Tag Archives: GMAT

MBA Adcom, MBA Admissions

The Myth of the Super-700s GMAT

For many MBA applicants, now is GMAT or GRE test-taking season. Below is a piece I wrote years ago on Business Week b-school site, but the issue does not go away. So I hope it gives a new cohort of MBA applicants a strategic reality check in terms of how a GMAT or GRE score helps and hurts in MBA admissions, and therefore what score is needed:

I had a MBA admissions client recently who I’ll call Tim, and when Tim and I got talking about his admissions profile he told me he’d scored 720 on the GMAT, and then retaken the test (and scored the same again). I nearly dropped the phone. “Why would anyone ever want to retake a 720 GMAT?” I gasped.

The truth is, I know why. Candidates think the higher they score, the better their chances of admission. It seems obvious. But is it right?

Of course the test score is crucial. It tells Adcom about an applicant’s intellectual and cognitive skills, and is particularly useful in allowing easy comparison across institutions and undergraduate majors, and to some extent across cultures. Furthermore, every 10-point gain does add to candidates’ admissions prospects, and a move of 30 or so fundamentally changes which b-schools they can legitimately hope to get into. All true.

But this is true only up to a certain level, about the 700-740 range. After this, a higher score has steeply diminishing returns and can even harm one’s chances.

Why? Two reasons. First, although the MBA is a post-graduate university degree, it is primarily professional education. Its fundamental task is to prepare and place people in business management positions, not academic positions. Managers need to be smart but, as everyone knows, the cleverest people don’t necessarily make the best managers, nor best entrepreneurs, or bankers, or consultants. Jack Welch, Herb Kelleher, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc., are smart enough. But they are not Einsteins.

MBA programs are not looking for brainiacs.

Therefore, an ultra-high GMAT can be harmful. Scoring in the super bracket (750+) means that you are, by definition, in the 99th percentile. People who score like that are often better pure scientists or philosophers, than managers. It’s a stereotype, and perhaps a poor one, but the absent-minded professor is commonly associated with being a poor people-person and a poor manager. If you get a very high score, Adcom will be absolutely sure to thoroughly check and almost disbelieve that you are also a leader and team player and can manage adversity and do all the practical things you need to get done in a business day.

Maybe you can and do. But an extra burden of proof falls on you in this regard if you are in the GMAT stratosphere.

The second, related, problem is it takes a mix of talents to get admitted to a competitive school. The operative term here is “mix.” Academic ability is just one of many items considered, along with career potential, leadership potential, team player profile, work experience, volunteer experience, profile diversity, and so on. Academic ability is definitely a requirement, but so are many other attributes. This reflects the multifaceted demands of a real business career.

People who obsess with improving an already 700+ GMAT are, almost certainly, taking time and effort away from improving the rest of their admissions profile.

This is how it works: a threshold is reached (depending on GPA results and other  variables) at around the 700 level, where Adcom can safely put a check mark next to your academic ability, and move on to see what else you offer. If you are too far below the school’s average GMAT, yes, nothing else you are, do, or say will count.

But once you hit the threshold, it’s pointless to keep knocking in that nail. A higher GMAT won’t check any other box than “cognitively capable” and chances are it’s already checked at 700. A super-score is not going to help you if your recommendations are so-so, your essays are undeveloped, and you stumble in your interview. Adcom greatly prefers balanced excellent to unbalanced stratospheric.

This also explains why there is more flexibility in GMAT-score accepted than most candidates realize. If the rest of your application is good, and your undergraduate transcript is soild, you may get in despite being 40 or 50 points below the school’s published GMAT average (providing not too lopsidedly in Math or Verbal.)

Obviously, the published average means that half of accepted applicant’s scores are below that mark.

Bottom line: It makes sense to be concerned with the GMAT until it is broadly within the guidelines of your target program. Then forget about it and focus on the rest of your application.

Leadership, MBA Admissions

Best Leaders Have Normal IQs: Implication For GMAT

I’ve written over the years on why a too-high GMAT or GRE hurts MBA applicants, see Myth of 800, and Don’t overcook,  among many times I’ve addressed this. Short story: in general brainiacs don’t make particularly good practical managers, or leaders, or team players. That perception hurts admissions prospects.

So I was interested to see the World Economic Forum (WEF) recently posting: “Being too intelligent might make you a less effective leader,” based on research out of the University of Lausanne, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Here’s the gist of the WEF piece: “Having a very high IQ is not necessarily such a good thing when it comes to leadership – the brightest people are actually less effective leaders, according to new research…

“Intelligence showed a positive linear relationship with leadership effectiveness up to a certain point. But the association flattened out and then started to reverse at an IQ of about 120.

“When the leaders’ IQ scores rose to 128 or above, the association with less effective leadership methods was clear and statistically significant.

“And these leaders demonstrated less transformational and instrumental leadership than leaders with a lower IQ…

“The highly intelligent leaders were not using harmful leadership styles, such as adopting a laissez-faire approach. But they did struggle to adopt the best leadership practices.

“One of the reasons may be that very clever people sometimes fail to communicate clearly enough or explain complex tasks. They may also struggle to see what others find challenging. And if a manager comes across as too intellectual, it may make the leader appear aloof or unapproachable.”

Right or wrong, Einsteins of the world have to manage the unspoken MBA adcom question that arises: is this person not a better professor or scientist, etc?

Were you to have a super-high 750+ GMAT (or GRE) you would need to talk a lot about practical everyday achievements with normal people, in the real world.

If you don’t have this monkey on your back, then really don’t set out to acquire it! Worry about your standard test score until you have a balanced Q/V 700 or so (for top 15 schools), then focus on other parts of your application which are just as important, and which you are probably neglecting due to GMAT prep.