A shorter Graduate Management Admissions Test exam for more than 7,000 graduate programs worldwide has been implemented this month, which cuts the exam length to 3.5 hours from 4 hours.
The quality of the GMAT exam remains unchanged in terms of reliability, validity, security and integrity. GMAT scores before and after this change will be the same and comparable across time.
“We are always looking for ways to help build candidate confidence and streamline the test experience, all with one goal in mind—to help GMAT test-takers do their very best on exam day,” said Vineet Chhabra, senior director of product management for Graduate Management Admissions Council.
“We believe candidates will have less anxiety and feel better prepared, which can contribute to a better reflection of their true performance on the exam.”
The time savings are achieved by streamlining the two longer sections of the exam, the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections, reducing the number of unscored, research questions in these sections. Several tutorial and instruction screens that test-takers see at the test centre have also been simplified. There are no changes to the exam’s Analytical Writing or Integrated Reasoning sections. The way the GMAT exam is scored, the content of the exam, the question types and the average time per question are not changing.
“Through our ongoing market feedback and operational reviews, we were able to identify this opportunity to shorten the exam, without changing its reliability,” Chhabra said.
“This change will not affect GMAT exam scoring as the number of scored questions will not change. The scoring algorithm will be the same; the Total Score and individual Quantitative and Verbal section scores will be comparable to the exams taken prior to this change. There is no action or change required on the part of business schools and universities. We are providing candidates with a better testing experience, while providing business schools with the same high quality, fair and reliable scores.”
Along with these changes, GMAC is providing a new, online tutorial that mimics the screens that test-takers see on exam day, further enhancing and streamlining the test centre experience. By moving the tutorial information online, to www.mba.com, test takers can access it prior to arriving at the test centre, at their convenience and as often as they wish.
The GMAT exam is designed to showcase the skills that are most relevant to the world’s leading graduate business programs; 9 out of 10 new MBA enrolments globally are made using a GMAT score.
