Is dMAT harder than IELTS or GRE for Indian engineering graduates?

Comparing difficulty across exams that test entirely different constructs is a bit like asking whether chess is harder than running. dMAT measures cognitive and analytical pattern recognition plus subject knowledge, IELTS measures English proficiency, and GRE measures quantitative and verbal reasoning, so direct overlap is limited.

What Makes dMAT Feel Unfamiliar

• New question types: Figure Sequences and Latin Squares have no direct equivalent in IELTS or GRE.
• No past papers: With only one live sitting so far, there is no bank of retired questions to study from.
• Computer-based, desktop-only: The interface itself, including numeric-entry answers, is new to most candidates.

Where dMAT and GRE Actually Overlap

The Mathematical Equations section shares some conceptual ground with GRE quantitative reasoning, but Figure Sequences and Latin Squares are closer to abstract logical puzzles than anything on GRE or IELTS, so engineering graduates should not assume GRE prep transfers directly.

How to Prepare for an Unfamiliar Format

LeapScholar's course structures this unfamiliarity into 600 plus practice questions, two full length 3.5 hour mock tests, and a test-center matched simulation, so the format itself stops being the obstacle well before test day.

My Advice

Stop trying to rank dMAT against exams you have already taken. Instead, treat it as its own category and budget real mock-test hours specifically for its Core module reasoning types, since that is the part with genuinely zero overlap with your GRE or IELTS preparation. Engineering graduates in particular tend to underestimate Figure Sequences and Latin Squares because they look simple on first glance, then run out of time once the 3.5 hour clock and unfamiliar interface are both working against them on the actual test day.