How smart?

I would venture to say you have to have reasonable intelligence to score high, but by no means do you have to be a genius. I strongly believe that if you had the ability to make it through your undergrad experience with a descent GPA you have more than enough intelligence to score high on the GMAT.

We've read numerous debriefs from members who initially scored low in either the math or verbal sections who, through persistence and dedication, were able to score high.

The GMAT is a standardized test. There is only a certain amount of topics covered and there is a limited amount of ways the test makers can twist the topics. If you take the time to work on practice GMAT questions and really analyze the questions and answers, you'll gradually improve your score. The improvements may be slow in coming, but they will come. It just depends how determined you are and how bad you want it.

I'm not sure how comparable a medical exam is to the GMAT exam. The medical exam probably tests more practical applications. A majority of the concepts tested on the math (or verbal) portion of the GMAT are pretty much useless in the business world. When you’re a CEO, knowing the intricacies of number theory isn’t going to improve your performance. The GMAT doesn’t test “business intelligence” or your potential to succeed as an executive. The case studies you solve in your MBA program will do a much better job at determining that (I also believe these would be much better indicator of potential for business schools, but that’s another discussion). Business potential/intelligence can’t be tested via a standardized exam. So if the question is, does the GMAT test intelligence? If you mean your business intelligence or executive potential, I would say, no. If you mean, Does it measure your IQ, I would also say no. I believe the GMAT measures how good you are at taking the GMAT, and that’s about it. That’s why I tell everyone struggling with the exam not to let the test define you. It’s just a game with a lot of politics mingled in. For example, I’ve seen numerous students score extremely high on the verbal section, yet they can barely compose a legible paragraph when they post their debrief. I don't mean to insult anyone by saying that, but in my mind this validates my assumption that the GMAT is highly learnable and does not test any real application of knowledge.

(Disclaimer – the above is just my personal opinion, I don’t mean to start any arguments or insult anyone who has aced the test.)

While it’s important to keep these truths in mind, you must maintain a positive attitude when prepping for the test. There’s no point in getting bitter or trying to fight the system. Just play their game and get the test out of the way. One strategy I would recommend is practicing under timed conditions. The time constraint of the GMAT is half of the battle. With practice, you can improve on this aspect dramatically. I would also add that you should not waste a lot of time taking test prep company exams (I’m not referring to the GMATclub exams). Only use their materials if you need to study the basics. Your main practice should come from the official materials. If you’ve found you’re hitting a wall, analyze your exams and determine why. If you can’t figure out how to overcome that wall, hire a private tutor. I only recommend doing this if you know exactly what concepts you’re struggling with. Don’t just go to a tutor without any knowledge of why you need their help.

Also, it’s not just a matter of knowing the material; it’s a matter of understanding how GMAT questions are structured. You can learn this with enough practice. However, as others have said, it’s not just a matter of doing a million questions; you need to really understand why you answered a question wrong. A further point of analysis would be to determine why the other answer choices were wrong. In doing this, you can learn a lot about how test makers design the questions and answer choices.