India receives the highest number of GMAT scores from students in Asia, according to the new Asian Geographic Trend survey report released by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). GMAC is an association of the world’s leading business schools and owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).

The report also highlights the growth in GMAT testing by citizens and residents of Asia, which has increased significantly between TY 2006 and TY 2010, at 58% and 77% respectively. The Asian Geographic Trend Report identifies migratory trends among GMAT examinees applying to and attending graduate business schools.

“India is an important market for GMAC. We are happy that students are considering India among one of their preferred study destinations. This signifies brighter growth prospects for GMAC in India.” said AshishBhardwaj, Managing Director, Graduate Management Admission Council (India) Private Limited, and Regional Director, South Asia, GMAC.

According to the report, the most remarkable score-sending trend among Indian examinees since TY 2006 has been the rapid proportional shift from US programmes, primarily in favour of domestic and regional opportunities. Over this period, the proportion of scores that Indian citizens sent to the United States fell from 71% to 55%. Meanwhile, the proportion of scores sent to programmes in India increased from 9% to 14%.

Programmes in the United Kingdom and Singapore also became more attractive to Indian examinees over the time period analyzed. Nevertheless, all of Indian examinees’ top score-sending destinations received more score reports in TY 2010 than they did in TY 2006, largely due to the substantial test-taking growth over the five-year period.

Indian examinees still sent the majority of score reports to schools located in the US. There are interesting differences in score-sending behaviour, depending on gender and age. On an average, men and those aged between 25 and 30 years sent the greatest number of score reports per exam taken in TY 2010. Examinees older than 30 were more likely to send their score reports to domestic programmes, with 23% directing their scores to programmes located in India. As a group of test takers, Indian candidates sent the highest number of score reports per exam taken i.e. 4.4 against a global average of 3.

The number of GMAT exams taken by Indian citizens taken in TY 2010 decreased by 13% from TY 2009. Despite this decline, Indian examinees represent the second-largest testing group in Asia and the third-largest testing group in the world, after the US and China.

Some of the India centric key findings from the report are: