Experiences with Executive Assessment - Post Your EA Experience Here

Hello all!

(Belated) Happy New Year to you all and Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrated!

I took my EA at Pearson Center this afternoon.

Assessment Date: Jan 25, 2023
Total: 165
Integrated Reasoning: 18
Verbal Reasoning: 11
Quantitative Reasoning: 16

I did expect to score solid (18 ) on Quant as a Maths-lover and Maths-person-of-all-times, but happened to spend around 2mins+ in the 4th / 3rd last question....
..and.. it was around less than 4 mins left when I reached to 2nd last question, which was a bit tricky and careful calculation... Had to put guess answer as I noticed the time was about <15 seconds left and I haven't reached to the last question yet.
Thus, those two last-questions of Quant made me "-2" from having 18.......

Aimed for 166 -172 ( if possible, 174, of course!) , thus , the result did not meet my target...
Anyway, I should be satisfied with this score as I only got time to prepare for this EA during Chinese New Year 4days PublicHolidays.
I only knew about the availability/existence of this EA exam on new year day (ie a few weeks ago) , and decided to go for it since NUS parttime MBA accepts EA and I haven't got much time left to apply for Round 2 or 3 latest..


IR : difficulty level is about the same as GMAC's EA Official Practice Materials.
I strongly recommend all to buy the full premium package which includes 4 mock + 450 Questions (150 x 3 types)

Verbal : The questions I took today are a bit more difficult than GMAC EA Official Practice Qs. But structure, questions type/format are the same.

Quant : Real exam today is a bit more difficult than Official Practice Materials.


If your English is quite OK (IELTS 7+ scorer), and
if you can finish taking all GMAC EA Official materials package questions +4 mocks, and
if you do focus during the real exam at the test center,
I can say that you'll score at least 160.

Just sharing my experience and opinions only.
Pls do note that it may not and cannot be true for everyone.

Cheers.

Gratz on the 165. All the best going forward.

I highly recommend Target Test Prep for anyone who has been out of school for a while. I gave myself about nine months to prepare for the Executive Assessment, and I am glad I started early. After sampling several other test prep programs, I decided on Target Test Prep primarily due to its structured, in-depth approach. TTP proved to be an outstanding balance between covering all the material and the test-taking strategy. The most critical factor in my preparation was how each TTP section built upon the previous one. I was constantly progressing within a logically planned system and ultimately raised my score from 144 to 156!

Trying to contribute back as an EMBA student since I found these forums helpful on my application journey 2 years back.
I took the Executive assessment in late 2021.

EA
Total: 166
Integrated Reasoning: 18
Verbal Reasoning: 12
Quantitative Reasoning: 16

My prep was 4 weeks for about 2 hours/night 5-6 days/week doing GMAC official test prep material online. Probably not coincidentally, this is comparable time commitment in EMBA programs. I took the exam in person.

I found the IR section on the EA fairly easy since I'm in the data analytics field. I consistently got perfect scores on it on practice exams and also on the actual exam.
Quant was hit or miss during practice. My practice scores ranged from 10 to 18 and I believe I may have gotten 1 easy question wrong on the actual exam.
Verbal was pretty consistent with practice-- I was getting 10-14 on it before the actual exam.

My practice 4 exam scores ranged from 160 to 164

The actual test looks different visually than the practice exams (different color scheme/can't highlight with mouse/different UI altogether) even though the question and sections are same. My testing center provided a whiteboard/dry erase, but that may be different from place to place.

My strategy:
I always tried to keep the pace of 2min/question, 15min/subsection through all of the sections. If I hit 2 min and wasn't very close to an answer, I selected a best guess answer and moved on. At the end of the sub-section, I came back with about 3-4 min left to rework the ones I guessed on. Oftentimes coming back to a problem helped with figuring it out, especially on IR and QR.

I think nailing the first 6 questions of IR is the most important on whether you can get the "hard/hard questions" on all of the subsequent sub-sections. I think you can still get an 18 on VR/QR if you can score 12 or higher on IR

Hi Folks,
Hope you are doing well.
A quick question - can we unsend our EA score to a Bschool?
I entered a couple of schools before taking the EA exam but want to remove 2 schools from that list. Took my exam two days back- is there something we can do or is it too late now?
Please help.
Thanks!

Hm... Sorry not sure about EA but if judging based on the GMAT, i think that's ship has sailed.
At the same time, it is what it is - schools won't care if you sent them an extra score, even if it is a low one, so no biggie.

Good Evening Everyone,

Been studying for the EA for roughly 3.5-4 weeks so far (roughly 45 min per day - 5x a week) and Im honestly not sure where I should be performance wise just yet. My official exam attempt # 1 is not for another 7 weeks. I currently am going through the EA practice question bundle and im finding myself averaging 50% on almost every section. Would y'all recommend that I keep ripping through the questions until the test bank is complete.....see how I did as a baseline and then reset the questions and start all over again to continue gaining familiarity with the content? I only ask because it seems like from the forum that 150 is where you want to land if not higher BUT it seems like getting as few as 2 questions wrong in a section on the EA can drastically affect your score in that section. Thanks in advance for any inputs and advice. Cheers!

I would say dont blow through all your questions. If you do a question, chances are you will remember the answer once you go back to it so it becomes useless (you can always just buy a gmat book too to get more). Do a set, but really try to understand what you did wrong and hopefully you perform better on the next 10. I would say score at least 60% for a 150. You want to do the best you can on first 7 of each section since that will dictate the difficulty of the next 7.

Hello, same thing happens to me where I ran out of time to hit submit, does that mean I score 0 in that subsection?

Posted from my mobile device

Hi. It will count. The whole section counts. The only questions that don't count are the ones that were not individually submitted (e.g. if you ran out of time on question #5 for example, all questions afterwards and 5 will not count)

Hi all, Posting my experience with the EA using the TargetTestPrep (TTP) Course.

I elected to take the EA relative to the GMAT due to the shorter exam length and omission of geometry content. I found most of the MBA/EMBA programs I was interested in accepted the EA. I began my study journey in April/May and opted for a guided self-study program. I shopped around and narrowed my choices to Magoosh, TTP, and Manhattan Test Prep. After tinkering with the trial versions for each, I went with TTP because 1) it was among the most economical options, 2) I liked the various delivery formats and 3) I thought the actual learning content and curriculum was far more robust relative to the others. All offer plenty of practice questions and examples, but I found the strategies and learning content to be far more in-depth with TTP than the others. Note that this program is not something you can just fly through in 2-3 weeks time; it uses the 'go deep' approach which is how it delivers the results that it does. If you're looking for something more condensed, quick, and dirty, I'd suggest looking elsewhere with the leveled expectation that you may not progress or score as high as the 90th + percentile. I wanted something weighty and comprehensive given that I am >12 years out of undergrad and have not studied for or taken a standardized exam since the SAT.

I took 1 official practice exam from GMAC to gauge my baseline and scored a 153. I'm targeting top 5 schools; as such, I wanted to ideally break 160 and knew I needed work to do, particularly in the IR and QR sections which these programs tend to weigh more heavily relative to VR. I dedicated 15-20 hours/week for 3.5-4 months to studying with TTP. I completed all of the learning content, examples, practice exams, and about 75% of the practice questions bank (there are >1,000). I also took the other 3 official practice exams and a few practice questions from GMAC. At this point in August, I was scoring between 157-164 on my practice exams. Quite a spread, but I felt strongly prepared for the real thing and took the exam at the end of August and scored a 157. I felt I could do better based on my practice exams, so I elected to retake the exam 2 weeks after retooling from the first exam. The second run, I scored a 161, which is about the middle of the range of my practice exams. I elected to stop here and invest the remainder of my time in my applications.

I can't say enough about TTP. Beyond the robust curriculum, Scott, Jeff, and staff of instructors go above and beyond and make themselves available for additional questions or requests you may have. During my program, I reached out to them for guidance on a few items, and they answered them thoroughly and thoughtfully. What's also great is that the program goes over exam content AND test taking strategies, including breath-work, note-taking, and time management strategies. I'd highly recommend giving them a try if you're looking for a comprehensive study program and trying to earn a considerable increase in your score like I was. So long as you put in the work from your end, you will not be disappointed by the TTP programming.

Now it's on to the application process! I hope this provided value, and wishing you all the best in your journey!

Hi all,

I am taking the EA shortly. I bought the GMAC preparation bundle with 300 questions and 4 practice tests. I have completed 70 integrated reasoning questions. I barely managed to answer 20 correctly. I am concerned with my poor performance.

Did anyone have a similar experience during their preparation? I am feeling hopeless right now.

For the Verbal and Quant, I still manage to answer 60 percent of the questions correctly.

About to give up.

Posted from my mobile device

Can anyone who has taken the exam give me a comparison of the test's IR difficulty vs. the official EA practice question pack IR difficulty? The IR questions in my first mock were no where near as challenging as what I'm seeing in the official EA question pack.

The majority of the EA pack IR questions have less than a 50% correct rate on this forum and are almost all rated at the 700-750 range.

BUMP

Also, how long does it typically take to get online results back?

I initially prepared for the EA exam by tackling the official questions and reviewing the limited material available. Recognizing that this approach won't really teach me and give me the required foundation, I discovered the TTP course and decided to enroll. The course, comprehensive and thorough, posed a challenge within my timeframe of about a month and a half. After two weeks, it became apparent that covering all chapters, lessons, questions, and tests would be unattainable.

In response, I switched to the accelerated study plan. Personal commitments prompted me to postpone the test by a month. This adjustment allowed me to extensively cover the majority of the chapters. The course content itself is excellent, featuring clear examples. My takeaway is that to meticulously cover each lesson, page, and question while balancing other commitments, a timeframe of 4-6 months (considering some days with limited study hours) is necessary. In addition, you need to find the subjects you're weak at and start there. It's all about prioritization.

In conclusion, I highly recommend the TTP course. It played a pivotal role in my achievement of a score of 161. Many thanks to the TTP course and team!

Hi Guys, for those who have taken the EA:

1. Is the scratchpad similar to that used on the GMAT?
2. Does the timer work in the same way (i.e. shows time remaining) to the GMAT or are there any customization options for the timer?

Thanks

EA Score: 156
I surprised myself after not doing math in decades. Truly Target Test Prep is a godsend. If you put the time and effort, watch the tutorials, and test, test, test, you'll have this in the bag. I studied 1-2 hours a day for about 6 weeks and did 3/4 practice exams from GMAC. I focused on my weak areas, especially quant. The test ended up feeling easier than what I was testing in practice. And, I got into my target school and backup school.