India outclasses US in GMAT scores

India has reasons to cheer when it comes to GMAT, one of the world's most popular exams for MBA. One, the ever-rising number of women taking the exam; and, two, one of the highest GMAT scores in the past five years.

The number of women seeking admission to MBA courses globally has seen a significant jump in the past few years, making them almost 43% of the total candidates. This is true in India too, with the number of women taking GMAT going up to 7,812 from 6,714 five years ago, says "The profile of GMAT Candidates: 2007-08 to 2011-12", released by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the testing agency.

In 2011-12, 1,22,843 women wrote the test as against 85,473 a decade ago, a 43.7% increase.

According to the study, the GMAT score of Indians has shot up over the past five years. The score was 568 in 2007-08, but fell to 565 in the next year. In the next three years, it was 578, 581 and 582 respectively.

China, with a population similar to that of India, had a score of 588 in 2011-12 and, therefore, is one of India's biggest competitors.

Belgium (597), Argentina (595), Australia (598), Hungary (585), South Korea (586) and Britain (587) have a better GMAT score than India's. However, the US is far behind with 533.

"We should not compare ourselves with these countries. The number of GMAT takers there is far less than that in India. For instance, it is as less as 200 for Hungary. We should, rather, focus on countries like China, which has a sizeable population like ours. It is best to look out for future competition between India and China," says Rashmi Gowda, director, CSquare Learnings Pvt Ltd, a GMAT training agency.

China is the top contributor in South Asia to the increasing number of students joining MBA, followed by India. While the candidates joining the course from Business-Commerce background went up at average annual growth rate of 5.1% and that of Social Sciences 2.5%, other streams like that of engineering, humanities and Science have dropped by 1% to 2%. Business-Commerce makes up 55% of the total profiles and engineering another 16.4%. Candidates from humanities and Science background form a mere 5%. There were even a 1000 candidates from fine arts. Social Sciences formed another 16%.

East and Southeast Asia, the region to which India belongs, showed the highest growth rate in sending applicants, almost doubling the number to 77,800 in five years.