 660-750 | n/a | 711 |
| 5 | CEIBS | 640-740 (middle 80%) | 690 | 681 |
| 6 | MIT Sloan | 690-760 (middle 80%) | n/a | 727 |
| 7 | London Business School | 600-780 | 700 | 701 |
| 8 | Columbia | 560-790 | 730 | 736 |
| 9 | HEC Paris | 570-780 | 680 | 690 |
| 10 | University of Chicago: Booth | 570-780 | n/a | 730 |
| 11 | Northwestern University: Kellogg | 620-780 | n/a | 730 |
| 12 | UC Berkeley | 690-760 (middle 80%) | n/a | 725 |
| 13 | Michigan (Ross) | 640-740 | 720 | 719 |
| 14 | Dartmouth (Tuck) | 620-780 | n/a | 723 |
| 15 | Yale SOM | 640-720 | 720 | 721 |
| 16 | NYU Stern | 680-750 (middle 80%) | 720 | 721 |
| 17 | Duke (Fuqua) | 660-740 (middle 80%) | 710 | 705 |
| 18 | Virginia (Darden) | 600-780 | 720 | 713 |
| 19 | UCLA Anderson | 680-750 (middle 80%) | n/a | 719 |
| 20 | Cornell (Johnson) | n/a | 700 | 697 |
| 21 | Oxford (Saïd) | n/a | 690 | 692 |
| 22 | Cambridge (Judge) | 640-730 (middle 80%) | n/a | 691 |
| 23 | IESE | 620-730 | 680 | 681 |
So, which end of the spectrum should you aim for? If, to use the previous example, you’re planning to apply to MIT Sloan, where the average undergraduate GPA of the 2021 class is 3.6, and your GPA is below that average, you’ll want a GMAT score closer to 760 (or above). Likewise, if your application falls a bit short in some other area — perhaps your work experience is lacking compared to that of the average admitted student — you’ll want to be at that higher end of the middle 80%. On the other hand, if your overall profile is strong, a score that falls around Sloan’s average of 727 might look solid in your application. Furthermore, if your GMAT score is at the lower end of the middle 80%, which would be below the average score, you’ll know that the other aspects of your application will need to be very strong in order to assure MBA admissions officers that you’ve got what it takes to excel in the program.
You can apply this same logic to score ranges at schools that don’t disclose the middle 80%. For example, the GMAT score range for all admitted students in the current class at the Northwestern University’s Kellogg School is 620 to 780, with an average GMAT score of 730. If you have weak points in your application, you’ll know that you want a GMAT score that is higher than the average, but looking at the class score range, you can get a better sense of how high you may need to score. Does this score range indicate that if your GPA is below average, you must score 780 on the GMAT in order to be accepted to Kellogg? No, of course not. But, depending on how many weak points you need to offset in your application, you may want to shoot for a GMAT score that is closer to the top score of 780 than to the average score of 730.
Assuming that your application is generally strong and you don’t have particular weak points that you’re hoping to offset, a score that just beats the median or average GMAT score at your target school would likely be viewed as “great” by MBA admissions officers. For example, if you are applying to Oxford, then 700 should be considered a great GMAT score, as it exceeds both the 690 median and the 692 average. However, if you’re applying to Harvard, where the median and average are 730 and 731, respectively, then 700 would be considered only a “good” GMAT score, and a score such as 740 would be considered great.
TTP PRO TIP:
Use the middle 80% score range as a guide for determining what GMAT score you need to earn to be competitive at your target schools.
Now that we know what GMAT scores schools generally consider “good” or “great,” let’s take a look at how business schools tend to consider individual section scores on the GMAT.
How GMAT Section Scores Are Viewed by Business Schools
For the most part, your scores on the Quant and Verbal sections of the GMAT make up what is considered a good GMAT score. If you underperform in those sections, there is a good chance that you won’t be satisfied with your Total Score. Whereas, if your Integrated Reasoning and Analytical Writing Assessment aren’t quite top-notch, you still have a solid shot at earning a great GMAT score.
Although your best bet is to spend sufficient time preparing for both the Quant and Verbal sections if you hope to earn a high GMAT score, it’s no secret that top business schools are highly quant-driven. Many top-ranked MBA programs pride themselves on the quantitative nature of their courses, so such programs place particular emphasis on the Quant section of the GMAT, preferring to see scores of 47+.
Along with Total Score ranges, you often (but not always) can find the current class’ Quant and Verbal score ranges on a program’s website. HBS, for instance, lists the middle 80% score ranges and median scores in Quant and Verbal. This information provides a good case study: the middle 80% section score ranges of the 2021 class at HBS are Verbal 31-51 and Quant 38-51, and the median section scores are Verbal 41 and Quant 48. You’ll notice that both the median score and bottom end of the middle 80% score range are lower in Verbal than in Quant. Of course, if your score dips too low in Verbal, then your GMAT Total Score is likely to miss the mark. In fact, Verbal has a greater impact on the GMAT Total Score than Quant does. So, if you want to earn a high GMAT score, don’t expect to do so by neglecting Verbal and focusing solely on Quant.
Similarly, although I’ve yet to come across an MBA applicant who was rejected solely because of a lackluster IR or AWA score, you don’t want to give business school admissions officers any reason to doubt your readiness for business school. Many GMAT students are well aware of the fact that only their performance in the Quant and Verbal sections is used to calculate the GMAT Total Score, so they make the mistake of disregarding how low scores in IR and AWA could affect their applications. Don’t make this mistake! If you fail to invest any time in preparing for or completely answering the IR or AWA sections, admissions may wonder whether you have all the skills necessary and the motivation to succeed in business school. So, spend some time toward the end of your GMAT preparation studying for the IR and AWA sections. In general, an IR score of 5+ and an AWA score of 5.0+ are considered good.
TTP PRO TIP:
If you are targeting a top business school, aim for a GMAT Quant score of 47+.
Now, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the different factors that go into determining what “good” and “great” GMAT scores are and what score is good enough for you. Not to worry! The following 5 Golden Rules can help keep you on track as you set your score goal.
The 5 Golden Rules For Setting Your GMAT Score Goal
Golden Rule 1: A GMAT score that is equal to your target school’s median or average score is a good GMAT score.
Golden Rule 2: A GMAT score that is higher than your target school’s median or average score is a great GMAT score.
Golden Rule 3: If your GMAT score is below your target school’s average score, you should consider retaking the GMAT before applying to that school.
Golden Rule 4: Aim to score within a school’s middle 80% score range, and if there are weak points in your profile, aim for the upper end of that range.
Golden Rule 5: If you come from an overrepresented group, such as consultant or investment banker, aim for a great GMAT score to distinguish yourself from your competition.
To learn more about how the GMAT is scored, check out our articles on whether you need the GMAT Enhanced Score Report and whether spending extra time on the first 10 questions in the Quant and Verbal sections can boost your GMAT score.
Happy studying!
