VOA慢速英语20061207a

EDUCATION REPORT - Taking the GMAT to Get Into Business SchoolBy Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, December 07, 2006




This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

For several weeks now, our Foreign Student Series has dealt with college admissions² tests. We have talked about the SAT, ACT, GRE and the MAT. We have also discussed the English tests known as the TOEFL and the IELTS.

Now, a listener from Thailand has asked about a test used to get into graduate programs in business and management. Varongsri Saengbanchong asks about the Graduate Management Admission¹ Test, or GMAT.

The Graduate Management Admission Council³ is the non-profit organization responsible for the GMAT. The council describes the exam as a test of general skills and abilities gained over time. The test is designed to show how well a student will do in programs leading to a master's of business administration⁴ and other degrees.

But the council also says the test is not the only tool that should be used to measure future success in business school. Admissions officers also may consider college grades and other information, like work experience.

The GMAT tests skills including reading, mathematics and writing. It does not measure knowledge of business or what a person learned⁵ in college.

The test is divided into three main parts. The first is the writing test. You have to write two essays. In one, you take a position on an issue and support your position with arguments. In the other, you consider the reasoning behind a given argument and write about the strengths and weaknesses.

Test-takers have thirty minutes to write each essay.

The math part of the test takes seventy-five minutes. There are thirty-seven questions involving data and problem solving.

The third part of the GMAT is also seventy-five minutes long. It measures understanding of written passages and the relationships among ideas. You have to show reasoning skills and the ability to follow the development of ideas. There are forty-one questions to answer.

Graduate schools in the United States generally require some kind of admissions test. Medical schools, for example, require the MCAT -- the Medical College Admission Test. And law schools require the Law School Admission Test, known as the LSAT.

Links to the Web sites of all the tests we have discussed in our Foreign Student Series can be found at www.unsv.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Doug Johnson.

1 admission   

n.允许进入；承认；入场费，入会费，入场券

参考例句：

• We attached a condition to his admission to our school.我们对准许他入校附加了一个条件。
• By her own admission,she was responsible for the accident.她自己承认，事故应该由她负责。

2 admissions   

n.准许进入( admission的名词复数 )；入场费；入场券；承认

参考例句：

• a need-blind admissions policy 不考虑经济能力的录取政策
• He's the Dean of Admissions for the University of Michigan. 他是Michigan大学的新生注册主任。 来自辞典例句

3 council   

n.理事会，委员会，议事机构

参考例句：

• The town council passed a law forbidding the distribution of handbills.市议会通过法律，禁止散发传单。
• The city council has declared for improving the public bus system.市议会宣布同意改进公共汽车系统。

4 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

5 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。