Thanks for the info vivek1110. Sounds like a fun new section to me. Definitely more enjoyable than writing the essay

Definitely agree - sounds a lot like the Data Analysis question type in the GRE and a lot like something you'd do in business school/when making real life business decisions!

What I'm still confused about is whether the new section will figure as a component in the overall score out of 800 or whether it will be valued just like the old analytical writing section?

beatthegmat wrote:

vivek1110 wrote:What I'm still confused about is whether the new section will figure as a component in the overall score out of 800 or whether it will be valued just like the old analytical writing section?

Will be curious to see how this factors into scoring as well--we're going to find out together!

It wont figure in the overall score.

I wonder how b-schools will compare applicants with different versions of the test. I plan on taking it within the next year, but I graduate from college in 2012 so by the time I apply I'll be up against a lot of people who will have taken the new GMAT. Any ideas on how they'll deal with this?

Good question, Nicole - my (pretty educated) hunch is that the business schools will assess you based on the test that you took and your percentile within it, and won't give preference to "new" versus "old".

Admissions precedent dictates a few things:

1) B-schools want great applicants however they find them, and aren't much for arbitrary "punishments" for things like retaking the GMAT, reapplying to school, etc. that nevertheless worry applicants.

2) Schools are much more inclined to look for reasons to accept you than for reasons to deny you.

3) B-schools are pretty happy with the current iteration of the GMAT and believe it to be a great predictor of who will succeed in school and beyond (that's why these "major changes" that GMAC announced last year have turned out to not really affect the current test, just with the addition of one new section).

Because of all that, your 2011 score is going to be just as valid and valued as someone's 2013 score.

While I'm on this thread, I should point out that our whole office is pretty excited about these changes and the new challenge. For anyone interested in our take, I'd encourage you to visit https://blog.veritasprep.com/2010/06/new ... -take.html.