There’s a lot of confusion between students opting for higher education on foreign soil about the tests they need to take to be eligible for their requisite courses. There are a number of students befuddled between taking the IELTS, the TOEFL, the GRE, the GMAT, to name a few of the most well-known examinations. So, which exam do you really need to take for your Master’s degree abroad? Is it the GRE? Is it the GMAT?
Well, all of that depends on your course of choice and its basic requirements (remember, basic requirements are the minimum threshold to be eligible for admission, but it is always a sound policy to go above and beyond that to make sure that you are in the best possible position to get in your dream course!)
Here we differentiate between the GRE and the GMAT and help you choose between these two supposed behemoths of examinations:
GRE
The GRE stands for Graduate Records Examination and it is the basic requirement for most Master’s courses in America – and also in some other countries such as Canada. For a non-management Master’s degree, the GRE is the exam which divides those eligible for the course from those who aren’t by testing the student’s vocabulary, quantitative analysis, logical reasoning, and writing skills.
The GRE is marked out of a total of 340, with 170 marks for the verbal section and 170 for the quant section, and a further marking out of 6 for the writing section. Students going in for engineering, science, technology, maths, or in some cases, even the arts field, will require to appear for the GRE.
There’s no negative marking so make sure to answer all the questions on the exam, even if you aren’t sure about the answer. A score of 310 or above is usually a decent one on this exam.
GMAT
The GMAT stands for the Graduate Management Admissions Test, and the major difference between the GRE and the GMAT is that the latter is an important exam for students seeking admission into management courses such as the MBA in USA – and even in most other places around the world. There are some colleges which are willing to take GRE scores instead of GMAT scores for MBA admissions, but you should always contact them directly via email and confirm this so that you can be sure of its veracity.
It can be compared to the CAT exam for MBA aspirants in India, however unlike the exams here, the difficulty level of the GMAT exam keeps on increasing if you keep on answering questions correctly on the test. This is done to keep you on your toes and put you in difficult situations to get a feel of your real world problem solving skills. It tests your coolness, level-headedness, and the ability to perform under pressure.
The subjects are not that different than the GRE, but the level of the problems is comparatively higher, more tedious, and is said to be a true test of your logical reasoning.
To conclude in simple terms, go for the GMAT if you want to pursue an MBA, otherwise a GRE is all that is required of you for any other Master’s course – the English language tests of TOEFL or IELTs notwithstanding.
