What is the GMAT? Well, officially, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a three-and-a-half-hour exam designed to measure your verbal and quantitative skills and predict your academic performance in the first year of business school. The verbal section of the exam consists of reading comprehension, grammar, and logic questions, while the math section tests basic algebra, geometry, and arithmetic. The Analytical Writing Assessment consists of two 30-minute essays.
Now, not so officially: Although the GMAT theoretically tests your ability to do well in business school, some say all it tests is your ability to do well on the GMAT. But whether or not it's a good predictor of either academic ability or future success in business, it is an important metric used in business school admissions. Like all standardized tests, the GMAT is a uniform tool for comparing students whose academic and professional backgrounds vary wildly.
The GMAT CAT
Since October 1, 1997, the GMAT has been offered in a computer-only format, known as the GMAT Computer Adaptive Test, or the GMAT CAT. Unlike a paper test, the CAT adapts to your performance as you proceed through the test. In fact, every person gets a different test depending on how well he or she is doing. Your final score is based not on how many questions you get right but on the difficulty level of the questions you answer correctly.
The test starts with a medium-level question that about half of the test-takers are expected to get right. If you answer it correctly, your score goes up and you get a harder question; if you get it wrong, your score goes down and you get an easier question. This process continues throughout the test. In theory, by the time you get to the end of each section, you'll be getting about half of the questions right and half of them wrong. (We'll cover scoring in more detail a little later.)
Another difference between the CAT and the traditional paper test is that you don't have to register months in advance to take it. Instead, you take the CAT by appointment -- which you can make even just two days in advance -- at an official test center. Simply call 800-GMAT-NOW (in the U.S. and Canada) or go to www.gmac.com to register. If you prefer to sign up the old-fashioned way, you can get the GMAT information application bulletin at a local college counseling office, library, or Kaplan Educational Center (or call 609-771-7330 to have one sent to you).
The CAT is offered year-round at numerous testing centers. The centers are located at Sylvan Learning Centers, colleges and universities, and Educational Testing Service (ETS) offices. There are some overseas centers as well. The test costs $200 in the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories, and slightly more in other countries.
What Kinds of Questions Are on the GMAT CAT
The CAT consists of a 60-minute "Analytical Writing Assessment" (two 30-minute essays, one an analysis of an issue and the other an analysis of an opinion), a 75-minute quantitative (math) section with 37 questions, and a 75-minute verbal section with 41 questions -- given in that order. Five different types of questions appear on the test: data sufficiency and problem-solving (in the math section); and reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and sentence correction (in the verbal section). Although these question types are somewhat arbitrary, each supposedly tests a different skill needed in the business world (e.g., data sufficiency theoretically tests how well you know when you can answer a question or make a decision).
Data sufficiency questions consist of a question and two pieces of data. Your job is to decide if the given data are adequate to answer the question. Many students find these to be some of most difficult questions on the test. You can expect to see about 13 of them on test day. (The exact number of questions is an estimate because it varies from person to person. If you get all of your data sufficiency questions right, for example, the computer will give you more questions in a weaker area. This is true of every section on the CAT.)
Problem-solving questions cover arithmetic, algebra, and geometry -- basically, the math you studied in high school. You can expect to see about 24 problem-solving questions on the CAT.
There are usually between one and four reading comprehension passages (again, how many is determined by how well you do on the first one -- if you ace it, you might not get another), each between 200 to 400 words long. You answer three to four questions on each passage for a total of 10 to 15 reading comprehension questions, or close to 40% of the verbal section.
Critical reasoning questions, the logic portion of the GMAT, consist of a short argument and a question about the author's assumptions or how to bolster or weaken his or her reasoning. There are usually 8 to 13 of these (25% of the verbal portion) on the CAT.
Sentence correction questions, of which there are around 14 (about 40% of the verbal section), show a sentence with part or all of it underlined. You must decide if the underlined portion is correct the way it is or select the best way to rewrite it.
The essays, which are actually the first part of the test, ask you to analyze an issue and an argument. For the analysis of an issue essay, you must state your point of view and then support it with your knowledge and experience. For the analysis of an argument essay, you are asked to identify the assumptions an argument makes and then evaluate those assumptions as sound or unsound using outside examples and information.
Unlike the old pencil-and-paper version of the GMAT, the CAT mixes up the different species of questions within the broader quantitative and verbal sections. This means you might have a sentence correction followed by a critical reasoning question followed by another sentence correction question. (The only partial exception to this format is reading comprehension: All reading comprehension questions for a passage will follow one another.) And while there is not an entire experimental section on the CAT as there often was on the paper version, there are experimental questions scattered throughout the test. These questions don't count, and although the number of them varies, they usually make up about 25% of the exam.
So How Does the Test Actually Work?
While the kinds of questions on the CAT aren't any different from those on the old paper GMAT, the format and scoring method vary considerably. First, there are some logistical distinctions. Unlike on the old test, you can't skip questions. You must answer a question in order to move on to the next one. Also, you are penalized if you don't finish the test, so it's important to make an educated guess if a question is really holding you up.
Hint: Don't guess randomly at more than two questions in a row because strings of wrong answers can dramatically affect your score. The only exception to this is toward the end of the test -- if you are running out of time you will have to guess to complete the exam, though try to eliminate at least one wrong answer before guessing.
Then there is the scoring system. Not all questions count equally. This is because the jumps in score are more extreme at the beginning of each section. In fact, two test takers can get the same number of questions right but have very different scores. Here's how it works:
Total scores on the CAT range from 200 to 800. The first question in each section is worth 80 to 100 points. You start each section with a score of 500, so if you get that first question right, your score goes up to about 600; if you get it wrong, your score goes down to about 400. The second question is worth 60 to 70 points. This means that if you get the first two questions on a section right, you're looking at a score of about 670, but if you get the first two wrong, you've got a paltry 330. Here's the odd part: If you get the first question right and the second wrong, you've got a 530, but if you get the first one wrong and the second one right, you've got a 470. The relative weighting of questions affects your score that quickly.
Of course, the scoring gets more complex as you answer more questions, but in general, after the first five questions of a section, you're just fine-tuning your score. If you answer the first five questions correctly, you'll be working at a level well above 700. If you get the first five wrong, you're well below 300 and will likely get easy questions for the rest of the exam -- the kiss of death on the CAT. You can recover from answering a few early questions wrong, but you'll need to get a long string of questions right, as later questions are worth less.
As confusing as all this may sound, your score on the CAT is likely to be very similar to what it would be on the pencil-and-paper version of the test. Before switching over to the CAT, ETS pretested and normed it to make sure the scores were comparable.
There are definite advantages to the CAT. Instead of scheduling your life around a predetermined date, you can sign up to take the test whenever is convenient for you. And, unlike with the pencil-and-paper version, you can see your scores immediately after completing the test. Last, many people prefer to type their essays. "With the essays... I loved the computer version," said Kevin Fleming, who took the CAT when ETS was pretesting it. "I type probably six times as fast as I write, so that helped a lot. I liked being able to cut and paste and make clean edits."
Of course, there are some downsides to the computerized GMAT. Not being able to go back to a question is the main one. The experimental questions also seem to unnerve students more on the CAT than on the paper-and-pencil version. On the CAT, "if you think you got a problem right, you're anticipating a harder one," explains Will Peppo, who is currently studying for the exam. "You might have gotten a hard one right, and then you get an easy experimental question. And then you think you might have gotten the last question wrong. That's tough psychologically."
Finally, you have to use separate scratch paper when taking the CAT. "You have to take the information from the screen that you need and somehow transfer that to the paper," says one student. "For example, in reading comprehension, you can't circle key words." Plus, you have to scroll through the reading comprehension passages because you can't see the whole thing at once on the screen.
Interpreting Your Score
GMAT score reports contain four separate scores: a quantitative score, a verbal score, an analytical writing score, and a total score. The quantitative and verbal subscores range from 0 to 60; in recent years, the average subscores have been between 28 and 32. Scores below 10 and above 46 are rare. Analytical writing scores go from 0 to 6 (6 is high) in half-point increments. The recent average has been between 3.5 and 4.5. The total score, which is what most people consider as their GMAT score, is based on the verbal and math scores and ranges from 200 to 800. The average total score hovers around 500.
Here are some sample percentiles to help put these numbers (representing total scores) in context:
99th percentile -- 750 or above
95th -- 710
90th -- 680
80th -- 630
74th -- 610
51th -- 540
The report lists your three most recent GMAT scores within the past five years. GMAC (the General Management Admission Council, which administers the test with ETS) will report older scores if you request them, but will add a cautionary note that those scores may not reflect your current abilities. If it's been five or more years, some schools may require you to retake the test.
As soon as you have finished the exam, you can choose to either see your unofficial score (which is almost always identical to the official one) or cancel it. If you cancel your test, it won't be scored and will appear on your GMAC report as a canceled score. No one, including you, will ever know how you did. Don't worry -- B-schools won't think less of you for canceling a score. If you choose to see your score (which won't include your writing score -- that will come with the official report) you can also select additional schools to which you would like your scores sent. The official score report should arrive both at the schools and your home within about two weeks of the test.
Hint: You can pick five schools to send your scores to when you register for the GMAT. Even if you're not sure where you're applying, pick the most likely places; these first five score reports are free, but additional reports cost $25 each.
How Well Do You Have to Do?
To be considered by the elite schools, you need at least a 600. But the scores at the very best programs are much higher: The average scores at Stanford and Harvard last year were 722 and 699, respectively. However, it's possible that schools are looking more at percentile scores than numeric scores right now because the CAT is so new. "Schools are very cautious because they don't know how to evaluate it," says a Kaplan instructor. The 90th to 99th percentile usually gets you considered at the top programs.
In general, the verbal and math subscores are less important than the total score, although some schools will look at the breakdown to see that a certain skill -- usually quantitative -- is up to par.
Many of the top schools will consider only your highest total score from a single test date. So if you got a 650 the first time you took the test and a 700 the second time, 700 will be the score they look at. Around 40% of schools will combine your highest verbal, quantitative, and total scores if they're from different test dates. A few will look at only your most recent scores, and others will average your scores. Ask schools about their policies.
Incidentally, lest you think your score no longer matters once you're admitted to school, keep in mind that some recruiters (McKinsey is one) will ask to see your GMAT scores.
Hint: You may have heard the rumor that the top schools don't even look at writing samples because they have such a huge load of applications to review. While it's not untrue -- according to a former member of the admissions committee at Harvard Business School, the writing score is generally only used to break a tie between two students -- don't blow off the writing section. A stellar score can help you if you're on the borderline.
