GMAT to introduce new section in 2012

The Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) recently announced that they are going to be adding an innovative new section designed to measure people's ability to evaluate information from multiple sources. Called the "Integrated Reasoning" (IR) section and scheduled to be introduced in June 2012, it 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.

The IR section will contain questions based on multiple sources, e.g. charts, spreadsheets, graphs. Test takers familiar with Indian competitive exams such as CAT and XAT will be familiar with these. However, the ability to listen to complex spoken material and form judgement will also be tested, and this is something that is going to be new to most of us.

This section is going to be replace one of the Analytical Writing Assignment (AWA) essays. GMAC mentions that the other sections of the GMAT exam, i.e. Quantitative and Verbal Ability Skills, will be not be changed and the scoring system will also remain the same.

So in short: the bad news is that the new section is going to be virgin territory for many people. With very little grounds on which to prepare, many people might find it tough going.

The good news however, is that most of you will not have to worry about it at all, as it is only going to be launched in June 2012! :)

The good news is that the Quants and the Verbal section remains untouched!