Today we will tell about the exam for those who are planning to go to another country and get a diploma of a prestigious business school. This will allow to find a dream job abroad in the future or to get a significant advancement on the career ladder in your company.
The GMAT is not the most widely known exam in Russia, and as a result, it often gives rise to a large number of questions. What is GMAT, why do you need to pass this test and what are the advantages of a certificate?
To begin, let us tell you what is behind the abbreviation GMAT. So, it is deciphered as follows:
General Management Admission Test . They rent it mainly either for admission to prestigious business schools (for this purpose it was developed), or for moving up the career ladder in the field of top management. For example, in Russia, GMAT accepts as one of the entrance tests for graduate programs at the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg State University.
If we talk about international statistics, this certificate is accepted by more than six thousand master's programs offered by 2,000 universities in 114 countries, and the number of examination centers around the world reaches 600. Also, according to statistics presented on
the GMAT official website , Every year more than 200,000 applicants for master’s and MBA programs pass this test.
The exam is taken on computers: in Moscow, the GMAT can be passed at the computer testing center of the RANEPA and the American Center for Education and Testing, in St. Petersburg, this service is offered, again, by SPSU at the Graduate School of Management. The creators of the GMAT (
The Graduate Management Admission Council -
GMAC ) also paid quite a lot of attention to verifying the identity of each candidate in order to avoid the practice of dishonest examination: the signature, photo and fingerprints must be checked.
GMAT checks not only the candidate's ability in mathematics and English, but his logical and critical thinking, as well as his ability not to lose his head and quickly find a solution in any non-standard situation.
The exam lasts 3 hours and 30 minutes and consists of four parts:
Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative and
Verbal . It should be mentioned that GMAT refers to computer-adaptive tests, i.e. the last two parts adapt to the level of knowledge of the candidate: if he correctly answers the question of average complexity, the next question may be more difficult to level, and vice versa - if the answer to one question is incorrect, the next one proposed will be easier. The final assessment is influenced precisely by the parts of
Quantitative and
Verbal , but the first two are also taken into account, so it is important to cope with the test as much as possible.
Part of the
Analytical Writing Assessment involves the candidate writing an analysis in the form of an essay on a given topic (some controversial statement).
In the
Integrated Reasoning section, candidates are offered tasks in mathematics (for example, working with various graphs and tables).
The
Quantitative part tests the candidate's ability to work quickly and efficiently with a large amount of information from various sources. As a rule, in this part there are questions with the option of multiple choice of answers and it is important that all the answers selected by the candidate are correct - only then the task will be counted as correct.
In the last part of
Verbal , the candidate’s ability to work with texts, analyze them, as well as his grammar skills is checked.
The GMAT final score can vary from 200 to 800 points, therefore, starting preparation for the exam, it is important to understand why you need to pass the test and whether there are requirements for the minimum score: for admission to the Master’s program at the Graduate School of Management, for example, a certificate from 600 points and above.
When preparing for the GMAT, one should not underestimate the importance of classes with a teacher who has experience in preparing students for this particular exam, whether in a group on courses or individually. Also, for successful delivery to a high score, it is desirable to have a fairly good knowledge base in English: as a rule, from the upper-intermediate level (from B2 on
CEFR - Pan-European scale of language competence). Therefore, those who feel that he has noticeable gaps in knowledge and need to tighten the language, it makes sense to first intensively work out English to make the passage of the GMAT as comfortable as possible - because all the tasks in the test are also entirely in English, despite the fact that GMAT is not a fully “language” test.
So, it makes sense to pass the GMAT to specialists working (or planning to work) in the field of top management: for example, applicants for masters or MBA programs, or those who need this certificate for career purposes. It should always be borne in mind that at the moment only the computer version of the test is available (as opposed to the more “universal” Cambridge exams, for example, almost all of which have paper and computer versions of passing) - people who write by hand will have to adapt to computer realities.
You can
read about the preparation for the GMAT, for example, here at
Geektimes , and it’s better to prepare directly here:
1.
MBA Strategy - offline courses in Moscow, prepared for different exams in English, including GMAT and IELTS
2.
Khan Academy - many free courses to consolidate knowledge in mathematics and economics
3.
GMAT Free - a great resource with lots of free information about the exam.
4.
Economist - free weekly GMAT preparation course
5.
Prep4GMAT - pre-exam training application
For links thanks to
this article .
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