It's 2012- Is the GMAT still the king?
So EVERYONE knows that the GMAT is the better standardized test- at least on this forum anyway. Not only is there a general consensus that the GMAT is harder than the GRE, but it is/has typically been THE test to take if one hopes to get into a top business school. Having looked at both, I do admit that the GMAT is probably a better indicator of business school success simply due to the essay formats, the language questions, the higher rigor of the math involved... there are a couple reasons.
However, the GRE was typically dismissed because it was mainly used for graduate school application, rather than due to a firm and solid distinction from it's alternative- a status quo based reason. That said, the GRE in 2012:
-Is accepted at more business schools than ever before, and this figure continues to grow
-Has undergone revisions in the last year, making the test harder
-Is receiving more attention due to a good marketing team
-Is more popular overseas than the GMAT
-Is diverse, because it can be also used for grad school applications
Granted, many schools still prefer GMAT over GRE if they had the option to choose- but that doesn't mean that they automatically give preference to a candidate with a GMAT over one with a GRE.
That said, what do you guys think? Back in the day, it seems that there was less room for discussion, but in today's climate, I think there's a strong case to be made for the GRE
Thoughts?
i don't think i left any vital facts out, but people are welcome to point them out if i did
In the past week I took both the GMAT and the GRE. Here are my thoughts.
The GRE has made some important changes to make it more acceptable to b-schools, and they have taken note. The verbal is now much more focused on reading comprehension and logic than just memorizing words. However, math is still a lot easier than GMAT math; it's not even comparable. When I took the GRE I only missed around 3 math questions out of 40. I missed a lot more than that on GMAT math.
I thought GRE verbal was actually harder than GMAT verbal. The former had some very tough sentence completion questions and reading comprehension questions that were hard to decipher. That was actually my worst section out of gmat and gre verbal/math.
Although schools now take either exam they still prefer the GMAT. Submitting only the GRE for b-schools is risky in my opinion and could raise question marks. Do NOT do this unless your GRE is significantly better than the GMAT and you have a really strong gpa in a STEM major. Otherwise, I think adcom will start wondering what happened.
Really? Simply by submitting a GRE instead of a GMAT raises eyebrows? That sounds like some pretty clear cut bias.
Yes because the GRE is still nowhere close to the GMAT level in terms of difficulty and rigor, especially the math section. Adcom at top programs care a lot about quant because they see it as a reasonable measure of how well a person can handle the workload. Based upon talking to a lot of people about this, they all agreed that submitting only the GRE puts you at a disadvantage. You also need to remember that the GRE is NOT used in mba rankings while the GMAT certainly is.
This is simply not true. Test difficulties aside, adcoms treat GMAT score like GRE scores. The proof is in the pudding - kids get in with same percentile scores in GRE as those in GMAT.
Sorry you are wrong on this. Every student, admissions consultant, and other reputable sources have said that although schools will technically take both, they still prefer the GMAT by a big margin. A raw score of 49 (83% now) is NOT looked at the same way as 83% quant GRE because the former is significantly more difficult to achieve.
In my opinion, the GMAT is more popular in Europe. I know many people who have taken/are studying the GMAT but nobody who's taken the GRE!
In China (and chinese are the second highest represented at top b schools), people are CRAZY about the GRE- this actually applies for most of Asia in general. Interesting point about Europe though
Number of GMAT takers in china/india has skyrocketed in the past few years. The majority of GMAT takers are now non-Americans. People in China/india in particular are absolutely obsessed with attending top U.S. MBA programs. The GMAT is the gold standard of standardized tests, in my opinion. It measures not rote memorization of math formulas and vocbulary but clear logical thinking under considerable time pressure.
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