GMAT Step up to grad school

This test is one of the criteria for selection to 4,800 courses in 83 countries

The Graduate Management Admission Test or GMAT is designed to measure a candidate’s skills for success in a master’s programme. The GMAT is one of the selection criteria for selection to 4800 courses in 83 countries. Given by the Graduate Management Admission Council, this computer-adaptive (questions are selected based on previous answers and the test design) test checks verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing skills “developed over time”. Here are the details.

.Analytical writing assessment:
Analysis of an issue - one topic, 30 minutes
Analysis of an argument - one topic, 30 minutes

.Optional break: 8 minutes
.Quantitative: 37 questions, 75 minutes:
Problem-solving
Data sufficiency

.Optional break: 8 minutes

. Verbal: 41 questions, 75 minutes:
Reading comprehension
Critical reasoning
Sentence correction

This is set to change in June 2012 when the GMAC plans to introduce a Next Generation GMAT with a 30-minute Integrated Reasoning section. The new test is to assess test-takers’ ability to evaluate information presented in new formats and from multiple sources, skills thought critical for them in an increasingly technology-dependent world. The total length of the GMAT will be the same as now - three and a half hours (about four hours with breaks). The analytical writing assessment section is due to be reduced to 30 minutes only.

Free GMAT prep material is available on http://www.mba.com/the-gmat/schedule-a-gmat-appointment/pay-for-the-test.aspx while students use other material from the market as well.

“It’s very important to follow a particular procedure” in test preparation,” says Manik Singh, an electronics and communication engineer who got a 730 in the GMAT.

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“Pick up any of the popular guide books and do it well,” says Singh who is going to the University of Amsterdam for a master’s in international finance.
(The GMAT total score ranges from 200 to 800 and two-thirds of candidates get between 400 and 600.)

Singh joined a prep school and also sat for 15 mock tests from three different providers. “One should analyse one’s performance. How much I spent on this and where I made a mistake?”

Fee: $250
How to apply: To get an appointment for the test, you first need to get an mba.com account.
For the details, visit www.gmac.com or contact GMAC India Office, Gurgaon at 124 - 4311 111 ext. 261/ apac@gmac.com