GMAT : Next Generation

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The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) will add an innovative new section designed to measure people's ability to evaluate information from multiple sources. The new integrated reasoning section, scheduled to be introduced in June 2012, will provide business schools with a window into how prospective students respond to the kinds of complex challenges they will encounter as managers in today's information-rich business environment. Examinees will be asked to analyze information, draw conclusions and discern relationships between data points, just as they must do in business school.

The overall length of the GMAT exam (three and a half hours) will not change. The new integrated reasoning section will be 30 minutes long and replace one of two essays that are part of the GMAT’s analytical writing section. Admissions officers have stated and GMAC research has shown that performance on the essays is closely aligned, making a single essay acceptable for predicting performance.

The integrated reasoning portion of the GMAT will capitalize on innovations in technology and assessments and feature questions that further enhance the validity of the test. These questions include information from multiple sources, such as charts, graphs, and spreadsheets. Examinees will be asked to analyze information, draw conclusions and discern relationships between data points, just as they must do in business school.

The GMAT exam’s verbal and quantitative sections will not change. As a result, when the new section is introduced in June 2012, tests will be scored on the same 200- 800 scale used today. Test takers will receive a separate score for the essay - as they do now - and another distinct score on the new integrated reasoning section.

The new generation GMAT test will be introduced in June 4, 2012.