Harvard, Wharton to accept GRE - is GMAT monopoly in Danger? | Hacker News Reader

Harvard, Wharton to accept GRE - is GMAT monopoly in Danger?

businessweek.com

15 pointsnewacc9 comments

There's quite the business lesson here:

Up until recently, the GMAT exam had a virtual monopoly over business school standardized exams. That all changed on Jan. 1, 2006, when GMAC cut its ties with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), with whom it had a decades-long partnership to develop and deliver the GMAT exam, moving instead to a new testing administrator, Pearson VUE. The severing of ties meant that ETS no longer had to abide by a noncompete clause with GMAC, giving it the green light to court business school admissions officers and promote the GRE as an alternative exam. Under the previous agreement between ETS and GMAC, this type of activity was forbidden.

"Once they ended the contract with us, we were able to move into this market," says David Payne, head of the GRE program for ETS.

As a former GMAT and GRE (as well as LSAT and SAT) instructor, I would still recommend taking the GMAT for B-School admission. The GRE is much easier, so the curve is less forgiving, especially in math. A perfect 800 on GRE math is just 87th percentile. It makes it hard to differentiate yourself to admissions committees who value analytical thinking.

From personally having taken both the GRE and the GMAT a few years ago, I think saying the GRE is much easier is not necessarily true.

The math might be easier but the vocab sections test your ability to memorize obscure words, as opposed to GMAT's critical reasoning/reading comprehension which is more application. I would recommend taking the GMAT too, but not because the GRE is easier.

Do you know any private tutors in Pittsburgh? Or how I would find a private tutor with relevant experience besides Craigslist? Based on the prices for GMAT classes I've seen, it seems like a private tutor would be significantly cheaper.

"A perfect 800 on GRE math is just 87th percentile."

percentile of what? of general population or of those who took GRE?

i assume the latter is much more accurate, a perfect 800 on GRE math equals to 87th percentile only means that test is way too easy for most engineers

maybe a perfect 800 on GMAT math is 99th, i don't know, but if so, that only means the test is way too hard for most business-guys (assumption: GMAT percentile is based on GMAT takers)

anyway it's hard to imagine that tests for engineer is easier than tests for business-guys. i have my own bias of course.

The MBA was designed more for engineers than "business-guys".

The GMAT is a computerized, adaptive test. I have no idea what the math is like on the GRE but the math on the GMAT doesn't get much trickier than algebra and geometry. A lot of the questions involved deciding whether or not the problem gave you enough information to solve it. It would give you two sets of information and you'd have to pick between something a long the lines of:

Info A is enough to decide Info B is enough to decide Info A & B combined is enough to decide Info A & B combined is not enough info to decide

So even in the "quantitative" section you still need to apply some amount of logic and reason and not just solve equations.

I know engineers who did relatively bad on the GMAT quantitative and folks from degrees that aren't so math oriented who did well on it.

I'd guess that GRE math is a lot more straight forward.

If you're curious how scores from the two exams compare, here's a table (released by ETS - the folks that run the GRE) that converts GRE scores to GMAT scores, and vice versa:

http://www.ets.org/gre/2008/9934/tool.html (Excel Sheet)

I think this shows how more engineers are needed in business schools. Glad they realize this, and are taking steps to encourage engineers to apply.

It isn't really a monopoly if it is facing competition from the GRE now is it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com