Gmat?

[greenmom4]

I'm finally finishing up my bachelor's degree and I'm considering applying for Grad school starting in the Fall 2011 semester. The program I'm looking at requires the GMAT which kind of freaks me out - does anyone have any experience? How far in advance did you take it? Was it hard?

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I have a friend who just took it. She has been out of school for a while, so she found it a little difficult. Apparently you get your score right away - she told me that she made one point above the minimum for her program.

She said that she had to memorize a lot of obscure knowledge about artists, literature, and classical music. I would have trouble with that - definitely not my area of expertise.

That said, I haven't actually taken the test, so it is highly possible that it is fairly easy and that my friend was just too far out of school/not a great test-taker.

[gokiamma]

Hi

I have taken the GMAT in the past and got a decent score. I prepared for about 6 weeks (I know people prepare longer, and I had to cut short since I was tyring to meet application deadlines) and used a lot of online discussion boards. The best guide is the big fat book published by ETL. My story is 4 years old, and I know things have changed since. your options are to prepare on your own usign these books/online sources (that is what I did ), or sign upfor a coaching class in your area. These are local and could be expensive.

It is a very interesting exam, and one word of advice is pl do not get discouraged at any moment during your prep. The exam because of the way it is set up, is not a true reflection of your abilities (IMO).
HTH and good luck!

[RollerCoasterMama]

Originally Posted by pinksprklybarefoot

I have a friend who just took it. She has been out of school for a while, so she found it a little difficult. Apparently you get your score right away - she told me that she made one point above the minimum for her program.

She said that she had to memorize a lot of obscure knowledge about artists, literature, and classical music. I would have trouble with that - definitely not my area of expertise.
.

Are you sure that she didn't take a subject specific GRE? GMAT is for business programs - math and writing kind of stuff. I know that when I was deciding between an English Lit PhD program and law school, I went with law school in part because the LSAT was easier--it was just logic puzzles! The GRE for literature had a reading list miles long!

[pinksprklybarefoot]

Originally Posted by RollerCoasterMama

Are you sure that she didn't take a subject specific GRE? GMAT is for business programs - math and writing kind of stuff. I know that when I was deciding between an English Lit PhD program and law school, I went with law school in part because the LSAT was easier--it was just logic puzzles! The GRE for literature had a reading list miles long!

I know for sure that it wasn't the GRE - she was surprised that she didn't have to take that. The program is a MLIS program, if that helps. She was an English major, so the GRE for literature would have been a cinch. She just found out that she got in, BTW ().

[minkleaf]

I took it in January. For a February 1st application deadline to start in fall 2010. Not too impossibly hard, but it definitely helps to practice. I studied on and off for about six weeks, including over Christmas. Read the "GMAT for Dummies" book and all the info on the GMAT website. I took the practice tests from the book and the GMAT website, my score went up each time.

I found the reading/English part pretty easy, the math not so much but I still got in the 70th percentile. Lots of geometry/angle questions, and percentages and work problems. I haven't done much math in the long time since high school and some of it I don't think I'd ever seen before. The study guides and practice tests really helped familiarize me with that part. I just did average on the written portion, but at some schools it doesn't count as much. I was a bit bummed about my score on that part, I'd thought I done pretty well but it's subjective.

I'd say study, then go for it. There were no factual questions about artist, literature, or classical music, just reading comprehension mostly about business related topics. That had to have been a different test. The computerized format of the GMAT tries to stump you by giving you a harder question each time you get one right so even if you feel like you know nothing while you're taking it, you're probably doing pretty well. Good luck.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I was wrong - my friend took the MAT - no G. Sorry for the confusion!