Back in 2017, when I was in my final year of undergrad, I took GMAT and applied to my target master’s in management colleges. By the time I got my interview invites for these colleges, I had already started working full time. Although I made it to my dream college for MiM, halfway through the application process, I realized I wanted to first get some hands-on experience under my belt and then pursue MBA because of multiple reasons- I was enjoying my work, gaining practical experience to get the most out of a degree, stronger profile, and better job prospects.
Three years down the line, I finally felt I was ready for an MBA. At that point since I was already familiar with the grammar focused GMAT exam which didn’t quite work very well for me and didn’t give me the confidence of securing an offer from ISB (my dream MBA college), I went through the GRE syllabus and format. Upon careful comparison, I opted for GRE because I was more comfortable with the GRE pattern and the questions seemed more straightforward. GRE focused more on vocabulary which was my strong point. Thus, I felt GRE was a better fit for me.
I prepared for about three months and put in about 20-24 hours a week on average. I took several mocks before the actual exam and made use of all the free resources available on greprepclub.com. Other resources that I referred to, were the official guides, Manhattan GRE and Magoosh. I was happy with the score I got, and months of handwork and consistency finally paid off when I converted ISB with that score.
If you’re confused about which test to go for, I’d suggest you carefully evaluate the structure and syllabus of both the exams and choose the exam in which you think you can score higher as ISB doesn’t differentiate between the two exams and neither does it convert the GRE scores into their GMAT equivalent to assess a candidate. There is more to the application than the test you take.
-Vipasa Sood, PGP Class of 2023