Graduate Management Admission Council - GMAC

GMAC - Graduate Management Admission Council is responsible for all matters of GMAT. GMAC began to operate in 1953, as an association of nine top business schools. Its goal was to develop a standardized test to help business schools select suitable candidates for MBA classes. It itrodeced GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). More than 200,000 people take GMAT round the year. More than 1500 business schools make their evaluation criteria based on GMAT.

GMAC is a Non Profit Organization

The members of GMAC are from leading business schools representatives worldwide. The aims of GMAC are

To create access of every one to graduate business schools worldwide. Help people around the world realize success and fullfillment through the MBA and other mangement and professional degrees. Topromote the value of graduate management studiess

Web Address of GMAC : www.gmac.com

In Pakistan every business school has its own test format. Some of them accept GMAT score as well. For example LUMS evaluate application for MBA admission in their MBA programs on the basis of LMAT and GMAT. LMAT - LUMS Management Admission Test is not exactly the GMAT is. IBA (Karachi) and BZU (Multan), leading business schools have their test formats. BZU has a defined officially anounced test pattern.

Graduate Management Admission Test - GMAT

The letters GMAT stand for Graduate Management Admission Test, which is standardized exam given at various locations in the United States and Canada and around the world. Throughout North America and many international locations, the GMAT is administered only via computer. In those international locations where an extensive network of computers has not yet been established, the GMAT is offered either at temporary computer-based testing centers on a limited schedule or as a paper-based test (given once or twice a year) at local testing centers.
The most popular standardized test is GMAT, Thousands of graduate management programs around the world use the Graduate Management Admission Test for the evaluation of prospect student for admission in MBA or BBA.

The GMAT exam is power tool for admissions professionals.

Thousands of graduate management programs around the world use the Graduate Management Admission Test in their admissions process. You may be considering whether your program should adopt the GMAT exam, as well. Interest in graduate management education has never been higher, and the job of selecting a class to fill the limited capacity of most MBA programs has never been more challenging. The applicants come from different countries, cultures, academic backgrounds, and levels of work experience. Using the GMAT exam gives admissions professionals one element of the application that is a consistent measure. The GMAT exam is given under standard conditions around the world, with the highest level of security, to ensure that scores are comparable across applicants. WHAT IS THE CAT? The computer-based version of the GMAT is called a Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). The CAT differs from the old paper-based GMAT in that a computer program chooses problems based on a candidate’s responses to previous questions. Thus, the CAT is “adaptive” or “interactive”. Whereas candidates taking the old paper-based test where presented with a range of questions (including easy, moderately difficult, and difficult items), the CAT selects questions according to each candidate’s ability. During a CAT, the computer controls the order in which test items appear, basing is selection on the candidate’s responses to earlier items. At the risk of oversimplifying, the testing procedure can be described as follows. The computer has access to a large number of test items classified according to question type (sentence correction, reading comprehension, critical thinking, problem solving, and data sufficiency- the question types that you will study below) and arranged in order of difficulty. At the outset, the computer presents you with one or two “seed” questions, items of average level of difficulty. If you answer those successfully, the program selects for the next question an item of greater difficulty; if you do not answer the “seed” questions correctly, the program lowers the level of difficulty. This process is repeated, with the program continuing to adjust the level of difficulty of questions, until you have with the program continuing to adjust the level of difficulty of questions, until you have provided all the answers that the computer needs to calculate your score. The GMAT exam is accessible to students around the world. The GMAT exam is conducted throughout the year in more than 150 countries around the world. Combination of permanent and mobile test centers creates access for virtually every prospective applicant. Online registration in most locations makes the process of registering for the test fast and easy. Register for GMAT With computer adaptive testing, registering for the GMAT is quite simple and easy. The cost to take the exam —or "appointment fee" is currently $250. The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) takes most major credit cards, personal checks, and money orders. The most convenient way to register is online at www.mba.com. You may also register by phone (1-800-717-GMAT) or by mail (Pearson VUE, Attention: GMAT Program, P.O. Box 581907, Minneapolis, MN, 55458). To retake the exam, simply follow the same procedures. However, you are only allowed to take the GMAT every 31 days.

Scope and Target of GMAT

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a worldwide accepted standardized assessment—delivered in English—that helps business schools assess the qualifications of applicants for advanced study in business and management. Business Schools use the test as one predictor of academic performance in an MBA program or in other graduate management programs.

If you want to have admission to an MBA program, chances are you’ll need to take the GMAT. About two-thirds of the 1,300+ graduate business schools around the world require GMAT scores for admission. Schools that do not require GMAT scores nevertheless welcome GMAT scores to help access an applicant’s qualifications.

NOTE: Schools that do not require GMAT scores generally have relatively lenient admission standards and/or are located outside of the United States.

How Business Schools use GMAT Score

The GMAT seeks to measure three broad areas of ability by way of its different test sections:

• Analytical Writing Assessment (two 30-minute essay sections)
• Quantitative Ability (one 75-minute multiple choice section)
• Verbal Ability (one 75-minute multiple choice section)

A separate score is awarded for each of the three abilities listed above. A combined Quantitative/Verbal score is also awarded. The GMAT is not a pass/fail test.

Each graduate business school develops and implements its own policy concerning the use of GMAT scores in making admissions decisions. Many schools screen applicants by combining GMAT scores and undergraduate GPA (each school determining for itself their relative weight), then ranking all applicants in their initial pool accordingly.

In addition — especially after the initial screening of applicants — admissions officials consider subjective factors such as work and other relevant experience, recommendation letters, application essays (personal statements), and reports of personal interviewers. In making difficult decisions between two or more similarly qualified candidates, admissions officials rely less on GMAT scores and GPA and far more on these other, more subjective factors.

What the GMAT Measures

The GMAT exam measures basic verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills that you have developed over a long period of time in your education and work. It does NOT measure:

• your knowledge of business,
• your job skills,
• specific content in your undergraduate or first university course work,
• your abilities in any other specific subject area, or
• subjective qualities—such as motivation, creativity, and interpersonal skills.

How Does the Computer-Adaptive Test Format Work?

The computer-adaptive format takes some getting used to---in fact, it’s pretty weird at first. Here’s how it works. You will see only one question at a time. Instead of having a predetermined mixture of basic, medium, and hard questions, the computer will select questions for you based on how well you are doing.
The first question will be of medium difficulty. If you get it right, the second question will be selected from a large pool of questions that are a little harder; if you get the first question wrong, the second will be a little more basic.
If you keep getting questions right, the test will get harder and harder; if you slip and make some mistakes, the test will adjust and start giving you easier problems, but if you answer them correctly, it will go back to the hard ones. Ideally, the test gives you enough questions to ensure that scores are not based on luck. If you get one hard question right, you might just have been lucky, but if you get ten hard questions right, then luck has little to do with it. So the test is self-adjusting and self-correcting.

Because of this format, the computer-adaptive GMAT is structurally very different from a paper-based test. After the first problem, every problem that you see is based on how you answered the prior problem. That means you cannot return to a question once you’ve answered it, because that would throw off the sequence. Once you answer a question, it’s part of your score, for better or worse. That means you can’t skip around within a section and do questions in the order that you like.

Another major consequence of the GMAT format is that hard problems count more than easy ones. It has to do this way, because the very purpose of this adaptive format is to find out at what level you reliably get about half the questions right; that’s your scoring level.

Imagine two students—one who does ten basic questions, half of which she gets right and half of which she gets wrong, and one who does ten very difficult questions, half of which she gets right and half of which she gets wrong. The same number of questions have been answered correctly in each case, but this does not reflect and equal ability on the part of the two students. In fact, the student who answered five out of ten very difficult questions incorrectly could still get a very high score on the GMAT. But in order to get to these hard questions, she first had to get medium difficulty questions right. What this means for you is that no matter how much more comfortable you might be sticking to the basic questions, you definitely want to get to the hard questions if you can, because that means your score will be higher.

Seven Annoying Things about the Computer-Adaptive Test

•You cannot skip around on this test; you must answer the questions one at a time in the order the computer gives them to you.
• If you realize later that you answered a question incorrectly, you can’t go back and change your answer.
• If the person next to you is noisy or distracting, the proctor cannot move you or the person, since your test is on the computer.
• You can’t cross off an answer choice and never look at it again, so you have to be disciplined about not reconsidering choices you’ve already eliminated.
• You have to scroll through Reading Comprehension passages, which means you won’t be able to see the whole thing on the screen at once.
• You can’t write on your computer screen the way you can on the paper test (though some have tried), so you have to use scratch paper they give you, which will be inconveniently located away from the computer screen.
• Lastly, many people find that computer screen tire them and cause eyestrain—especially after four hours.
The following chapters of this book provide an overview of the different sections you’ll encounter on the GMAT exam. But before you move on to them, take note of the GMAT Registration Checklist opposite. This checklist will serve as a useful resource for you when it’s time to sign up for the test.

GMAT High Score Strategies

On a CAT exam, you must answer every question in the order presented. Since the exam adapts itself in response to your answers, you cannot skip and later return to any questions. And, you cannot rethink and change your answer at a later time. You cannot seek out and answer the easier question styles first. In other words, you must do the best you can to answer each question. Choose the answer that you have determined is best, confirm your choice, and move on to the next question.
With a paper-based test, there is always the issue of whether it is a good idea to guess or not. With the GMAT CAT, the question is simply irrelevant. You have to answer one item before the computer will let you move onto the next. So even if you don’t have any idea of how to solve the problem, you still have to “click” on an oval and confirm it as your response. Is that guessing, or is that answering in a state of ignorance out of necessity? Who cares? Just do it.

GMAT Strategies to Have High Score

The computer adaptive test (CAT) is more than just a computerized version of a paper-and-pencil test. The GMAT CAT is called "adaptive" because the computer assigns questions based on your responses to previous questions. So, if you get the first question right, the second question should be a little harder but if you get the first question wrong, the second question should be a little easier. Harder questions generate higher scores and easier questions lower scores.

Answering Question

When you start a section, the computer first assumes you have an average score and it gives you a medium difficulty question. Questions at the start of a section won't be easy ones - unlike the conventional paper-and-pencil version of the test - so don't answer them expecting easy questions. Instead, be on the lookout for answer-choice traps.

Questions are not all worth the same to your score. How much a question raises or lowers your score depends on where the question is in the section. A question early on in a section will affect your score more, for better or worse, than one later on.

Since the questions at the beginning of a section are worth more points than those later on in the section, pay particular attention to them and take your time. Double-check your answers. The first five questions in a section are critical to your score. While not as vital to your score, questions 5 through 10 are also very important -- they affect your score more drastically than questions later on. Be more careful on these questions too, than on ones towards the end of a section and plan to spend more time on them.

Guessing Answer

The CAT shows you only one question at a time and does not allow you to see the next question until you've responded to the one at hand.

Obviously, you must answer a question before moving on to the next one on the CAT. You cannot skip questions like you could on the paper-and-pencil test. So if you are given a question you cannot answer on a CAT, you should guess. Guess intelligently and strategically - eliminate any wrong answer choices that you can spot and guess among those remaining.

Don't Skip...

The CAT doesn't allow you to come back to questions you've already answered and double-check your work later on. That's because each right or wrong answer directly effects the next question the test gives you.

Be as sure as possible that you've got a question right before moving on. Once you've noted and confirmed your answer, that's it.

...And Always Answer

There is a penalty for every question that you do not answer. If you only have a minute or two left, and several questions remaining, you should guess at random rather than leave them unanswered. Also, pace yourself so that you have time to mark an answer for every question in the section.

What About the Essays?

For the Analytical Writing Assignment (AWA), you type your essays at the same terminal on which you take the rest of the test. Expect a basic word-processing package where you can cut-and-paste items and "undo" your last command, but don't expect luxuries like a spell-checker, grammar-checker, or thesaurus. And since you type your essays, people who type slowly will now be at a disadvantage. So be sure to sharpen your typing skills.

GMAT Score

The use of the computer-adaptive testing technology makes it difficult to predict your actual GMT score based on your performance on a paper-and-pencil practice test. We have tried, however, to develop a scoring table that provides a general ideal of your performance at this point in your preparation. To predict your score on the practice tests you take during preparation, count the correct answers in each section and find that number in the left column of the charts below. The corresponding number in the right column represents an approximation of your GMT test score.

How Schools Evaluate Your Application

There are all kinds of stories and myths about what the "trick" is to getting into business school. The reality is that there is no trick. Admissions professionals work to fill a limited number of spaces by making the best possible selections from among a large pool of applicants. It comes down to a pretty simple equation of supply (spaces in the class) and demand (applicants). It is therefore in your best interest to articulate your goals as they relate to a particular program’s strengths, limitations, content, and culture.

Meeting a school's minimum qualifications doesn't guarantee that you’ll be admitted. Schools will use such factors as academic record, recommendations, and work experience to judge your potential for success in a program relative to the overall applicant pool:

• Schools will use your GMAT scores to predict how well you will do academically in their core curriculum.
• They will use to your work experience, extracurricular activity, and letters of recommendation to help them gauge your professional promise.
• Interviews and essays will help schools to determine why you want to earn a degree and how you will use it in the future. These parts of the application will also help schools learn about your communication skills.

Reviews Are Subjective and Holistic

Admissions officers are humans, not machines, which means they have the ability to take in all the information applicants supply and make critical judgments about what is most important. They can decide the relative importance of each part of an application, depending on each candidate's total experience. For example, if you have limited work experience, your academic credentials may assume greater importance. Conversely, if you have been out of school for a long time, your undergraduate record may be less important than your current job responsibilities. So the worst thing you can do is write your application to some imagined formula that you think will guarantee you admission. You have to be your own unique self in your application. There is a program out there that is right for you, and the best way to achieve the right fit between you and a school is to represent yourself openly and honestly in your application.

You'll receive four GMAT scores:

• Quantitative scaled sub score, ranging from 0 to 60 (effectively 51 is the max score)
• Verbal scaled sub score, ranging from 0 to 60 (effectively 48 is the max score)
• Overall scaled score, ranging from 200 to 800. This is an overall score that is the combination of your 0 to 60 Math and Verbal scores . The 200 to 800 cumulative score is what business schools primarily use.
• Analytical Writing Assessment score, ranging from 0 to 6. This is a separate score that is less important than the 200 to 800 cumulative score.
  

The test is graded on a preset curve so that your scaled score will correspond to a certain percentile. An overall score of 630, for example, corresponds approximately to the 90th percentile, meaning that 90 percent of test takers scored at or below this level.


Rising Average GMAT Scores

Those six-figure starting salaries have had an impact on MBA admissions... everyone wants one. In the early nineties the average GMAT score of accepted students at New York University (Stern) Business School was 610. By 2005 the average GMAT test score had jumped 89 points to 699. Getting a high score on the GMAT is crucial because the business schools are getting flooded with applicants. Expect around a 690 average score for the top-ten business schools in 2005-2006.

That 690 figure is deceptive because that average includes many students who were accepted for favorable traits (diversity, unusual accomplishment or success, etc.) that allow them to gain acceptance with a lower score. If you have none of these types of traits, then you probably need to break 720 (that's over the 99th percentile) to have a good chance at a top-ten school.

According to GMAC, the average salaries for 2005 MBA graduates exceeded $100,000. The market has fully recovered from the 2001 dotcom collapse and 9/11. The appeal of high salaries will only serve to increase competitiveness and the importance of high GMAT scores.

Score Chart for Practice Exercises

The corresponding number in the right column represents an approximation of your GMT test score. Verbal Subscore (C = Correct, S = Score) C S C S C S C S C S C S 41 60 34 48 27 34 20 20 13 6 6 0 40 60 33 46 26 32 19 18 12 4 5 0 39 58 32 44 25 30 18 16 11 2 4 0 38 56 31 42 24 28 17 14 10 0 3 0 37 54 30 40 23 26 16 12 9 0 2 0 36 52 29 38 22 24 15 10 8 0 1 0 35 50 28 36 21 22 14 8 7 0 0 0 Math Subscore (C = Correct, S = Score) C S C S C S C S C S 37 60 29 46 21 30 13 14 5 0 36 60 28 44 20 28 12 12 4 0 35 58 27 42 19 26 11 10 3 0 34 56 26 40 18 24 10 8 2 0 33 54 25 38 17 22 9 6 1 0 32 52 24 36 16 20 8 4 0 0 31 50 23 34 15 18 7 2 30 48 22 32 14 16 6 0 GMAT Subscore (C = Correct, S = Score) C S C S C S C S C S 78 800 62 660 46 500 30 340 14 200 77 800 61 650 45 490 29 330 13 200 76 800 60 640 44 480 28 320 12 200 75 790 59 630 43 470 27 310 11 200 74 780 58 620 42 460 26 300 10 200 73 770 57 610 41 450 25 290 9 200 72 760 56 600 40 440 24 280 8 200 71 750 55 590 39 430 23 270 7 200 70 740 54 580 38 420 22 260 6 200 69 730 53 570 37 410 21 250 5 200 68 720 52 560 36 400 20 240 4 200 67 710 51 550 35 390 19 230 3 200 66 700 50 540 34 380 18 220 2 200 65 690 49 530 33 370 17 200 1 200 64 680 48 520 32 360 16 200 0 200 63 670 47 510 31 350 15 200