IR worthless?

[cdsanders]

I have heard from a couple sources that the IR, for lack of a better term, is worthless. I scored an 8 in IR and was curious if it will help me at all in admissions.

[brianlange77]

As we sit here today, I think this is a good analogy.

"Does anyone buy a car because they like the color of the seat belts?" Maybe... but it's so low on the list that I wouldn't worry about it.

-Brian

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Hi cdsanders,

Your question is probably best answered by Admissions Officers (at the schools that you're planning to apply to) or Admissions Consultants (in that forum). The short answer is that IR really isn't much of a factor in the process that each individual school uses to review applicants.

Since you did score an 8 on IR, you HAVE something in your application that most other applicants DON'T HAVE, so it may work to your advantage in some small way. The Top Programs have to weed out 80%-90% of applicants. I would imagine if many of the applicants seemed similar, then the school's reps would have to use some criteria to "break the tie." I can think of several factors that would be considered. Maybe that would include IR, maybe it wouldn't.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[vomhorizon]

Since it is on the TEST, its probably safe to assume that it is not useless and serves a purpose. Having said that, while the test-maker may see te section as a useful tool to test future managers on, the Adcoms have to develop a firm understanding of how the IR score actually corulates with their requirements and how indicative it is of success in business school. For years the Schools have developed a understanding on the importance of quantitative abilities, verbal communication skills, analytical ability and critical thinking. It will take them some time to develop that sort of understanding on Integrated reasoning.

[brianlange77]

I think that the net/net of this discussion is simple. Certainly it's not 100% unimportant -- but, there are many other areas of the exam that carry much greater importance than the IR section.

[sahilchaudhary]

I have heard from a couple sources that the IR, for lack of a better term, is worthless. I scored an 8 in IR and was curious if it will help me at all in admissions.

Congrats on scoring an 8 on the IR.
8 on the IR will not boost your chances of getting an admission by more than 5%.

[brianlange77]

Not to be a nit-picker, but can you provide a source/reference for your 5% improvement claim?
Thanks.
-Brian

[mevicks]

Here are my 2 cents...

If a particular section is indeed worthless it would not have been included in the test in the first place (as mentioned by others here)

If you want to know the importance of your score read this article by Stacey :
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/08 ... t-using-ir
Stacey Knows it best

Moral of the story : 5+ score is preferable for people who want a Post-mba career in consulting/banking

[Matt@VeritasPrep]

It certainly matters, as the skills being tested in IR are more directly applicable to business than, say, the skills tested in sentence correction or much of the math section. (I'm great at SC myself and would be one of the worst businessmen - and for that matter, one of the worst project managers / accountants / whatever - in the world, so the merit of this section is dubious.)

That said, at the moment I think GMAC is trying to convince business schools that the IR correlates reliably with the rest of the test and that it measures the sort of skills those programs want measured, which is why they're bothering to score you on the section at all (you're a data point). Once GMAC has done that, the IR will be expanded and matter quite a bit. But at the moment, your IR score is more a contribution to the future of the test than a crucial factor in an admissions decision: I'd be surprised if an 8 in IR compensated for an otherwise bad GMAT score, or if a 4 in IR ruined an otherwise excellent one.

[brianlange77]

I agree -- but for students today, it doesn't matter nearly as much as it might for students in the future. It's unpredictable if this sticks in the long-run -- right now, its much more analagous to the AWA score than it is quant/verbal. And it should be prioritized accordingly -- i.e. unless this is a disaster area for a student, probably not one to be worrying about late at night instead of sleeping, no?

It certainly matters, as the skills being tested in IR are more directly applicable to business than, say, the skills tested in sentence correction or much of the math section. (I'm great at SC myself and would be one of the worst businessmen - and for that matter, one of the worst project managers / accountants / whatever - in the world, so the merit of this section is dubious.)

That said, at the moment I think GMAC is trying to convince business schools that the IR correlates reliably with the rest of the test and that it measures the sort of skills those programs want measured, which is why they're bothering to score you on the section at all (you're a data point). Once GMAC has done that, the IR will be expanded and matter quite a bit. But at the moment, your IR score is more a contribution to the future of the test than a crucial factor in an admissions decision: I'd be surprised if an 8 in IR compensated for an otherwise bad GMAT score, or if a 4 in IR ruined an otherwise excellent one.

[Matt@VeritasPrep]

Yup, agreed!

IR also seems to be getting easier -- the questions don't seem as exotic, time-consuming, or devious as the first 50 that were released a couple years ago -- so I'd use it as a cognitive warmup for the rest of the test more than anything else.

[brianlange77]

Yup, agreed!

IR also seems to be getting easier -- the questions don't seem as exotic, time-consuming, or devious as the first 50 that were released a couple years ago -- so I'd use it as a cognitive warmup for the rest of the test more than anything else.

Hey Matt -- agree... I like that idea of it serving as a cognitive warmup. I may just steal that language for myself!!

Thanks.

-Brian