GMAT Application Trend Reports Shows Record Number of Women, Especially Chinese, Taking Exam
More women took the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in the 2012 testing year than ever before: 122,843, representing 43 percent of total test takers, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) reported last month.
GMAC, which owns and administers the GMAT, released its annual World, Asian and Geographic Trend reports on February 27th, revealing several interesting findings about women who are taking the GMAT. The number of women taking the exam has exceeded the previous record for each of the past three years, and in testing year 2012 women made up the majority of test takers in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.
The number of Chinese women taking the test is increasing at the fastest clip, according to GMAC. The 37,710 women who took the test this year represented a 47 percent increase over the year before (25,671) and a 98 percent increase over 2010 (19,033).
“The increase among Chinese women is miraculous,” Elissa Ellis-Sangster, executive director of the Forté Foundation, a consortium of companies and business schools working to advance women in business, told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “I think it’s a great story of the global economy, and I do think developing countries will start to take a closer look at women and their impact on the workforce,” she added.
The trio of reports from GMAC also revealed other key trends about test takers, including the fact that younger people make up a greater percentage of test takers than in the past. Specifically, 47 percent of test takers in testing year 2012 were younger than 25, up from 38 percent in 2008. And in Asian and European countries, more than half of all test takers were under 25, GMAC reports.
The trend reports also include information about where test takers are choosing to have their scores sent. Among other findings, this year’s reports reveal that more test takers are sending their scores to specialized master’s degrees in business, such as master of accountancy, finance and management. Twenty-nine percent of scores were sent to specialized programs in testing year 2012, up from 17 percent in 2008, GMAC reports.
View the complete GMAC World, Asian, and European Geographic Trend Reports.
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