In July, GMAC initiated a new change on GMAT: test takers can now preview their unofficial scores before deciding whether to report or cancel them. Will GMAT score preview really make any change? Shall we use it?
What is GMAT score preview exactly?
GMAT test takers can cancel their score. But before the change, if they decided to cancel the scores, they would not be able to see what they actually got in the exam. So this decision was, on many cases, based on “the feeling”.
With GMAT score preview, you can actually see the score before you make the decision. Even if you choose cancel in the exam date, you would still be able to reinstate your score within 60 days with a fee of USD 100. Such a change intends to make the decision more rational. But will it?
What will GMAT score preview actually change?
As to the test takers, at least there is one piece of good news: no matter how badly you feel in the exam, you would know your exact score. Also sometimes “feeling” is not accurate, with the score preview, you would never cancel a “decent” score. But if you really see a bad score, should you cancel it?
Before we go further, you need to remember one thing: if you cancel your score, the schools would know it because a “cancelled” would be shown in the report sent by GMAT, which contains all your attempt in the last five years. So the key question is which is worse: a bad score or a “canceled”?
In B-School admission, one rule works: if you do not report something adequately, for example a gap in your career, a failed subject in the university, etc., the school tends to interpret it in the worst case. With this rule: if you cancel your GMAT score, the school would think it was a really bad attempt. For instance, if they see a 650, a cancelled, and a 700. They would probably guess the cancelled one around 620.
So here is our suggestion: unless you saw a disastrous result in the score preview (in the previous case anything below 620), you should choose to keep the score.