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Another big warning about the GRE

June 8, 2011 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

This post has been marked as OLD. EssaySnark's advice and strategies for winning MBA applications don't change from year to year, but some of the school-specific admissions policies, essay questions, or other information covered in this article may be outdated.

We’ve been discussing the pros/cons of the GRE vs GMAT lately, and maybe we should’ve started with this point, actually.

The GRE is changing.

The GMAT is changing, too, but not for another year, and we don’t think it’s going to be all that disruptive. Maybe, maybe not, but unlikely so.

The GRE though… They’re really revamping that puppy. Trying to make it more GMAT-like, at least in some respects. Trying to be more competitive. (Yes, test-makers are as competitive as test-takers. It’s all business, folks.)

The problem with the changes to the GRE is that they’re coming in the middle of the MBA application season.

Not only are they changing how the silly thing is scored… there’s gonna be a deadzone within which test scores will be unavailable. If you take the GRE in August or September this year, you ain’t gonna get an official score back until NOVEMBER.

Can you imagine the agony this will inflict!!?

The GRE people know how bad this is. They’re offering a 50% discount to take the test in this August-September timeperiod.

It is not worth it. Trust us on this, people.

It’s bad enough, all the studying that goes into the darn test… but to not even get your score report back right away?!?? (For the GMAT, for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of sitting that little exam, you get your main score with the quant/verbal breakdown spit out at you in real time at the end of the test, the ‘unofficial’ version at least — you know how you did on the spot.)

That’s about as bad as the agony that goes into the application itself. You hit the Submit button. And you wait. And wait. And drive yourself nuts with wondering what they’ll say, whether the interview invite will come…

The very worst part? AN APPLICATION STRATEGY MIGHT NEED TO CHANGE BASED ON THE TEST RESULTS. If you do not do well on, say, the math side, then you should look for ways to show the adcom that you have math proficiency in other areas. If you do not even know what your score is for two months, how can you plan your attack???

Folks, just suck it up and do the GMAT. Maybe next year when the new GRE is on the scene (and this unfortunate reporting delay anomaly is behind us) we’ll change our tune. If you’re serious about getting an MBA from a really good bschool, give it all you got with the GMAT.*

*No we don’t own stock in the GMAT and we don’t do any GMAT test prep tutoring on the side, either. We hate that test as much as you do and we don’t even have to take it again. It’s just how the game is played.

Filed Under: GMAT/GRE

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