Test Preparation

What is the GMAT?
The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a standardized, three-part test delivered in English. The test was designed to help admission officers evaluate how suitable individual applicants are for their graduate business and management programs. It measures basic verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills that a test taker has developed over a long period of time through education & work.

The GMAT test doesn’t measure a person’s knowledge of specific fields of study. Graduate business and management programs enroll people from many different undergraduate and work backgrounds, so rather than test your mastery of any particular subject area, the GMAT test will assess your acquired skills. Your GMAT score will give admission officers a statistically reliable measure of how well you are likely to perform academically in the core curriculum of a graduate business program.

Of course, there are many other qualifications that can help people succeed in business school and in their careers - for instance, job experience, leadership ability, motivation, and interpersonal skills. The GMAT test doesn’t gauge these qualities. That is why your GMAT score is intended to be used as one standard admission criterion among others, more subjective, criteria, such as admissions essays and interviews.

Why take the GMAT test?
GMAT scores are used by admission officers in roughly 1,800 graduate business and management programs worldwide. Schools that require prospective students to submit GMAT scores in the application process are generally interested in admitting the best-qualified applicants for their programs, which means that you may find a more beneficial learning environment at schools that require GMAT scores as part of your application.

Because the GMAT test gauges skills that are important to successful study of business and management at the graduate level, your scores will give you a good indication of how well prepared you are to succeed academically in a graduate management program; how well you do on the test may also help you choose the business schools to which you apply. Furthermore, the percentile table you receive with your scores will tell you how your performance on the test compares to the performance of other test takers, giving you one way to gauge your competition for admission to business school.

Schools consider many different aspects of an application before making an admission decision, so even if you score well on the GMAT test, you should contact the schools that interest you to learn more about them and to ask about how they use GMAT scores and other admission criteria (such as your undergraduate grades, essays, and letters of recommendation) to evaluate candidates for admission. School admission offices, school Web sites, and materials published by the school are the best sources for you to tap when you are doing research about where you might want to go to business school.

For more information on the GMAT, registering to take the test, sending your scores to schools, and applying to business school, please visit www.mba.com.