The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) measures verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing skills. The GMAT is used by graduate schools of business to assess the qualifications of applicants to graduate management programs. The GMAT is only one of several factors that will determine your admission to business school. Admission committees also may consider information such as undergraduate grade point average, work or internship experience, an application essay describing your career goals, and references.
The GMAT is designed to predict how well you will perform in the first years of a graduate management program. The GMAT tests neither specific knowledge of business nor achievement in a particular subject. The verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing skills that appear on the GMAT are those that you have already encountered or developed in your academic career. Until recently, the GMAT was available throughout the world as a paper-and-pencil test. Since October 1997, however, the GMAT is available in North America and many other parts of the world only as a computer-adaptive test. Research has shown that scores from the paper-based test are comparable to those from the computer-based test.