August Academy's MBA Admissions Blog

Are you eligible to take the GMAT?

Are you eligible to take the GMAT?. If you tick all these boxes, you are good to go, ace your GMAT and get into your dream college. These points are with regards to the GMAC guidelines, the academic body that conducts the GMAT examination. 

Age Limit- You can take GMAT if you are 13 and above. However, if you are between the ages of 13 to 17, you need a parent and legal guardian to sign a permission letter to allow you to take the test. A good thing about GMAT is that there is no upper age limit to give the exam.

Nationality- There is no restriction of nationality to sit for GMAT. A problem may arise if your locality or country may not have a GMAT test center. For this, you might have to travel to the nearest GMAT test center to appear for the examination. There are restrictions regarding the ID Proof you can produce in front of the examiner before giving the exam and this varies from country to country. In India, you will need to produce your passport as ID proof.

Minimum Academic Qualification – There is no minimum or maximum qualification required to appear for the GMAT. Each year, this exam is given by several undergraduate students, graduate students, and working professionals. However, even if you don’t fall into any of these categories, you can still appear for the exam. 

Minimum Cut-off- There is no minimum cut-off required for you to give the GMAT. However, past scores, percentages, and GPA are crucial in the admission process of most colleges and universities. B-schools give a lot of importance to past academic performances. 

Work Experience – There is no requirement for any work experience to appear for the exam. Regardless, most B-Schools do expecttheir applicants to have upwards of three years of work experience. Several fresh graduates still sit for the GMAT examination, qualify and get into premier universities (through deferred MBA applications). 

Field of Study or Stream- You can appear for GMAT irrespective of your school board, college specialization, or undergraduate program. There are no restrictions. 

Medium- The medium of your education, be it Hindi, English, or any regional language in school or college doesn’t matter while appearing for GMAT. However, it is important to note that the exam will be conducted only in the English language. 

The number of attempts– There are restrictions on the number of times you can give the GMAT examination.  You can take GMAT once every 16 days. You can not give more than 5 attempts in a year and more than 8 attempts in a life-time. If you score 800, which is the highest score in GMAT, you have to wait for 5 years before you can give GMAT again. 

After these points, you must have figured out if you are eligible for GMAT or not. While these are the primary requirements to appear for the exam, the exam and the post-exam college applications can be very tricky. At August Academy, we provide counselling for MBA aspirants and guide students and help them write the perfect essays for admissions to premier B-Schools . To learn the A to Z’s of pursuing your MBA abroad at a top ranked business school, check out more of our blogs at August Academy, or attend one of our free webinars.

Leave a Comment