Ever since business schools began accepting the GRE an increasing number of MBA applicants have elected to take the GRE instead of the GMAT. We have also had many students who either started with the GMAT and then turned to the GRE or who ended up just studying for and taking both exams. What follows is a comprehensive, in-depth comparison of the tests. In a separate post we give some more specific advice about how best to choose between the exams, but first, it might be helpful to understand the similarities and differences.
Main Similarities
- Both tests are fundamentally reasoning tests
- Very similar content base on the Quantitative portions of both tests
- Problem Solving questions on the Quant sections of both tests are fundamentally the same
- Both tests have Reading Comprehension and Argument Questions
Commentary on the Similarities
Fundamentally the GMAT and GRE are actually very similar. There is a lot of overlap between the tests and at their core they are both reasoning tests. So preparing for the tests is a very similar process and once you have prepared for one it is not that difficult to switch tests and take the other.
The content on the Math sections of the tests is almost identical. The GRE actually gets into a few statistical concepts that the GMAT does not (such as interquartile range and frequency distributions), but those are really minor differences and those concepts represent a very small fraction of what you are likely to see on the GRE. Problem Solving questions, which make up about half of the Math questions on both tests, are basically identical on the GMAT and GRE, so knowing how to approach them strategically is fundamentally the same issue on both tests. Indeed, when we at Reason Test Prep prepare people for the GRE, we have them do a significant number of GMAT Problem Solving questions in order to get more practice with what are essentially “hard” GRE questions.
The Verbal sections of the tests are what set the tests apart more in terms of their format, but even on the Verbal sections there is significant overlap. Both tests have Reading Comprehension (which is roughly the same on both tests) and both have “Argument Questions,” though they are called different things on each test. The Argument Questions (called Critical Reasoning on the GMAT) are a much bigger feature of the GMAT than they are of the GRE, but again the questions are basically indistinguishable.
Main Differences
- The GRE has a calculator whereas the GMAT does not (except on IR)
- The Quantitative part of the GMAT is harder than that of the GRE
- Reading Comprehension is a bit more difficult on the GRE
- Whereas the GMAT has Data Sufficiency questions, the GRE has Quantitative Comparisons (the questions are actually very similar but Data Sufficiency is undoubtedly harder).
- Whereas the GMAT has Sentence Correction questions (which are grammar based) the GRE has “Sentence Completions” (which are vocab-based)
- The GRE allows test takers to skip questions and go back, but the GMAT requires test takes to answer the questions in sequence without going back
Commentary on the Differences
The GRE was redesigned in 2011 in part to lure test-takers away from the GMAT. In essence, ETS made the GRE more GMAT-like in a number of ways so that business schools would begin accepting the GRE in place of the GMAT, something that almost all business schools now do. One aspect of this was that the quantitative section of the GRE was made more difficult. But it still does not quite approach the difficulty of the GMAT Quant section. That is why for some people, particularly those with weak quantitative ability, the GRE can sometimes be a better test for them than the GMAT (for more on this, see our post on how to decide which test to take, GMAT or GRE).
The makers of the GRE also made an effort to make the GRE more user-friendly so that once people had a choice between the GMAT and GRE, they would be more likely to choose the GRE. So some of the key differences, such as the availability of an on-screen calculator and the ability to skip questions and go back, were deliberate attempts to make the test more approachable and comfortable for people than the GMAT, a strategy that seems to have been somewhat effective.
As for the individual sections, although the Quant sections of the tests are very similar, as described above, there is one major difference: whereas the GMAT has Data Sufficiency questions the GRE has Quantitative Comparisons. The questions are actually very similar, in part because they both have an element of determining whether one has sufficient information to answer a question (that is actually the whole point of Data Sufficiency questions whereas it is not the only thing that needs to be considered on Quantitative Comparisons). Despite the similarity between the questions, Data Sufficiency questions are generally more difficult than Quantitative Comparisons. In fact, some people struggle so much with Data Sufficiency questions that in some cases the GRE becomes a better option because it allows one to avoid Data Sufficiency altogether and deal with Quantitative Comparisons instead.
Really where the tests differ the most is on the Verbal sections. Although both tests have Reading Comprehension and “Argument Questions,” the Argument questions make up a much larger portion of the Verbal section. More significantly, the GRE has “Sentence Completions” (actually it is 2 different question types that are pretty similar), which are essentially vocabulary-based questions and the GMAT has Sentence Correction, which is a grammar-based question. So the Verbal sections of the two tests look more different than the Quant sections and they really get at different knowledge bases – vocabulary on the GRE and grammar on the GMAT.
Most people find the GRE Verbal section to be a little harder than the GMAT Verbal section. That is dependent, in part, on what a person’s skills are (someone who is a really good reader and who has an extensive vocabulary is probably going to do better on the GRE), but overall people tend to find the GRE Verbal section a little more difficult. This is especially true for Reading Comprehension – most of the students that I have tutored for both exams tend to feel that the GRE Reading Comp is significantly more difficult (both in terms of the passages and the questions).
Conclusions
The truth is that the tests are actually very similar and measure the same kind of reasoning ability based on almost the same knowledge base. The Verbal sections differ more significantly than the Quant sections do and some of the features that are offered on the GRE (such as the calculator) are not offered on the GMAT (a calculator is offered on the IR section only). But really the tests are so much alike that it is very possible to study for one test and then turn around and take the other test without a significant amount of additional prep. For more information on how to actually choose between the GMAT and GRE, see our other post on that topic.