Established in 1953, The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is a global association of leading graduate business schools. An international non-profit organization of business schools, GMAC offers products and services to educational institutions and potential graduate management students.
GMAC owns and administers the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT exam). More than 2 lakh aspirants take the GMAT Exam every year. GMAC is governed by a 15-member board of directors that includes representation from business schools and private industry.
GMAT is the most widely accepted exam by graduate business schools globally and is used for admission to more than 7000 graduate programs worldwide. The popularity of the GMAT Exam can be ascertained by the fact that globally 9 out of 10 MBA enrollments are done through GMAT Scores. The GMAT Exam is created by business schools for business schools.
Apart from this, GMAC also owns NMAT, which is used for getting admission to graduate management programs in India and South Africa. Also, the Executive Assessment is an admission exam specially designed for executive MBA programs. GMAC's head office is based in the USA with its offices in India, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. This organization aims to provide state-of-the-art solutions to schools and prospective students to evaluate each other.
The CEO of GMAC has detailed what keeps him going, he replied “Relevance. How relevant is GMAC as an organization to the industry it serves, and how relevant are our products? I worry about the model by which we deliver standardized tests, and I worry about information between schools and students coming together. We do a lot of research into students’ mindsets and their attitudes about applying to business schools. It is primarily driven by anxiety, so how can we reduce that particular anxiety and how can we make the process of finding, selecting and applying to a business school more streamlined?”.
GMAC aims to solve the common problem of the application process of business schools around the world. With time, the usage of technology has also evolved the test, which has benefitted not only the organizing body but aspirants giving this test. Right from its inception, GMAC had brought the students and schools together. GMAC is committed to offering world-class solutions to schools and prospective candidates across the world so they can evaluate each other and no talent goes unnoticed.
Commonly asked questions
GMAT exam is conducted all around the year for students in India or abroad. Students can apply to any of the chosen GMAT exam dates and register according to their score submissions. GMAT exam is though condusted all around the year, in all the months and all days of the week, there may be date exceptions in some GMAT exam centres. Students may not always find GMAT exam dates suitable based on their choice as centres fill up quickly. Thus, students can check out the GMAT exam dates beforehand and prepare themselves for applications.
GMAT is a standardized exam, score of which are used for obtaining admissions to B-schools abroad and in India as well. Most of the US, UK, Italian, Australian and Canadian universities accept GMAT scores for admissions to MBA programs. Students who are pplying for MBA or MS in Management related courses may have to submit GMAT scores. GMAT is now GMAT Focus Edition, thus, those who are applying for the first time can submit GMAT Focus scores, while those who have previously taken GMAT can submit the scores if they still are valid.
Only five attempts in a year are permitted for taking GMAT exam. Also those who take the GMAT exam on a particular date but want to appear again, will have to wait for 16 days to re-appear. This rule applies for both GMAT's home testing and taking a test at the centre. Thus, applicants can take GMAT exam back to back every month, but they have to keep this in mind, that they will have to give 16 days break between testing dates and can appear for the exam only five times in a year.
There are two modes of GMAT exam, which are as follows:
- Applicants can take GMAT exam online either at home or at any location of their convenience.
- For those who want to give the GMAT exam traditionally, can go for the GMAT exam at an exam centre.
The content, duration, syllabus and pattern of both GMAT exam modes are similar. The only difference is the GMAT exam fee. GMAT online exam is more expensive than appearing for the GMAT exam at the exam centre, which is USD 300 and USD 275 respectively.