Archive : Integrated Reasoning

Last week Poets & Quants ran an article announcing robust growth in GMAT testing volume from Testing Year 2011 to 2012. A total of 286,529 exams were taken in Testing Year 2012, representing the highest total ever, and 11% growth vs. the previous year. (GMAC’s testing years run from July 1 to June 30 each year.) While testing volume in the United States is still down about 10% vs. Testing Year 2009, strong growth in East and Southeast Asia helped drive total testing volume to its highest level ever.

Believe it or not, 2012 is almost over. If you’re reading this, it means that the world hasn’t ended, and that at least some of us still have electricity and Internet access, so we’re ending on a good note! As we at Veritas Prep wind down the year, we thought we’d share some of our biggest news, best posts, and most interesting topics from the past 12 months.

Last week the Stanford GSB admissions team wrote a blog post that gives business school applicants one more reason to calm down about the new Integrated Reasoning section on the GMAT. Simply put, the Stanford admissions team will not take applicant’s Integrated Reasoning scores into account when making their decisions for the 2012-2013 application cycle.

“Wait, why wouldn’t they use it if the people behind the GMAT went through all the trouble to create it?” you may be asking. Don’t take this as a sign that Stanford or any other MBA program does not believe in the new Integrated Reasoning section. Instead, think about how much history MBA admissions officers have with the “old” GMAT… The Stanford admissions team alone looks at thousands and thousand of them every year. Now, a new number shows up on the report, and they need to get comfortable with that number before they can make life-changing decisions based on it.

This week the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) released its first percentile table for Integrated Reasoning scores, based on GMATs taken since June 5, when the new Integrated Reasoning section launched. As GMAC explains on the mba.com website, these percentiles will be updated monthly for the remainder of 2012. After that, Integrated Reasoning percentiles will be updated on the same schedule as percentiles for the other sections of the GMAT.

Why the frequent updating? Integrated Reasoning is still so new that every new wave of test takers can have a noticeable impact the overall pool. For the other, more established sections of the GMAT (which are taken about 300,000 times per year), percentiles will move very slowly and subtly. But, when only ten thousand or so students have taken the test, these percentile numbers may keep moving around a bit (especially as test takers become more familiar with the new section), and GMAC wants to recognize that fact by adjusting its numbers frequently.

This is the day everyone has been anticipating for nearly two years now: Today the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) launched the new Integrated Reasoning section of the GMAT. While we’ve made our point of view on Integrated Reasoning perfectly clear in this space multiple times, it is definitely worth noting that you are absolutely not at risk assuming that you take the test today or later.

Why? Because a drastic change in the test from last week to this week would make all sorts of comparisons difficult and threaten the validity of the exam, and that’s the last thing that GMAC and its member business schools want. GMAC has already made plenty of Integrated Reasoning prep resources available. The last thing they want is for a wave of people to walk into testing centers without having any idea about what Integrated Reasoning is!

All of the hoopla leading up to the introduction of the GMAT’s new Integrated Reasoning section makes this month feel very much a part of 2012. Every four years we hear all about the summer Olympics, and then roll from that right into the U.S. presidential elections… And don’t forget that it’s a leap year.

It seems that the world saves special events for years that are divisible by four, and GMAC went along with the plan by waiting until 2012 to introduce its biggest change to the GMAT is nearly two decades. The new Integrated Reasoning section goes live on June 5, but judging by all of the chatter, it feels like it’s been here for months already. “Why the big change to the test?” everyone has been asking.