Executive Assessment (EA)

The bad news is that the EA may be a shorter exam in terms of duration (90 minutes versus 3+ hours for the GMAT), but it contains almost all the same content as the GMAT. The claim that the EA requires ‘minimum preparation’ is somewhat misleading. If you’re really unfamiliar with the skills required, then preparing for the EA could take you as long as preparing for the GMAT.
The other bad news is that, in my experience, older candidates for both the EA and the GMAT often find the experience more uncomfortable than younger candidates. Perhaps it’s because you left full-time study some decades ago and may have forgotten high-school Math. Also, by your stage of life you’re likely more accustomed to telling others that they’re wrong rather than being told that you’re wrong. On top of this, EA candidates are typically very short of time to study.
There is good news, however. That uncomfortable experience will likely be useful for you. Check out my article ‘What’s the point of this GMAT thing anyway?’ – all that reasoning applies to the EA.
In addition, the scores that schools require for the EA are typically lower than the equivalent GMAT scores that they require from full-time MBA candidates. Sensibly, schools tend to see EA scores in the light of “good enough”, i.e. if your score above a certain mark they can be reasonably confident that you’re ready for their Executive MBA course and can move on to evaluating other parts of your application. Beyond that level, your EA score is unlikely to impact your application (this is in contrast to the way GMAT scores work for full time MBA applications).
Finally, because the question types on the EA are the same as for the GMAT, most GMAT resources – including the material on this website – will be relevant to your EA study.