IF YOU are applying to a leading business school to do an MBA, you may have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) first. It is a universally recognised standard that many business schools include as part of their entry requirements.

GMAT was introduced in 1954 as the only standardised test designed specifically for use by graduate business and management programmes. In its first year 4,000 tests were taken but in recent years the number has topped 200,000.

The test, which costs $250 (£140) to take, is delivered in English from 400 centres in 100 countries. It consists of four separately timed sections, including two analytical writing tasks and two quantitative and verbal sections of multiple-choice questions.

Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of MBAs, regards GMAT as a useful test when accrediting business schools.

“It’s a good guide to a student’s competence although the business school would probably want to make sure that potential students also had a good solid breadth of work experience and a track record in management,” she says. “One of its benefits is that it is universal so students can take their results to a number of schools.”

GMAC (the Graduate Management Admission Council which administers GMAT) says that it is an exceptionally good predictor of how well a student will perform academically in the business school curriculum. Others are more cautious.

Purcell says: “It is a good indication of whether a student can cope on the course but not necessarily a predictor of success. GMAT doesn’t tell us anything about interpersonal skills or emotional intelligence which are so important.”

John McGee, associate dean at Warwick Business School, agrees that the exam cannot give a reliable picture of whether the candidate will do well. “Sometimes we accept people with slightly dubious GMAT results, who go on to succeed and vice versa,” he says. “Our students come from all over the world and without GMAT the information supplied may not indicate whether they are intellectually and psychologically appropriate.”

The GMAT is only required for the full-time MBA programme at Warwick. “For the part-time programme there is a greater element of corporate and self-selection of students and we can build a good profile of candidates with close referencing from people who know them,” he adds.

Some schools use a combination of GMAT and their own admissions tests.. Cranfield School of Management, for example, requires a good GMAT score (the average is 660) or a good score in its own test, although it recommends that candidates for the full-time MBA take GMAT.

There have been reports of cheating (see box) but today candidates must provide digital signatures, fingerprints and photographs when they check in at a GMAT centre.

Is it possible to swot for the test? Yes, McGee says. “We find that if you repeat the test you can improve by 10-15 per cent, so there is a learning element. The test subdivides into quantitative and verbal which is helpful for students whose first language isn’t English. You can see that someone with high qualitative points but low language is probably pretty smart and this can be established by doing an interview locally.”

There are also guides available on how to tackle the test. Alex Neame, a student at Warwick, advises: “Be prepared. You wouldn’t go for a job interview without doing research, so it would be pretty foolish to take the test without practising it first.”

Tight security to beat cheats

RESPONSIBILITY for running the GMAT exam was handed to Pearson VUE in January to ensure greater security, according to David Wilson, president and chief executive of GMAC.

More than 68,000 people took the exam in the first five months of last year but reports of widespread cheating raised questions over the big rise in the top score of 708 out of 800.

In 1997 Newsweek reported that candidates on the East Coast of America phoned through answers to a cheating ring which inscribed them on pencils sold to candidates on the West Coast sitting the exam three hours later.

Impersonators posing as candidates have been convicted for completing the GMAT fraudulently.