What GMAT score do you need for INSEAD?

This is one of the questions I get asked most, mostly because of my YouTube video on GMAT prep and getting into INSEAD. So here's the honest answer.

INSEAD doesn't publish a GMAT average. Every number you've seen online is someone else's estimate. What INSEAD does publish is a set of percentiles, and that's the number you should plan around.

What INSEAD publishes

On its MBA FAQ, INSEAD gives percentile guidance instead of an average.

• GMAT Focus. Roughly the 60th percentile on Verbal, and the 66th on Quantitative and Data Insights.
• The old GMAT. The 70th percentile or above on both quant and verbal.
• The GRE. The 80th percentile or above on verbal and quant.

A few other rules from the same FAQ. Scores are valid for five years. If you take the test more than once, INSEAD looks at every score and puts the most weight on your highest. And the test can't be waived.

INSEAD says plainly that it has no minimum GMAT score. These are recommendations, section by section. If you come from a crowded applicant group, you'll want to be comfortably above them.

How much the score really counts

I'd be lying if I told you it doesn't count. It does, but probably not to the extent you think.

What schools are really testing is pretty narrow. They want to know if you'll be able to keep up. INSEAD especially packs what's normally two years into a ten-month programme, and the score is basically a proxy for surviving that.

If you scored really well in your undergrad, the GMAT matters less. For the rest of us, since you can't go back and change your undergrad results, the GMAT is the best way to offset them.

The score I got in with

What the score did for me. In my pool (Indian, male, engineering) a 95th percentile score didn't make me stand out. It made me safe. It answered "can he keep up" and then got out of the way, and the essays did every bit of the differentiating. If I'd scored higher with the same essays, I honestly don't think a single decision would've changed. If I'd scored a fair bit lower, I think some would have.

I started studying in September 2022, working full time in Tokyo. My first attempt, in a test centre in November, came back at 680, around the 85th percentile. Not good enough.

I took another four weeks, studied the weak areas, and sat it online in the first week of January. That one came back at 710, around the 95th percentile. I applied with the 710, and I got in.

Old GMAT, GMAT Focus and the GRE

I sat the old GMAT. Since late 2023 there's only one version, the GMAT Focus Edition, and the scores run on a different scale.

• Scores run from 205 to 805, in steps of ten, with each section scored 60 to 90.
• The numbers are lower than the old scale, so don't compare them directly. My old 680 sits around a 615 on Focus, and my 710 around a 655.
• So don't go chasing a "710" on the new scale. Chase the percentile.

If your practice scores are stronger on the GRE, it's a real option at INSEAD.

How INSEAD compares

For context, here's where some other schools sit on GMAT Focus, from their own class profiles. LBS gives one number, around 645, with a typical range of 555 to 805. Most American schools land between about 670 and 690.

The European schools generally sit lower than the American ones and publish far less. So if you're applying to both, the American schools set your target, not INSEAD.

How I studied, while working full time

This is the bit I get asked about most, so here's the whole method.

Baseline first. Before I studied anything, I sat a full practice test cold, timed. That told me where I was already fine, where I was weak, and how long I was taking per question.

Learn the concepts. I went through the Magoosh video lessons first, then paid for the question bank to practise. When I found a specific area I was weak in, I'd go to e-GMAT for that exact topic. Their explanations were what moved my weak sections. No affiliate links, these are just what I used.

A practice test every two weeks. I bought the official practice exams from mba.com. Every second weekend I sat one, timed. Between tests I'd log where I'd gone wrong and spend the fortnight on those concepts. I took six to eight of them, maybe more.

Simulate the real thing at the end. For the last two or three tests, I set up my room exactly as the exam would be. Clean desk, whiteboard and pen, the same breaks, no phone. By test day the format itself was boring, which is what you want.

The hours. At least three hours every evening after work, and most of each weekend. About four months in total, across both attempts. I won't pretend it was fun.

Keep an error log

Every wrong answer and every lucky guess goes in a log: the section, the question type, why you got it wrong, and the concept to review.

After two or three tests, the same three or four concepts keep appearing, and that's your study plan for the next fortnight. Without the log you end up re-studying things you already know, because it feels productive.

What my log kept saying. Permutations and combinations, over and over. I could not get them to stick, and that's where most of my targeted practice went. And, of all things, sentence correction on the verbal side. Neither of those would've been my guess before the log. That's the point of it.

Test centre or at home?

The test centre. I have ADHD, and I should've thought about this sooner. Once I was in, I could hear everyone else clicking their mice and hitting their keyboards. The noise-cancelling headphones they hand out did nothing. The keys on my keyboard were stiff and didn't always register. By the second section I was so overstimulated I could barely read the question in front of me. That's the 680. None of it was the test.

If you get distracted by noise, or you just don't know how you'll react to a room full of strangers clicking, I'd honestly take it at home. It's the one thing you can't practise for.

When to stop

Do your best on the GMAT and don't stress over it more than it deserves. It's one of five parts of the application, and it's the only one with a fixed ceiling.

If you're comfortably above INSEAD's percentiles, a third attempt is usually worth less than a month on your essays. That's where people actually get in.

Do this now

Sit one official practice test this week, timed, before you study anything. Put the score into the score converter and see where you stand against INSEAD and the other schools on your list.

Then start the error log on day one. It decides what you study next.