MBA Preparation - GMAT and CAT
Graduate School of Business. Effective January 2006, the GMAT® and GMAT CAT® will be created and administered by Pearson VUE and ACT, Inc. and the current vendor ETS® (Educational Testing Service) will no longer be the GMAT test developer because ETS®, according to GMAC®, has failed to make investment in resources commensurate with the security and quality expectations. This change in GMAT vendor from ETS® to Pearson VUE does not affect GMAT test-takers planning to take the GMAT test during the rest of this calendar year (2005). Effective January 2006, the GMAT test in paper and pencil format will not be offered in any of the mobile GMAT exam centers because mobile GMAT test centers will cease to exist.GMAT® is administered in a CAT® (Computer Adaptive) format in which the GMAT test 'adapts' the difficulty level of GMAT questions to your GMAT-specific 'comfort level', with 'higher difficulty level GMAT questions' carrying higher GMAT raw scores (GMAT Scaled Scores) than do 'lower difficulty level' GMAT questions.
The GMAT tests your Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning skills, and your ability to make logical interpretation of information presented to you or known to you in a conceptual sense, and to make logical decisions using the logical interpretation. The GMAT® has three assessment areas: AWA (Analytical Writing Assessment) that requires you to write Two essays, one analyzing an Issue and the other analyzing an Argument. This first GMAT section is not 'adaptive' and receives a separate score of between 2 and 6. GMAT Quantitative Assessment is the first of the two 'adaptive' sections on the GMAT, and requires that you answer 37 questions in problem solving and in Data Sufficiency in 75 minutes. The last 'adaptive' section on the GMAT is Verbal Assessment, which requires that you answer 41 questions in 75 minutes.
The GMAT Verbal assessment includes three sections: GMAT Critical Reasoning, GMAT Sentence Correction, and GMAT Reading Comprehension. GMAT adaptive sections also include experimental questions, at least 9 in GMAT Quantitative assessment and 11 in GMAT Verbal assessment. The two adaptive sections on the GMAT receive a combined score of between 200 and 800. Most A-List Business Schools rated in the top-10 will require a GMAT test score of at least 650 in order for you to be competitive. Your best chance for success lies in your ability to take the GMAT exam at the high difficulty level throughout
