FACTORS AFFECTING GMAT PREDICTIVE VALIDITY FOR FOREIGN MBA STUDENTS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Authors: Wilson Kenneth M. 
Published: September 2014

The primary aim of this cooperative study was to assess the role of selected English‐proficiency related test and background variables as moderators of the relationship between scores on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), and first year average grade (FYA) in samples of foreign MBA students. The study was guided by working hypotheses specifying that GMAT/FYA correlations would be systematically higher for students with higher levels of English proficiency than for those with lower levels of English proficiency. Levels of proficiency were defined operationally (a) by native‐English speaking vs non‐native English speaking status, (b) score levels on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and (c) score levels on a Relative Verbal Performance Index (RVPI)—a derived test variable reflecting level of GMAT verbal score relative to that expected for U.S. examinees with given quantitative scores. It was also hypothesized that GMAT/FYA correlations would be higher (a) for students from countries whose U.S.‐bound nationals typically earn higher average scores on TOEFL than for students from countries with typically lower‐scoring student contingents, and (b) for samples that were completely homogeneous with respect to country of citizenship than in more general samples.

Data were supplied by 59 U.S. schools of management for 1,762 foreign non‐native speakers of English (English second language or ESL) and 157 foreign native speakers (English primary language or EPL). Continuous variables (e.g., GMAT verbal and quantitative score, TOEFL Total score, FYA, and so on) were standardized by school—that is, expressed as deviations from school means in school standard deviation units—and then pooled for analysis.

GMAT quantitative scores were found to be more valid than GMAT verbal scores for essentially all subgroups of foreign students. For the EPL foreign sample, GMAT V/FYA and Q/FYA correlations were similar to medians reported by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) validity study service (VSS) for 85 samples of U.S. MBA students; this was true as well for ESL students scoring 600 or higher on TOEFL and for those in the upper two‐thirds with respect to the RVPI index. GMAT/FYA correlations were higher for students from European countries, and from Asian countries with an established English‐speaking tradition (e.g., India, Malaysia, the Philippines), than for students from other Asian countries (e.g., Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Korea) and the Middle East. TOEFL/FYA and GMAT V/FYA correlations were similar.

It was found that the mean relative standing of various country‐contingents in terms of first year grades tended to correspond more closely with relative standing on the less valid verbal measure than with standing on the more valid quantitative measure. One conclusion was that for these samples of non‐native speakers of English, differences in English‐language background affected (artifactually depressed) both performance on the GMAT verbal measure and first‐year performance in the MBA programs.

Findings suggested that a set of subgroup prediction systems would likely be better than any general system for foreign MBA students.