The Great MBA Admissions Test Shake Up

The Weekly Sitrep

Happy Friday Sitreps Team!

I will be continuing my post MBA career series here shortly over the course of the next few Weekly Sitreps. For this post however, I wanted to talk about the new GRE and the new GMAT Focus edition. I enlisted the help of a GMAT/GRE tutor to help write this article. He has been tutoring for over 15 years, is extremely knowledgable on the test and has been providing test prep services to Sitreps followers for a while know.

Without further adieu….I present Edward Matthews.

Need one-on-one GMAT or GRE tutoring help? Reach out to Edward Matthews at 571.338.3773 or edward.matthews.iii@gmail.com

Welcome to the most chaotic year for business school admissions exams in my 15 years in this business! As it stands, you have THREE options:

• The new, shorter GRE

• The original GMAT, which we’ll call the OG GMAT

• The GMAT Focus Edition, which we’ll call the New GMAT Focus

Please note what’s NOT on that list: the old, longer GRE. While you can choose between both GMATs until Jan 31, 2024 (at which point the OG GMAT goes away), you can ONLY take the new GRE.

If you want to jump ahead to the part about picking which test is best for you, please scroll to the end where it says “DECISION GUIDE¹”. But if you’d like more context around these changes, read on!

First off, why all the changes with the GRE and GMAT? The answer is simple: the GMAT and the GRE are both competing with each other and fighting for the relevance of standardized admissions exams.

First, a bit of background: For about seven years the GRE has been surging against the GMAT. Around 2015, less than 10% of business school applicants applied with the GRE, but as of 2021 around 25 to 30% of applicants applied with it. Since then 70-30 GMAT vs GRE split seems to be holding.

(Why the GRE has found success¹)

That said, neither the GMAT nor the GRE appears happy with the equilibrium. The GRE would love to keep eating into the GMAT’s share and GMAT would love to turn the clock back. Interestingly, each test has taken a different strategy in its pursuit of attracting more applicants.

The GRE has chosen to make the test itself much shorter. It has cut off two sections (the second essay and the experimental section) and made the Quant and Verbal sections, on average, 30% shorter. With the entire test coming in under 2 hours, it makes it way easier for you to sneak out of work for a “doctor’s appointment” and take the test. But in terms of content and question types, the GRE has not changed.

The New GMAT Focus has also shortened its length to around 2 hours and 15 minutes but the changes go much deeper. Here they are: