Taking the stress out of the GMAT

A very happy new year to all of you!

As a child growing up in India, I learnt classical piano. My teacher made me take examinations with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (www.abrsm.org) to evaluate how I’d progressed with our lessons. These exams involved performing scales, sheet music, and aural tests for an examiner from London. To help me overcome the stress of playing the piano in front of a complete stranger, to achieve a grade, my teacher would take me to the examination hall a week in advance of my exam, and make me practice my pieces on the grand piano that had been dedicated for all the exams being held that year. The purpose of the exercise was to give me a sense of what the examination experience was like—and it worked! I didn’t fail a single exam that I appeared for.

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The CAT in the GMAT

If you’re looking for a way to keep your furry friend from clawing up your furniture, I can’t help you—I’m not talking about that kind of CAT.

CAT refers to Computerized Adaptive Testing, which is the method used to administer and score the GMAT exam. The concept is deceptively simple, but when pressed for details, we psychometricians usually tell you about this mysterious algorithm that prevents us from telling you what your score will be if you get five questions wrong. I hope to clear up a little bit of the misery…I mean, mystery…here.

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