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Do i shift to GRE or do I stay with GMAT

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Do i shift to GRE or do I stay with GMAT

by Sh_QR » Sat Sep 05, 2015 12:45 am
Dear all,
My score in GMAT is low(400) , i got advice from multiple people to shift to GRE. I already invested money and time in materials, prep course and exam fees.
What is the best strategy . I don't want to waste time on GMAT since its a tricker test and require certain IQ.
Tell me what do you think
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by [email protected] » Sat Sep 05, 2015 9:03 am
Hi Sh_QR,

Many Business Schools accept both the GRE and the GMAT as part of the application process, but not all of them do. Before you decide to shift your studies to a new Test, you should make sure that the Schools that you are interested in will actually accept a GRE score.

Assuming that the Schools in questions actually do accept either score, you then should do a bit of research into which Test you think you would score higher on. The 2 Exams have a lot of 'content' in common, but there are some noted differences (for example, the GRE puts a greater emphasis on vocabulary). You can download 2 free GRE Exams from www.gre.org; if you're interested in how you would score, then you should plan to take a FULL GRE and find out. Regardless of which Exam you study for, you will need a mix of content knowledge and tactics to score at a high level (and while neither Exam is an 'IQ Test', you DO need to have strong critical thinking skills to hit your goals).

1) How long have you been studying for the GMAT?
2) What is your goal score?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
4) Do you know which Schools/Programs you plan to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by Bara » Sat Sep 05, 2015 11:21 am
Agreed.

Don't switch until you have DATA to indicate that you would do better on the GRE.

> Take a diagnostic.
> See how you feel and how you score
> Check the schools accept it
> Think about whether you need a GMAT score AFTER you graduate
> Then get a plan in action, either way, for whatever test you decide to take.

Good Luck!
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by digvijayk » Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:12 pm
You are not alone my friend. People have gone from 400s to 700s before. Sure, some people are gifted with High IQs, but effort will always trump IQs. Don't believe me? Believe these de-briefs:

www.beatthegmat.com/420-to-700-q47-v38- ... 95221.html
www.beatthegmat.com/debrief-from-420-to ... 73544.html
www.beatthegmat.com/420-to-660-to-1-wk- ... 13142.html

So before you decide to pivot, maybe it would be better to just seek inspiration on this forum.

When I was down and out, the BTG community helped me. Experts helped. Encouragement poured in. Resources came in. And no reason why that wont happen for you too!

Look the way I think it works is, if one person can do it then I can do it too. Here I have given you 3 examples. And you have the support system of this forum. So give yourself the complete chance before you decide to change. Besides GRE has a different format and is not the most "management" friendly test. Why re-focus when you have a great chance on the GMAT?
Follow my blog at: https://gmat0.blocked/

No business could ever survive without strategy, so how can your test preparation? Get your strategy in place today. Go to:

https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Improve-Dras ... 00A7CTV1A/
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:53 am
Sh_QR wrote:I don't want to waste time on GMAT since its a tricker test and require certain IQ.
Tell me what do you think
I teach both the GRE and the GMAT, and I've been hearing this over and over again in the last year or so: "I've heard that the GRE is easier, so I'm going to switch to GRE." Before I get into the specific differences, I want to point out a major misconception - yes, many of the problems on the GRE are easier, but that doesn't actually mean that you will do any better on the GRE! It's still a percentile-based test, so if it's easier for you, it's also easier for everyone else. You probably won't get a much higher score relative to everyone else who's taking it!

Here are the major advantages to taking the GRE, with caveats:

- the GRE is not adaptive within a given section, so you can go back and review questions you've already done. For a lot of students, knowing that they can go back reduces anxiety. But... it's still a very time-constrained test, so chances are that you won't have time to go back anyway.

- you get an onscreen calculator for quant.... but GRE questions often involve more complicated computations, so you'll actually need the calculator. This makes it harder to estimate or guess well.

- the quant is generally more straightforward.... so you need to get a much higher percentage of questions right to get a top score. There are also a few very hard questions on there if you get the hard 2nd section.

As for vocab, it's not really as big a deal as you might think. The vocab-in-context questions are really testing your ability to logically parse a sentence more than they're testing your knowledge of big fancy words. Only about 30% of the words tested are what I'd call "fancy vocab," and probably only 10% are the crazy hard words you've never heard before.

Business schools certainly do take the GRE seriously, but there is the preconception that the population taking the GRE is less quant strong than the GMAT population, so they'll hold you to a higher standard. If you were aiming for 85%ile GMAT, aim for 90%ile GRE.

For more about GRE Misconceptions, see: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gre/blog/ ... t-the-gre/
Ceilidh Erickson
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by MartyMurray » Fri Sep 11, 2015 9:35 pm
I can say this. The more I coach people, the less I believe in IQ or anything like that.

I see people scoring low and high on a test and all of them seem able to score high. It seems to be just that the lower scoring ones don't have things going on that the higher scoring ones do. The higher scoring ones are more confident, have certain habits, are working harder, better understand how to approach questions, or are otherwise better set up for success.

For example, recently I have been working with someone on CR. Her hit rate was not that high. Did that mean she is not "smart" or analytical enough to do well on CR. Not at all. Really she just had some habits that kept her from optimally approaching the questions. When she became aware of what she was doing, she changed it, and her CR hit rate immediately increased.

So my suggestion to you is to be confident that you can increase your GMAT score. There are so many factors involved in determining how a person scores, factors including confidence level, content mastery, psychology, test anxiety, hacking skills, unconscious issues, beliefs, and approaches to answering questions. So, you have multiple things you can do and multiple angles you can work from to increase your score.
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by Sh_QR » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:25 pm
Thank you rich for your advice.
i have taken the GRE ,my score is 143 Q and 146 V.My latest GMAT Score is 400 Q 18,V 26, IR 5 (cancelled score).

) How long have you been studying for the GMAT? June 15
2) What is your goal score? Score 600 or higher (as much as i can get)
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School? depends on when do i get the score. (i want to apply for 2016 )
4) Do you know which Schools/Programs you plan to apply to? the score will determine which school i could get in .



[email protected] wrote:Hi Sh_QR,

Many Business Schools accept both the GRE and the GMAT as part of the application process, but not all of them do. Before you decide to shift your studies to a new Test, you should make sure that the Schools that you are interested in will actually accept a GRE score.

Assuming that the Schools in questions actually do accept either score, you then should do a bit of research into which Test you think you would score higher on. The 2 Exams have a lot of 'content' in common, but there are some noted differences (for example, the GRE puts a greater emphasis on vocabulary). You can download 2 free GRE Exams from www.gre.org; if you're interested in how you would score, then you should plan to take a FULL GRE and find out. Regardless of which Exam you study for, you will need a mix of content knowledge and tactics to score at a high level (and while neither Exam is an 'IQ Test', you DO need to have strong critical thinking skills to hit your goals).

1) How long have you been studying for the GMAT?
2) What is your goal score?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
4) Do you know which Schools/Programs you plan to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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by Sh_QR » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:37 pm
Bara :Thank for the action plan to manage this matter.
Digvijayk: I will try to manage my self beliefs and remember that its possible.
ceilidh.erickson Thank you Celilidh for your explanation on the differences between GRE and GMAT.
Marty Murray :I can relate to that in the quantitive section, I know the concept most of time, but sometimes-small mistakes, and applying the concept get into the way of me getting the right answer.
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by [email protected] » Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:20 am
Hi Sh_QR,

Both of your practice scores (for the GMAT and for the GRE) imply that you would have some serious work to do to raise your score to higher, more-competitive level.

I think that one of your broader 'issues' is that you haven't defined your goals in a specific way. Stating that you want to score 'as much as I can get' and that 'the score will determine which school I could get in' are not measurable, data-driven goals. Without naming specific Schools, you also will not know whether a GRE score would even be accepted at those Schools. Considering that you want to apply for admission in 2016, the specifics matter a great deal. I suggest that you take a couple of days, think about the specific type of Program that you're interested in, then put together a list of Schools that 'match up' with what you're looking for. Once you have those names, you can research each Program (Does it take the GRE or not? What GMAT score would be 'in the range' of what the Program was looking for? What are the application deadlines, etc.) and build your plans around that data.

Considering everything that you've described, I think that you should probably stick with the GMAT.

1) What practice materials have you used so far?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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