GRE vs. GMAT, Part II: Test Content and Structure
UPDATED FOR THE NEW gmat and gre IN 2024
In part 1 of our GMAT vs. GRE series, we mentioned that you can apply to nearly any major MBA program with only a GRE score.
Which brings us to the next question: what are the differences between the GMAT Focus (called the GMAT in the rest of this article) and GRE exams, and what are the chances that you’ll actually do better on the GRE than on the GMAT? Although most people will score similarly on the two tests, it’s conceivable that you could gain an advantage by taking the GRE, depending on whether the differences between the two tests work in your favor.
GRE vs. GMAT Writing Assessments and Integrated Reasoning
The first major difference between the GRE and the GMAT is probably irrelevant to your odds of admission to top MBA programs.
The GRE includes one 30-minute essay (also called the Analytical Writing Assessment, or AWA), while the GMAT has ditched the essay section altogether. But the AWA section is unlikely to have a substantial impact on your odds of admission because most MBA and other business-related graduate programs simply don’t care about that score.
Overall, this particular difference between the GRE and the GMAT doesn’t really matter for most test-takers.
GRE VS. GMAT DATA INSIGHTS (DI) SECTION
The GMAT includes a 45-minute Data Insights (DI) section that asks you to work with charts, graphs, and tables, among other data-related question types. (For more, check out this video on how to approach the Data Insights section.) Your score on the Data Insights section counts towards your overall composite score, which means that this section is very important on the GMAT exam.
There is no dedicated Data Insights section on the GRE. However, within each GRE quant section you are likely to see some questions that test similar skills. In particular, you’ll encounter charts and graphs on GRE quant, as well as other questions that require the use of statistics.
While both exams test you on data analysis skills, they can feel very different from one another. Most students find that GRE data-related questions feel much more straightforward than GMAT Data Insights questions. So if charts and graphs make you uneasy, the GRE might be the friendlier option for you.
Bottom line: it is important to brush up on data analysis skills whether you’re taking the GMAT or the GRE. However, these questions weigh more heavily into the GMAT score, and generally feel trickier on the GMAT than the GRE.
GRE vs. GMAT Quantitative Sections
For many test-takers, the difficulty and breadth of the GMAT quant section is arguably one of the largest factors in the GRE vs. GMAT decision.
Superficially, the two exams cover a similar array of quant topics, but the GMAT covers most of those topics in much greater depth. For example, you’ll see rate-work questions on both exams, but the GMAT features a much wider variety of these questions. As a result, most GMAT test-takers spend more time on rate-work questions – and questions from most other quant topic areas – than they would if they had chosen the GRE instead.
One notable exception is that the GMAT does not include geometry, while the GRE does. Most students need to knock the rust off of their geometry skills (who actually uses the Pythagorean Theorem in their day-to-day life?), and it’s usually not a heavy lift to do so. On rare occasions, however, geometry just doesn’t click well for a particular student. If that sounds like you, then the GMAT might be a better fit.
The GRE also offers a simple on-screen calculator, but we’d argue that it really doesn’t help all THAT much — the numbers themselves are rarely cumbersome on either exam, especially if you’re well-trained in the art of finding intelligent quant shortcuts.
Similarly, most test-takers agree that the GMAT quant section simply feels much harder than the GRE quant sections, partly because of the increased breadth of the GMAT, and partly because of the GMAT’s penchant for twisting basic math into brain-melting reasoning puzzles.
To be fair, most of this difference in difficulty “washes out” in the scoring: you can miss quite a few GMAT quant questions and still get an excellent score. But if you’d prefer to avoid the pain of dealing with the GMAT quant section’s breadth and difficulty, the GRE might be a great way to reduce your overall study time.
GRE vs. GMAT Verbal Sections
On the verbal sections, the differences between the GRE and the GMAT are also substantial.
Both exams include some sort of Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning questions. But that is only half of the story on the GRE, where test-takers also face vocabulary-heavy Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions.
If you have a strong vocabulary, then perhaps the GRE is for you. But if your vocabulary is limited and your reading skills are relatively strong, you might be better off grappling with the GMAT verbal section, because we’ve unfortunately found that it is difficult to meaningfully improve your vocabulary in a short period of time.
GRE vs. GMAT Test Structure
Structurally, there are also some major differences between the GMAT and the GRE.
The GRE has several shorter sections and no breaks. We might argue that the GRE feels like running wind sprints: once you finish your 30-minute AWA section on the GRE, you’ll suffer through two scored quant sections (21 and 26 minutes) and two scored verbal sections (18 and 23 minutes). Overall, the test includes 5 sections and takes just under 2 hours to complete.
The GMAT, of course, includes one 45-minute Data Insights section, one 45-minute Quantitative Reasoning section, one 45-minute Verbal Reasoning section, and one optional 10-minute break. This means that you complete 3 sections in 2 hours and 15 minutes, plus 10 minutes if you take the optional break (which you probably should).
So the heart of the GMAT consists of three longer races, instead of a set of shorter sprints.
We rarely meet students who perform meaningfully better with one of these formats than the other. But if you bristle at the thought of the GMAT’s longer sections – or if you strongly prefer the GRE’s slightly reduced testing time – you might be an exception.
The GRE vs. the GMAT as adaptive tests
The GMAT and the GRE are both adaptive tests. However, the GMAT adapts question-by-question within each section, while the GRE only adapts between sections.
This means that if you get a few consecutive questions correct on the GMAT, you’re likely to see tougher questions almost immediately. On the GRE, your first sections (quant and verbal) are set in stone, and the difficulty level will only adapt for your second section of each type. For instance, if you do really well on the first quant section, then your second quant section will be more difficult.
On both tests, you can go back and review the questions that you’ve already completed within that section. There is one small difference between the review function of the tests: on the GRE you can change as many answers as you’d like, whereas on the GMAT you can only change up to three answers per section. The GMAT restricts the number of changes so that the question-level adaptation doesn’t get messed up too badly. In practice, it’s rare that you’d have time to change more than three answers anyway – so this difference in the exams is pretty minor.
On both tests, there’s something extremely comforting about the idea that we can skip questions and come back to them later, or revise our answers if we have extra time at the end of any given section.
The bottom line on GRE vs. GMAT Content and Structure
So yes, the two tests are substantially different, but the bad news is that we’ve seen plenty of students take both exams, and their GRE scores tend to be very comparable to their GMAT scores. But if you’re absolutely convinced that GRE questions will be systematically easier for you than their GMAT counterparts, then don’t hold back: the GRE might be ideal for you. If you’re not convinced that you’ll perform substantially better on the GRE, then you’re free to stick with the GMAT for your business school applications.