Plain-English definitions of the terms you will meet when preparing for the Executive Assessment. Simplified for learning; GMAC’s materials are authoritative.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Executive Assessment | A shorter business-school admissions test from GMAC, designed for experienced professionals and EMBA applicants. |
| GMAC | Graduate Management Admission Council, the non-profit body that owns the Executive Assessment and the GMAT. |
| mba.com | GMAC’s official candidate site for registering and finding official information. |
| EMBA | Executive MBA, a part-time MBA for experienced working professionals - the main audience for this assessment. |
| Integrated Reasoning | The section that tests reading and combining data from tables, graphs and text. |
| Verbal Reasoning | The section that tests reading, argument logic and English usage. |
| Quantitative Reasoning | The section that tests arithmetic, algebra and basic geometry, with no calculator. |
| Multi-Source Reasoning | An Integrated Reasoning type using two or three tabbed sources you must combine. |
| Graphics Interpretation | An Integrated Reasoning type where you complete statements by reading a chart or graph. |
| Two-Part Analysis | An Integrated Reasoning type with a two-column answer, choosing one option in each column. |
| Table Analysis | An Integrated Reasoning type using a sortable table to make several yes/no judgements. |
| Problem Solving | A Quantitative Reasoning type: a question with five choices where you find the correct value. |
| Data Sufficiency | A question type where you judge whether the given statements are enough to answer, not what the answer is. |
| Reading Comprehension | A Verbal type with a passage and questions about its content, structure and intent. |
| Critical Reasoning | A Verbal type that asks you to strengthen, weaken or find the assumption of an argument. |
| Sentence Correction | A Verbal type where you choose the clearest, most correct version of an underlined sentence part. |
| Multistage adaptive | A format where question difficulty adjusts based on your earlier answers. |
| Total score | The 100-200 score built from the three equally weighted section scores. |
| Section score | A 0-20 score for each of the three sections. |
| Score validity | The five-year period during which a score is valid (reportable for up to ten years). |