GMAT, Graduate Management Admission Test, is a computerized, adaptive, graduate admissions entrance exam explicitly designed for students who want to go to graduate school for business. A GMAT score is required while submitting a graduate program application for an MBA, Master of Accountancy, or Master of Finance.
Business school admissions office primarily use the GMAT exam to measure applicants’ skills with business-related topics to gain entrance into an MBA program. It tests candidates writing, analytical, quantitative, verbal, and reading skills in the English language. It also looks for candidates’ ability to organize data, analyze information from different sources, make judgments based on data, and more. Harvard, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, HongKong University, National University of Singapore, and many other top business institutes accept these scores.
The GMAT exam consists of four sections with 2021 format: analytical writing assessment, verbal reasoning, integrated reasoning, and quantitative reasoning. One can choose the order in which one complete the test sections:
- Analytical writing assessment, integrated reasoning, quantitative, verbal
- Verbal, quantitative, integrated reasoning, analytical writing assessment
- Quantitative, verbal, integrated reasoning, analytical writing assessment
The maximum achievable score in GMAT is 800, which is valid for five years after completing the exam. On average exam duration is three and one-half hours to complete.
Every year, more than 150,000 individuals take the GMAT paper. As of 2021, it costs $275 or Rs. 20,456 for the test fee. Due to GMATs popularity, it is offered almost every day of the year and can be taken every 16 calendar days. However, the test cannot be taken more than eight times in total and not more than five times in 12 months. Most of the applicants take the exam once or twice before applying to their target colleges.