GMAT vs GRE

Since GMAC just announced that as of July 11th, 2017 you will be able to choose the order in which you take each section of the GMAT, I thought I would shoot off a quick blog post with some thoughts. Ready? Here goes…

First of all, they probably should have done this a long time ago. Let’s face it, it sucks having to spend the first hour of the test on sections that don’t really matter to business schools. I used to try to make the case to my students that you could view the AWA and IR as a bit of a warm-up, sort of like stretching and running in place before going for a long run. But I doubt that anyone is going to continue to do those sections first. I mean, a 10-minute warm-up would be nice but 1 hour is a little much.

My second observation is that the GRE will now have to counter this and I predict that they will eventually. GMAC experimented with test takers choosing the section order before implementing this new policy, so presumably ETS will have to do that first as well, but I’d imagine that ETS will feel the need to counter this new “user-friendly” feature of the GMAT and we’ll eventually see the same feature on the GRE.

A third observation that I just feel compelled to share is the very bizarre way in which GMAC put this new information out there. I got an email from GMAC with the subject line “Congrats on Taking Your GMAT Exam!” I was like, wtf, did I just take the exam and forget or did someone hack into my account and take the exam under my name? I was completely perplexed. I mean it did get my attention and motivated me to immediately open up the email, but after reading what the message was actually about I just thought that it was a pretty slimy and underhanded way to convey this new information. Maybe I have a higher opinion of GMAC than most, but it felt very spammy and not what I expected of the good folks at GMAC.

The last thing to mention is that obviously people will now need to strategize which section to do first, and I think that is an interesting conundrum. Again, I can’t imagine anyone doing the AWA and IR anything but last, but which section to do first, Quant or Verbal? I guess I’ll have to see how this plays out with the people I tutor, but I must say that I would personally do Quant first. I could imagine that if you are the type of person who loses focus easily and therefore has trouble with the Reading Comp passages or even the Critical Reasoning stimuli it might be better to do the Verbal first. But something about the Quant section almost feels like it serves as a bit of a warm up for the Verbal section and not the other way around, so I would opt for Quant first.

Now that I think about it, I guess there is a Verbal element to Quantitative questions, but there is not a Quantitative element to Verbal questions. And I guess if you couple that with the fact that schools care a little more about the Quant score than the Verbal one it will probably make sense for most people to do Quant before Verbal. If I had to predict I would say 80% of people will choose to do that. But again I think that for some people, especially those for whom fatigue and focus become an issue on Verbal, it may be good to tackle the Verbal section first.

In any event, this certainly gives test takers an advantage and I can already report that for the few students I have who were thinking of taking the test in the next couple of weeks, all immediately declared (upon hearing the new section order policy) that they will wait until after July 11th to take the test. And they were all very, very excited!!!

In a another post, I discussed the differences between the GMAT and GRE.  That background might be heIpful if you really want to understand the ins and outs of each test.  If, however, you are just looking for general guidance on how to decide which test to take (or which one to take first), read on!

How Certain Are You That You Want To Go To Business School?
This is the first and most important question to answer.  The GMAT is the traditional MBA admission test and is only accepted at business schools and a few other types of graduate programs.  The GRE, on the other hand, is accepted not only by business schools but also by virtually all other types of graduate programs from Masters and PhD programs to Veterinary school and even to many Law schools (you can basically use the GRE for everything but Medical school). So if you are not sure that you want to go to business school and are considering other types of graduate programs (such as public policy or psychology or something like that) then you are definitely better off taking the GRE. Doing so will give you the flexibility to apply to other types of programs if you decide that an MBA is not the right choice for you.

Take an Official Practice Test
Assuming that you are nearly certain that you want an MBA, the easiest way to gauge which test is best for you is to take an official GMAT and an official GRE and compare the results. DO NOT rely on third party practice tests for this since they are not as accurate. You need to take official versions from the test makers’ websites. Follow the above links to access the tests. Once you have taken the tests, use ETS’s GMAT/GRE Score Calculator to equate the scores and see which test you did better on.

A couple things to keep in mind here. First of all, many people score similarly on both tests. If you take my GRE score and convert it to a GMAT score, it is the exact same score. So this exercise alone might not be enough to choose which test to go with. More factors that deserve consideration will be explained below.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is not just the final score that matters in this initial comparison. You also want to think about which test you anticipate you would ultimately do better on. It might be that your GMAT score is initially higher than your GRE score, but there may be features about the tests that indicate that, with practice, you would be able to have a greater score increase on the GRE. For example, you may have run completely out of time on the GRE and not on the GMAT, but you may feel that with some practice you could easily have finished the sections on time.

Don’t Choose the GRE Just Because It Seems “Easier”

The most common misconception that I hear from people is, “I was told I should take the GRE because it’s easier than the GMAT.”   Well-meaning friends, colleagues, and even business school admissions consultants often give this advice.  But it is flawed for one main reason.  At the end of the day you are competing against the same cohort of people no matter which test you take, and if the test is easier for you it’s easier for everyone!!!  Remember, your final score means nothing out of context – it is only important in the way that it compares to other people’s scores, so you still have to outperform the very same people no matter which test you take!

Let’s take an example.  The GRE Quantitative section has a calculator whereas the GMAT Quant section does not.  If you are someone who can’t do ANY Math without a calculator, then yes, having the calculator will probably benefit you MORE than other test-takers, and that is what matters.  But what if you have pretty good mental Math ability?  I tutor many people who tell me they are “bad at Math” and who fear the GMAT.  But when I work with them it is clear that they have very good mental Math ability or at least better mental Math ability than most of the people they are up against.  For these people, having a calculator might be a disadvantage because many or possibly most of the people they are competing against would benefit from it much more than they would.  They might be better off taking the GMAT since they would be more likely to outperform their competition in an environment where there is no calculator.

Another point related to the above is that although the GRE Quantitative section is easier, you need to get far more questions right in order to have a high score.   This is just another consequence of the fact that you are competing against the same cohort of people and that you need to outperform them:  since most top performers don’t miss many questions on the GRE Quant section, you can’t either!

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the GRE is not necessarily “easier” anyway.  Yes, the Quantitative section is easier, but most people find the Verbal section of the GRE to be harder than that of the GMAT.  At the end of the day, what determines which test you will do better on is really more about which test aligns more with your particular abilities.  Again, if you have very good mental Math ability and are better at grammar (which is on the GMAT) and don’t have as extensive a vocabulary (which is tested on the GRE), then the GMAT might be a better fit.  If the reverse is true, the GRE might be the better option.  But remember, some people end up with nearly identical scores on both tests – not everyone will perform considerably better on one than the other, so don’t stress the initial decision too much!  More on that below…

What About Taking Both Tests?
Not a bad idea!  Even if you don’t INTEND to take both tests, it’s not that big a deal to switch tests if at some point in the process you start to think that the other test would be a better fit.  Obviously it would be better to just choose a test and stick with it, but sometimes it’s just a tough call as to which test to start with, and I have had many students who have ended up taking both. The tests are similar enough that it is really not that hard to prepare for one and then take the other.  In fact, when I prepare people for the GRE, I often have them do a significant number of GMAT questions (for reasons that I won’t go into here), so ultimately the prep process for both tests is pretty similar.

If after thinking about all of the above considerations you still are on the fence and not sure which test to take, here is what I would suggest:  prepare for the GMAT and if after some time you are not happy with your progress or if after taking the GMAT a couple of times you are not pleased with your score, pivot to the GRE.  In my experience it is MUCH easier to go from the GMAT to the GRE than the other way around. Since the GMAT has a harder Quant section and since it does not provide a calculator, preparing for the GMAT puts you in a pretty good position to then turn around and take the GRE and I have had many students prepare for the GMAT and then take the GRE and get a great score, often without much additional prep.  There are some additional concepts that need to be learned, some vocabulary that needs to be studied, a second type of essay that warrants a little bit of attention, but the biggest thing is just getting used to the slightly different format of the test. In my experience even just a few weeks of additional prep is enough to go from the GMAT to the GRE.

Conclusions
Obviously it is preferable to try to decide which test would be better for you before embarking on a study regimen, but predicting which test you will do better on can be difficult, so don’t stress it too much.  Again, many people perform equally on both tests, so it’s really not helpful to believe that there is a right and wrong choice that you can make here.  And at the end of the day, studying for one test puts you in a good position to tackle the other, so if at any point you decide to switch tests it is not that big a deal.

Ever since business schools began accepting the GRE an increasing number of MBA applicants have elected to take the GRE instead of the GMAT. I have also had many students who either started with the GMAT and then turned to the GRE or who ended up just studying for and taking both exams.  What follows is a comprehensive, in-depth comparison of the tests. In a separate post we give some more specific advice about how best to choose between the exams, but first it might be helpful to understand the similarities and differences.

Main Similarities

• Both tests are fundamentally reasoning tests
• Very similar content base on the Quantitative portions of both tests
• Problem Solving questions on the Quant sections of both tests are fundamentally the same
• Both tests have Reading Comprehension and Argument Questions

Commentary on the Similarities

Fundamentally the GMAT and GRE are actually very similar. There is a lot of overlap between the tests and at their core they are both reasoning tests. So preparing for the tests is a very similar process and once you have prepared for one it is not that difficult to switch tests and take the other.

The content on the Math sections of the tests is almost identical. The GRE actually gets into a few statistical concepts that the GMAT does not (such as interquartile range and frequency distributions), but those are really minor differences and those concepts represent a very small fraction of what you are likely to see on the GRE. Problem Solving questions, which make up about half of the Math questions on both tests, are basically identical on the GMAT and GRE, so knowing how to approach them strategically is fundamentally the same issue on both tests.  Indeed, when we at Reason Test Prep prepare people for the GRE, we have them do a significant number of GMAT Problem Solving questions in order to get more practice with what are essentially “hard” GRE questions.

The Verbal sections of the tests are what set the tests apart more in terms of their format, but even on the Verbal sections there is significant overlap. Both tests have Reading Comprehension (which is roughly the same on both tests) and both have “Argument Questions,” though they are called different things on each test. The Argument Questions (called Critical Reasoning on the GMAT) are a much bigger feature of the GMAT than they are of the GRE, but again the questions are basically indistinguishable.

Main Differences

• The GRE has a calculator whereas the GMAT does not (except on IR)
• The Quantitative part of the GMAT is harder than that of the GRE
• Reading Comprehension is a bit more difficult on the GRE
• Whereas the GMAT has Data Sufficiency questions, the GRE has Quantitative Comparisons (the questions are actually very similar but Data Sufficiency is undoubtedly harder).
• Whereas the GMAT has Sentence Correction questions (which are grammar based) the GRE has “Sentence Completions” (which are vocab-based)
• The GRE allows test takers to skip questions and go back, but the GMAT requires test takes to answer the questions in sequence without going back

Commentary on the Differences

The GRE was redesigned in 2011 in part to lure test-takers away from the GMAT.  In essence, ETS made the GRE more GMAT-like in a number of ways so that business schools would begin accepting the GRE in place of the GMAT, something that almost all business schools now do. One aspect of this was that the quantitative section of the GRE was made more difficult. But it still does not quite approach the difficulty of the GMAT Quant section. That is why for some people, particularly those with weak quantitative ability, the GRE can sometimes be a better test for them than the GMAT (for more on this, see our post on how to decide which test to take, GMAT or GRE).

The makers of the GRE also made an effort to make the GRE more user-friendly so that once people had a choice between the GMAT and GRE, they would be more likely to choose the GRE. So some of the key differences, such as the availability of an on-screen calculator and the ability to skip questions and go back, were deliberate attempts to make the test more approachable and comfortable for people than the GMAT, a strategy that seems to have been somewhat effective.

As for the individual sections, although the Quant sections of the tests are very similar, as described above, there is one major difference: whereas the GMAT has Data Sufficiency questions the GRE has Quantitative Comparisons. The questions are actually very similar, in part because they both have an element of determining whether one has sufficient information to answer a question (that is actually the whole point of Data Sufficiency questions whereas it is not the only thing that needs to be considered on Quantitative Comparisons). Despite the similarity between the questions, Data Sufficiency questions are generally more difficult than Quantitative Comparisons. In fact, some people struggle so much with Data Sufficiency questions that in some cases the GRE becomes a better option because it allows one to avoid Data Sufficiency altogether and deal with Quantitative Comparisons instead.

Really where the tests differ the most is on the Verbal sections. Although both tests have Reading Comprehension and “Argument Questions,” the Argument questions make up a much larger portion of the Verbal section. More significantly, the GRE has “Sentence Completions” (actually it is 2 different question types that are pretty similar), which are essentially vocabulary-based questions and the GMAT has Sentence Correction, which is a grammar-based question. So the Verbal sections of the two tests look more different than the Quant sections and they really get at different knowledge bases – vocabulary on the GRE and grammar on the GMAT.

Most people find the GRE Verbal section to be a little harder than the GMAT Verbal section. That is dependent, in part, on what a person’s skills are (someone who is a really good reader and who has an extensive vocabulary is probably going to do better on the GRE), but overall people tend to find the GRE Verbal section a little more difficult. This is especially true for Reading Comprehension – most of the students that I have tutored for both exams tend to feel that the GRE Reading Comp is significantly more difficult (both in terms of the passages and the questions).

Conclusions

The truth is that the tests are actually very similar and measure the same kind of reasoning ability based on almost the same knowledge base. The Verbal sections differ more significantly than the Quant sections do and some of the features that are offered on the GRE (such as the calculator) are not offered on the GMAT (a calculator is offered on the IR section only).  But really the tests are so much alike that it is very possible to study for one test and then turn around and take the other test without a significant amount of additional prep.  For more information on how to actually choose between the GMAT and GRE, see our other post on that topic.