Graduate Exams

I finished the GMAT this afternoon, or this morning. The GMAT is a strange exam. Questions are written to confuse. Most the questions do not make sense. The GMAT is an indicator of how well an applicant can do in graduate school, or in this case graduate business school. I have also taken the GRE. The GRE is an indicator exam testing how respondents deal with exams. Both require the individual to create adequate strategies to manage time, and develop best means to answer the question.

These exams have three sections: Quantitative, Verbal, and Analytical Writing. Each section is timed, and questions are computer adaptive responses. For example, you answer a question correctly, the next question gets progressively harder. The more correct difficult questions, the higher the score. Unfortunately, if the exams starts with multiple wrong questions, the score would not be as high. Consequently, the more the tests adapt, the more accurate the score would be without having to analyze more questions. Computer Adaptive Tests have less questions, less sections, and are more accurate.

The Quantitative sections do not test past Geometry. The section establishes how the individual processes each question. The GMAT tests differently than the GRE. For example, the GMAT gives a prompt, and two subsections that relate to the math prompt. The GMAT questions relate to how the individual interprets the question asked. Mostly, which response, if any or both would allow for the statement to test true. The GRE utilizes a more formal approach to the questions by utilizing word problems, math related imagery, and common error approaches to math problems.

The Verbal section is usually divided into reading passages and sentence structure. The GRE utilizes word associations and word relations. The questions are read as word a is to word b as the options follow. These sections are much like the ACT, the SAT and other collegiate entrance exams. For me, the GRE was easier to follow, and finding progression or regression following each question was a lot easier. Difficult questions are hard, and reversely, easy questions are relatively easy.

Standardize tests are not fully indicative of how a person will do in the future. Also, the exams are not something that can be studied. The only thing a person can do has been to prepare strategies. That's the short end of it.