TOEFL and GMAT Preparation

Some of you should be familiar with TOEFL, yet still sound strange with GMAT. In this post, I want to share some of my experience regarding two kinds of test. Since, I want to pursue graduate school in US, I need to pass both of tests.

TOEFL

What is the TOEFL? Why should I take that test? What is the difference between TOEFL and IELTS? Actually I had willingness to take TOEFL test when I was excited to apply master degree in Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi. But, for several reasons I canceled my plan. I changed it actually. I want to Pursue MBA in US. It still plan, but I am developing my capability to reach that goal.

As we know, TOEFL is standardized test that measure our ability. We can't say "I can english well, or I used to write everything in english, so I have good capability for that". We need to take that test and know how is our score. Is it 120? Is it just 70? etc.

There are two types of TOEFL. A familiar one is TOEFL PBT (Paper Based Test), which has score around 300 until 680. And for TOEFL IBT (Internet Based Test), it has highest score 120. And maybe some of you ask, so which one should I choose? PBT? or IBT?

I highly recommend to choose IBT. Why? Because, actually there are no PBT anymore hahaha. I mean, if you take test from official institution, there is just IBT test for TOEFL. You can visit its website for more detail about price, what kind of section, is there any speaking test? and other detail information.

But, there are still many institutions which conduct TOEFL PBT test such as ILP and others. Maybe you can just take TOEFL PBT test if you want to apply some jobs such as Pertamina. They can receive our PBT score. But, if you want to apply for university, you must take IBT test from official institution, ETS.

Then the other question, do I need to take TOEFL? or IELTS?  Actually it based on university you want to apply. Generally TOEFL is required for universities in US and IELTS for universities in Europe or Australia. But, most of universities can receive either TOEFL or  IELTS. So, it depends on you. You need to take free samples question from both official website and try to solve them. Which one do you think easier? Just take that one. If you ask some of your colleagues. Some of them will answer, TOEFL is easier and the others can be choose IELTS as the easier one. Personally, I choose TOEFL because I want to pursue graduate degree in US, in TOEFL we need to choose the multiple answer instead of fill in the blank in IELTS test. And based on my survey the price for TOEFL is cheaper than IELTS.

GMAT

If you want to take master degree in US, you need to take not only TOEFL or IELTS but also GMAT or GRE. GMAT or GRE is the test to measure your intellegence skill. I can't explain detail about GRE because I do not prepare for that instead of GMAT. Actually it same with language test. If you want to choose GMAT or GRE, you need to check requirements in official website of the university. Based on my research, even for MBA, they require either GMAT or GRE. But based on my chit-chat and browsing, GMAT is generally required for MBA. I don't know what kind of major which need GRE. But, as I know most of universities in US will ask your GMAT or GRE score.

For GMAT, the maximum score is 780. Several top tier b-schools have average GMAT score around 700. In university website, it doesn't state the minimum requirement for GMAT. Eventhough, there is class profile informed about average and range GMAT score of student who accepted in previous year. You can visit GMAT official website to more detail information.

Based on my experience, it not easy at all to get good score in GMAT. The last score I got just 500. I have target above 700. That's why I need to study hard for reaching the target. I took one month preparation with Nick Pascale in Patra Jasa tower. That one is the cheapest that I know for GMAT preparation. The price is IDR 3.000.000  for basic level. If you want to extend in advance level as I know you need to pay for IDR 3.500.000. He taught us with mindblowing idea. He said we can't calculate detail to do GMAT test since we just have limited time. So he gave us framework to answer some types of questions.

If you want to pursue master degree or other occasion which require two kinds of tests, I really recommend you to prepare as soon as possible. I don't say you have to take preparation class you can learn by your own. Each of us has different capability, different style of study and different strategy. Just go on to aspire what we really want. And hopefully we can achieve that together :D

NIZARLAND

"Where The Land Inspires The World"