The G.R.E. vs. the GMAT

There’s a feud brewing in the ­graduate-school testing world.

The Graduate Management Admissions Test has been required by M.B.A. programs for more than 50 years, while the Graduate Record Examination is the standard for graduate schools in general. The Educational Testing Service administers the G.R.E. and used to do the same for the GMAT before losing the rights two years ago to ACT Inc. and Pearson. Now it is trying to get some of that business back, lobbying business schools to accept the G.R.E. as an alternative to the GMAT: more than 115 have agreed, including at Stanford, M.I.T. and Johns Hopkins.

What’s the difference between the tests? Both assess verbal and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and writing. “Contrary to what people might think, there are no business or finance aspects of the GMAT that make it specialized,” says David G. Payne, an associate vice president of E.T.S. [via the New York Times]

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Filed under: students, testing , act inc, david g payne, educational testing service, gmat, graduate record exam, gre, mba, pearson