GMAC Soft Skills Assessment: Inside the GMAT Podcast
How many times in your life have you been asked “what’s your biggest strength?” It can be hard to know how to reply, right? Now, with the new GMAC Soft Skills Assessment, you’ll have greater insight to answer this common question than ever before.
In this episode of the Inside the GMAT™ podcast, we discuss the new GMAC Soft Skills Assessment and how you can use it to strengthen your business school applications and showcase your unique strengths. Our guest is Ana Kyper, lead of New Product Development at the Graduate Management Admission Council™ (GMAC™).
Episode 16: GMAC Soft Skills Assessment
Here are some highlights from the conversation.
On what the GMAC Soft Skills Assessment is:
“The GMAC Soft Skills Assessment is a relatively new online assessment that provides you the opportunity to enhance your business school application. The assessment helps you showcase your unique strengths, such as your approach to achieving challenging goals, managing your work, or working with others.
You can use the results of this assessment to refine and develop your business school applications. Think about it as a way to highlight yourself beyond your resume. The Soft Skills Assessment measures traits that are critical for success in business school, and is taken online and generally takes about 45 minutes to finish…”
📈 Read more about the GMAC Soft Skills Assessment
On the assessment’s convenient online delivery:
“…the assessment is entirely online, but it's a little bit different experience than your listeners have heard about online assessments on the show. There's no prep required, there's no appointments, you simply sign up and take it whenever it's convenient for you.
Using a computer or your phone, you can sit down, take it all in a 45-minute block, or you can take it in multiple sittings. That means you can take the Soft Skills Assessment a little at a time or take it all at once. And here's the best part: there's no extra software to download and without scheduling you can really take it anywhere, anytime.”
On what the questions are like:
“Each question will ask you to look at three statements about yourself and choose which one is most true and which one is least true. It's important to remember this isn't about right or wrong answers, rather it's looking at how you answer. The questions are about you, and when you take the assessment, don't bring any external considerations or answer any questions in a way that you think is more desirable. Answering truthfully is important.
Another helpful tip is when you read the question avoid thinking about how your answer might change depending on the circumstances. Just choose what's true for you at that moment, and what’s true right now. Think about in general, what's most true and what's least true about you.”
📗 Free Guide: How to Get Started: Your First Steps to a Full-Time MBA
On how the assessment is scored:
“As far as scoring on the Soft Skills Assessment, you don't get a score in the traditional sense of the word, as we don't provide a numerical score for the outcomes. Rather, the report you receive after completing the assessment includes your top three strengths and includes actions and tips on how you can continue to develop those strengths.
So, candidates that take the Soft Skills Assessment can use this report to develop their applications, highlighting their unique strengths and using the tips to develop those strengths before they start business school.
I know it's a little cliché but if a candidate's ever been asked in an interview or on an application ‘what their biggest strength is’ they will now have a report that highlights that. Candidates received the report highlighting their strengths about 24 hours after completing the assessment.”
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Inside the GMAT features experts that share tips on taking the exam, prep, and how to optimize your application cycle for graduate business school. This bi-weekly show gives you insights on everything you need to know for your graduate business school journey. If you want the inside scoop on the GMAT exam, graduate business school assessments, industry insights, and graduate business school success strategies—this podcast is for you.
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