A new integrated reasoning section of the Next Generation GMAT exam will feature four new question formats that require prospective business school applicants to synthesize information from different sources to solve problems, sort spreadsheet-like tables, interpret graphics and make comparative analysis, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) announced this month. The Next Generation exam will debut in June 2012.
An advisory group of business school professors and a survey of 740 business school faculty worldwide identified the ability to synthesize and evaluate information from different sources as increasingly important to management education, according to Ashok Sarathy, GMAC vice president. “The skills they identified had a unifying theme: the ability to solve problems in a data-rich environment,” Sarathy said in a statement.
The new 30-minute integrated reasoning section will include 12 to 15 questions in four new formats:
• Multi-Source Reasoning – calling on test takers to examine information from two to three sources, including a combination of text, charts and tables, to answer questions.
• Table Analysis – providing test takers with a spreadsheet-like sortable table of information they must analyze to determine the accuracy of answer statements.
• Graphics Interpretation – presenting test takers with a graph or graphical image to interpret and then select an option from a drop-down list to make response statements accurate.
• Two-Part Analysis – giving test takers a question involving two components for a solution, with possible answers given in table format with a column for each component and rows with possible answers.
The new integrated reasoning section will complement existing GMAT testing verbal and quantitative reasoning skills. “The inclusion of Integrated Reasoning should encourage those with non-business backgrounds to take the exam, because it measures a different type of reasoning,” Sarathy said.
The question formats have been developed through a comprehensive process involving the advisory group, faculty survey, and a think-aloud pilot study involving MBA students and field testing by more than 5,000 GMAT test takers in November 2010, GMAC reports.
In addition to the new integrated reasoning section, the Next Generation GMAT exam will also feature a new streamlined analytical writing section, reduced from two 30-minute essays to one, since research has shown that most students post similar scores for the two essays. The resulting total length of the exam will remain constant at 3 hours and 30 minutes. Like the analytical writing section, the new integrated reasoning section will be scored separately and will not factor into the Total GMAT score.
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