GMAT
To get admission into most foreign universities, graduates need to prove their business aptitude. Measuring an applicant's business aptitude is a multi-stage process, the first of which is a written exam which evaluates basic math and English skills. This exam is called GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test).
The GMAT is an intelligent exam which is administered inside a certified test center on a computer. The exam starts with some simple questions and then increases or decreases the level of difficulty depending on whether you give a correct or wrong answer. Such an exam is called a Computer Adaptive Test. Before the Math and English sections are administered, applicants are also required to write two essays. The essays are scored out of 6 marks each, while a maximum score of 800 is possible in the rest of the Test.
The Test costs $250 and can be taken in any month of the applicant's choosing. Colleges in the US admit students in two cycles - Fall (August) and Spring (). The exams for admission to either of these cycles need to be taken latest by May and , respectively.
The Exam
GMAT is a standardized aptitude test to compare applications from all over the world. It is a computer-adaptive test (CAT) that delivers questions of varying difficulty levels based on a student's answer to the questions that come up. One needs to take the GMAT test by the month of May in order to apply for Round1 deadlines for Fall (August) intake of the next admission cycle.
The GMAT consists of four main parts: Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning Quantitative, and the Verbal section. Because it is an adaptive test, the difficulty of each question you answer depends on your previous answer. At the beginning, you get a question of average difficulty, and the computer begins to assess you based on your response to that questions. The correct answer usually leads to more difficult questions, and incorrect answers lead to easier questions. The total test duration is 3 hours 30 minutes.
