Biometric fingerprinting and digital camera surveillance could from next year be adding to the stress ofanother source of stress for students taking the Graduate Management Admission Test, the compulsory precursor to almost allmost MBA programmes.
The GMAT was created in 1953 by nine leading US business schools. thatThey set up the Graduate Management Admissions Council to develop a standardised predictive test for students entering the then expanding MBA market. Today the GMAT is a significant operation. About, with about 68,000 tests were taken worldwide in the first five months of this year, slightly down on the same period in 2004.
However,But changes are afoot. From January, GMAC will end its long-standing link with Educational Testing Service and GMAT will then be administered by Pearson VUE, the computer-based testing arm of Pearson Education (whose parent company is Pearson, owner of the Financial Times) and developed by ACT, the US-based company.
According to David Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC, the changeswitch to Pearson VUE will bring with it more international centres, all to a standard design andall with greater security.
“Test security is a huge issue for us,” says Mr Wilson. The issue of security revolves around impersonation and The principal fear is that : is the person showing up at business school with thean impressive score may not be the same person who took the GMAT?.Conditions at GMAT centres have always been rigorous. The minimum identification requirements are a passport and driving licence. Finger printing, photographing, videotaping, or other forms of electronic identity confirmation may also be used. Candidates are allowed to take nothing, not even food and drink, into their cubicle except a prominently displayed means of identification; all rough notes are collected afterwards. Failure to comply with regulations can mean scores are cancelled or candidates may even be physically ejected.
All this is with good reason. The issue of security revolves around impersonation and the fear that : is the person showing up at business school with thean impressive score may not be the same person who took the GMAT?.
“The whole focus of admissions is on saying ‘is the person we are admitting the person we think we are admitting?’” commentssays Derrick Bolton, associate dean and director of MBA admissions at Stanford Graduate School of Business in the US.
Earlier this year, two impersonators were convicted and sentenced for fraudulently completing business school entry tests – including the GMAT. A further two are due for sentencing in the US in the coming months and a fifth was arrested in May.
In some south-east Asian countries it is not unknown for teams of teachers to take the test themselves and memorise as many questions as they can, dividing the test between them. Students can then be coached in the questions before taking the tesexam.
According to Mr Wilson, Pearson VUE plans to address these issues by strengthening security using digital video recordingcameras at test centres, rather than the present analogue videotaping. Crucially, digital cameras will allow zooming in on digitally recorded images can be magnified, allowing identification of individual students and a close-up views of what is happening inat the test centre. Also, adds Mr Wilson adds that “we will use biometric fingerprinting in every country that allows us to do that”.
But perhaps just as important as security, especially for leading business schools, are rising scores among GMAT takerscandidates. Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that between 1994 and 2004 the average GMAT score at schools with the top 10 highest scores rose from 648 to 708 (the maximum score is 800).
There are several explanations for this, including greater preparation and taking the test multiple times. Prof Bolton believes that “if scores keep rising then GMAC may have to recalibrate the test”.
Rightly or wrongly, students use average GMAT scores as a sort of proxy for the quality of an MBA programme. Jikyeong Kang, director of the MBA programme at Manchester Business School in the UK, says: “If one school has a 600 average and another has 650, then they will think the 650 is a better programme.”
Prof Bolton agrees that this is a “horrible” way to choose a programme but that it does happen.
“With the proliferation of schools and programmes people are looking for a signal of quality, for certainties in an uncertain environment,” he says.
On the other hand, Mr Wilson argues that in surveys and anecdotally students consistently say that the most important thing in an MBA programme is the quality of their classmates and that, in effect, GMAT scores are a good indicator of this. “Who is sitting next to you in class is important,” he says Mr Wilson.
“If you are not with your peers then that diminishes the learning experience.”
However, he advises that students should consider all the information available when selecting a school. “The GMAT is one factor. They should not use it alone.”
IF YOU WANT YOU CAN STICK THIS ON THE END AS A BOX? UP TO YOU HOO/.
The GMAT is a “computer adaptive test”, Candidates sit at a computer in one of a row of tiny cubicles. The screen displays one question at a time. The first is always of medium difficulty. The selection of subsequent questions depends on the answers given to all previous questions (get a question right and the next one is more difficult; wrong and it’s easier).
In effect, the test adjusts to the respondent’s ability level; there should be few questions that are either too easy or too difficult.
However, this means that every question must be answered and there is no way of changing previous answers.[q/l] So if you get into a series of easy questions it is hard to break out into more high-scoring ones.
The GMAT includes verbal, quantitative and analytical writing questions. Candidates have 75 minutes to complete 37 quantitative questions, 75 minutes for 41 verbal questions and 30 minutes for each of the two analytical writing topics, which begin the test. The verbal and quantitative sections are computer adaptive, but the two analytical writing questions are not, although they are keyed into the computer.[q/l]
