JAMAICANS aiming to enter business school overseas score amongst the lowest globally in the GMAT entry examination, hinting at wider unsolved problems.

The island’s average score at under 55 per cent trails the world average of 62 per cent. It signals that most Jamaicans underperform in this key management qualification exam.

Respected GMAT coach and founder of Versan Educational Services Sandra Bramwell blames the island’s poor English foundation for the lacklustre scores. Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) tests for English and Math but even non-English speaking countries are scoring above us, stated Bramwell in a phone interview with the Observer last week.

“So it has to be English that is the problem,” she reasoned.

High results in GMAT — scored out of 800 — increases an applicant’s chance of entry into top tiered universities including US-based Harvard or UK-based Oxford. Graduation consequently facilitates corporate promotion.

Jamaica’s average score is 434 out of 800 or 119th globally. It means that the island signficantly lags behind the world average at 498.50. The results are found in a subranking in the 2013 Global Innovation Report published this summer by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

Jamaica’s score also lags behind the region including Barbados averaging 511, or 68th globally, Trinidad at 495, or 79th in the world, Guyana at 457, or 103rd, and even Spanish speaking Dominica Republic at 450, or 108th.

“Our poor results are not surprising because when you look at CXC [secondary] passes in English they are low and these are the same students that filter into university and get degrees,” said Bramwell. “They struggle through with a weak English foundation and then they sit the higher exams.”

Versan Educational Services prepares students for higher level exams including US college entrance SAT and higher level GMAT.

Interestingly, US colleges began highlighting Jamaican Creole as a language on application forms since last year, according to Bramwell. She views it as evidence of Jamaican college students’ failure to grasp their own native language — English.

“Apparently the US sees us as speaking another language,” she said. “And that didn’t always exist.”

Contrastingly, Jamaican Jo-Anne Jackson-Stephens defied the odds and gained entry into Oxford University’s MBA programme. As an attorney with a firm English foundation she described the math section as the most difficult.

“The quantitative section was the most difficult section for me. Even with an A in ‘A’ level math, I struggled with this section because of the time constraints and the complexity of the questions,” stated Jackson-Stephens in a mailed response to Observer queries from the Cayman Islands. Jackson-Stephens actually quit her job to focus on the GMAT exam.

“I was criticised for making the decision because many didn’t understand the complexity of the exam. I knew I wanted to do well in order to get into a top school and knew I couldn’t do it while working as a litigator. I know now that I made the right decision,” she indicated about her score reportedly better than 84 per cent of those who took the exam worldwide.

The challenge remains to be attracting recent MBA graduates back to the island.

“I have opted to stay overseas because I think it is important for my professional growth as an attorney-at-law and aspiring entrepreneur to get international exposure. The crime and the economy in Jamaica are also factors,” Jackson-Stephens concluded.

Not all is lost, as Jamaica actually improved its overall ranking in the Global Innovation Report to 81st globally from 92nd a year earlier. GMAT average Caribbean scores:

•Jamaica at 54% or 119th globally;

•Dominica Republic at 56% or 108th globally

•Guyana at 57% or 103rd globally;

•Trinidad at 61% or 79th globally; and

•Barbados at 63% or 68th globally;