Are you planning to study an MBA abroad? If so, you have probably heard of the GMAT. If you don’t know what it is, we’ll describe it in detail here. Defined by abbreviationfinder, the GMAT is a standardized test used by hundreds of universities throughout the world as an admission test. In addition, it is used as a gateway to certain jobs, especially related to the world of consulting.

As a brief history, it was first applied in 1953 by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). In its first year, only 2,000 people took the test. Today, more than 200,000 exams are presented per year in the world. GMAT stands for Graduate Management Admission Test: Admission test for management graduates. Therefore, the GMAT is mainly used for admission to business graduate degrees in the best universities in the world, especially for admission to MBAs. As it measures various comprehension and analysis skills, the GMAT provides colleges with an objective indicator of the abilities of admission candidates.

Abounding, measure your skills and abilities in 4 important areas:

• Analytical Writing (AWA):

In this section you will test your ability to write, analyze and write in English. You will have 30 minutes to develop an essay on an argument. Here you will demonstrate how well you organize your ideas, identify important arguments, use English appropriately, and generally demonstrate argumentation and reasoning skills.

• Integrated Reasoning (IR):

This is a relatively recent section in the exam, as it began to be applied in 2012. Integrated Reasoning measures your ability to use various data sources to solve complex problems. Not only will you need mathematical skills to obtain information from graphs, texts, tables and databases, but you will also need a lot of verbal reasoning skills and to manipulate texts quickly. You will have 30 minutes to answer 12 questions, each with 2 or 3 different sections.

• Verbal reasoning:

In this section your understanding and command of English will be assessed. There are 3 main parts: reading comprehension (obtaining information from texts), critical thinking (analyzing arguments based on passages), and sentence correction (identifying how sentences should be structured). There will be 36 questions, and you will have 65 minutes to complete the section.

• Quantitative reasoning:

The section considered the most difficult of the exam, quantitative reasoning determines your abilities to solve numerical problems related to four main topics: arithmetic, algebra, geometry and statistics. Additionally, you will be asked to interpret information, graphs and sets. It is in this section that there are “Data Sufficiency” questions, which will be discussed in future posts. In this section you will solve 31 questions, and you will have 2 minutes for each one on average: a total of 62 minutes.

Adaptive problem:

One of the main characteristics of the GMAT is that both verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning are “ problem adaptive ”, that is, the difficulty of the problems that are presented to you adapt to the performance shown in the previous questions. If you answer correctly, the difficulty of the next question will increase; otherwise, in case of failure, the problems become easier. That is why you cannot go back to previous sections. You have to answer the question in front of you in order to continue in the exam.A good score on the GMAT reflects not only your verbal and math skills, but it indicates that you put effort, dedication and commitment to your preparation. It also reflects how well you handle stress, time pressure, and your quick thinking. That is why it becomes a predictor of your success in graduate school, especially if it is rigorous by nature. Your score will make you stand out from the other candidates by applying for the same postgraduate courses as you.

THE GMAT for MBAs

As mentioned above, the GMAT is used primarily for MBA (Masters in Business Administration) admissions around the world. The MBA is a specialized graduate business degree, concentrating studies in accounting, economics, organizational behavior, resource management, marketing, and business ethics. In addition to this, studying an MBA you have the opportunity to specialize in various topics, such as entrepreneurship, international business, business law, project management, among others.

Other postgraduate courses that use the GMAT as an entrance exam are:

• Master in Finance
• Master in Accounting
• Master in Management
• Master in Data Analytics
• Master in Data Science
• PhD in Business

Next, you will be presented with which Universities accept GMAT for their MBA.

In United States:

• Wharton University
• Stanford University
• Harvard University
• MIT (Sloan)
• University of Chicago (Booth)
• Columbia University, Columbia Business School
• Northwestern University (Kellogg)
• University of California – Berkeley (Haas)
• Yale University, Yale School of Management
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (Ross)
• Dartmouth College (Tuck)
• UCLA (Anderson)

In North America (Canada and Mexico):

• McGill University – Desautels Faculty of Management
• Queen’s University – The Stephen JR Smith School of Business
• University of Western Ontario – Richard Ivey School of Business
• University of British Columbia – Sauder School of Business
• York University – Schulich School of Business
• University of Toronto – Joseph L. Rotman School of Management
• HEC Montreal
• EGADE Business School – Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
• Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Master of Education
• Pan-American Institute of Senior Business Management
• Universidad Anáhuac – Faculty of Economics and Business
• Autonomous University of Guadalajara
• University of the Americas

In Latin America:

• INCAE Business School
• IAE Business School
• University of Piura (PAD)
• FIA Business School
• Institute of Business Development (Ecuador)
• CEMA University
• Business School Sao Paulo
• FUCAPE Business School
• Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
• University de los Andes, School of Business
• Bolivian Private University

In Europe:

• Institute Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD)
• London Business School
• HEC Paris
• IESE (Institute for Higher Business Studies) Business School
• IE (Instituto de la Empresa) Business School
• Cambridge (Judge)
• Oxford (Said)
• ESADE (Higher School of Business Administration and Management)
• Imperial College London
• SDA (Schuola di Direzione Aziendale) Bocconi
• IMD (Institute for Management Development)
• Copenhagen Business School
• Erasmus, Rotterdam School of Management

In Asia and Oceania:

• INSEAD (Singapore)
• CEIBS (China Europe International Business School)
• Melbourne Business School
• National University of Singapore
• Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)
• IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad
• UNSW (University of New South Wales) – Australian Graduate School of Management
• Nanyang NTU (Nanyang Technological University)
• IIM Bangalore
• HKUST (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

In total, more than 2000 universities worldwide accept and require the GMAT as part of their selection criteria . In order to meet your standards and expectations, you need to strategically prepare and stand out. In order to acquire the necessary skills for the exam, not only theoretical, but also skills, aptitudes and attitudes, it is advisable to have experts in the exams and admission processes of the most competitive graduate programs.