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American Students Lag Behind in GMAT
The Graduate Management Admission Test is a huge hurdle for most MBA hopefuls, but recent statistics suggest that one group in particular is really struggling. American candidates.
The GMAT is administered by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) and is typically a requirement for admission to most MBA programs. (The growth in popularity of the Graduate Records Examination is definitive but slow, and most graduate business schools continue to favor the GMAT). Over the past decade, applications from foreign students have been on the rise, and seemingly, they are performing better on the test.
The GMAT is divided into four sections: writing, integrated reasoning, quantitative and verbal. The quantitative (read: math) section is crucial for b-schools since it is so often a predictor for student success. Chinese students, who comprise 44% of b-school applicants in the U.S. are outperforming American students by a long shot. So are large numbers of applicants from India and Korea.
A loose analysis attributes the success of the foreign students to far stronger math education in elementary and high school. Some studies also show that foreign students on average put more hours into test preparation.
Whether or not the shift will be a boon to foreign students or a barrier to American students remains to be seen. Quantitative skills are undoubtedly crucial in the business school environment. But American institutions are famed globally for prizing a diversity of academic and real-world experience from their student bodies.
Nearly all business schools accept personal statements, supplemental writing samples and detailed applications from students in addition to GMAT scores. So while the new data may certainly be instructive, it is not necessarily determinative. The long-term effects on business school demographics, of course, remains to be seen.
Labels: American Students Lag Behind in GMAT
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