the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)
The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a computer adaptive standardized test in the
English language for
measuring aptitude to
succeed academically in
graduate business studies.
Business schools commonly
use the test as one of many selection criteria for admission
into an MBA program.
It is given at various locations around the world.
Throughout North America
and in many international
locations, the GMAT is
administered only via computer.
In those international locations where an extensive network of computers has not yet been established, the GMAT is offeredeither at temporary computer-based testing
centers on a limited schedule
or as a paper-based test at
local testing centers.
the fee to take the test is
U.S. $250 worldwide.
The GMAT exam is a
standardized assessment,
delivered in English,
that helps business schools
assess the qualifications of applicants for advanced
study in business and
management.
By taking the GMAT exam,
you have a better chance of being targeted by business schools that are a good match
for you—and learning more
about their programs and admissions processes. You
can help them find you by creating an mba.com profile
and opting in to being
contacted by schools.
Over 1900 graduate business schools around the world use GMAT scores as a part their admissions process. Find
GMAT using schools here.
The Graduate Management Admission Council provides
free test preparation software and preparation materials to
purchase as well as
suggestions about how to prepare for the exam.
Most GMAT test takers start preparing about 3 to 6 months before the actual test date.
Think about how you can best prepare, given your discipline, motivation, and personal preference
Self study
One-on-one tutoring
Study groups
Prep courses
The GMAT exam measures
basic verbal, mathematical,
and analytical writing skills that you have developed in your education and work. It does
NOT measure
your knowledge of business,
your job skills,
specific content in your undergraduate or first
university course work,
your abilities in any other
specific subject area, or
subjective qualities—such as motivation, creativity, and interpersonal skills.
Your GMAT score is valid for
five years, so you have the flexibility of “banking it”—
choosing to start your graduate studies right after university or later on. Remember, if at first
you don’t succeed, you can
take the GMAT exam again. Remember, though, that all of your GMAT scores from the
past 5 years will appear on
your Official Score Report.
Contents of GMAT
The Test
The exam measures verbal, mathematical and analytical writing skills that the examinee has developed over a long
period of time in his/her
education and work. Test
takers are given 3.5 hours to answer questions in each of
the three tested areas, and
there are also two 10-minute breaks[2]; in general, the test takes about four hours to complete.Scores are valid for
five years (at most institutions) from the date the test taker sits for the exam until the date of matriculation (i.e. acceptance,
not until the date of application).
Verbal Section
The verbal section consists of
41 multiple choice questions, which must be answered within 75 minutes. There are three
types of questions: sentence correction, critical reasoning
and reading comprehension.
Quantitative Section
Total Score
Required Scores
History of the Graduate Management Admission Test
Registration and preparation
Other notes
See also
References
External links
GMAT Registration
To take the computer-based GMAT you must schedule an appointment by using any of
the following four methods:
1. Make an appointment online, via the GMAC website (http://www.mba.com/mba/TaketheGMAT).
2. Call the test center of your choice directly. A current test-center list is available at
the GMAC website (http://www.mba.com).
3. Call a central registration number: 1-800-717-GMAT.
You might be able to take the GMAT within a few days after scheduling an appointment. However, keep in mind that popular test centers during fall semester may experience backlogs up to several weeks.
Note: If you are a citizen of
Cuba, North Korea, or Sudan, you must prove primary
residency outside of your
country of citizenship.
GMAT Test Centers
The computer-based GMAT is administered year-round at
more than 500 locations,
most of which are in North America. Testing centers are located at Prometric Testing Centers, Sylvan Learning Centers, certain colleges and universities, and ETS (Educational Testing Service) field offices. The official GMAT Bulletin contains a complete
list of GMAT computer-based
test centers; an updated list is available at the GMAC website (www.gmac.com).
GMAT Testing Centers & Test Dates
Steps
1. Determine the average score of admitted applicants to the schools you wish to apply for Most schools in the United
States will frequently ask for higher than
a 600 on the GMAT. Some
of the most prestigious schools require a score of 700 or higher.
2. Set a time every day to
prepare for GMAT.
3. Try to teach other GMAT students so that any flaw in your learning will come up to the fore position.
4. One can start with the Official Guide (OG) provided by MBA.com. Latest one is OG 11.
5. Take more time to master the basics.
6. First finish the easiest
lessons so that you will
become confident.
7. Pay more attention to your weak spot.
8. Every now and then take a mock test so that your rate of growth will be assessed.
9. Do not register for GMAT in haste. Only after you are self-assured that you have progressed well, register.
10. However do analyse the
last date of applying for the targeted B Schools.
Tips
* If you can afford it, use a certified tutor to help you
prepare. Or, also contingent
upon cost, enroll in a GMAT preparation course.
* Teach others.
* Take notes for all the points
for the future reference.
* Read a lot and extensively so that your speed of reading will help you in the GMAT reading comprehension section.
* Try to score the highest marks in Quantitative section.
* Start your preparation well in advance.
* When dealing with Algebra questions where the answer
is a formula, pick numbers and plug them into the answers to
find the correct answer faster than working through the
algebra.
* Memorize some of the commonly-used geometry. In a 30, 60, 90 triangle, the short
side is , the hypotenuse (long side) is , and the medium
side is . In an isosceles triangle, two sides are and
one is .
GMAT Test Preparation Tips
You Can Easily Increase Your GMAT CAT Score by 50 to 100 Points
Despite the official statements
of ETS (Educational Testing Service), you can improve your GMAT score dramatically simply by taking the time to become "streetwise" about the GMAT CAT. Quite simply, this is the easiest step in your test preparation, and should not be ignored under any
circumstances.
Keep in mind that the GMAT
is a game. Just as in chess, baseball, tennis, or any other sport, those who know how the game is played have a huge advantage over those who are ignorant of the game's idiosyncratic rules.
As a test taker, you should understand:
* The computer-adaptive structure of the GMAT
* The types of exam questions asked and their common
fallacies
* How to manage your time wisely
The computer-adaptive
structure of the GMAT
The computer-adaptive test (CAT) version of the GMAT is designed to get a more
accurate assessment of your skills while asking you fewer questions than its paper-based predecessor did. Here is how it works: the first question you
see in any given section will
be of average difficulty. If you
get the answer right, your next question will be slightly more difficult. If you get the answer wrong, your next question will
be slightly easier. The software will also ask you different types
of questions in a rather unpredictable order, as determined by its algorithm, rather than clustering question types as the written GMAT did.
You can not skip a question or
go back to an earlier question. Unlike the paper version, once you click the 'answer confirm'
box, your answer can not be changed.
The types of exam questions asked and their common
fallacies
Examples and explanations of these can be found in the
pages describing the individual component sections of the
GMAT posted on this website. We strongly encourage our clients to spend time learning these question types before brushing up on their verbal and math skills.
How to manage your time
wisely
Practice
The main way to develop GMAT time management skills is to practice taking the test. You will repeatedly see us return to the theme of practice throughout
this website. It is very hard to overstate its importance. Therefore you are strongly encouraged to take at least a
few mock GMAT exams, in the computer-adaptive format and
to try to simulate the actual testing environment. (That
means refraining from taking
food breaks, engaging in telephone conversations, etc. until you have completed a section.)
Spend adequate time on the
first 5 questions
Earlier, we discussed how the GMAT CAT's underlying
algorithm determines the
difficulty of questions you are asked, based on your performance in answering previous questions. Difficult questions are weighted more heavily in scoring than easier questions. The first couple questions in any GMAT CAT section are used to determine
the range of questions that the program 'thinks' you are able to handle. After you have
answered these first few questions, the testing software
will give you questions to fine tune your score within that
rather narrowly predetermined range. Thus, your answers to
the first 5 questions will make a HUGE difference in your final section score.
It is imperative that you answer these pivotal questions with
extra care. Always double
check your answers to these questions. Verify that the
answer choices that you
judged to be incorrect are
indeed incorrect. If you are unsure of the answer to one of these first questions, at the
very least, take a very good educated guess using process
of elimination.
Prepare yourself to finish the
test – at all costs!
There is a huge scoring penalty for failing to finish any section
of the GMAT. For example, say you're in line to get a score that will put you in the 70 percentile
of test takers, based on your
test performance so far – but
then run out of time and fail to answer the last five questions
in the section. That failure will lower your score to about the
55 percentile. The lesson to
take away from this is to
prepare yourself to finish the
test at all costs. Answering a question incorrectly will hurt
you, but not as much as
leaving the question
unanswered will. Train
yourself to work your best
within the time limits of the
exam. But train yourself, too,
to be able to recognize when
only a minute or so remains on the clock, and at that point to
just answer "C" (or whatever
your lucky letter is) for any remaining questions. As the GMAT's Chief Psychometrician put it to us, random guessing is like shooting yourself in the
foot – but leaving answers
blank is like shooting yourself
in both feet.
Don't waste time
This advice probably sounds
self evident. However, we mention it because we've had clients tell us how they inadvertently wasted test time
by revisiting the help screen or requesting extra scrap paper
after they began their test.
These activities, if undertaken once the section has begun,
will take time away from
working on the questions.
Read the Questions Carefully
As silly as this advice may
seem, it's worth remembering.
An undisciplined test taker will feel the stress of the clock
during the timed sections and
will try to cut corners to save
time, wherever and whenever possible. As a result, he or she often misinterprets questions. GMAT test writers are well
aware of this dynamic, and
happy to capitalize on it. We guarantee that you will
encounter questions on the GMAT that include incorrect answer choices that were deliberately designed to exploit likely misinterpretations of what the question is really asking.
Avoid Random Guessing
The GMAT CAT does not allow you to skip questions and come back to them later, as you can
on a written test. You must answer each question on the GMAT CAT before it will allow
you to move on to the nextquestion. Consequently, even if you don't know the
answer to a particular question, you have to answer it. It is always in your best interest to take an educated guess rather than resorting to random guessing
– even if you are running out
of time on the section. Usually you will be able to identify at
least one answer choice that is clearly wrong. Eliminating even one incorrect choice will
improve your odds of
answering the question
correctly.
Eliminate the Deliberately Deceptive Wrong Choices
With practice, you will begin to learn how to recognize answer choices that are deliberately deceptive – and wrong. There
are a few common patterns
here that will become apparent
as you proceed with your test preparation.
One recognizable pattern is commonly found in the Problem Solving section. It involves an erroneous answer choice giving a value that would result from following a common computational error. You can avoid these deceptive choices
by using scrap paper, checking your answers and using estimation to at least judge the general range of the correct choice.
Practice, Practice, Practice
As we stated at the top of this page, there are a number of
tips and techniques to taking
the GMAT that will significantly raise your overall score. This
is a test that you can prepare
for, despite anything the test-makers state. We strongly encourage you to use actual questions from previous exams as you practice, as we have noticed a material difference in the nature and quality of test questions prepared by ETS versus those written by GMAT prep companies. We also strongly encourage you to practice taking the exam in its computer-adaptive format.
Finally, we encourage you to spend most of your preparation time studying and practicing questions in your weakest
subject area. While we believe every test taker benefits by reviewing each GMAT exam section, focusing on your
weakest areas will make the
most efficient use of your test-prep time.
Don't Wait Too Long to Take
the GMAT
Don't count on taking the GMAT at the last minute. Should you need to retake the exam, you
will need time both to register
for the test again and to have
the new scores submitted to schools in time for the
application deadlines.
Scheduling the GMAT well into the admissions season is also bound to cause most test
takers undue stress. With
proper planning and insight,
you can spare yourself these negative energies and instead focus on maximizing your GMAT score.
