The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT (/ˈdʒiːmæt/ (JEE-mat))) is a computer adaptive test (CAT) intended to assess certain analytical, quantitative, verbal, and data literacy skills for use in admission to a graduate management program, such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.

[4] Answering the test questions requires reading comprehension, and mathematical skills such as arithmetic, and algebra.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) owns and operates the test, and states that the GMAT assesses critical thinking and problem-solving abilities while also addressing data analysis skills that it believes to be vital to real-world business and management success.

[5] According to a survey conducted by Kaplan Test Prep, the GMAT is still the number one choice for MBA aspirants.

[9] According to GMAC, it has continually performed validity studies to statistically verify that the exam predicts success in business school programs.

[14] In April 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closing of in-person testing centers around the world, GMAC quickly moved to launch an online format of the GMAT exam.

In 2013, an independent research study evaluated student performance at three full-time MBA programs and reported that the GMAT total score had a 0.29 statistical correlation with the first-year GPA (Grade Point Average) of the MBA programs while undergraduate GPA had a 0.35 correlation, suggesting that undergraduate performance was a stronger predictor of graduate school performance than GMAT scores.

All three sections of the GMAT exam are multiple-choice and are administered in a computer-adaptive format, adjusting to a test taker's level of ability.

On July 11, 2017, GMAC announced that from now on the order in which the different parts of the GMAT are taken can be chosen at the beginning of the exam.

[22] According to GMAC, the reading comprehension question type tests ability to analyze information and draw a conclusion.

Test takers click on the tabs and examine all the relevant information, which may be a combination of text, charts, and tables to answer either traditional multiple-choice or opposite-answer (e.g., yes/no, true/false) questions.

The automated essay-scoring engine was an electronic system that evaluated more than 50 structural and linguistic features, including organization of ideas, syntactic variety, and topical analysis.

If the two ratings differed by more than one point, another evaluation by an expert reader was required to resolve the discrepancy and determine the final score.

[25] The Analytical Writing Assessment was graded on a scale of 0 (minimum) to 6 (maximum) in half-point intervals.

The skills tested by the Integrated Reasoning section were identified in a survey of 740 management faculty worldwide as important for incoming students.

The total GMAT Exam (Focus Edition) score ranges from 205 to 805 and measures performance on all three sections together.

If the examinee misses the first question, the final score will not necessarily fall in the bottom half of the range.

[26] At the end of the exam, an unofficial preview of the GMAT score earned is shown to the test taker.