Exam · MBA Entrance · Live
GMAT
Conducted by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)
Admission to graduate management and business programmes worldwide — MBA, Executive MBA and specialised business master's degrees. Scores are accepted by over 7,700 programmes at more than 2,400 business schools. Since the retirement of the previous (10th) edition in early 2024, the Focus Edition is the only version offered, and GMAC now brands it simply as 'the GMAT exam'.
- Volume
- 1.5 lakh candidates a year
- Geography
- Global
- Syllabus topics
- 106
- Bank
- 4,600+ practice questions
- Access
- Exam Pro · ₹99/mo · 3-day trial · includes Explore Pro
Four instruments, one subscription.
- Syllabus map
- Previous year questions, where the bank exists
- Mock tests and weak-area diagnostics
- Five explanations on every question
- Explore Pro included with Exam Pro
How the paper is built.
- GMAT exam (single sitting)
The GMAT does not use a fixed per-question mark scheme, so no integer values apply. It is a computer-adaptive test: question difficulty adjusts to performance in real time, and the scaled section score reflects the number of questions answered correctly, the difficulty of those questions, and other statistical characteristics of the items. There is NO negative marking — points are not deducted for a wrong answer. There is, however, a penalty for questions left unanswered at the end of a section, which is why the standard guidance is to guess on every remaining item rather than leave blanks. The three section scores are weighted equally in computing the Total Score.
With no deduction for a wrong answer the break-even accuracy is zero, and because unanswered items at the end of a section are penalised, blanks are strictly worse than guesses — always answer every question before the section timer expires (note that on an adaptive test a wrong answer still shapes the difficulty of what follows, so this is a rule about pacing, not a licence to guess early).
The calendar, and who can sit it.
- Qualification
- GMAC sets no minimum educational qualification, degree requirement or work-experience requirement to sit the exam. Individual business schools set their own admission prerequisites (typically a completed undergraduate degree), which are separate from exam eligibility.
- Age
- 18+
- Attempts
- Up to 5 attempts in any rolling 12-month period, counting test-centre and online sittings combined. A minimum of 16 days must elapse between attempts. There is no lifetime attempt cap — the former lifetime limit is absent from GMAC's current official Policies and Procedures document. Two special bars apply: a candidate who has achieved a perfect Total Score of 805 must wait 5 years before testing again, and a candidate who requests deletion of their GMAC account must wait 5 years before testing again. A cancelled score still counts toward the rolling 12-month total.
- Nationality
- Open to candidates of any nationality. The exam is administered worldwide except where prohibited, subject to US and applicable local law; some locations impose additional registration, tax or identification requirements.