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Questions Posted to Kaplan Expert on MBA
Question
I'm interested in obtaining a Masters in Marketing from Manchester Business School or from ESADE. I want to know which are the main topics in the exam and how I can prepare to get at least this score? Also, I'd like to know some tips that you have to crack the GMAT exam.
Answered by Brian Holmes
You have done a smart thing in targeting the GMAT score needed for the schools you would like to attend. The average GMAT score at Manchester Business School is 620 and at ESADE it’s 650. This means you would want to score at or above the 80th percentile on the GMAT – which is around 640 – in order to be competitive for admission to these schools. So that gives you some motivation to study!I’m going to go over the basics of the test – these may be familiar to some of you, but they’ll form the basis for many of my other comments.
The GMAT consists of three sections: Analytical Writing, Quantitative, and Verbal. The sections always appear in this order. In analytical writing, you have to write two essays, each in 30 minutes. In the first essay, you have to analyse an argument that contains a number of flaws. In the second essay, you have to present your perspective on an issue.
The Quantitative section includes 37 questions that you must complete in 75 minutes. These maths questions are all multiple choice, and you are not allowed to use a calculator. There are two types of questions: ‘problem solving’ questions are word problems, like you might have done in school, and ‘data sufficiency’ questions are a format unique to the GMAT. These are highly unusual, as the objective is not to answer the question asked, but rather to determine whether the two statements – taken individually or together – give you enough information to answer the question.
The Verbal section includes 41 questions you must complete in 75 minutes. These are divided roughly evenly among three types of questions. Each ‘critical reasoning’ question will include a paragraph you have to read – most of the time, this paragraph will be an argument and you will be asked to identify the assumption, or to strengthen or weaken it. Each ‘sentence correction’ question gives you a sentence with an underlined portion; you have to pick the answer choice that best corrects the part that’s underlined – keeping in mind that sometimes there are no errors!
Then there is ‘reading comprehension’ – each verbal section includes three or four reading passages, each several paragraphs long, and each followed by three or four questions. Thus, to prepare for the score you want on the GMAT, you’ll have to review the math and grammar content it covers. Most of this material is taught in US high schools to students between the ages of 14 and 16. What makes this content challenging is that it comes from such an earlier phase of everyone’s life.You will also have to spend a good deal of time preparing for the GMAT’s main challenges. These have to do with its unfamiliar question types, and also with its fast pace.
On average, you’ll have about two minutes for each math question, and a little less than two minutes for each verbal question. So you will want to work with practice questions as much as possible. Taking full-length practice tests will also help you prepare to endure the length of the test. If you take the two breaks (10 minutes each, before and after the math section), the test will take nearly four hours from start to finish. It will take some practice to be as fresh at the end of the verbal section (and still earning those points toward that score for Manchester or ESADE) as you were at the start of the first essay.
As for dealing with the unfamiliar question types, the best tip here, again, is to practice with questions in the GMAT format. You can get plenty of these from the testmaker, the GMAC, through their website at mba.com – they offer two full-length practice tests that you can take for free, and also publish three books of practice questions you can buy. You’ll probably want more questions than they offer, so you might consider buying some commercially sold books, or taking a course from a company like Kaplan. When you do this, just be sure the practice questions are in proper GMAT format. You’d hate to waste your time covering material that is not on the test!
