GMAT Online or Test Centre? Why ISB and the IIMs Refuse Home Scores

The GMAT can be taken at a test centre for US$275 or online, from home, for US$300 (GMAC's base fees with India selected; its payment page says locations can carry local taxes, and the India block shows no tax line). GMAC's help centre says the format, content and scoring are the same and that "business schools accept both formats equally". For an applicant to the five Indian one-year programmes checked here, that sentence is wrong in the case that matters most. ISB's PGP and the one-year programmes at IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta and IIM Lucknow each state that they do not accept an at-home score. A candidate who takes the easier-to-schedule online test first, scores well and then applies to any of them has to sit again at a centre. Other Indian programmes were not checked; read each one's own rule.

mba.com payment page (India selected); support.mba.com; ISB, IIMA, IIMB, IIMC and IIML admission pages, read 29 Sep 2026.

ISB dates its rule: it applies "starting with the April 2025 intake", so a candidate holding an older at-home score needs a new test-centre one. IIM Bangalore's wording is tied to "EPGP 2027", so read the page again for later intakes. IIM Calcutta accepts only the GMAT for MBAEx (no GRE route appears on its policy), and all five also require the score to be recent: see the date checks in the tool below.

The exam is 64 questions in 2 hours 15 minutes: Quantitative Reasoning (21 questions), Verbal Reasoning (23) and Data Insights (20), 45 minutes each, in any order you choose, with one optional 10-minute break after the first or second section. You can review any question and change up to three answers per section on the Review & Edit screen, but only if time remains. The on-screen calculator is available in Data Insights only. Answers are not submitted automatically when time runs out: you must click Next and confirm. If you overrun the break, in either format, GMAC may deduct the excess from the next section or treat the exam as abandoned and cancel the score. What differs is the appointment: about 2.5 hours at a centre; online, about 2.5 hours including check-in with a hard limit of 3.5 hours.

There is also a simpler reason to start at a centre: a test-centre score is accepted by all five programmes checked in this guide, and GMAC says schools accept both formats, while the reverse is not true for these five. Check the rule of every other programme on your list. The extra planning (seat availability, travel on the day) costs less than a second US$275 sitting.

GMAC does not publish a list of Indian centres on the pages we read; the scheduler on mba.com shows what is available when you search. Its help centre says appointments are typically open up to six months ahead, are available year-round, and may be limited "during peak admissions periods". There is no admit card. You need an original, valid, unexpired ID whose name and date of birth exactly match your mba.com profile; testing outside your country of citizenship requires a passport. An expired passport is refused, and an ID mismatch forfeits the fee. Alternate ID must be approved at least five business days before the appointment.

ProSyllabus has no GMAT practice quizzes yet, so this guide does not point you to any. GMAC's own free Official Starter Kit on mba.com includes two full-length practice exams scored the same way as the real test.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of GMAC or of any school named here. Every rule is quoted or summarised from GMAC (mba.com, gmac.com, support.mba.com) and the schools' own admission pages; they decide every individual case.