
Harvard, Wharton to accept GRE - is GMAT monopoly in Danger? - newacc
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jul2009/bs20090723_112095.htm
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rfurmani
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.

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byoung2
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.

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hs
"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.

~~~
ssharp
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.

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aneesh
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)

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ashishk
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.

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

