NMAT, the entrance exam for admission to MBA programme in Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) will no longer be owned and conducted by NMIMS instead the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has taken over the ownership of the test Now for admission to MBA programme 2016-18 in NMIMS, candidates will appear in ‘NMAT by GMAC’ instead of NMAT only.
The news although came as a surprise to many as this is the first such transfer of ownership of test in the world, the conveyed message is clear that GMAC is eyeing Indian MBA market with the future perspective of making it Global.
GMAC is the owner of GMAT exam which is a mandatory exam to explore admission opportunity in 6000+ MBA programmes across the world in top B schools. Now with the transfer of NMAT ownership, the exam will be known as ‘NMAT by GMAC’ instead of ‘NMAT’.
No change in Testing Agency
The testing agency for ‘NMAT by GMAC’ will not be changed. As such, Pearson VUE that has been conducting NMAT since 2009 will continue to be the testing agency for the forthcoming exam. Earlier Person VUE worked in partnership with NMIMS now it will work in partnership with GMAC. Incidentally Pearson VUE is also the global testing delivery partner of GMAC to conduct GMAT exam.
‘NMAT by GMAC’: Registration to open in July 2015
GMAC proposes to open the registration window for ‘NMAT by GMAT’ in the month of July 2015 while the testing window is planned to be kept open from October to December 2015.
Expected changes in ‘NMAT by GMAC’
Although there wouldn’t be any changes in the process of taking the exam, GMAC might go for certain changes in score reporting to schools that would accept the ‘NMAT by GMAC’. More features and changes in coming exams might be brought about to the test. GMAC is also exploring the certain modifications in Psychometrics in designing the test.
Expected changes in score validity
It is very much possible that the validity of ‘NMAT by GMAC’ exam scores for MBA admission might be increased as per the validity pattern of GMAT scores. At present NMAT scores are valid for one academic session; the scores of ‘NMAT by GMAC’ may remain valid for 4/5 years. It is also possible that earlier 80 days testing window for NMAT, longer testing window for ‘NMAT by GMAC’ on the pattern of GMAT might be introduced. Besides GMAC plans to provide the participating B schools online accessibility to ‘NMAT by GMAC’ exam scores.
More B schools to accept ‘NMAT by GMAC’ scores
So far only NMIMS B schools accepted NMAT scores. From now on along with the MBA programmes of the NMIMS, Alliance University, SRM University, BML Munjal University, VIT University, ICFAI Business School (IBS) and Ansal University would also accept the ‘NMAT by GMAC’ exam scores for MBA 2016-18 admissions.
NMAT by GMAC: Expected Test pattern
‘NMAT by GMAC’ is proposed to be a computer based objective type multiple-choice test as earlier NMAT. So far NMAT used to have 120 questions to be solved in 2 hours (120 minutes). Same pattern is expected to continue in NMAT 2016. It means the aspirant will have 1 minute per question to solve. No descriptive type of questions is asked in NMAT.
Test components
NMAT has following test components. The time allocation and number of questions might change in NMAT by GMAC, although test components are expected to remain the same
| Components |
Expected number of questions |
Estimated time to solve in minutes |
|
Language skills |
32 |
22 |
|
Quantitative skills |
48 |
60 |
|
Logical Reasoning |
40 |
38 |
Sectional weightage
It is expected that there will be sectional as well as overall cut offs in NMAT by GMAC 2016. The necessity is to perform well relative to other candidates in each of the three sections to get shortlisted for final admission round. No negative marking in NMAT by GMAC 2016 is expected
On the similar lines as in GMAT, the candidates taking more than one attempt the best score which is the total score & its respective sectional score will be considered for short listing for subsequent process.
NMAT by GMAC 2016 aspirants are also expected to have the choice of selecting the order of the sections in the test. Aspirants would need to solve each section within the prescribed time limit to it since each section would have an individual time limit.
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is a non-profit education organisation of leading graduate business schools and owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), used by more than 6,100 graduate business and management programmes worldwide. GMAC plans to enhance the acceptability of ‘NMAT by GMAC’ scores by many other B schools in the country.
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