College seniors who think their days of standardized tests are behind them may want to think again -- these days, graduate school is more important than ever, and plenty of grad programs require scores from an entrance exam to get in.
Because of the tight job market, low interest loans, and government-sponsored incentive programs, applications to graduate and professional schools have increased at record pace. According to a 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Education, graduate enrollment stayed around 1.3 million students for decades before rising almost 70% between 1985 and now.
The strong pull of graduate school is also reflected in the increasing number of people taking the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) and GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test), the gatekeepers to graduate programs in the social sciences, humanities and business. According to the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organization that administers the GRE, the number of graduate school candidates who took the GRE in 2009 rose by 13% to a total of 670,000. The number of GMAT tests administered in 2009, reports the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which owns the GMAT, was at an all-time high of 267,000.
Although traveled with increasing frequency, the path to graduate school is not always clear. There is conflicting advice on everything from when to go (some say right after college is best, others say to work a few years first) to which standardized test to take and when to take it.
It used to be simple: The GMAT was for business and the GRE was for everything else (except law and medical school, of course).
That is no longer true.
Standardized test requirements are changing quickly. Just last year, Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford all announced that they would start accepting the GRE for admissions to their MBA programs. And they were not alone. More than 100 U.S. business schools now accept the GRE in lieu of the GMAT.
"We believe that both the GMAT and the GRE meet our expectations of what a standardized test can tell us about a candidate's ability to thrive in our MBA Program," said Deirdre Leopold, the managing director of admissions and financial aid at Harvard.
The option to choose is a positive development, but it also tends to muddy the water when it comes to making a decision.
With that in mind, here is a quick guide to both tests:
GRE and GMAT at a glance:
The GRE is used to assess applicants for a variety of graduate programs in the arts and sciences. It consists of three sections. The Analytical Writing section's essays measure critical thinking and analytical writing skills, specifically the test-taker's ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively. The Verbal Reasoning section includes reading comprehension questions, sentence completions, analogies like those on the SAT prior to March 2005, and antonyms. The Quantitative Reasoning section tests arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. The GRE is a computer-adaptive test, which means that the multiple-choice Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning sections are tailored to the test takers' performance level. The test starts with questions of moderate difficulty. As each question is answered, the computer scores it and uses that information, as well as responses to preceding questions and information about the test design, to determine the next question. If the answer given is correct, the questions will become increasingly difficult. When the answer is incorrect, an easier question will be given. Because the computer scores each question before selecting the next one, each question must be answered when it is presented. For this reason, there is no way to go back and change an answer.
In addition to the general GRE, there are also eight GRE subject tests that some graduate programs require in addition to the main test -- you should always check the application requirements of the schools you are interested in to see if you need to take more than one test to be admitted.
Starting in August 2011, a revamped GRE will make its debut. Analogies and antonyms will no longer appear on the test. They'll be replaced by more reading comprehension and complex reasoning questions. The quantitative section will consist of fewer geometry items, but more data analysis questions. An online calculator will be added but it will be accompanied by more complex math problems as the emphasis shifts from calculation to problem solving and analysis skills. The GRE will be longer by 45 minutes to allow test takers to skip questions and then come back to them and to change answers within a section. The biggest change, however, will be to the scoring system. Instead of the current 200-800 range, a scale of 130-170 points will be used.
The GMAT has traditionally been a required part of admission for many (although not all) business schools.
The GMAT exam measures basic verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills. The GMAT starts with two 30-minute essays that test critical reasoning by forcing the test taker to argue a point or criticize an established argument. The Verbal section has three question types that measure the critical reasoning skills that are key to making it in the business world: reading comprehension, "critical reasoning" (logic questions) and sentence corrections (which are similar to the SAT's improving sentences). The Quantitative section's data sufficiency and problem solving questions, which emphasize numerical reasoning over math facts, are designed to capture a sense of an applicant's ability to process and interpret information.
Which One Should You Take?
Those who know they are not interested in earning a MBA or studying graduate level business or are still unsure about their plans should take the GRE. Liberal Arts students will likely perform better on the GRE, which (at least for now) is far more vocabulary-focused than the GMAT and contains easier math. Moreover, the GRE's eight subject tests allow applicants to demonstrate their in-depth knowledge in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, literature, physics, psychology, and math.
Those who plan on applying to many business schools are better off going with the GMAT. Business school representatives developed the GMAT in 1953 specifically for MBA programs because the GRE was thought to be insufficient. According to a recent New York Times article, "High scores on the test correlate well to success in the first year of business school, says David A. Wilson, head of the GMAC." And since many schools (including some of the top business schools) do not take both, anyone who is sure about business school -- and sure they are going soon -- should probably take the GMAT.
There is even some speculation that the business schools that accept both tests still give more weight to the GMAT. Also, recruiters from investment banks and management consulting firms still rely on GMAT scores when they do their hiring, so if those are your fields of interest, go with the GMAT.
Now or Later?
Although graduate school may not be in your immediate future, you should consider taking the GRE or GMAT now. The scores for both tests are good for five years and it makes sense to take them while your critical reasoning, reading comprehension, math and test-taking skills are at their strongest.
"I wish I had taken the GRE during my senior year of college or right after graduation," says Lisa Gelman, owner of Main Line Tutorial. "I thought about taking it my senior year, but I was too busy and I really wanted to focus on my classes. I figured that since it was my last year of college I should make the most of it. I moved to Tokyo a few weeks after graduation to work for a Japanese publishing company. Two years after graduating from college, I started to think about returning to the U.S. for Ph.D. programs in political science. Getting into the mindset to take the GRE was difficult. Many of the skills I knew I needed to do well on the GRE were rusty. When I started studying for the GRE, I was amazed that there were so many vocabulary words I didn't know. Moreover, although I am an avid reader, reading for pleasure is different than reading for a standardized test like the GRE. I had to put much more time and effort into preparing for the GRE than I would have if I had taken it either during or immediately after college."
According to an ETS study, those who take the GRE who are younger than 23-years-old tend to score better, particularly on the quantitative section. Other studies have indicated that those under 23 also score higher on the GMAT.
Students who definitely plan to apply to graduate school should consider taking the GRE before it changes, especially if they think the analogies and antonyms would improve their scores. In addition, there are currently plenty of high quality GRE test prep materials available. After ETS makes the upcoming changes to the GRE official this June, publishers will rush to publish new test prep books. As with the materials that became available the year before the College Board rolled out the revised SAT, it is likely that the new GRE materials will be of poor quality. Lastly, scores tend to go down after changes have been made to a standardized test.
Bottom Line:
Regardless of which test you choose and when you take it, time and effort are still the key to success on both tests. As long as you remember that, you should be fine no matter which test you choose. "Good people always manage to shine whether they take the GMAT or GRE," says Rod Garcia, director of MBA admissions at the MIT Sloan School of Management.