The title of this video is "When in doubt cancel your GMAT score". This is my pet
advice to a lot of my students. What does it mean? You go and write the GMAT test.
You spend three and a half hours in the examination and at the end of completing these four
sections, you'll have a screen flashing in front of you with your GMAT
score. You'll have scores for three of the four sections. You'll have a score on a
scale of 1 to 8 for IR and a percentile corresponding to it.
You'll have a score on a scale of 0 to 60 for the verbal and the quant sections each
and the corresponding percentiles. And finally, you'll also see this overall
number between 200 to 800 - the "GMAT score" that all of us talk about and a
percentile corresponding to it. You'll have a two-minute window in the
exam centre after you've completed the test to decide whether you want to accept
this score or you want to cancel the score. Let's say you went in with an idea,
your aspiration is to get a score of 700. You did the test very well that you end
up getting a 710 in the GMAT. Obviously, no questions asked. Accept the score, walk
out, send the scores to the schools of your
choice and then get admitted and move on in life. It's a very simple
straightforward case. You wanted a 700 plus, but you ended up with a 670. Go into
the test with a clear idea about "this score is the least score that I will be
accepting". You've set that score as 700 and happy with it. You got a 670. Do
not bat an eyelid. Cancel the score. Why so? Primarily because if you accept the
score, then the score stays on record with GMAC for the next 5 years. And at
any point in time, you ask GMAC to send a score to a school, this
score is going to be reported. So let's say you got a 670, you accepted the score
and you come out and then you prepare for another month or so and then you retake
the GMAT and you get a 720 in that. When you ask GMAC to send scores to
schools with the 720, they are going to report a 670 and a 720 if you had
accepted the score on the day that you took the 670. Conversely, if you had
cancelled it, GMAT will not mention that you took the test - that 670 test at all
and what it is going to report is only the 720.
Why is it so important? Schools actually give you the benefit of doubt of the
higher score. But as test takers, we always want to present a clean slate. We
want to show that we took the GMAT one time and in that one attempt we got a 720.
Nothing harm in presenting a clean slate. Let's look at a couple of
scenarios to help us understand why this cancelling is a very good idea.
Let's say you got a 670. You cancel this score. You come out. You take the GMAT test
again and that attempt ended up being a 650. What do you do? Cancel the second
attempt and if you want to reinstate the first one, you can reinstate it. How do
you reinstate a cancelled score? The process is - You go to the official mba.com
website. You have to pay a fee to reinstate it. You can do it only once.
Once you have reinstated, you cannot cancel it again.
The fee for reinstating is $50. What is the time window available to you? That is
what makes it really sweet. The time window available is 4 years 11 months
from the time you completed the test. The duration or the validity of a score is 5
years. They're practically letting you reinstate this score anytime during this
period. You came out with a 670. You thought you will take the GMAT again.
Let's say you've got a beautiful opportunity to work abroad; you worked
abroad came back. 2 years down the line, you think that you can improve your GMAT
score, you open your GMAT books, everything looks Greek and Latin. And you've
got more experience - international experience - you think you'll apply with a
670. You can reinstate the score with $50. $50 is no mean sum of money. But think
of the freedom of choice that it gives you. It certainly makes sense to cancel it
when in doubt. So, if you have a score that you're doubtful about, cancel and
come out. You can reinstate it at a later date.
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