Graduate Management Admission Test

The Graduate Management Admissions Test, better known by the acronym GMAT (pronounced G-mat), is a standardized test for determining aptitude to succeed academically in graduate business studies. The GMAT is used as one of the selection criteria by most respected business schools globally, most commonly for admission into an MBA program.



Graduate Management Admission Test

The GMAT is one of many factors schools use when reviewing applications for admission; it is typically balanced with work experience, application essays, an interview, and, somewhat less important, college or university GPA. Although a candidate's performance on the test will go a long way towards determining whether or not he or she is admitted to his or her school of choice, these other admissions criteria also play a pivotal role.

The fee to take the GMAT is currently US$250, worldwide.[1]



The Test

In the United States, non-citizens are required to present a passport or permanent resident card to gain admission to the test.

During the GMAT, the test taker will not be allowed to use paper and pencil; dry erase books will be given to the test taker and a fine tip dry erase marker will be used. This is something to think about as it causes many to panic on test day. This is the way things are in the U.S., however, some other sources lead one to believe it is different overseas.
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Analytical Writing Assessment

The AWA consists of two essays. In the first, the student must analyze an argument and in the second the student must analyze an issue. Each essay must be written within 30 minutes and is scored on a scale of 0-6.

Each essay is read by two readers who each mark the essay with a grade from 0-6, in 0.5 point increments. If the two scores are within one point of each other, they are averaged. If there is more than one point difference, the essays are read by a third reader.

The first reader is Intellimetric, a proprietary computer program developed by Vantage Learning, which analyses creative writing and syntax. The second and third readers are humans, who generally look at the overall impact rather than spelling and grammar.

Although spelling does not formally count against your total score, it can bring the score down if the reader is having a hard time reading the essay due to misspelled words. There are many factors involved when deciding the score. There are no length requirements and the readers mainly look for a well structured essay that flows smoothly.
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Quantitative and Verbal Sections

The "Total Score", comprised of the quantitative and verbal sections, is exclusive of the writing assessment, and ranges from 200 to 800. The GMAT is scored-based on a 100 point standard deviation, meaning that the test is designed for 68% of examinees to score between 400 and 600, whilst the median score was designed to be 500. The median score today is closer to 540.

The quantitative and verbal sections comprise a computer-adaptive test. The first few questions in each section are around the 500 level. If the examinee answers correctly, the next questions are harder. If the examinee answers incorrectly, the next questions are easier. It is commonly believed that the earlier questions are more important than the later questions. However, while the score may change more dramatically earlier in the test than it does later in the test, that is only because each early question makes up a greater percentage of questions answered so far. In other words, early questions are NOT actually more important to one's final score than later questions, just as one's early grades in college are not more important than one's later grades in terms of final GPA. Also, questions left blank (that is, those not reached) hurt the examinee more than questions answered incorrectly. This is a major contrast to the SAT, which has a wrong-answer penalty. Each test section also includes several experimental questions, which do not count toward the examinee's score, but are included to judge the appropriateness of the item for future administrations.

The quantitative section consists of 37 multiple choice questions, which must be answered within 75 minutes. There are two types of questions: problem solving and data sufficiency.

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.
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Changes to the GMAT

As of January of 2006, paper and pencil will no longer be available to use as scratch notes during the exam. The test proctor will give a wet erase booklet and special wet erase pen. The test takers will be required to raise their hand and ask for a new book or pen if either one is needed. This change has been of much surprise to many. It is said the change is for 2 reasons, one being the fact people were getting actual test questions out of the testing center through paper and pencil, another reason is to save paper.
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Required Scores

Although the AWA score is not normally a factor considered by schools when determining a candidate's application, there are times when it is taken into account. In some cases, the AWA score may be examined more closely if the admissions committee wants to verify whether an applicant's writing ability matches the quality of the essays that have been submitted, to get more information if the Verbal Section score is low or to check an applicant's grasp of English is satisfactory. This score is believed to act as a filter to flag international students who know math and grammar but can not properly write a structured essay.

Most schools do not publish a minimum GMAT score as they will accept a lower GMAT score from a strong candidate but may want a higher score from a weaker candidate. Schools do generally publish the average and median score of their latest intake. Whilst these should be used as a guide, applicants must remember that half of all successful applicants will have scored below the median mark.

For admission to a top global business school, a fairly high score (at the very least in the upper 600s) is generally required for the prospective student's application to even receive serious consideration, while for other schools hoping to improve their rankings in the major publications (e.g. U.S. News or BusinessWeek), a higher score is generally enough to almost ensure admission, provided the candidate has performed reasonably well on the other admissions criteria.
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History of GMAT

In 1953, the organization now called the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) began as an association of nine business schools, whose goal was to develop a standardized test to help business schools select qualified applicants. In the first year it was offered, the assessment (now known as the Graduate Management Admission Test), was taken just over 2,000 times; in recent years, it has been taken more than 200,000 times annually. Initially used in admissions by 54 schools, the GMAT is now used by more than 1,500 schools and 1,800 programs.

Until the end of 2005, Educational Testing Service (ETS) administered the GMAT exam. On January 1, 2006, GMAC transitioned vendors to a combination of ACT Inc, which develops the GMAT, and Pearson Vue, which delivers the exam.