After the GRE General Test started gaining traction as an alternative to the GMAT for business school admissions in the late 2000s, it soon became rather easy to find a GRE to GMAT conversion tool online. For a while, it was right on the official ETS GRE website. Applicants could plug their scores into the tool and in both directions a supposedly equivalent score would pop out.
I cannot count the number of times I've been asked by MBA candidates (and even folks considering the LSAT for law school admissions) who have for whatever reason been turned off by the GMAT - shouldn't I just take the GRE? After all, in every corner of the internet it seems that the GRE is championed as the easier exam - and why wouldn't it be?
At long last, ETS has finally converted more of their official online practice exams to the short form of the test that was launched September 22, 2023 - and it only took about four months! That said, as of today, January 22, the ets.org/gre PowerPrep practice exam purchasing website could not be more confusing.
If you’re considering applying to grad school, you may have asked yourself this question. Figuring this out is a crucial stage in your grad school trajectory, as these tests not only require significant lead-time for registration, preparation, and score reporting, but the GMAT and GRE are also structured differently, serve different purposes, test you on different skills, reward different thinking styles, and can be viewed somewhat differently by MBA programs and grad schools.
It’s an increasingly common question given the growing acceptance of the GRE. 10 years ago, very few MBA programs accepted the GRE as part of their admissions requirements. 5 years ago, a growing number of schools accepted the GRE in theory, but it was still a clear minority of students who were in fact applying to MBA programs with a GRE score instead of a GMAT score.