Most graduate schools require you to take a standardized entrance test to judge whether you will be accepted into the program. The main exam for business schools is the GMAT. But the main standardized exam for the majority of graduate schools is the GRE. It sometimes gets a bit confusing for you to decide between these two options. In order to make the correct decision you have to take a lot of considerations into account.

Only just recently, within the past 10 years, have business schools started to accept the GRE in place of the GMAT for entrance into business school type programs. This may be a positive for schools since many applicants that have already taken the GRE exam for other graduate programs can transfer their scores over to apply for graduate business schools. In any case, you will need to decide whether you should take the GMAT or the GRE for your entrance exam into your MBA program.

Below we give a GMAT vs. GRE comparison table and go over the differences and considerations you need to take into account while deciding between the two.

GMAT vs. GRE Comparison Table

GMAT	vs.	GRE
3.5 Hours Analytical + 1 essay - 30 min Integrated Reasoning - 30 min Quantitative - 75 min Verbal - 75 min	Test Format	3 Hours Analytical + 2 essays - 75 min Verbal - 30 min x 2 Quantitative - 30 min x 2 Experimental - 30 min
Grammar, algebra, geometry, arithmetic, analytical writing, problem-solving, data sufficiency, logic, and critical reasoning	Content Covered	Verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking
Difficult math and English grammar questions	Emphasis	More focus on verbal skills, vocabulary and writing
Quantitative section: 0 to 60 Verbal section: 0 to 51 Integrated reasoning: 1 to 8 Analytical writing: 0.0 to 6.0 Total score: 200 to 800	Scoring	Analytical writing: 0.0 to 6.0 Verbal reasoning: 130 to 170 Quantitative reasoning: 130 to 170
The penalty of not finishing a section in time is much greater than getting a question incorrect.	Wrong Answer Penalty	There is no penalty for guessing.
250,000+ test takers a year	Popularity	600,000+ test takers a year
Multiple times per month	Offered When?	Multiple times per month
MBA GMAT	More Information	ETS GRE

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