Planning for an MBA? Here’s When You Should Take the GMAT or GRE

Planning for an MBA? Here’s When You Should Take the GMAT or GRE

If you are planning to obtain an MBA, you’ll need to take the GMAT or GRE. When should you do that? The short answer is that sooner is generally better than later. In fact, you should consider studying for these exams while you are still in college. Your senior year is often the perfect time to take the GMAT or GRE.

MBA program applications are evaluated based on a variety of factors. Undergraduate GPA, professional progression and responsibilities, leadership, community service, and GMAT or GRE score all play a role. Many undergraduate students who know they may want to someday earn an MBA assume that the best time to study for the GMAT or GRE will be a few years before they apply. They just meld GMAT or GRE prep with the process of submitting an MBA application in their minds. But, one can take the GMAT or GRE long before they actually fill out an MBA application. Still other undergraduate students have a vague sense that getting an MBA might be something they consider in the future but have no idea if they’ll actually pursue one. These students may not even have thought about the GMAT or GRE at all.

In this article, we’ll explain why studying for an taking the GRE or GMAT while you are still in college is a reasonable way to improve your score and chances of admission to a top MBA program. And really, the same logic applies to any sort of graduate school program (which would then require the GRE, not the GMAT).

Why Could Taking the GMAT (or GRE) While You are Still in College Improve Your Score?

There are two basic reasons that studying for standardized tests while you are still an undergraduate can improve your score.

First, you probably have more time to prepare during your senior year of college than when you are in your second year of your first job. You might feel extremely busy when you are in college, particularly if you hold a leadership position in one or more organizations or are still looking for a job. However, although you can’t realize this while still in college because you can’t peer into your own future, you’ll likely be even busier when you are working full-time (i.e., with increasing amounts of responsibility, perhaps a new spouse and/or other family responsibilities, etc.). If you have more time to prep, it will be easier to build GMAT or GRE prep into your weekly schedule and consistently spend time on it.

Second, some, not all but some, of the skills you’ll need to excel on the GRE or GMAT will be much fresher when you are still in college.  Both the GMAT and the GRE test things like: mathematic ability, vocabulary skills, knowledge of grammar, problem-solving, logic, and reading comprehension skills. Although these exams are much less like academic math tests than many people believe, you’ll still need to know the rules of algebra, probability, and geometry.  If the last math class you took was 6 months ago instead of 6 years ago, you’ll be much better positioned to absorb the conceptual material so you can focus on test-taking strategy. If you haven’t taken a math class for nearly a decade, you might quickly find yourself considering a GMAT tutor.

So, if you know you want to get an MBA someday, you should strongly consider taking these exams while you are still in college. But perhaps more importantly, even if you don’t know whether you do or don’t want to get an MBA, you should still consider taking one of these exams while you are still in college.

How Long Are GMAT or GRE Scores Good For?

The astute reader might point out that GRE and GMAT scores have a shelf-life. They are not valid forever. Your GMAT score will be valid for five years from the day you take the test.  When you are applying to a top MBA program, they will treat your GMAT score the exact same whether you took it 1 month before applying or 59 months before applying. GRE scores are also valid for five years.

The fact that your GMAT or GRE score is only valid for five years is obviously relevant. You certainly don’t want to spend 12 weeks studying for the GMAT, get a great score, and then not apply to an MBA program within five years. If you follow that path and then decide you DO want to get an MBA, you’ll have to take the GMAT all over again. However, although it varies over time, typically 2-4 years of professional experience is more than enough to put forth an excellent MBA application. In fact, if you wait for 5+ years before applying for an MBA program, you can quickly become one of the older applicants. So, taking the GRE or GMAT during your senior year sort of forces you to prepare for applying to an MBA program within 5 years, which is not a bad plan.

Furthermore, many admitted students can defer matriculation for at least one year. So if you have an expiring GMAT score, you can apply, get admitted, and then defer for one year.

Should you take the GRE or GMAT?

Are you convinced you should take the GRE or GMAT during your senior year of college? Great! But which should you take? Top MBA programs all accept both. The question is how many truly treat them equally in the application review process. MBA programs typically place a slightly higher degree of importance on GMAT or GRE quant performance. And the GMAT is an MBA-specific exam that tends to be more challenging from a quant perspective. So, if you are serious about getting an MBA and want to demonstrate that to MBA programs, you might consider the GMAT. On the other hand, if your quant skills aren’t the strongest, the GRE might allow you to put a much strong foot forward. Schools may marginally prefer the GMAT, but if they see a 90th percentile GRE quant score and a 70th percentile GMAT quant score, that GRE quant score is going to be considered much more impressive.

And of course, if you are considering other types of graduate programs, the GRE makes perfect sense, since it’s accepted for MBA admissions and many other types of graduate school programs. For the college senior who really isn’t sure what the future holds, taking some time to study for the GRE is a fantastic use of time.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, the sooner you can take the GMAT or GRE, the better. The older we get, the busier we tend to get, and the more responsibilities we have (and therefore we have less time available to study). And the older we get, the longer it’s been since we engaged with the academic coursework these exams will ask us to recall.

About the Author

Mark Skoskiewicz is the founder of MyGuru, a boutique provider of private GRE tutoring and test prep for a wide variety of exams. He holds a B.S. from Indiana University and an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University. 

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Soon to be College Freshmen: Hit the Ground Running this Fall

College can be a transformative four years—socially, academically, and otherwise. And though you’ll be guided from the start by way of orientation and assignment to an advisor, one of the most significant differences between high school and college is that, for the most part, the guidance you receive is minimal. In fact, the majority of the resources available to you—related to your academic life, career, wellness, and otherwise—you’ll have to seek out and take advantage of on your own.

I want to cover three resources that you should make a point to get to know from early on in your college career and utilize throughout.

Career Services

One of the most underutilized resources on many college campuses is the career center. I highly suggest you get to know your career center and its staff starting in the fall of your freshmen year, or by spring of your freshmen year, latest.

Career services staff help students develop résumés, practice interviewing skills, learn about the job search process, and figure out a future career. This is one of the main reasons to attend college: preparation for your career and life beyond college. This preparation is, in part, something you will need to seek out. It is especially crucial if you are entering college unsure of what major path you might enjoy or are best suited for, or if while in college, you learn that the path you thought you desired is not the one for you.

Let’s look at one college in particular so you can get a sense of what is offered—Tulane University’s Career Center. Three essential services they provide:

  • Choose the right major by understanding the curriculum and related career options.
  • Online self-assessments help you get to know your interests, your skills, and your values.
  • Explore your career options by gathering information on career paths you might be considering.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! You can meet with an advisor or career coach 1:1 to get personalized advice, discuss self-assessment results, wor on your resume, pinpoint on-campus opportunities to help you explore majors and career paths, and so much more. Attending events, for example, career fairs, brown bag lunch speak series events by individuals in specific roles in specific organizations that might be of interest to you, speed networking events, etc.—there are more resources available than you will ever be able to take advantage of every semester, so chose two or three.

Do you have no ideas what any of these things are? You are not alone! That is why, not unlike the process of applying to college, you need to start this process early and work on it often. You need to familiarize yourself with the offerings at your school and begin to take advantage of them early in your college career.

Finding your best fit major and eventual career path is not something that you just wake up one day and know or that falls into your lap; you need to work on it, and work toward it. Your new school has the resources and guidance necessary, so please take advantage.

Wellness Center

You’ve probably noticed that wellness is a “thing” and it’s not just about your physical health or sick prevention. Wellness is about making healthy choices and maintaining a sound mind, body, and soul. You’ll want to strive for all three in college.

Stress prevention and management fall under the category of wellness at many schools, so you’ll see centers and related activities popping up to manage stress and other wellness related issues outside of formal health centers. Many schools even have dedicated “wellness” centers now that tackle the broader range of wellness habits and work to help students make healthy choices in all aspects of their lives as a means to support their academic, personal and professional goals.

Let’s take Tulane again, for example. They have a center called The Well that is devoted to engaging the Tulane community in creating a healthier campus, building individual capacity for health, and reducing barriers to wellness. The Well staff embrace a positive, holistic, social justice-oriented definition of health, and provide research-informed programming that acknowledges that well-being, engaged learning, academic success, citizenship, and openness to diversity are inextricably connected.

The Well provides resources on health topics relevant to the experience of university students that includes, but is not limited to:

  • Alcohol and Other Drugs;
  • Sexual Health
  • Sleep
  • Stress
  • Sexual Violence Prevention

You can meet 1:1 with a counselor, in a confidential, safe space to discuss anything that falls under any of the categories above. Keep in mind you are not alone and that many students seek help to keep their wellness in check and ensure they are working toward their best possible mind, body, and soul.

Academic Learning Center

All colleges have learning centers or offices dedicated to helping students be successful academically. The Tulane Academic Learning Center’s mission is, for example, to help students succeed in their academic career. Like most other learning centers, they offer peer tutoring, Supplemental Instruction (SI), writing coaching, pop-up review sessions, individual and group study space, workshops, and online learning resources. This is the place you go when you need help with a paper or class, need to learn new strategies to turn your B’s into A’s, or find the space to collaborate with classmates on group projects.

In high school, you might have turned to 1:1 tutoring immediately when you needed help; in college, I encourage you to first head to your learning center to explore the supports available. Many offer free or low cost 1:1 tutoring in addition to other support services.

Colleges want your experience on their campus to be a positive one. Therefore, they put the resources in place that they know you will benefit from, and create safe spaces for you to get the help you need. Never feel like you are alone in anything that you face in college, and always reach out for support—it is all around you!

And, if you feel like the resources at your new school are lacking in some way, or want even more individualized 1:1 support, let us know, as we offer affordable semester-by-semester advising packages that focus on major exploration, internship/job search, and resume/LinkedIn development.