The new GMAT tests decision making

The GRE changed in 2011 with an overhaul in content and structure, making the test more reasoning based. Close on its heels comes the GMAT (admission test to majority of global MBA programs) change with the addition of a new section, aptly called ‘integrated reasoning’.
This new section replaces one of the essays and comprises 12 questions to be answered by analysing, synthesising, integrating and evaluating given data. The data to be integrated appear as maps, spreadsheets, codes, numbers, charts, texts, audios and graphs. Both multiple choice and highlighting statements or dragging data points constitute the questions.
The new section thus tests the candidates ability to examine and manage complex, multiple format data and draw conclusions from them. The integrated reasoning section will thus generate a measure of a candidate’s decision making skills.


The new GMAT from June 2012
Duration Raw score Final score
Argument essay (1 topic)
1 prompt
30 min
 Grade 0-6

Quant ability
37 qns
75 min
 0-60 raw score

Verbal ability
41 qns
75 min
0-60 raw score

Integrated reasoning*
12 qns
30 min
 To be announced in April 2012
*new addition

What doesn’t change?

The content, format and scoring of the verbal and quantitative sections remain unchanged; the argument essay also remains the same. The issue is replaced by the new section.
GMAT , in the present version itself is projected as a test that examines a range of skills that are prerequisites to participate in and benefit from a rigorous MBA curriculum. It already has a strong emphasis on reasoning. With the addition of the new integrated reasoning section, the test advances to another level of competence.


Test of decision making skills
The integrated reasoning section gives students an opportunity to demonstrate decision making skills- analysing, synthesising and evaluating data in different forms- numbers, flow charts and words to draw logical conclusions. In today's data-intense business space, effective decisions are taken by drawing intelligence and insights from various sources and information of various forms.
The introduction of such competency assessment in the business school intake stage presents a reasoned prognosis of one’s candidature to the world of competitive global business.


How to prepare
The verbal and quantitative sections are not changing in content patterns and scoring, thus test aspirants can continue to prepare for these as before. One has to familiarise oneself with the new section by practising on such problem sets as well as by reading graphs, maps and accompanying texts in business publications.
Since a good number of business schools take GRE score, instead of a GMAT score, applicants can research on colleges and find out which test to take. Some students may be more comfortable with the GRE test.

Test aspirants starting preparation post-March 2012 may have to take the new GMAT administered form June 2012. Good preparation will be the key to success.


Article contributed by
Dr.M.P.Vijayakumari
She can be contacted by email -vijaya@semanticslearning.com

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Dummys can tumble out of your GMAT test

GMAC will no doubt use the safety belts. Will not blame any mishap on ‘pilot’ error. Trial runs are round the corner before the debut. The 21011 GMAT test takers may have to don the duplicate’s garb. Iam referring to the new ‘ integrated reasoning’ section of the GMAT.

As a dummy or experimental section can we expect the new section in the GMAT in a few months time? We will have to wait and watch how the ‘pilot’ testing is done by GMAC. It is unlikely that the pilot testing is introduced immediately since the audio system that is part of the new test has to be implemented in all test centres, along with the infra facility. Already the GMAT is a long test. A dummy ‘integrated reasoning’ section would stretch the GMAT to a full four hours. To encourage test takers attempt the dummy section, GMAC may introduce a rewards.
Well enough of this speculation., let’s come back to our good old GMAT and prepare the current crop for the existing pattern which itself is no mean task.

Will the CAT makers make a beeline for the GMAT
The IIM CAT has gone through its ups and downs. Well Iam not referring to the 200 qn that the CAT began the decade with and ending with a 60 question test, jumping to the CBT format in short notice and the infallibility mask falling off.

The IIMs scare us with the ‘elimination’ threat. Not to forget the biggest threat of ‘unpredictable’ element – number of questions, question types, and the works to bring in the difficulty element. If no unpredictability elimination will take another route; school marks, academic consistency, extra curricular….
Now the GMAT is so predictable. But then with all the predisclosed knowledge, not many can score above 700. That is simply brilliant isn’t it?

If the CAT makers towed the lines of the GMAT, and made the CAT more reflective of the B school rigour, would the class composition differ?

Well, We will have to wait and watch for the next shocker from Indian B schools. Oh by the way, CAT is going the GMAT way, screamed the masthead of some newspapers last November. What happened? Well I have no clue, do you have?


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Does the new GMAT reflect B.School curriculum?

The totality of experiences that a student of business study is exposed to, can neither be completely reflected in nor be tested through a management admission test. However, GMAC has to be lauded for its earnest efforts to try in that direction. The result is the new ‘integrated reasoning’ section expected to appear in the new GMAT version to be launched in mid 2012.

Not to deny the fact that the previous attempt at modifying the GMAT was hugely successful. It brought to the admission director’s desk, a new set of skills of the aspirants through the analytical writing. Besides the test makers introduced the brilliant concept of adaptive testing, almost flawlessly administered worldwide( at least I haven’t heard of any leak or scam).

If a Bschool prepares the candidate for the increasingly complex world of business, and if the curriculum fairly successfully presents those complexities through academic work- assignments, projects, case analyses, the admission test is bound to follow as ‘microcosm’ of the entire world of business. This means that critical thinking and decision making at their various levels of complexities and relevance should be reflected in the test. The GMAT, by doing so, doesn’t degenerate into a test of ‘elimination’ of thousand of applicants, instead comes up trumps in adding appropriate features that reflect the changing world of business.
{Some trivia: Most Sunday mornings of the last decade of my life was spent in a GMAT class. Interesting isn’t it? The last Sunday too was no different. I was in a critical reasoning class imparting ‘logic lessons’ to GMAT aspirants. In my introductory lesson in CR I take the students though ‘critical thinking’- attributes of a critical thinker, what skills o CR test, how formal logic help build strategies for CR questions and so on. It was during the coffee break of this session that the ‘breaking news’ came that integrated ‘reasoning’ is going to be introduce in to the GMAT. }

As a trainer I always advised my students to see GMAT not only as a test to gain entry into reputed colleges but also as a means to build the type of critical thinking skills that are a prerequisite to assimilate and appreciate the B school curriculum. The GMAT, I thought, was designed for just that. Instead of doing a lot of tests and trying one’s ‘luck’ in many attempts, how rewarding it would for a B school aspirant to do thorough study of all that add value- quantitative problem solving, reading a lot of abstract texts, brainstorming on those contemporary essay prompts, building language competence and many such skill.

Feedback to this is welcome
Mail me vijaya@semanticslearning.com


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GMAT change…and for the better

The news about the replacement of one of the essays on the GMAT with an ‘integrated reasoning section’ is splashed all over the place.

The current scenario
The GMAT has been a reasonably good indicator of one’s aptitude given that it tests quantitative, reasoning and verbal areas involving a good range of component skills- reasoning in a quantitative setting, ability to interpret and conclude from verbal data, identify, analyse and evaluate arguments to list a few. The writing section also tests, to some extent, analytical and evaluation skills. The argument essay prompts test one’s ability to analyse and evaluate arguments similar to critical reasoning questions of the verbal section.

Now one step ahead
No doubt the new change is in the forward direction. The integrated reasoning section appears to incorporate more complexities that would better reflect the modern day Bschool rigour. If reports were to be believed, the new test design would integrate data in numbers, symbols and words. This involves skills similar to those necessary to critically analyse, assemble and evaluate data collected from various sources and of various forms( audio, tabular and textual) into meaningful new inferences and conclusions that form the case studies and project assignments that constitute B school work.

Don’t these also reflect as well as test an aspirant’s ability to assimilate complex data drawn from various sources, processed and used in the world of business decision making?

Which essay topic can be dropped?
If I can be allowed to speculate, I would say the argument essay may be dropped.
I present two cases for this guess
A. Critical reasoning of the verbal section tests the same skills as those in argument essay.( in fact one can see a lot of overlaps between the two, except the skill of verbalizing one’s reasoning.
B. The proposed ‘integrated reasoning’ section can test more complex reasoning skills that the current argument essay task tests.

Visit www.semanticslearning.com to read two more analyses on the GMAT integrated reasoning.
• Does the GMAT reflect B.school curriculum
• Dummys can tumble out of your GMAT test


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