GMAC annual summit 2014

Key Takeaways from the GMAT Summit 2014 NY

GMAT Club attended the bi annual GMAT Summit in NY last week. The major topics of discussions were demographic changes, IR studies and the launch of the diagnostic score reporting. I will outline the takeaways in this post and outline the sessions overview in the next post. The Summit was attended by almost all major test prep companies, Wiley (partnering with GMAC to create the official guides), admission consultants, and representatives from GMAC.

Takeaways

Diagnostic Score Reporting

- GMAC announced the new feature of a diagnostic score preview. A report (if opted for, at a price) will provide more detailed percentile scores of quant and verbal sections (think algebra, geometry, SC, CR etc).

• Diagnostic score report is still in its "beta" stage, and final report may be different from what we were shown in the presentation.
• Score report will contain sectional percentiles including parts such as SC, CR, Algebra, Geometry etc. This will help test takers to understand weaknesses in terms of retake preparation.
• Question by question analysis will not be available as of now. GMAC will also not disclose any numeric data (for example: number of questions correct or the likes).
• GMAC is committed to improve the initial reporting and wants to make sure that the price of the report is well justified.
• Diagnostic report of a cancelled score will also be made available on request.
• So far diagnostic score report can be ordered for tests dating back to Oct 10th (or in that ballpark) for a price of $29.95 (subject to change)
• GMAC also allows room for feedback and user suggestions to improve reports a continuous process of improvement

GMAC loves its Integrated Reasoning

-

• IR is suggested to be one of the key differentiator in GMAT in the future with comparable Q/V scores.
• GMAC has conducted validity research in 15 B School programs to figure out correlation studies with IR and B School GPA. Correlations suggest a strong relationship of IR Score and GPA.
• GMAC has also been in a second validity study with a consulting company to relate IR trends with recruiting demands. GMAC suggested recruitment trends will align with IR scores similarly. Probably an interesting study for the next summit to reveal.
• Bottom line is that IR is definitely going to get more important in the near future. So it cannot be the last week GMAT portion anymore, and probably deserve as much devotion as other sections of the test.

Vetting questions is incredibly scientific

- What decides whether an experimental item (item being the GMAC slang for a question) should migrate to the live test pool is based on quantitative and rigorous user data and subjective item analysis.

• Quantitative user data involves reading graphs from the responses of GMAT Takers of different abilities (abilities defined in terms of the GMAT score). If the projected responses do not meet a specific response, the experimental question is rejected.
• Subjective analysis makes sure that the question is free of demographic and other cultural biases. GMAC has been working on it already with fewer idiomatic usages tested in the last few years.

Possible new products and interaction space

- GMAC is also committed to create new products for test takers to help study for the test. Summit involved discussing the IR Prep tool, the Question and Exam Pack 1 and the effectiveness of those products in improving test scores. GMAC is also playing with the idea of having a microsite for test prep companies to collaborate and interact with the test makers in an open space. It has been made very clear that GMAC is open to feedback, so it's very useful to brainstorm ideas for better prep, practice and scoring, and as trends show GMAC will implement them to a reasonable extent. This was the basic theme of the summit, and it was very useful in terms of future updates being made more user centric.

Final thoughts on the GMAC summit and my impression

- I loved being in the summit, interacting with the amazing people from test prep companies, discussing what has worked and what hasn't in a GMAT test taker POV. I loved the general transparency in the room and especially from GMAC. All our questions were respectfully answered and there was an air of collaborative and collective action in the entire summit which I loved.

I got to talk to VeritasPrepBrian, and yes: he is as amazing in person as he is on the videos. Such a star!

Also got to talk to mikemcgarry from Magoosh, and he was sad that he hasn't met Bunuel in person so far! Also got to meet Stacy Koprince from Manhattan GMAT, Andrew from Kaplan, Scott from Veritas Prep, and other folks from other test prep companies, and had a lovely chat with most of them in the post summit open space. I will definitely try and revisit the summit in the summer.


That's it! Post for any other comment/queries and I'd be happy to share any other thoughts from the summit.

Manhattan GMAT Summit debrief