Since ETS started promoting the GRE to graduate schools of business during the past several months, admissions officers have been asking GMAC questions about claims made regarding the GRE. Here is a compilation of those frequently asked questions and answers. If you don’t find your question answered here, please contact us at gmatvsgre@gmac.com.

Why should I use the GMAT instead of the GRE?

The GMAT was designed by business schools for business schools. In 1955, business school representatives joined together to develop a standardized admission test specifically for MBA programs because the GRE was not sufficient. Today, the GMAT remains the best test, as determined by 4,000 programs around the world that use it as an important part of their admission process. It is valid, reliable, and secure.

The GMAT is the only proven predictor of ability in business school programs—there is no research on other assessments in predicting success in business schools. Additionally, the GMAT exam’s computer adaptive format is the most secure, convenient, accurate, and reliable form of testing available today. The GMAT is quantifiably better than the alternatives.

In addition, by using the GMAT as part of your admissions process, you are part of an industry group that has access to a wealth of GMAT data. This rich resource helps you market your school, benchmark your program, and better understand your competitor. You can’t get that from the GRE.

GMAT scores give you four important sets of information—the overall score, plus details on the candidate’s performance in the Quantitative, Verbal, and Analytical Writing Assessment sections. The GRE makes it more difficult to compare students, with only three points of information—a verbal reasoning score, quantitative reasoning score, and analytical writing score. No overall score is provided for the GRE.

Decades of research—including seven studies published in peer-reviewed journals in the past four years—show the GMAT is expert at helping you choose students who will succeed in your programs. There is nothing comparable about the GRE in the graduate management education arena.

A wide range of tests, including the GRE, can tell you if a candidate is at either the high and or low end of the ability spectrum. However, decisions for these candidates are fairly easy. It is the middle 80 percent of the ability spectrum where you need the right information to help you evaluate your applicants. Only the GMAT has numerous, recent validity studies published in peer-reviewed journals demonstrating that the test works with business students across the ability spectrum, including that middle 80 percent.

Why is the GMAT more expensive than the GRE?

The GMAT is available in a consistent and secure environment nearly every day of the year at more than 430 test centers around the world. This high level of access and security is a significant factor in the overall cost of the program.

In 1997, we moved the GMAT to a computer adaptive format, which is the most efficient, accurate, reliable, and secure way to measure a test taker’s ability. We haven’t raised the GMAT price in four years (and we won’t in 2008), though we continue to make investments in technology and security—score-reporting website, biometrics, digital photos, management reports, interactive profiles of GMAT test takers, and validity studies, at no additional charge.

The GRE claims to be more accessible to candidates outside of the United States than the GMAT. Is that true?

No. The GMAT is offered continuously in 197 unique test centers outside of the United States, compared with the computer-based GRE, which is available in only 131 non-U.S, test centers. GMAC supplements the existing 197 permanent test centers with temporary testing events held around the world, providing computer-adaptive GMAT testing in remote locations or to meet unusual demand. The GRE is provided in paper-based forms on a very limited basis (once or twice a year) in the remainder of its international locations.

My dean says I have to use the GRE to expand the pool of applicants to my program.

Schools want to broaden and deepen their pool of qualified and interested candidates. Students interested in attending a quality graduate management education program take the GMAT. So, you will find what you are looking for by subscribing to the Graduate Management Admission Search Service  (GMASS). The GMASS pool of interested and qualified candidates today looks like this:

GMAC is investing in new initiatives that will create a broader and deeper pool of qualified and interested candidates.

Since the GRE is a general graduate education admission test, the pool of candidates is large and varied in quality and interests. Using the GRE pool of candidates would most likely be fruitless in yielding qualified and interested candidates to your graduate management education program.

Can you give me a concordance table of GMAT and GRE scores?

Concordance tables can be a way to link to hard validity data. The idea is to map an average or a range of scores on one test to an average or range of scores on another, then use the corresponding scores interchangeably. This logic has a major fallacy along with built-in disadvantages that can cause misinterpretation.

Concordance is about averages, not individuals; admissions is about individuals. Assuming a good concordance study was conducted (i.e., equally motivated test-taking, for example), such a table might be useful for research where one often considers averages. However, as with any average, there is a wide range of underlying scores, and a wide range of scores on the first test properly correspond to any given score on the second.

It would be erroneous, for example, to compare a score on a test paid for and taken as a condition of admission (high stakes) with the score on a test taken for a fee with no consequence to a low score. A table built this way will result in misleading information, the consequences of which may appear in your classroom. 

What is the difference between the content of the GMAT and the GRE?

The GMAT is specifically designed to address the skills required for graduate management education; for example, the key skills of critical reasoning and data sufficiency. The GRE does not address these.