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The GMAT gives the admissions committee a quick, easy way to compare your writing and other abilities to those of other applicants on a standardized scale. Admissions committees don't want to have to dig through old files or read lots of papers for each applicant, they don't have such a record for all applicants, and they do want a standard way to compare between students. The tests aren't perfect, but they are useful indicators and fit those criteria.
Taking the test accomplishes the goal of completing your application file. It gives the admissions committee a way to compare you to other applicants along a consistent metric, and it gives them a current measure of how you compare to this year's class of applicants.
Graduate school often involves a lot of jumping through pointless hoops to get to a goal that we all hope is worthwhile. It's much more of a meritocracy, with far fewer allowances or exceptions for individual issues, than in undergraduate programs. Taking the GRE or GMAT is really one of the more innocuous hoops. If you are serious about going to graduate school, you'll have to put up with worse inconveniences.
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