The New GMAT: What Does It Mean For Me?
By now, youve all heard about the detail recently released by GMAC concerning some changes that will be made to the GMAT in June 2012. (GMAC first announced a year or so ago that there would be changes in the future, but this recent announcement contained the first significant details about what these changes will entail.)
Since the announcement, students have been asking, Wait, so what does this mean for me? Thats what were going to address today. (Click here for GMACs official announcement.)
Quick summary of the planned changes
The quant and verbal sections will remain the same, as will one of the two essay sections. The scoring on these sections will also remain the same. The second essay section will be replaced completely by the new Integrated Reasoning section and students will receive a separate, new score for that section. According to Dave Wilson, GMACs president and CEO, the integrated reasoning section will test the ability of prospective students to make sound decisions by evaluating, assimilating or extrapolating data.
For more details from GMAC, including a sample question, click the link found in the second paragraph of this article, above. If you want to read more about what the industry is saying, take a look at this ManhattanGMAT Blog post; it contains links to articles from BusinessWeek, The Financial Times, Inside Higher Ed, and Bloomberg.
What do I need to do about this new section of the test?
The addition of a new section to the GMAT will mean different things for different people. For most people, the change is entirely academic; if you plan to apply to business school prior to June 2012, then you dont need to worry about this change at all. Similarly, if you arent planning to take the test until, say, 2014, then you dont need to worry about anything; by the time you plan to start studying for the test, GMAC will have released lots of official practice problems and we test prep folks will have figured out everything there is to know and adapted our materials accordingly.
Some students, though, will straddle this June 2012 date. I spoke with one student yesterday who was planning to take the test later this year but not apply until the fall of 2012 or 2013. The student wanted to know whether he would be at a disadvantage when applying at the same time as students who will have taken the new test perhaps the business schools will prefer that students take the new version of the test?
We cant know for sure what will happen in the future, but we can conjecture based upon our knowledge of how things happened during the Great GMAT Change of 1997 (when the test switched from paper to CAT). About nine months before the CATs launch, GMAC began testing the CAT on students whod already taken the paper test. The final paper test was given in June of 1997 and the CAT debuted in October of that same year. Some locations outside of the U.S., though, continued with the paper test for a period of time because testing centers were not available or practical in all locations. Scores on both versions of the test continued to be valid for 5 years from the test date. Schools generally did not begin to show a decided preference for the CAT over the paper test for a couple of years after the CAT debuted; the CAT data was so new that the admissions departments were still figuring out how to compare among those who took the old version and those who took the new. For a short period of time, there was also a selection bias; those who took the new test first were generally those who felt more comfortable and prepared (including, probably, lots of instructors!), so the collective scores were a bit higher than normal for the first few months.
This time around, all locations are already equipped to offer a computer-based exam, so I would expect the change to be simultaneous worldwide. I would also expect that test scores will continue to be valid for 5 years from the test date. If they were to shorten the length of validity for the old version of the test, a lot of people would postpone taking it, which would cut into the revenue stream.
Perhaps most importantly, I would expect the business schools again to take a year or so to demonstrate a decided preference for the new version of the test over the old. (This assumes, of course, that they will ultimately determine that the new version is more beneficial than the old; I would be very surprised if this didnt happen.) The quant and verbal portions of the test will continue to be scored in the same way (as will the one remaining essay), so the schools can easily compare among those who took the old version and those who took the new. Those who took the new will also have an additional score for integrated reasoning, but the schools will likely need some time to determine how much weight to give to that score. If my prediction at the beginning of this paragraph is correct, then students who take the old version and apply in 2012 wont need to worry that there might be a disadvantage to having taken that version.
In terms of preparing to take the new version of the test, the biggest wildcard will be when GMAC releases study material for the new section. If such material is released well in advance, then students will have real test questions to study and test prep companies will have adequate time to analyze the material, develop lessons for the content, and devise methodologies for answering the questions. Students applying in 2012 may prefer the old version because they will not have to deal with the transition period, during which there may not be as much material available for study. Students applying in 2013 will be able to wait for GMAC and the test prep companies to release more materials.
(A quick aside: In general, it is a great idea to take the test a year or so in advance, either because you dont want to have to do applications at the same time as you study for the test or because you want to take the test while youre still in school or just out of school. Studies have shown that the younger we are and the closer to our school days the better we do on standardized tests.)
The Short Answer
If you are planning to apply between June of 2012 and June of 2013, you will need to wait a while in order to decide whether to take the old or new version of the exam. For the old, there will be plenty of high-quality materials to use but schools might prefer the new version. For the new, the schools might prefer the new over the old but, at first, there might not be a high volume of high-quality materials from which to study. (Again, this depends upon when GMAC begins to release a high volume of official questions and other information.) By January of 2012, we should have better data in order to assess the situation.
If you are planning to take the test in January of 2013 or later, you should have an adequate volume of high-quality materials from which to study. Also, by that time, the schools may begin to exhibit a preference for the new version of the test. If so, then it would be wise to take that version.
If you are planning to apply before June of 2012, you dont have to think about this at all. Thanks for reading the article anyway! :)