{"id":9344,"date":"2012-07-03T08:57:12","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T14:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=9344"},"modified":"2012-07-09T10:43:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T16:43:09","slug":"mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When candidates ask us whether they should take the GMAT again, our instinct is always to reply with an important question: \u201cDo you think you can do better?\u201d And if the candidate does indeed believe that he\/she can improve, the individual&#8217;s next question is inevitably \u201cWhat do the business schools think of multiple scores?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, MBA programs do not frown on candidates taking the test more than once. Many candidates feel that they have to be \u201cperfect\u201d the first time and that any subsequent test they take\u2014particularly\u00a0if they receive a\u00a0lower score\u2014might be damaging. This is not the case. In fact, Dartmouth Tuck anticipates that applicants will take the test more than once, and openly states its\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tuck.dartmouth.edu\/admissions\/faqs\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">willingness to accept and then \u201cfuse\u201d candidates\u2019 highest verbal and quantitative scores, if they occur on separate tests<\/a>. Meanwhile, other programs have been known to call students and tell them that if they can increase their GMAT scores, they will be offered admission.<\/p>\n<p>From an admissions perspective, accepting a candidate&#8217;s highest GMAT scores is in an MBA program&#8217;s best interest, because doing so will in turn raise the school\u2019s GMAT average, which is then reported to rankings bodies (<em>Bloomberg Businessweek<\/em>,\u00a0<em>U.S. News &amp; World Report<\/em>, etc.) and could positively influence the school&#8217;s position in the rankings. So, do not be afraid to take the test two or even three times. It cannot really hurt you. It can only help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. When candidates ask us whether they should take the GMAT again, our instinct is always to reply with an important question: \u201cDo you think you can do better?\u201d And if the candidate does indeed believe that he\/she can improve, &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mission-admission"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. When candidates ask us whether they should take the GMAT again, our instinct is always to reply with an important question: \u201cDo you think you can do better?\u201d And if the candidate does indeed believe that he\/she can improve, &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-03T14:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-09T16:43:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. When candidates ask us whether they should take the GMAT again, our instinct is always to reply with an important question: \u201cDo you think you can do better?\u201d And if the candidate does indeed believe that he\/she can improve, &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2012-07-03T14:57:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-07-09T16:43:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times","datePublished":"2012-07-03T14:57:12+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-09T16:43:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/"},"wordCount":270,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Mission Admission"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/","name":"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-03T14:57:12+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-09T16:43:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-taking-the-gmat-multiple-times\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mission Admission: Taking the GMAT Multiple Times"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;s Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&amp;Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. With more than 20 years of experience and a background as a professional speechwriter, he combines deep industry insight and exceptional storytelling skills to help applicants create powerful, distinctive MBA applications.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/jeremy-shinewald\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeremyshinewald\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/jeremy\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}