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> the GMAT is a tough exam It might work ok as a way to filter out people who had a poor quality undergraduate education, but it is not a tough exam. I got a 7

> the GMAT is a tough exam It might work ok as a way to filter out people who had a poor quality undergraduate education, but it is not a tough exam. I got a 700-something score (95th percentile) in 2011 on my first try with less than 6 hours of preparation. The math portion of the GMAT was primarily about doing mental arithmetic, and did not involve any mathematical concepts past the middle school level. The language portion was primarily about English reading and writing skills.

EB66 7y ago
> but it is not a tough exam Ideally you don't want a test that's too easy or too tough. You want a test whose results form a normal distribution bell curve.
- snagglegaggle 7y ago
  Such logic leaves you with no idea if the top X% is qualified or not, just that they are the top X%. You need to enumerate requirements and test against them. Same thinking leads to weed out classes that just pointlessly limit the number in some profession. Saying "wow, everyone passed calculus, that can't be right" and making the test harder serves no one.
  - EB66 7y ago
    > Such logic leaves you with no idea if the top X% is qualified or not, just that they are the top X%. That's what MBA schools want. They want to know who are the top students on the GMAT: how does XYZ candidate compare to their peers? If you don't have a normal bell curve distribution and the results are skewed hard to the left (very difficult test) or hard to the right (very easy test), then you lose the ability to discern the relative aptitude of the test takers. > You need to enumerate requirements and test against them. That's beside the point. The GMAT is just one of many criteria that allow schools to determine who is a qualified candidate for admission into their MBA program. > Saying "wow, everyone passed calculus, that can't be right" and making the test harder serves no one. You're talking about something completely different altogether. Sure, for classrooms (i.e., a small sample size) there's a valid argument to be made against curving calculus tests or any other kind of test. After all, in a classroom the goal is to evaluate who understands the course material -- not to necessarily to rank the students. However, the GMAT is a whole different ball game. The purpose is to provide a relative ranking of the test takers. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of people take the test every year -- a massive sample size. You should expect to see a normal distribution if your test effectively serves it's intended goal of ranking the aptitude of the test takers.
airstrike 7y ago
Congrats, you're one of the smart people in the world. Managers don't really need a whole lot more than what's tested on the GMAT, math-wise. They need to be able to interpret business questions, have decent intuition and do relatively simple math relatively quickly. As far as standardized exams go, the GMAT is rather challenging given the time constraint and the fact that the exam adjusts to match your skill level with each response influencing the next that is asked
- sedachv 7y ago
  My comment might have come across as bragging. What I should have stated explicitly is that, being a typical HN poster, my experience shows that the GMAT would not be a difficult exam for most HN readers.

EB66 7y ago

> but it is not a tough exam Ideally you don't want a test that's too easy or too tough. You want a test whose results form a normal distribution bell curve.

snagglegaggle 7y ago
Such logic leaves you with no idea if the top X% is qualified or not, just that they are the top X%. You need to enumerate requirements and test against them. Same thinking leads to weed out classes that just pointlessly limit the number in some profession. Saying "wow, everyone passed calculus, that can't be right" and making the test harder serves no one.
- EB66 7y ago
  > Such logic leaves you with no idea if the top X% is qualified or not, just that they are the top X%. That's what MBA schools want. They want to know who are the top students on the GMAT: how does XYZ candidate compare to their peers? If you don't have a normal bell curve distribution and the results are skewed hard to the left (very difficult test) or hard to the right (very easy test), then you lose the ability to discern the relative aptitude of the test takers. > You need to enumerate requirements and test against them. That's beside the point. The GMAT is just one of many criteria that allow schools to determine who is a qualified candidate for admission into their MBA program. > Saying "wow, everyone passed calculus, that can't be right" and making the test harder serves no one. You're talking about something completely different altogether. Sure, for classrooms (i.e., a small sample size) there's a valid argument to be made against curving calculus tests or any other kind of test. After all, in a classroom the goal is to evaluate who understands the course material -- not to necessarily to rank the students. However, the GMAT is a whole different ball game. The purpose is to provide a relative ranking of the test takers. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of people take the test every year -- a massive sample size. You should expect to see a normal distribution if your test effectively serves it's intended goal of ranking the aptitude of the test takers.

airstrike 7y ago

Congrats, you're one of the smart people in the world. Managers don't really need a whole lot more than what's tested on the GMAT, math-wise. They need to be able to interpret business questions, have decent intuition and do relatively simple math relatively quickly. As far as standardized exams go, the GMAT is rather challenging given the time constraint and the fact that the exam adjusts to match your skill level with each response influencing the next that is asked

sedachv 7y ago
My comment might have come across as bragging. What I should have stated explicitly is that, being a typical HN poster, my experience shows that the GMAT would not be a difficult exam for most HN readers.