Graduate Management Admission Test Research Articles

Use of AEE Technology for Feedback Generating on Written Text: A Revolution in Academic Writing Domain

AEE, a computer-generated grading system that delivers written comments on the quality of written texts, is the topic of this book. It is already possible to find both commercial and non-commercial AEE applications that feature a scoring engine that provides automatic scores based on techniques like artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and latent semantic analysis. AEE scoring engines are taught using human ratings, and AEE is being used for summative assessments in tests such as the TOEFL and the Graduate Management Admissions Test, in combination with human ratings. In addition to spoken feedback, many AEE programmes also incorporate written feedback in the form of comments and corrections. Using written AEE feedback to give formative input in writing courses has grown in popularity in recent years, especially in American schools at the secondary and postsecondary levels. The book is a follow-up to Automated Essay Scoring: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach, which was published in 2003 and is the subject of this volume.

GMAT Scores as a Proxy for National IQ

This study develops a straightforward transformation of Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) scores into an equivalent IQ score using countries for which both measures are available; and, validates the same for countries for which direct measurements of National IQ are not available. The GMAT is an aptitude test used for admission into many MBA and other graduate programs in business. National average GMAT scores are found to be positively correlated with well-established measures of cognitive ability provided the GMAT scores are corrected for participation rate. Even though GMAT scores are indicated to be prone to measurement error, they drive ethnic-based proxies of National IQ to insignificance in regression analysis of GDP per capita.

Does intelligence explain national score variance on graduate admissions exams?

Mean scores on English-based graduate admissions exams vary strongly country by country. Here we test four hypotheses for this variance. The first is that samples of would-be graduate students are not representative of the countries from which they came. Second, English Language familiarity might account for cross-national variance on these exams. Third, national differences in well-being explain national differences in exam scores. Finally, variance in national IQ (NIQ) captures most of the variance in scores on admissions exams. We thus coded two extant measures of NIQ, and national scores on the following three admissions exams: The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT; n = 200 countries), Graduate Record Exam (GRE; n = 149), and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL; n = 175). Partial support was found for both the unrepresentative samples and language familiarity hypotheses. The well-being hypothesis was not supported because despite large correlations between it and exam scores, these effects were wiped out when NIQ also appeared in the regression equations. The NIQ hypothesis received the most support in that it strongly predicted admissions exam total scores (GMAT, r = 0.68 (N = 161); GRE, r = 0.71 (N = 141); TOEFL, r = 0.61 (N = 153). Moreover, these relationships (excluding those with the TOEFL) were robust to the controls of English familiarity and well-being. We end by discussing how our data also validate the existence of Rindermann's (2007) “Big G” nexus.

Women MBAs in Chinese Business Schools

Among the Financial Times top 100 ranked MBAs, programs at Chinese schools always have higher proportion of female students on average than in the USA or any other nation. According to Profiles of Graduate Management Admission Test by GMAC (GMAT Tests Taken by Region of Citizenship) released for various years show that women GMAT aspirants from the China have been continuously dominating their male counterparts for many years.

The Problem of Chinese Students Facing in Critical Reasoning in Graduate Management Admission Test

The Problem of Chinese Students Facing in Critical Reasoning in Graduate Management Admission Test

Admission Criteria for MBA Programs

This paper reports a review of studies on admission criteria for MBA programs. The method consisted in a literary review based on a systematic search in international databases (Emerald, ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest Education Journals, ProQuest European Business, ProQuest Science Journal, ProQuest Research Library, ProQuest Psychology Journals, ProQuest Social Science Journals and Business Source Complete) of studies published from January 1990 to December 2013, which explore the academic performance of students or graduates of MBA programs. A quantitative review was performed. Results show that most researchers studied relations between GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) and UGPA (Undergraduate Grade Point Average) as predictors of GGPA (Graduate Grade Point Average). On the other hand, work experience and personal traits (such as personality, motivation, learning strategies, self-efficacy beliefs and achievement expectations) and their relation with GGPA had been less studied, and results are not consistent enough to consider them valid predictors of student performance at this time.

The relation of student engagement and other admission metrics to Master of Accounting student performance

ABSTRACTThis paper examines whether the use of student engagement (SE) information as part of the admissions process can help us to predict student academic success in Master of Accounting (MAC) programs. The association of SE, undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), and Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) score to academic performance was tested using 890 MAC students enrolled at a large southern US university between 2004 and 2014. We find that SE is a strong predictor of student success in the MAC program, after controlling for GMAT score and UGPA. The results of this study support the use of SE attributes or characteristics by MAC Admission Committees when determining which students to admit into their programs.

Student loans or marriage? A look at the highly educated

I examine the relationship between student loans and marital status among individuals considering or pursuing graduate management education. Using data from a panel survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test, I show that the amount of accumulated student debt is negatively related to the probability of first marriage. The strength of the relationship diminishes with age, more so for women than for men. At the median age for the sample (24 years at test registration), the estimated decrease over a seven-year period is between 3 and 4 percentage points per $10,000 in student debt for men and a percentage point lower in absolute value for women. I use information on reported marriage expectations to show evidence that education expenditures and the amount of debt are correlated with anticipated marital status, but borrowers may not have perfect foresight about the long-term consequences of accumulating student debt.

Syntactic Complexity of Reading Content Directly Impacts Complexity of Mature Students’ Writing

Increasingly, schools and colleges of business focus on the quality of their students’ writing, reflecting complaints from business and industry about the quality of writing of entry-level employees. These concerns about student writing have led to some changes in the curricula and admittance of students into graduate programs, including analytical writing essays on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). However, research also suggests that reading content and frequency may exert more significant impacts on students’ writing than writing instruction and frequency. This study surveyed a cohort of MBA students on their regular reading content and sampled their writing. We then used algorithm-based software to assess the syntactic complexity of both reading content and writing samples. Our findings reveal strong correlations between students’ most common reading content and their writing on widely-used measures of writing sophistication: mean sentence length and mean clause length. Several mechanisms may account for the dramatic influence exerted by reading content on mature students’ writing—including synchrony, priming, and implicit learning. But, irrespective of these mechanisms, undergraduate and graduate programs in business should emphasize ongoing reading of syntactically complex content both during and after students’ schooling to address the sophistication of their writing.

Compensation and Employment Impact of a Full-time MBA Program

The changing Master of Business Administration (MBA) marketplace and considerable direct and indirect costs for an MBA degree mean that school administrators and other stakeholders need a better understanding of what factors may influence the rate of return to their MBA programs. We investigated the potential of using analytical frameworks to identify those variables that may predict employment probabilities and starting salaries of full-time MBA graduates, in the context of a single, private MBA program. Our results suggest that for graduates of this particular program, pre-MBA salary and work experience in accounting, banking, finance, and consulting industries predicted higher post-MBA salary levels, as did having a liberal arts major as an undergraduate. Other human capital measures, such as Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores or elite undergraduate education, were not associated with higher employment probabilities or salary levels for this program’s students, while having an undergraduate business major was associated with lower employment probability. Although our study has limited inference to determine the value of an MBA education more generally, it has potentially important implications for administrators of MBA programs, who could gain useful insights on applying empirical analysis to their own programs. Although this process can be costly and time consuming without a supportive institutional environment, it could provide useful evidence-based guidelines for practice with substantial payoffs for both the program and the students.

Predicting MBA Student Success and Streamlining the Admissions Process

Within this study the author examines factors commonly employed as master of business administration applicant evaluation criteria to see if these criteria are important in determining an applicant's potential for success. The findings indicate that the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) is not a significant predictor of student success when considering factors such as undergraduate grade point average and work experience. Furthermore, the results suggest that prior findings in support of the GMAT are the result of missing variables in the model specification. Our results show that undergraduate grade point average alone can be employed as an admission criterion and indicator of potential success in lieu of the GMAT; adopting this criterion instead can streamline the admission process while minimizing student expenses. Within the discussion section the author offers suggestions for reducing the need for the GMAT score information in the admissions process.

The Importance of English Language Competency in the Academic Success of International Accounting Students

The authors investigate the information content of two commonly used admission tests, namely the Graduate Management Admission Test and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The analysis extends prior research by investigating the incremental information content of individual components from one admission test conditional on the information contained in the other admission test and undergraduate grade point average. The results suggest that for international applicants in master of accountancy programs, the TOEFL test is the only one that yields statistically significant incremental information content about academic success. If admissions officers were to eliminate one of the tests, it should not be the TOEFL.

Ethical Implementation of an Automated Essay Scoring (AES) System: A Case Study of Student and Instructor Use, Satisfaction, and Perceptions of AES In a Business Law Course

A pilot study of a vendor provided automated grading system was conducted in a Business Law class of 27 students. Students answered a business law fact pattern question which was reviewed and graded by the textbook vendor utilizing artificial intelligence software. Students were surveyed on their use, satisfaction, perceptions and technical issues utilizing the Write Experience automated essay scoring (AES) software. The instructor also chronicles the adoption, set up and use of an AES. Also detailed are the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing such software in an undergraduate course environment where some students may not be technologically adept or may lack motivation to experiment with a new testing procedure. Automated grading of student assignments is part of the next wave of textbook enhancements that vendors will be providing to instructors in the near future. Several vendors are conducting beta testing with instructors in hope of offering automated grading as part of their textbook and course support. Of course, such services will be an additional cost to the text. Exactly what will be charged for such services remains to be seen. The vast majority of previous research in the area of AES has been limited to its use in grading assignments in the STEM fields. Computer science instructors have been experimenting with self-created automated grading software for several decades. Recently automated grading software has been implemented by vendors to score essay questions in online tests such as the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). The experience of one business law class in using automated grading software as part of such a beta test can give valuable insight into the needs and expectations of the three stakeholders in this situation – instructor, student and vendor. Implementation of an AES raises numerous issues. Should an instructor be willing to relinquish control of the grading process to an outside entity? Are the student needs for feedback and grading fairness being met? Is the technology advanced enough to replace the human element always present in grading assignments? What will be the economic impact on students if such software is adopted? The implications for the various stakeholders are discussed and addressed. The author comes to conclusions about the pedagogical usefulness of AES systems and offers suggestions for best practices to be employed by instructors interested in implementing such software in their courses.

Culture, Gender, and GMAT Scores: Implications for Corporate Ethics

Business leadership increasingly requires a master’s degree in business and graduate management admission test (GMAT) scores continue to be an important component of applications for admission to such programs. Given the ubiquitous use of GMAT scores as gatekeepers for business leadership, GMAT scores are likely to influence organizational ethical behavior through gender, cultural, and other biases in the GMAT. There is little prior literature in this area and we contribute by empirically documenting that GMAT scores are negatively related to the cultural dimensions of masculinity and power distance and are positively related to math literacy, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism. We estimate that cultural factors may account for as much as an 80-point difference in cross-national mean GMAT scores which are also related negatively to local language literacy, national educational spending, wealth per capita, wealth inequality, and gender development. Most interestingly, we also find a significant negative association of GMAT scores with ethical orientation. These findings have important implications for business schools and corporate ethics and leadership.

Quality Of Education Outcomes: The Role Of The Graduate Management Admission Test

Although the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is considered by leading business institutions worldwide as a predictor of success in graduate programs, an issue of contention is whether the introduction of the examination enhances the quality of education outcomes. This study sought to obtain an understanding of this issue, focusing on Masters in Business Administration (MBA) students at the College of Business and Management Science (CoBAMS), Makerere University. The academic achievement of MBA enrollees and their candidature status (i.e., whether candidates progressed normally or not) at the end of their first year of master’s studies were adopted as measures of education outcomes. The investigations are based on administrative data of 216 enrollees in the MBA program at CoBAMS in the 2010 and 2011 enrollment cohorts. Unlike the 2010 enrollees, those in the 2011 cohort were admitted to the program on the basis of their GMAT scores. In the analysis, differentials in the candidature status and academic achievement of enrollees before and after the introduction of the GMAT were investigated using the Pearson chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis test statistics, respectively. The results revealed that students who were not admitted to the MBA program on the basis of the GMAT had better education outcomes. This finding diminishes the relevance of the examination in determining the academic competence of candidates suitable for admission. Though the results affirm the bachelor degree achievement as a predictor of success in the MBA program, varying conclusions compared to literature are reached with regard to education outcomes obtained by whether or not the GMAT requirement is waived.

Graduate Management Admission Test Outcomes And The Academic Achievement: A Study On Masters Of Business Administration Students At Makerere University, Uganda

This study investigates whether the outcomes of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) can predict the academic achievement of enrollees in masters programs. The study is based on administrative data of 516 Masters of Business Administration (MBA) enrollees at the College of Business and Management Science, Makerere University in the 2011 and 2012 enrollment cohorts. The Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) in the bachelor’s degree and that of the first year of master’s studies were adopted as measures of the academic achievement of enrollees. In the analysis, academic achievement of MBA enrollees was modeled using a robust regression by GMAT scores obtained during admission to the program and student characteristics—gender, other qualification, year of completion and outcome of the bachelor’s degree, and whether the candidate obtained his/her bachelor’s degree from Makerere University. In the results, a high GMAT score was significantly associated with high academic achievement among graduate students. This evidence suggests that the theory of an aptitude or admission test being a predictor of academic achievement of learners holds across disciplines. However, a significant association established in the results between the academic achievement of learners at the undergraduate and graduate stages indicates that the undergraduate achievement can be recommended as a cost free alternative for assessing the competence of candidates suitable for admission to the graduate program.

The GMAT as a Predictor of MBA Performance: Less Success Than Meets the Eye

Consistent with previous research, the authors found that the combined use of undergraduate grade point average and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) verbal and quantitative sections successfully predicted performance in a master of business administration (MBA) program. However, these measures did not successfully predict the competencies that underlie managerial effectiveness, including communication, teamwork, decision making, leadership initiative, and planning and organizing. These competencies were better predicted, albeit imperfectly, by the analytical writing section of the GMAT. These findings are discussed with regard to the curriculum of MBA programs.

Efficiency of the top 50 business schools in the United States

This article measures efficiency of the top 50 business schools in the United States in 2006, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. We use peer assessment (to represent school quality) and average Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores (to represent student ability) as inputs and average starting salary and the percent of graduates employed upon graduation as outputs. The 50 business schools consist of 27 private schools and 23 public schools, and their efficiency scores are compared. We find that although technical efficiencies of private and public schools are both high, scale and overall efficiencies of the public schools are lower than those of the private schools. And most public schools exhibit Increasing Returns To Scale (IRTS). The returns to scale in this article refers to increases in the output measures – starting salary and the employment rates – in response to increases in the quality of inputs – peer assessment and the average GMAT scores. Hence, schools that exhibit IRTS will experience more than proportionate increases in starting salary and the employment rates by raising the quality of inputs. The policy implication is that for many public schools, efficiency will be improved if they could improve school and student quality levels.

Let me in! The predictive validity of graduate management admissions test and other variables in the admission system of Masters of Business Administration programmes

Data were collected from a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programme in a public university in the southern part of Texas. Analysis of variance results indicate that there are gender as well as ethnicity effects. Similarly, regression results indicate that only ethnicity and gender of the subjects contributed significantly in predicting the students’ graduate grade point average. However, different predictors account for the variance depending on the ethnicity/gender. Women scored lower graduate management admissions tests, but they surpassed their counterparts in academic performance during the MBA programme, raising questions as to the predictive validity of such exam. Finally, a change in the graduate admission system calls for consideration of soft issues when engaging in processes reengineering.

The effect of ethics on labor market success: Evidence from MBAs

This paper empirically investigates the link between ethics, earnings and gender. Using a self-reported measure from a longitudinal survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test, we find that ethical character is negatively associated with males’ wages. For females, however, this relationship does not hold. In addition, using measures of the degree to which ethics is emphasized in business school curricula as an indicator for enhancement of individual ethical standards of graduates, we investigate variation in the returns to an MBA degree. We find that the larger the degree to which males report that business education enhanced their ethical character, the lower their wages, holding other aspects of their education constant. For females, however, enhanced ethics through business school is positively and significantly associated with returns to the MBA degree. More objective measures of ethics emphasis in business school curricula provide further support of these findings.