Beginning in March, GMAT® registrations for 2006 began to outpace registrations for the same period in 2005. Currently, the number of test takers registered for the exam is higher for this period than it has been since 2003.

Early data from the 2006 GMAC® Application Trends Survey also show that application volume is higher than it was this time last year, further signaling a positive trend in the demand for the MBA.

Testing volume for the first six weeks of 2006 started out slow, but returned to normal levels by week seven and has remained comparable to previous years. We noticed a similar slowdown in testing volume when we made the transition to computer-adaptive testing, and we believe that this initial decrease in test administrations was also partly due to early issues with test center access. The Council has addressed these issues with Pearson VUE, and testing volume is back to expected levels.