How much has the GMAT changed since 2011?

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How much has the GMAT changed since 2011?

by HeyArnold » Sun May 31, 2015 5:10 pm
Hey BTG community!

I was a little more active back in 2011 when I was studying for this test (ended up with a 730 and graduated from HBS recently!).

Anyway, my SO is diving into this test now, I've set her up with my study materials (Manhattan guides 2011 + OG). I know there is the new IR section. But regarding the core quant/verbal concepts have those changed drastically? Just want to make sure she's not studying the wrong thing!

Thanks

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by Brandon@VeritasPrep » Sun May 31, 2015 6:15 pm
Congratulations on the MBA! The core concepts of the GMAT have not changed, but the test has overall gotten slightly more competitive (the same score now as several years ago is a slightly lower percentile). In terms of the materials, I would recommend that you purchase a more updated OG. The 13th edition and later are all relatively similar, but the earlier editions are not as good. Here is the link to the most current edition: https://www.mba.com/global/store/store-c ... -2015.aspx It can be found for cheaper on Amazon. There is also another edition coming out within the next two weeks I believe.

I hope this helps!

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by Ian Stewart » Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:52 am
The Q and V sections of the test have not changed much, though it might be helpful to note the following:

"¢Â There is a much bigger supply of official questions for practice. You can now buy two additional GMATPrep tests (in addition to the two free ones), and there's a large Question Pack you can buy that works within the GMATPrep software.

"¢Â GMAC announced a few years ago an evolution in what SC questions emphasize. They have been trying to shift the emphasis from idiom and grammar to logic and meaning. Lawrence Rudner (VP of research and development for GMAC), clarified this change: "In recent years, GMAT item writers have been concentrating on the reasoning aspects rather than the purely grammatical aspects of Sentence Correction" ("item" is the trade lingo for "GMAT question") Idioms, Sentence Correction and the GMAT Exam . This is not an enormous change - SC has always largely been about logic, and it remains true that grammar is important, since a sentence requires good grammar to convey its meaning correctly and unambiguously. But it will be less helpful now than before to memorize lists of idioms, and it is more important than before to truly understand what a sentence in SC is trying to say.

"¢ I have the impression, from my own experience and from test-taker debriefs, that the Verbal section is harder than it used to be, at least when you get into the high-level questions - the RC passages are denser, the CR logic more subtle. That shouldn't affect anyone's score much - if they make questions harder, you can afford to get more questions wrong - but it's something to be psychologically prepared for. The Quant section changed in a similar way several years ago. By including a larger number of very hard questions, they can more accurately assess very high-level test takers. This is, however, just an impression, and I might be wrong. It's a very difficult thing to judge, because on one GMAT, you see such a small sample of questions, and it's not easy to compare a test you take today with another you took several years ago.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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by ceilidh.erickson » Wed Jun 03, 2015 5:10 pm
I agree with other experts have said - no major content changes, but some SC tweaks.

For MGMAT-specific information... we've published 2 new and updated versions of our guides since 2011, streamlining and clarifying some things. That said, all of the content will be the same, so it certainly won't hurt to have the 2011 versions. I'm just really proud of our newest editions!

The OG you have is 12th edition, right? If so, she should use our Navigator to track her work. We offer a free version or an advanced one:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... navigator/
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... al-guides/

If you have OG 11 or earlier, unfortunately we don't have a tracker for that. In that case, I'd recommend buying OG2015.

Have her email [email protected] or message me directly if she has any questions!
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education