Ryan Starr, a long-time teacher at Manhattan Prep, says the format of the new Graduate Management Admission Test, called GMAT Focus, is an improvement.
Beginning this month, prospective MBAs can now take the new test, though they can also take the older version of the test if they prefer. But on January 31, the old GMAT will be retired and the GMAT Focus will be the standard option.
Starr — who took the GMAT Focus as soon as it became available and scored a 755 — thinks the changes to the test are positive. He says one of the biggest involves the Integrated Reasoning section, known as the Data Insights section, which used to hold less weight compared to the other sections. In the new GMAT Focus, that section is weighted the same as the Quant and Verbal sections.
‘PEOPLE ARE GOING TO NEED TO TAKE THE NEW DATA INSIGHTS SECTION SERIOUSLY’
Ryan Starr, teacher at Manhattan Prep
In a recent interview with Poets&Quants, Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder and CEO of Target TestPrep, said he believed the new scoring is partly an attempt to correct grade inflation on the exam. Starr agrees.
“To the point of the score deflation — they stretched out the top end on the new test,” Starr tells P&Q. “Where there used to be one score equivalent to a 750, there are 2 or 3 scores that would fall around where a 750 used to fall. It remains to be seen how useful that is to schools.”
“The Data Insights section is now weighted the same amount as the other sections, which I believe is where the GMAT was trying to go for a while now,” Starr continues. “They wanted to start it as a separate score, probably to see how it did, and see what kind of predictive value it had for schools.”
He says more infrastructure will be developing around helping students prepare for this section as well. “People are going to need to take the new Data Insights section seriously,” says Starr.
A teacher with almost 20 years’ experience, he says that while change is always part of standardized testing, this is one of the bigger changes he has seen in a while. The last big one he remembers pertaining to the GMAT was the test switching to an online format.
As for the format of the new GMAT, he says, “I didn’t see the same kind of focus in terms of topics tested on this GMAT. It seems like they’ve shifted away from divisibility, positives and negatives and some of those more abstract roles. There were lots of rates and algebra. It was not the composition that I expected – but that was just something I observed on this one particular test.”
ADMISSIONS PREPARED TO DIFFERENTIATE SCORES
“Since last week’s article, there’s been a bit of a mini freakout on Reddit about how GMAT Focus scores may be evaluated,” Stacy Koprince, director of content and curriculum at Manhattan Prep, says. “Manhattan Prep thinks it’s important to clear the air and instill some confidence in test takers that applying with GMAT Focus scores, as opposed to relatively similar scores on the Classic GMAT scale, will not negatively impact their chances of admission.”
Stacy Koprince, director of content and curriculum at Manhattan Prep
Koprince says admissions officers are prepared for this change, and it’s actually on the simpler side to adjust to them as far as change goes.
“It’s the very bedrock of their job. If you submit GMAT Focus scores, you can feel fully confident that admissions officers will know exactly how to evaluate those scores. In fact, it’ll probably be one of the least-complicated aspects of evaluating your application. This is why standardized tests are valuable for admissions—because they are so easily comparable,” she says.
Starr also has full confidence in admissions to adjust.
“GMAC already came out with percentiles and scoring conversions by way of giving schools guidance on what these scores mean,” he says. “Students are worried that schools won’t know, and will see lower schools overall — but schools are on top of this. That’s one of the main jobs of admissions.”
Starr says the “5” at the end of the score — the new range of scores is 205 to 805 — is the first indicator that the score is coming from a GMAT Focus exam as opposed to the classic GMAT. He believes part of GMAC’s motivation in launching the new GMAT is to stay competitive with the GRE, which also was recently redesigned.
As a final word of advice, Starr notes, ”Make sure to turn your phones off if you take the GMAT at home. It may be a very innocent mistake on your part, but if it starts to ring, it can ruin an otherwise great test-taking experience and invalidate your score.”
DON’T MISS WHY A 750 ON THE NEW GMAT WILL FALL TO 695 and A KAPLAN TEST EXPERT TOOK THE NEW GRE. HERE’S WHAT HE HAD TO SAY
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