GMAT Test Review & GMAT Facts

The GMAT consists of four separately timed sections. The first section consists of an analytical writing task, also known as Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA). The second section is known as the Integrated Reasoning section, which was introduced in early June 2012, in replacement of a second essay originally in the AWA section. The remaining two sections (Quantitative and Verbal) consist of multiple-choice questions delivered in a computer-adaptive format. Questions in these sections are dynamically selected as you take the test to stay commensurate with your ability level. Therefore, your test will be unique. Just one question is shown on the screen at a given time. It is impossible to skip a question or go back to a prior question. Each problem needs to be answered before the next question.

Total GMAT scores range from 200 to 800. About 62 % of test takers score below 600. The Verbal and Quantitative scores range from 6 to 51. For the Verbal section, most people score between 9 and 44. For the Quantitative section, common scores are between 7 and 50. The Verbal and Quantitative scores measure different things and cannot be compared to each other, however, each section’s score can be compared across different GMAT tests.

Your GMAT score is an important part of your overall application.

• If you receive a score below 500, we recommend that you retake the exam. A score below 500 will make acceptance to any school rather difficult.
• A score below 600 will make acceptance into a top school unlikely without an otherwise flawless application.
• A score in the range of 600-700 will help keep you in the running for acceptance into a top business school.
• A score above 700 is terrific and will help improve your MBA applications.
• Scaled scores of 750 out of 800 on the combined test generally correspond to the 99th percentile.

In both the Verbal and the Quantitative sections, everyone starts out with an average difficulty level. The difficulty of subsequent questions then increases or decreases based on the correct or incorrect answers a person submits in the test. For each correct answer you give, you are given a harder question for each subsequent question and for each incorrect answer you are given an easier question.  This process will continue until you finish the section, at which point the computer will have an accurate assessment of your ability level in that subject area.

Your score is determined by three factors:
1) the number of questions you complete;
2) the number of questions you answer correctly and;
3) the level of difficulty and other statistical characteristics of each question.
To derive a final score, these questions are weighted based on their difficulty and other statistical properties, not their position in the test.

For the AWA section, one person and one computer programmed for grading (E-rater) score the essay based on essay content, organization, grammar and syntactic variety. Your final, single score is an average of both individual cores obtained on the essay. AWA scores are computed separately from other sections and have no effect on the Verbal, Quantitative, or Total scores.

Although the GMAT score is considered as a reasonable indicator of future academic performance at business schools, it does not measure your job performance, knowledge of business, interpersonal skills, and personality traits such as motivation and creativity. Instead, your application, essays, recommendation letters and interviews will capture most of those aspects.