Indians competitive, value MBA more

Updated on: Saturday, January 22, 2011

"This is often reflected in GMAT scores. We have found that students who come from countries which lay a great emphasis on high-stakes tests tend to perform better in the GMAT", says Alex Chisholm, senior analyst, research and development, with the Graduate Management Admission Council, the body that conducts GMAT. While the worldwide average score in the quantitative section was 37, for India, it was 42. India also had a higher average total score (578) when compared to the global average (544).

"Indians are, to a large extent, more competitive than the rest of the world .We value an MBA degree far more. Others arent hungry for an MBA the way we are. If an American gets a good job as an undergraduate, theres little chance that he will pursue a postgraduate degree, whereas in India, many hit the glass-ceiling without an MBA", said overseas education consultant Pratibha Jain. She also points to the fact that in India, an MBA improves ones social status and self-image.
Chinas performance, overall as well as for the quantitative section, is also better than Indias. Jain said this could be because Chinese students are more disciplined than Indians,who often get complacent. "Engineering courses in China lay greater emphasis on quantitative analysis. The Chinese know that while language is a handicap for them, math is their strength and so they work to excel at it", Jain said.

When it comes to quantitative analysis, the gap between India and China is rather wide, with several countries including Taiwan, Japan and South Korea ranking higher than India. GMAT scores from the US come as a bit of a surprise. Though the US has over 1.27 lakh GMAT test takers, more than double the number for India and China put together, the average quantitative score as well as the average total score for the US is less than the global average. US scores are lower than those from India and China. Chisholm said this was probably because Indian GMAT candidates can afford overseas education and are more privileged than most Indian students, whereas the US student pool is more diverse, with students from different strata of US society.

Indians competitive, value MBA more

More Education news