Low GMAT? Applying to Full-Time MBA with Executive Assessment

Struggling to achieve your ideal GMAT score and applying Round 2 MBA?

It might make sense for you to go the executive assessment (EA) path, to give you the 2-month minimum to differentiate yourself through your applications (essays, video essays, resume, data forms, recommendation stories/talking points and possibly interview prep.) Most of the EA sections bear similarity to the GMAT. One of my super overrepresented candidates last cycle couldn't get past 710 on the GMAT but achieved an EA score in the 99th percentile with no additional prep.

UCLA Anderson recently started accepting it, adding it to the heap of other full-time programs – including Columbia, NYU, Duke, Darden, Tepper, McCombs, Georgetown, Rice, and Simon.

Between EA accepting schools (for full-time) and schools that accept waivers - you have a lot of choices.

It's extremely important to have a quality application and if you continually try to chase down a GMAT score into the month of November, you're going to miss the opportunity in front of you - influencing every other aspect of your application. Far more predictable return on investment, and I say this as someone who taught and tutored GMAT verbal for 18 years.

Please know - if your applications aren’t compelling, the test score is a moot point. I often work with (even underrepresented) applicants who have 760+ GMAT scores and were dinged in the first round. Their apps reveal the reason.

The EA is a particularly good strategy for those underrepresented. The schools are looking for a quant score that shows ability to handle the coursework. Low risk of flunking out (school financial and/or reputation juju risk.) Once you satisfy the quant criteria, they're motivated to scoop up your diversity.

Part of the reason for this - to my knowledge, none of the schools yet report the executive assessment score averages for full time in their class profile. They're not going to take a hit with the class profile if your score is a certain number.

https://www.mba.com/exams/executive-assessment/about/accepting-schools