I’m writing this because not much seems to written yet about the EA. I took the test today and want to share thoughts while they’re fresh and before the wine kicks in. In bullet form because I’m lazy: - I’m 48 years old and haven’t dealt with the material on the test in nearly 30 years - I scheduled myself for the GMAT, bought a GMAT study book, studied for a while, then concluded that if the GMAT is what’s needed to “go to the next level,” then my current level will have to be good enough. - I later learned about the EA and scheduled it. I only used the official online GMAC tools, nothing else. - I didn’t finish the study materials (I’m also doing a calculus course online to fix an old crummy grade). - I didn’t take any timed practice tests. I wish I had. - The test was hard. Time management was my biggest weakness. If I was doing it again (and I may), I would quickly complete questions I know I can answer, then go back. I wasted too much time trying to solve hard questions. - Time management was not an issue on the verbal section, which turned out to be my highest-scoring section. I finished that one early and didn’t spend much time reviewing. - In general I thought the GMAC study questions were harder than those found on the test. That’s a good thing. - Final score: IR 11 / Verbal 18 / Quant 11 / overall 160 - Unclear what those scores mean - Happy to answer questions Moderator Note: Starting Feb 2021, GMAT Club is offering EA Tests using the GMAT Club's tough quant question bank and new never-before seen IR questions. You can take 1 EA practice test absolutely free . https://gmatclub.com/eatests https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/executive-assessment-tests-x2.png

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Experiences with Executive Assessment - Post Your EA Experience Here

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shift808

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08 Jan 2020, 13:18

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pung

I have a question for the folks who have already taken the actual EA test. While preparing the EA from the GMAC's online practice tool, the IR question seems to be difficult to navigate as everything appears top to bottom per question. This makes it really hard to read the question and scroll up and down to read the table etc. So, my question is: how does the IR question appear on the actual EA test? Does it appear as the data/graph/table on the left and then the question on the right or does it appear the way it appears on the EA practice tool (from top to bottom)? Thanks!

It was a while ago, and I do not remember the exact screen format for the IR questions, but do recall thinking that the actual test had similar layout compared to the practice tests – maybe a little better on the actual exam, but nothing remarkable. I think with practice, the layout becomes manageable.

lynart

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08 Jan 2020, 13:30

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Thank you! There are a lot of options, what did you bought?

shift808

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08 Jan 2020, 14:22

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lynart

Thank you! There are a lot of options, what did you bought?

I used the, "Official Practice Premium Collection" for $150. It contains quite a lot of material.

lynart

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08 Jan 2020, 16:38

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Thank you! Do you know, if some practise tests in this collection? I want to pass practice test first to understand my level

shift808

lynart

Thank you! There are a lot of options, what did you bought?

I used the, "Official Practice Premium Collection" for $150. It contains quite a lot of material.

shift808

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08 Jan 2020, 17:56

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lynart

Thank you! Do you know, if some practise tests in this collection? I want to pass practice test first to understand my level

I just used the first couple tests to assess my level with some studying and then the last two test shortly before I took the exam. Unlike the GMAT, there is not a plethora of study resources available specifically for the Executive Assessment. That said, there is significant overlap between the EA and GMAT, so you can use selected GMAT materials in areas you feel particularly weak.

lynart

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08 Jan 2020, 18:36

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Thank you, its very helpful! Now its more clear for me!

shift808

lynart

Thank you! Do you know, if some practise tests in this collection? I want to pass practice test first to understand my level

shift808

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12 Jan 2020, 03:18

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This is an excellent article, covering the adaptive testing format and scoring. Perfect scores are 18 per section, for a maximum score of 120 + 18 + 18 + 18 = 174. This formula is validated for every posted EA score.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/about-executive-assessment/

DrShelle

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15 Jan 2020, 03:46

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Hi,

Thank you so much for your detailed post. This is what my clients also find -- that the GMAC materials prepare them well. Most of them use all the GMAC materials first and pace themselves in taking the GMAC mock exams. There are four total mock exams, and many times the mock exam's projected score ends up being about three points higher than the real score. So I tell my clients to prepare until they are getting a mock score three points higher than what they want in reality. That means that if they get a 158 on the mock exam, they might get a 155 on the real exam. After exhausting all GMAC materials, some of my clients use GMAT materials to study-- either GMAT self-study via books or an online course. You were diligent and scored well. Congratulations! Good luck in your admissions process.

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel
MBA Admit.com

Jazzy3113

I am early thirties and decided to take the EA in lieu of the GMAT due to the fact that it was shorter and there was no geometry, which meant I could spend less time on test prep since I have a full time job.

I did a little practice on GMAT study guides and then purchased the GMAC study tools for the EA. I took the entire GMAC course twice and the IR prep tool once.

I found the test to be exactly what is was purported to be - a mini-GMAT, with no geometry and a focus on the IR section. The prep tools were good for familiarizing yourself with the difficulty and structure of the questions. What it lacked was a teaching course for topics, but that can be gained from the plethora for GMAT materials available.

As in any test, preparing for time management is key. I ran out of time in the quant section.

I got a 13, 13, and 14 for a total score of 161. Unsure of what that means or what percentile rank I achieved. From the meager info out there, I believe that a score of 150+ is sufficient.

DrShelle

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15 Jan 2020, 03:52

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Hi,

Thank you for this post. This is great advice for candidates. Your experience is consistent with what we are finding with our candidates at MBA Admit.com. Many people reading here will be happy to know that you studied for three weeks and found that you could prepare in that time. It is also great that you detail how important it is to have a test strategy during the actual test. Glad things went well for you!

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel
MBA Admit.com

Krisk

Sharing my experience here as there wasn't much written about EA. Took EA and got 159 (IR:13, VR: 10 and AR:16). The scores are very close the practice assessment scores I got while working on gmac material.

I have bought the gmac practice bundle that comes with two tests and 350 practice questions and worked through it for about 20 hours over three weeks. on the side, I picked up GMAT practice tests at my local library and practiced them as well. I took one of two official gmac practice tests on the first week of my prep and got 156(12,10,14) and another one the week before my final test and got 161(18,10,13), Final EA score came out right in the middle. BTW, there are some errors in the gmac prep material towards the end. I have reported them by clicking the report errors button. Hopefully they fix them soon.

Based on my analysis on practice test scores and final test scores, the maximum possible score is 174. Each of the individual sections can go to max of 18. I.e. three 18s would put you at 174. 18 in a section means you have answered all of the questions correctly.

On the test strategy, I had just enough time to complete the sections and didn't have any left over to really go back and review the flagged questions. As you may know, each of the sections are divided into two sub sections. Performance on the first sub section will adapt the level of difficulty on the second sub section. If you see the difficulty level high on the second half that is a good sign which means you had performed well on the first half.

On time management, once the exam starts, the clock will keep ticking even on the information screen or on the review screens.so keep an eye for the time remaining.

Good luck to all of you preparing for EA. Happy to answer any questions you have during the preparation.

DrShelle

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15 Jan 2020, 03:58

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Hi,

Thanks for this post. At this time, there are now four GMAC practice EA tests, which is much better than just two (for the first few years after its introduction, there were only two GMAC mock EA exams). So, you are able to take the four mock exams provided by GMAC and project your score.

Good luck to all!

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel
MBA Admit.com

HugeDynamics

I took 4-5 weeks to prepare for the Executive Assessment and I will highly recommend it in lieu of the GMAT for working professionals who are looking to start an executive MBA. I used the EA official prep to practice and assess my level. The practice questions and the two official practice assessment practice exams are in line with what you will encounter in the exam. By this I mean, your official exam score will likely reflect your scores on the two official practice assessments.

I scored 151 on my EA exam and my Practice Assessment 1 score was 150 and Practice Assessment Score 2 (one day after) was 152, which is not bad given that I only had to study for 4-5 weeks.

The quant reasoning section is quite easy if you have a good background in maths (geometry is not included in EA quant). If this is the case, my advise to anyone will be to invest more time on IR and verbal and little time on quant.

For IR, I will suggest investing extra time on Multi-Source Reasoning question as you can easily pick up 4-5 points on this question. Some Two-part analysis questions that require verbal reasoning can be very tricky and time-consuming, so if you don't have time just guess and move on to other questions types like table analysis and graphical interpretation that are less tedious.

DrShelle

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15 Jan 2020, 04:02

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Hi,

Yes, this is an approach many of my clients take also. Many of them take one GMAC practice EA exam early on to assess their skill level. They then study and pace when they take the remaining three GMAC practice EA exams. They use GMAC materials to study and supplement that with GMAT prep materials as needed.

Good luck to all as you prepare!

Best wishes,
Dr. Shel
MBA Admit.com

shift808

lynart

Thank you! Do you know, if some practise tests in this collection? I want to pass practice test first to understand my level

DrShelle

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15 Jan 2020, 04:14

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Hi,

Wharton will usually ask someone to re-take the exam when they score in the low-150 range (there are some exceptions, of course). It should be fine at Booth if you present a good application (essay and recs). With Yale, whether this score is good enough will depend on your overall credentials (GPA, work experience+) and quality of your application (essay and recs).

Good luck in your admissions process!
Best wishes,
Dr. Shel
MBA Admit.com

carbazzy

Hello all,

I took the Executive Assessment today and scored a 150 on the nose, IR-9, V-10. and Q-11. I felt the exam was slightly harder than the practices exams that I have been taking from GMAC, my practice scores ranged from 152-162, and my score reflects this. Realizing 150 seems to be at the bottom of the acceptable scale, do I still have a shot at my target schools of Yale SOM, Wharton, and Booth? Should I consider retaking?

Any consultants willing to weigh in would be appreciated!

ShellyLWatts
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anonpilt

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Updated on: 20 Jan 2020, 14:30

Originally posted by anonpilt on 15 Jan 2020, 08:53.
Last edited by anonpilt on 20 Jan 2020, 14:30, edited 1 time in total.

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I took the EA yesterday. It seemed harder than the practice tests. I was usually able to finish the practice tests in about an hour. I found myself using up almost all the allotted on the real exam.

I would say that the practice exam questions were trickier than the real exam. There were lots of opportunities to slip up on the practice questions if you didn't read them very carefully. The real exam questions were more straightforward. The content of the questions on the real exam was more difficult than the practice exams; I completed a couple practice exams without resorting to a pen and pad, but I had to use the pen and pad extensively for the QR section of the real exam.

The adaptive difficulty kind of messes with your head. Getting an easier question makes you wonder what you messed up on the previous section.

shift808

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19 Jan 2020, 03:36

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anonpilt

Practice exam scores 163-174, real exam score near the top end of that range.

Great scores!

Narenn

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13 Feb 2020, 18:22

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Join us if you are curious to know what could be a great EA score and other FAQs about the EA test.

Starts in 30 minutes

jj925

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07 Mar 2020, 15:44

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This is a basic question about testing environment itself, but wanted to confirm that calculator for IR section is only a computer calculator on the screen? They do not give you a real calculator?

Anyone have trouble asking for additional notepad or pens from test site staff before the exam?

AnirudhaS

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07 Mar 2020, 15:52

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jj925

Hi jj925, The calculator in IR section is an on screen one. You can get comfortable with it while taking your practice gmat tests 1&2, which are free when you register at mba.com

Notepad is an erasable, laminated one. Pens are like felt pens. You raise your hand and can ask for a replacement pad at any time. It takes around 1 min for the examiner to come, understand your request and then replace your notepad. When you are nearing the end of the pad, raise your hands so that you do not lose any time waiting.

shift808

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07 Mar 2020, 18:33

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AnirudhaS

jj925

My test center started me with two laminated sheets and I asked for an extra pen, which they gave me without a problem. I really did not end up needing very much scratch space for my bank of questions.

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07 Mar 2020, 22:52

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Had been lurking in this site and thread for a while. I took the EA test today and wanted to share my experiences.
Started studying 1 month ago, mostly from official GMAT books from Library and also took the official gmac package.

Took 2 practice tests 15 days ago and scored 151 and 152. Took practice tests 3 and 4 couple of days ago and scored 155 and 154.

Today took the actual test and scored 162 ( ir:18, verbal:12, quant:12).
IR turned out to be easier than the practice tests. I was actually second guessing myself at the end of IR section as almost had 3 minutes remaining, which had never happened in practice tests.
Vebal is generally my weak point, and the sentence correction was really hard in the first half of the section. In the second half, got a rc with a really lengthy difficult to understand passage. At this stage I was thinking I would get a bad score in verbal, but looks like a couple of educated guesses seemed to be right based on final score.
When I reached quant, it was harder than any of the practice tests. Even the second half was hard and I finished right on time. In the practice tests, I always finished with plenty of time. Even the 100 practice questions in ea prep, my average was 1.4 minutes.

Overall was pleasantly surprised at the final result. I guess the easier IR helped in this case. Hopefully this score should help overcome other negatives in my application (over represented Indian male from tech background).

As others have suggested, request for 2 pens beforehand. Made the mistake of taking just 1 which was not writing well, so requested one while I was doing verbal, but waste of 30 seconds.
The user interface is a bit dated compared to prep materials, especially the review screen. Also got annoying popups of 10 minute / 5 minutes alerts.

Posted from my mobile device

SFBAY32

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07 Apr 2020, 18:07

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Prepping for EA exam. Can anyone share how they did when they took GMAT, and then decided to take EA?
like if you are scoring:

500-600 = estimated EA score? or,
600-700 = estimated EA score?

Just trying to see, lets say if I scored a 600-650 on GMAT, with the same knowledge, can a person score 160 on EA?

I'll take a practice test, just curios if anyone tried that or not.

Thanks!