Everything You Should Know About GMAT Test

Last updated on October 18th, 2022 at 05:41 am

Are you the one who’s planning to take the GMAT test? Well, if you are the one, then you have come to a perfect place because, in this blog, we are going to give you key information that you should know about this test. Before giving any test, you should be thorough with the test format including the purpose of the test, which section of the test is more scoring, and many more things to consider while doing the preparation. So, let’s not wait more and quickly look at the important things that every candidate should keep in mind whose aim is to take the GMAT test. Firstly, let’s look at the purpose of the test.

The Purpose of the GMAT Exam

The Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, is a computer-based exam that assesses critical thinking and reasoning skills relevant to management studies. GMAT test scores are used by institutions with graduate-level management programs, most often business schools with MBA programs, to compare applicants and make admissions decisions. Because admissions committees are aware of this, they place a high value on GMAT test scores when making enrollment decisions. The GMAT exam is extremely crucial for aspiring MBA students because 90 percent of new MBA admissions choices are based on a GMAT score.

GMAT Sections

The GMAT is divided into four sections, each with its time limit:

• The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) requires test participants to write an essay in which they critique a concise argument. This is the only section of the test that isn’t multiple-choice, and students have 30 minutes to read the argument and write their essays.
• Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation, Multi-Source Reasoning, and Two-Part Analysis are among the 12 problems of the Integrated Reasoning (IR) part, which was added in 2012. The multiple-choice component of the IR is not computer-adaptive. Test takers will have 30 minutes overall to complete the test, with an average of 2.5 minutes per question.
• There are 31 math questions in the Quantitative Analysis part, which are split nearly evenly between Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. This 62-minute multiple-choice, computer-adaptive segment takes an average of 2 minutes per question to complete.
• Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension are among the 36 problems in the Verbal Analysis portion. The three-question categories are nearly evenly distributed, with Sentence Correction accounting for slightly more than a third of the section and Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension accounting for slightly less than a third apiece.

The Quantitative and Verbal sections feature a computer-adaptive structure, which means the questions are adjusted to each person’s skill level. The test adjusts the difficulty of a question if a test taker answers it right; if a test taker answers it poorly, the test reduces the complexity of the question down. This procedure is continued throughout the segment, with the test becoming more exact as more data is collected. As a result, by the end of the segment, the test will have narrowed in on the test taker’s ability level: the level at which the test taker correctly answers half of the questions and incorrectly answers the other half.

Test-takers cannot revise their answers or return to prior questions since computer-adaptive tests assess each question separately. When you combine the timed aspect of the test with the intended difficulty of the questions, it’s a tough pill to chew for many test-takers: they’re often obliged to move on from a question without knowing the answer or risk running out of time. While no information regarding the GMAT exam’s question selection process has been made public, it appears to have some forgiveness built-in. Not only are you expected to miss a considerable number of questions at each scoring level, but you can also overcome a few blunders that are below your true ability level throughout the section.

How to score in the GMAT Exam

AWA is scored on a scale of 1-6, IR is scored on a scale of 1-8, Quantitative is scored on a scale of 1-60, and Verbal is similarly rated on a range of 1-60. A percentile score of 100 is also given to each component. When comparing Quantitative and Verbal section scores, the percentile score is substantially more telling than the scaled score — for example, a score of 42 is around the 51st percentile in Quantitative and around the 96th percentile in Verbal.

This means that a “balanced” score (one with equivalent quantitative and verbal competence) will have vastly different scaled scores but similar percentile scores. The overall exam score ranges from 200 to 800, and this is the number that most people refer to when they say “GMAT score.” Only the Quantitative and Verbal results are used to compute the overall score, which equally weights each section. The results of the AWA and IR are presented separately.

The essay is evaluated and a score is assigned based on several writing characteristics by both a computerized scoring system and human graders. IR is assessed electronically and is dependent on how many questions were answered correctly vs. wrong, with the difficulty level of the questions altered to some extent. The scoring algorithm utilized for the two computer-adaptive parts (Quantitative and Verbal) isn’t public knowledge, just like the question selection algorithm. However, we do have some knowledge of it. One of the most popular GMAT myths is that the fewer questions you miss, the better.

As a result, the grading considers which questions you answer correctly versus incorrectly, as well as their difficulty. Due to the obvious adaptive structure of the test, your score is based more on how well you answer the least difficult questions rather than how well you answer the most difficult questions. For example, if you perform at a 700 level in some areas but a 500 level in others, your ability to perform at a 700 level will be irrelevant since the 500-level questions you miss will keep the level of your questions low, preventing you from answering any 700-level questions.

Even if you get a few 700-level questions early on in the exam, the 500-level questions you miss later will bring your level straight back down. As a result, you’ll probably get into the 500s.  If you score in the 600s throughout the board, on the other hand, you will likely score in the 600s. To put it another way, your skill’s floor is more important than its ceiling, and a gap in your knowledge or ability might ruin your grades. A final remark on GMAT scoring: each exam has both experimental and real-world problems. There’s no way of knowing which goods are experimental and which aren’t. This indicates that candidates should give their best while answering each question, but they shouldn’t agonize over anything they’re completely stumped by.