Why the GMAT?

Question

Hello,

I am intending on appling for business school in the December - January timeframe. As such, I've listed out the schools I intend to apply to, have figured out the GMAT score I need to acquire to be admitted, and have begun studying for the GMAT.

In looking at the GMAT, and especially the quant section that I am knee deep in currently, I see a conglomeration of tricks and traps. Tricks that require a knowledge of mathematical formulas, of simplifying the given problem in a certain way, and of having memorized certain mathematical values. My question is, in what way does testing someone's ability to identify mathematical tricks signify their business acumen. Moreover, how does this test identify anything other than someone who is good with number puzzles?

Honestly, I'm concerned about entering an MBA program where this test plays a significant role in admissions without understanding the correlation between test success and business ability.

Thank you,

Simon

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear smkohnstamm You ask an excellent question, my friend, and I will do my best to answer. :-)

I would argue that the GMAT, a test designed with the input of business school folks, is a test that very much prepares you not only for what you need in business school but also for what you will need as a manager in the workplace. Why, then, all the tricks and traps in GMAT math? I think a few things are going on here. First of all, keep in mind that the test is asking students to reach well beyond, say, proficiency with formula to number sense and mathematical thinking . What may appear as a "trick" or a "trap" at one level of understanding is often resolved at a higher level of understanding. Part of the importance is the math itself. Folks in the modern data-driven business world have to wade through a sea of numbers, and having good number sense and an ability to think on one's feet can be invaluable. If you hear something such as, " profits last year were $6 M, and we expect a 30% increase this year ," it's very if you have a rough idea of what the number will be in your head----especially in a context in which numbers are flying by, you may not be able to pause and do a calculation for each one. Part of the importance of math lies in detail management, organization, and precision --- doing math builds these skills, which can be valuable in non-mathematical contexts. In this sense, math is like mental weight-training: it's about developing an inherent strength that one can then apply in a variety of contexts. Part of the challenge of GMAT math is moving to deeper levels of abstraction: B-schools surmise that if you can rise to higher levels of abstraction in your mathematical thinking, then you can do so in other areas as well. The ability to detect overarching patterns can be an extraordinary skill in the business world. Related to this: many of the hardest GMAT math problems require you to think out-of-the-box. One could say that they are designed to frustrate the memorizers and steady rule-followers. The skills of rule-following, no matter how proficient, are not likely in and of themselves to produce a dynamic leader. Breakthroughs come from the folks who can think out-of-the-box, and if you have the ability to do this regularly on the hardest GMAT problems, that is extremely promising to business schools and potential employers. In this context, see this blog: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/how-to-do- ... th-faster/ Mathematics is an unforgiving teacher. If you need to know, say, 12 things to solve a problem, and you know only 11, you get the problem wrong. Part of success on GMAT math is the ability to be resilient in the face of potential frustration, and productively use the wrong answers to improve . The moral strength and fortitude required to resist frustration and keep moving forward is very closely related to the kind of skills you will need as a manager. The business world is replete with potential frustrations, and the people with the most indefatigable determination have the highest probability of success. The business world, like higher math, is not for the faint of heart! Does all this make sense? Please let me know if you have further questions. Mike :-)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Simon,

The whole of the GMAT is really just a big 'critical thinking' Test. While you will have to do 'math' to get through the Quant section, you do NOT need to be a math genius to score at a higher level. You DO need to have certain skills though: attention-to-detail, the ability to take organized notes and spot patterns, the ability to PROVE that you're correct about your assumptions (especially on DS questions), the discipline to get through the entire section on time and - yes - some basic math skills. I've worked with many Test Takers over the years who were absolutely 'average' when it came to doing math, but they were solid 'thinkers', learned the necessary Tactics and did the necessary work (when the question required it) - and they all scored well higher than they originally thought was possible

The GMAT also serves as a reasonable assessment of your ability to stick to, and complete, a 'fixed' task. The GMAT is a consistent, predictable Exam, so you CAN train to score at a higher level. You can also take it up to 5 times per 12-month period (and as many times overall as you choose) - if you cannot perform at a reasonably competitive level under these types of circumstances, then there might be some question as to how you would handle the rigors of Business School. The funny thing is that Business Schools KNOW that not all applicants are great Test Takers, which is why there are so many other aspects to the application process.

There are rules that need to know (or learn), and there are patterns that you need to train to spot, but referring to all of this as just a series of 'tricks' is unproductive. If you're finding it difficult to improve on your own, then you might need to invest in some resources that will help you to develop all of the necessary skills to earn a high score on the GMAT.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

smkohnstamm · Answer

Mike,

I sincerely appreciate the detailed response, and I must say your videos on Magoosh online are an epiphany. The way you present solutions have a way of melting my frustration and clearly indicating the path toward the solution. I really appreciate the work that you do, it's made a world of difference in my approach to quant.

I would argue, however, that business management is about more than numbers, tools, tricks, frustration management, or any of the items that you stated here. I've just left an executive level, technically oriented position (CTO), of an industrial engineering/management company. Sitting on the executive team, I can tell you very honestly that not a single one of my co C-Level executives could pass this test, even though each of them are super-competent. Probably not even the president of the company. I'd rather have someone who can think strategically, can work in a team, collaborate, innovate, than someone who can tell me specifically the ratio of the volume of two arbitrary cubes in two minutes. Or who can properly repeat the prime numbers from 1-100.

Again, I totally understand where you're coming from, and the thinking that I'm sure helped form the test. I would suggest, however, that relying on this test is relegating brilliant minds who would contribute in important ways to business to be "inadmissible." I think this is a critical mistake that the business school community is making, you're sorting for the doers, middle management. Not the change makers.

Those are just my two cents, I'd be very happy to hear back from you,

Thanks,

Simon

AjiteshArun · Answer

You're perhaps under the impression that the GMAT is more than it actually is. I've seen people with GMAT scores lower than 50% (percentile) get into the "top 5" purely on the basis of how good they were (or had been) at their jobs.

Everyone knows that there are a lot of things that should be taken into consideration during the admissions process. Everyone, and that includes, as has been pointed out above, the schools themselves. Why would you actively try to keep a test of basic math and verbal skills out of the selection process?

Maybe you just need to get going. Give it a shot. It'd be interesting to see whether you find that it gets easier after a while.

smkohnstamm · Answer

Gentlemen, I sincerely appreciate your responses. Your detailed and careful consideration of -- and response to -- my point of view is impactful and extremely helpful. As a point of consideration to continue the conversation (should it be desired to be continued

) I'd like to look at a question on the exam that I've just reviewed. The question I'd like to inspect posits the equation including integer k, where k is a value between 1 and 9, is added to 29736 and equals N. If we know that N is divisible by 9, can we determine the value of k. The solution requires a simple application of the fact that if the sum of the digits of 29736 is divisible by 9 then 29736 is divisible by 9. This is an easy question once you recall the rule that a long integer is divisible by 9 if the sum of its digits are divisible by 9. Ok, my question here is what is the implication of this knowledge? Why, besides answering questions on this specific exam, would it be useful to know that the sum of the digits of a number being divisible by 9 means that the number is divisible by 9? I understand that this is a clever trick and that its handy to use on this non-calculator allowing test, but why is this something that I should add to my memory banks besides passing the test? What knowledge is this examining besides the fact that I memorized this trick , and correctly applied it? Is there number theory here that I'm not understanding that's important for me to represent? Furthermore, is this not a representation of the test being slanted towards formula memorizers / rote recallers? If it is a memorization thing, fine, but why is this useful to know? In case I'm stuck in an elevator at Goldman Sacks and someone presents to me an equity deal for 1/9th of a company valued at 2.9736 Billion dollars, and it happens to be that my phone ran out of batteries? Again, I don't want this conversation to come of as combative, that is not the point of my inquiry here. I want to understand if this exam is something that I morally agree with. Do the people that the exam tests to elicit and the group of peers that I'll be working with in the future align in the same group? Do I find to be important what the GMAT finds to be important? It is imperative, in my mind, to answer this before "paying" --if you will-- the opportunity cost of the time spent studying for this exam. Thank you again, Simon

AjiteshArun · Answer

It's good to see someone taking a step back and asking why the GMAT should be a part of the admissions process. Personally, I don't like standardized tests  at all , and I am really uncomfortable with what they sometimes say they represent. When I see  standardized test , I can't help but think  expedient .

That said, you might want to be a little more precise with your problem statement here. Otherwise this conversation will probably just go the way most debates on testing do. And at the end of the day, exams will have some research to support whatever they're saying.  This exam is highly predictive of a candidate's potential as measured by XYZ  and then they'll give you figures for how good the correlation is.

This is something the GMAT is aware of. In fact, they're considering changing the entire exam (doing away with quant and verbal and putting IR, and IR does provide the option of using a calculator, in as the main question type). Such a change won't happen in the near future (not in the next few years), but it is on their radar. I think IR is going to be more fun (not sure whether it's going to be more effective), but this (quant and verbal) is what the GMAT has for now, and someone has to decide what a test taker can be reasonably expected to know. Some exams set the bar very high. In comparison, the GMAT sets the bar very low. But it is they, not we, who take that call. What should test takers not memorize? Maybe that 2+2=4? One extreme would be to  expect  them to reach for a calculator for that. The other is to ask them to prove that 2+2=4 before they can use that result. Knowing that people taking the exam are aware of a few basic things allows the GMAT to test, indirectly, their reasoning skills.

As someone who has gone through the Indian education system, I find your threshold for calling something "slanted towards formula memorizers / rote recallers" mildly amusing. More seriously though, are we really going to take the position that memorizing small facts and details is not going to be an important skill for people looking for a business degree? What do they do during a meeting with investors?

The GMAT is an additional data point for admissions committees. I think you'll find that high achievers generally tend to do well on the GMAT as well, but that schools do consider many things other than GMAT scores when taking a decision.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Simon, I'm happy to respond again. :-)

Yes, you are 100% correct that at some level, there is something a little contrived about the entire idea of standardized testing. Let's call the divisibility-by-9 trick a math factoid. It's true that there are all kinds of math factoids (numbers patterns, geometry facts, algebra facts, etc.) that you need to excel on the GMAT and that presumably will not need once you have your MBA and are ensconced in a business career. Part of the defense of standardized tests such as the GMAT is that many of these math factoids you would remember from high school math, and others you learn and remember as part of studying. The factoids themselves are not nearly as important as the fact that you have a brain that can remember all this . This is encouraging to business schools and employers, because folks who can learn and retain a lot of picayune detailed information can be very good to have around. This is the logic behind correlations. GMAC, the company that makes the GMAT, demonstrates its worth to business schools by demonstrating correlations. The GMAC folks have been able to show, time and time again, that a high score on the GMAT is highly correlated with academic scores in business school. In other words, business schools can take a high GMAT score and conclude: this person is likely to be able to handle intellectually our academic requirements. Again, the individual factoids don't matter at all. What matters is the raw CPU of your brain, and the GMAT purports to give an objective measurement of this. In this sense, the GMAT is a kind of context-specific IQ test, and in fact, GMAT score, like all standardized test scores, is highly correlated with more formal measures of IQ. See this article, for my skeptical take on the entire idea of of IQ: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-and-iq-correlation/ The entire drive to quantify every aspect of what it is to be human is a sickness of the modern world, that has only gotten more intense in the electronic age. The most human thing would be for someone to meet with you personally, interact with you, get to know you, and through this process, appraise your intelligence and mental fitness. Obviously, in our breathless modern world, there's no time for that. We need a proxy, some quick indication that, yes, this individual has the smarts to handle business school academically. For better or worse, the means used for answering this question is the GMAT. If you search the factoids you need to know for the GMAT to understand the meaning of the GMAT, you will miss the point. The GMAT is intellectually challenging and difficult and demanding. If you can come through this well, then folks in the business world have some indication that you will be able to handle the thousand intellectually challenging and difficult and demanding situations of the modern business world. People who simply crack under pressure are weeded out, because anyone who easily cracks under pressure doesn't belong in the modern business world in the first place. The larger context in which the GMAT is used, and the messages different folks assign to its scores, create the meaning of the GMAT. When you take the GMAT, you have a certain experience of the test questions: that experience has absolutely nothing to do with the meaning of the GMAT---but how you respond to this experience, how you thrive in the face of that experience: that has everything to do with the meaning of the GMAT. Relatedly, the factoid-filled mindset that promotes success on the GMAT is extremely different from the broad philosophical mindset that can understand the meaning of the GMAT. These questions are fun to explore, but at some point, you have to drop the philosophy and dive back into the ocean of factoids. Folks who can't do that are also weeded out by the GMAT, and they go on to be philosophers or poets or something like that---not a bad fate, if that is what you want. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

jz4analytics · Answer

As has been said, you shouldn't overestimate the GMAT's importance. There are people who get 800 scores and get rejected from every MBA program. BSchool admissions is less of a numbers game then, say, law school.

That said, the GMAT has been a proven predictor of success at completing graduate-level coursework. Even if that is all it does, adcoms will still use it. Take a look at the charts here:

https://www.gmac.com/market-intelligence ... ccess.aspx

Your Total (out of 800) score is a bigger predictor of bschool success than UGPA is. Additionally, your Quant and Verbal (and IR!) scores add unique explanatory power that does not comes from grades alone (it looks like the AWA is worthless and adds almost nothing). Top bschools still use the GMAT in order to weed out people who likely wouldn't be able to complete the programs.

smkohnstamm · Answer

Thank you for your responses. I did some soul searching this weekend after having read your earlier responses, and resolved a similar conclusion in my head. It's more about testing the mettle of an individual than it is about understanding whether or not the individual can correctly answer questions (which by its own right is important of course). It reminds me of the Kobayashi Maru test for command cadets in Star Trek. The test, as first depicted in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, presents cadets an intentionally designed "no-win" scenario which is meant to test a cadet's character under pressure, rather than their strategic or intellectual capabilities. While the GMAT may not be a "no-win" scenario, it similarly seems to test for those who can rise above in pressure cooker situations.

Thank you for setting me straight, I look forward to pursuing success on this test now that my internal conflict is behind me!

Simon

Thank you for setting me straight, I look forward to pursuing success on this test now that my internal conflict is behind me!

Simon

AjiteshArun · Answer

I'm so glad you didn't reference the 2009 reboot. Kirk ended up hacking his  Kobayashi Maru  there...

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Simon,

If you're planning to apply for the upcoming Round 2 deadlines, then you're going to have to do a lot of work in a rather short period of time. As such, finding a way to be efficient with this whole process would be beneficial.

1) How long have you been studying for the GMAT?
2) What resources have you been using?

3) Have you taken any FULL-LENGTH CATs yet (and if so, then how did you score)?
4) What is your score goal?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

smkohnstamm · Answer

Rich,

I started studying about two weeks ago, and have been working through problems on Magoosh and out of the official guides. I have not done a full CAT yet, I'll do one in the morning and post my results. My score goal is above 700.

Thank you,

Simon

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Simon,

Taking a FULL CAT (with the Essay and IR sections) would be a good idea. The more realistic that you can make this experience, the more we'll learn about what you need to work on. If possible, you should take this CAT at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, away from your home, on a desktop computer, etc.

You'll likely find some of the material on the CAT to be challenging, but you shouldn't worry about that. You'll be taking plenty of additional CATs in the coming weeks and months.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

smkohnstamm · Answer

Rich,

I just finished my first cat, and received a 540, 34 on Math and 31 on Verbal. The Magoosh Practice CAT does not include IR or an AWA. I feel that I rushed the verbal section, ending with 22 minutes still to spare on the clock. I spent the last two weeks focusing solely on quant, and only reviewed the verbal section yesterday. I suspect that if I focus on verbal, especially on slowing down, and focusing on details, that I can increase that score substantially.

What would your recommendation be to do at this point? Is it unrealistic to expect to take a better exam in December? At this point I'd be very happy with a 650.

Thank you for your help,

Simon

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Simon,

Considering that you're still early on in your studies, this score is fine (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). With a December Test Date, you still have plenty of time to study and improve though, but there are some things worth noting:

1) Taking a CAT without the Essay and IR sections will not yield a completely realistic score result. The first 'block' of work on Test Day includes the Orientation Program, Essay, IR and the first 8-minute break; by skipping those pieces of the Exam, you took a shorter (and arguably easier) Test. By extension, your score result is almost certainly 'inflated.' To properly prepare to face the FULL Official GMAT, you're going to have to make sure that you take FULL CATs going forward.

2) Many Test Takers finish the Verbal section early. That is usually due to the 'rushed' feeling you may have had as you were finishing the Quant section. It's important to take the 8-minute break between Quant and Verbal to 'reset' and calm down a bit. In real basic terms, the Verbal section is half of your GMAT score - rushing through it and finishing with significant time is rarely a good sign.

I don't see any immediate reason for you to change your study plans just yet, but if you have the feeling that something is 'off', then you might want to trust your instincts.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

	Magoosh increases your score, guaranteed - 15% off ALL Magoosh GMAT plans with code GMATCLUB15 + Free GMAT Club Tests.
	Manhattan Prep: $79 Bonus Score Higher on Your GMAT Exam. Guaranteed.
	Target Test Prep - Save up to $325 $200 Discount + $79 Bonus GMAT Club Tests
	e-GMAT: 60% Off on GMAT Focus Get to 735+ from any starting point
	Experts' Global - ~~$1720~~ $960 End-to-End GMAT Prep + App Support: 150+ Videos, 2000+ Questions, 15 FLTs +
	GMATWhiz - $299 ~~$499~~ Experience the course through a free trial.
	GMAT Club Tests - Free Included with every course purchase of $149+ View all deals

Why the GMAT?

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards