GMAT & GRE Study Tips

The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is an exam required by many graduate business programs. Usually you can tell that a PhD or MBA program is worth the cost of attending if the GMAT is required; lower tier schools frequently make it optional. The test measures critical thinking skills in language and math, plus it has an essay writing section.

Because admission to the top business schools--Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Duke, etc--is so competitive, the GMAT is one way of narrowing down the list of well-prepared applicants. Often, a score of 700 or 750 is seen as the magical cut-off number. But the GMAT is never the most important factor in deciding who gets admitted, for any school. For many schools, the important thing is just getting an average score, not a perfect score.

The GRE General test is the college equivalent of the SAT. In high school you have to take the SAT to get into college, and in college you have to take the GRE to get into grad school. The GRE is also similar to the SAT in that there is essay writing, multiple choice math, and multiple choice verbal.

Why do you have to take it? Because on top of gathering transcripts, letters of recommendation, writing personal statements, assembling portfolios, and shelling out $50 or more per application, grad schools want to give you one more reason to pull your hair out! But also, the GRE is a way of assessing grad school hopefuls on a standardized scale. All the applicants that admissions committees consider have different backgrounds, but the GRE is exactly the same for everyone.

You might be wondering why I lumped study tips for two different exams into one lens. It's not because most people will have to take both tests. It's because the tests are extremely similar, both in content and format.

Content: Both tests begin with an analytical writing section that consists of two essays. The Issue Essay requires you to present your view on an issue, and the Argument Essay asks you to analyze the logical errors in given a proposal. So, whether you take the GMAT or GRE, this part of the exam is the exactly same.

Also, both tests have 1 multiple choice math section, and 1 multiple choice verbal section. The math is about 10th grade level on both exams, and the verbal section of each exam contains reading passages.

Format: The GMAT and GRE are in a special computerized format called "computer adaptive," meaning that the computer adapts to your performance as you take the test. When you answer a question correctly, the next question you receive will be harder worth more weight toward your (unseen) raw score (should you answer it correctly.) When you answer a question incorrectly, you receive an easier question that has less weight toward your raw score. You only see one question at a time on the computer screen. You cannot move on to the next question until you select an answer for the current question. And once you choose an answer, you cannot go back to any previous questions. The tests are completely linear; and you can only move forward.

Also, each test has a preset number of questions; you will see on the screen how many questions you have left. This makes it easier to pace yourself, and to gauge if you are moving too fast or too slowly.

How they are scored: Whenever you answer a question correctly, you accumulate a certain number of points according to the difficulty level of the question. Harder questions are worth more, easier questions worth less (but not worhtless!) Questions that are answered incorrectly are worth zero, no matter their difficulty level. The points are added up and converted to a scaled score. If time runs out before you finish the exam, that is, if there remain questions at the end that you don't get too, it actually has a worse effect on your score than if you just answered all of them incorrectly. So, if you run out of time at the end of the test, make sure to answer all the questions, even if you have to guess randomly.

Timing & Number of Questions: The GMAT timing is as follows:
Issue Essay: 30 minutes
Argument Essay: 30 minutes
Math (Quantitative): 37 questions, 75 minutes
Verbal: 41 questions, 75 minutes

The GRE set up like this:
Issue Essay: 45 minutes
Argument Essay: 30 minutes
Math (Quantitative): 28 questions, 45 minutes
Verbal: 30 questions, 30 minutes

Math: Some of the GMAT math questions of a type called "data sufficiency." You are presented with a math problem and two pieces of data. Your job is not to solve the problem, but determine which pieces of given data (if any) would allow you to solve the problem, that is, which pieces of data are sufficient. The rest of the GMAT problems (60%) are regular problem solving.

The GRE also has its own special type of math question called "quantitative comparison." You are given two columns with a mathematical quantity in each, could involve numbers, variables, or both. Your job is to determine which quantity is always greater, if they are always equal, or if the relationship cannot be determined. Half of the GRE math problems are of this variety, and half are regular problem solving.

Verbal: GMAT verbal is a mixture of long reading passages and accompanying questions, sentence correction, and logical analysis of short arguments. GRE verbal is 3/4 short vocabulary questions, and 1/4 reading comprehension. GRE vocab is tough!

Scoring Scale: On the GMAT, the math and verbal are each scored on a scale of 0-60, and combined math and verbal score is a number between 200 and 800. This is called your composite score. The essays are each scored on a scale of 0-6, and the total writing score is simply the average of the two essay scores. The writing score is separate from the composite score.

On the GRE, the math and verbal are each scored 200-800, and the composite is the sum of these two scores. The essays are scored as on the GMAT. Again, the writing score is reported separately.

Familiarize yourself with the test you have to take by visiting the test maker's website. For the GMAT, the website is mba.com and for the GRE it is ets.org. Both sites have downloadable computer adaptive practice tests. Also, the entire pool of essay prompts is available on each website. Online is where you register to take the exam, and the tests cost about $150 each.

Taking timed practice tests, or making timed quizzes for yourself is the best way to improve your score. Learning all the content won't help you much if you can't finish the test.

Learn to use shortcuts, especially on the math section. Rather than work out the problems in full, see if you can plug the answer choices into the problem and elinate the wrong ones, guess-and-check style. Often, you only need to do a problem halfway before you realize you can eliminate 2 or 3 obviously wrong choices. Most importantly, read the questions very, very carefully.

I have worked as both an independent GMAT and GRE tutor, and for test prep businesses. People who are signed up the the test often balk at the price of courses ($1200-$1800) and wonder if the classes are good enough to warrant the price. Knowing first-hand how thoroughly these classes are developed, I say yes, they really are that good, and people really do raise their scores by 100-200 points. But! But, the students who really benefit from the classes are those who are scoring just average on all the sections.

From experience, people who have a lot of catching up to do never really catch up in fancy prep courses. And the courses are a waste of money if your talents are really skewed--you dominate the verbal, but the math destroys you, or vise versa. You will have to pay the full price of the course, even if you only need and use half of it.

Private one-on-one tutoring is much more effective in these cases.