Got this info from
MGMAT and I think it pretty much sums up most of the differences:
STRATEGY SERIES
The GMAT in 2006: Changing Hands, Not Changing Faces
A five-part GMATTERS series, January 2006
PART ONE:
"The king is dead; long live the king!" This pithy saying has long been used to describe the passing of musical legends, medieval monarchs and the like. So what does this have to do with the GMAT? On Jan 1, 2006, a 51-year reign comes to an end, as the GMAT exam will no longer be administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Instead it will be administered by Pearson, the nation's largest commercial processor of student assessment tests. Don't panic yet. The Graduate Management Admission Management (GMAC), the organization that owns the GMAT, is still the main player in terms of the development of the exam questions and the adaptive components. It seems that the GMAC has simply decided to outsource the administration of the exam to a new vendor.
Nonetheless, this changing of the guards has some key implications for anyone planning to take the exam in 2006. In this month's strategy series we will review the changes the GMAT will undergo and what effects these changes will likely have on the test-taker. We will include in our discussion an overview of the logistics of the changes, information on the new 11th edition Official Guides and GMAC's 2006 GMAT Prep software, some strategies for dealing with the new whiteboards, guidelines for planning the date of your GMAT exam along with any retakes, and lastly an overview of how new official score reports will work.
To kick off our discussion of the new 2006 GMAT, here is a list summarizing the major changes. Note that the list is organized in order of decreasing importance.
1) THERE ARE NO CONTENT/SCORING CHANGES TO THE EXAM. All the changes are related to the test-taking experience and the administration of the exam.
2) NO MORE SCRAP-PAPER! INSTEAD THE TEST-TAKER WILL RECEIVE ERASABLE WHITE BOARDS, though it appears that NO ERASER is provided to the test-taker. To quote from
https://www.mba.com: "The test administrator will provide you with a booklet of five (5) noteboards. If you fill up your noteboards during the test, please raise your hand; the administrator will collect the noteboards you have and give you replacements. You may not remove the noteboards from the testing room during or after the test and you must return them to the administrator after the test."
3) YOU MUST NOW WAIT 31 DAYS BEFORE RETAKING THE EXAM. A test-taker can only take the exam ONCE in any 31 day period. Thus, if a test-taker takes the exam on Jan 5, 2006, she will not be able to take it again until Feb 5, 2006. This is a significant change as the rule used to be that one could take the exam once per calendar month. This allowed a test-taker to take the exam on Jan 31 and Feb 1. No more! Note that test-takers can still only take the exam 5 times within any 12 month period - this remains unchanged.
4) SCORE REPORTS WILL NOW CONTAIN ALL EXAMS TAKEN IN THE LAST 5 YEARS (including cancellations). Previously, score reports contained only your last 3 exams/cancellations. In addition, if a test-taker retakes the exam and wants to resend his/her scores to programs that previously received the score, the test-taker must RESELECT those schools at the time of the retest.
5) OFFICIAL SCORE REPORTS WILL NOW BE AVAILABLE ONLINE INSTEAD OF BEING MAILED TO THE TEST-TAKER. Official Score Reports will be available online to test-takers and the schools they've selected approximately 20 days after the test. Official Score Reports are now mailed to the student by request only.
6) DON'T SKIP THE AWA ESSAY SECTION! Official Score Reports will only be provided if the test-taker has responded to BOTH essay questions and completed the Quant & Verbal sections. This eliminates the possibility of "skipping" the essay section and just doing the Quant & Verbal.
7) IF YOU SCORE AN 800, YOU CAN'T RETAKE THE EXAM FOR 5 YEARS. (Not that anyone who gets an 800 would want to take the exam again!)
To read more about the changes, please click HERE
Join us next week as we take an in-depth look at the new 11th edition of the Official Guide and GMAC's 2006 GMAT Prep Software.
PART TWO:
In the summer of 2005, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) released a much awaited update to the Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th edition. Perhaps the proper term, however, would be updates, as the replacement came in the form of 3 books: The Official Guide For GMAT Review, 11th edition and 2 supplemental books - The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review and The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review. While the updates come after a five year stint for the 10th edition and many predicted that the new guide(s) would have all new retired GMAT questions, the results were somewhat surprising.
The most salient changes involve a rehashing of the explanations (NOTE: the following changes apply to all three books). On the quantitative side, problem solving questions are illustrated with more step-by-step solutions. While there seems to be little change as far as the approach taken (i.e. how to solve), the Guide now categorizes each problem by topic (e.g. properties of numbers, geometry area, etc), and the physical layout of each problem is much easier to read. In the data sufficiency section, the solutions are also more logically organized by statement. Statement (1) is addressed, deemed sufficient or insufficient and then statement (2) is dealt with similarly in a separate paragraph. This makes the process of solving data sufficiency much clearer.
On the verbal side, the explanations were overhauled to even greater extent. It seems that the authors have recognized the student's need to clearly understand why each wrong answer choice is wrong because the explanations are now organized by answer choice. This much welcomed change allows the student to practice the systematic elimination of wrong answer choices that is so vital to success on the verbal section of the GMAT.
Topic categories are also assigned to each question in all three verbal question types. To this end, reading comprehension questions are officially divided into six types: main idea, supporting ideas, inference, application (of information), logical structure and style/tone. Likewise critical reasoning questions are separated into one of three categories: argument construction, argument evaluation and evaluation of a plan. Perhaps even more noteworthy, are the situation and reasoning sections included in each critical reasoning explanation. The situation section recaps the argument in fewer words and the reasoning section highlights the logic involved in solving the question. Lastly, in sentence correction, there are eight grammatical issues by which the questions are identified (many are tagged with more than one issue). The explanation begins with an overview of all of the errors that occur, not only in answer choice A, but also in the other four answer choices. Then the answer choices are listed one-by-one with their respective errors. The new format offers greater readability and utility.
How many of the questions in the 3 new Official Guides are the same as those in their predecessor, The Official Guide to GMAT Review, 10th edition? On the math side, the 10th edition included 441 problem solving and 274 data sufficiency. Of those, 328 of the problem solving and 215 of the data sufficiency show up in either the 11th edition or the Quantitative Review. In addition, the 11th edition offers 121 unique problem solving and 82 unique data sufficiency questions. This amounts to a net gain of 8 problem solving and 23 data sufficiency in the new editions. It is worth noting that The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review contains no new questions; it is completely redundant to the 10th edition. All of the unique questions in the new guides appear in The Official Guide For GMAT Review, 11th edition.
On the verbal side, 201 of the 10th edition's 268 sentence correction questions appear in the new guides, along with 67 new questions in the 11th edition. In critical reasoning, 160 of the 205 questions in the 10th edition appear in the new guides, along with 63 new questions in the 11th edition. This amounts to a net gain of 18 critical reasoning questions. Lastly in reading comprehension, 33 of the 48 passages from the 10th edition are represented in the new guides, along with 11 new passages. This represents a net loss of 4 passages in the new guides.
In terms of the difficulty level of the new questions the 11th edition, it seems that the 11th editions are comparable to the 10th. While a few of the hardest questions from the 10th edition have disappeared, they seem to have been replaced by a fair number of difficult questions at the end of the 11th edition's data sufficiency and problem solving sections, as well as in the new 100-question diagnostic section at the beginning of the book. A significant added benefit to the 11th edition and the two supplemental books is the GMAC's claim that the questions in each section are arranged by increasing level of difficulty. The cautious student should keep in mind, however, that this is only an assertion made by GMAC.
As a final note on the new materials available from GMAC to prepare for the GMAT in 2006, the GMAC has made available new software to emulate the test-taking experience. The software includes five 15-question practice sections and 2 adaptive practice exams. There appears to be no overlap between the questions for the two exams and the questions contained in three new Official Guides. The software also matches the format of the new exam, administered by Pearson Vue testing centers, in terms of font, color scheme, and screen layout.
The GMATPrepTM software is available for free download at
https://www.mba.com.
Join us next week as we take a look at the new scratch paper policy for the 2006 GMAT.
PART THREE:
This week we continue our discussion of the GMAT's 2006 switchover to Pearson with a look at the new scratch paper policy. Weeks before the switchover, the GMAC advertised this change in policy on their website, "The test administrator will provide you with two erasable noteboards. If you fill up your noteboards during the test, please raise your hand; the administrator will collect the noteboards you have and give you replacements. You may not remove the noteboards from the testing room during or after the test and you must return them to the administrator after the test."
This talk about erasable noteboards created quite the stir among both veteran and future GMAT test-takers: How awkward would it be to right on a whiteboard? How thick would the pens be? How would the erasing process work? Well a couple of weeks into the new year, with the transfer of powers complete, it seems that the concerns were mostly for not. The scratch paper change is not such a big deal after all.
The "erasable noteboards" are nothing more than a spiral bound packet of 5 legal size sheets of yellow laminated paper. The pages are numbered from 1 to 10 (front and back). The cover page (page 1) contains a disclaimer and information about how to adjust the test center chair. Pages 2 through 10 are blank sheets of laminated graph paper. Each of the pages has a 1 inch blank margin at both the top and bottom of the page. The graph paper has 33 rectangular boxes across the page horizontally by 71 rectangular boxes down the page vertically.
The writing implement is a special black pen with a tip that is finer than a Sharpie. The ink is erasable, but the test center does not provide a wiper or an eraser. This isn't a major issue since if you have filled up your notebook, you may raise your hand and a proctor will provide you with a new 10-page booklet. Based on our own experience and those of our students, the pens typically don't run out of ink but the head does seem to flatten a bit by the end of the quant section. The proctors, however, are more than willing to provide the student with a new pen upon request.
So what effect will the new "scratch paper" have on the GMAT test taking experience? The short answer is not much. Nonetheless, students preparing for the GMAT would likely benefit from practice with graph paper. Graph paper has some obvious advantages on the quant section - for creating tables, for geometry figures, and for organization in general. On the verbal side, the columns can be used to set-up A,B,C,D,E options for eliminating incorrect answer choices on each question. The laminated paper and special pen take a bit of getting used to so, if possible, using similar materials during practice can also help.
Overall the new materials feel more like the old scratch paper then some newfangled whiteboard as was initially described on the GMAC website. You can rest easily knowing that not too much has changed in this department.
Join us next week as we discuss the new 31 day rule and how to plan your test timeline accordingly.
PART FOUR:
One of the most significant changes to the administration of the GMAT in 2006 is the new "31 day rule." Prior to the changing of the guards, the rule of the land was one attempt per calendar month. This meant that a student could take the test January 31st and then again on February 1st. Unfortunately, the days of "date-stacking" are gone. Test takers are now allowed to take the test only once every 31 days. Thus, if a student takes the exam on March 3rd, he will have to wait until April 3rd to take the test again.
What ramifications does this have for the average test-taker? To best answer this question, let's consider the wise applicant's GMAT planning process. The obvious starting point is the application deadline for the school(s) to which he is applying. Let's assume, for example, an application deadline of May 15th. The savvy student will make sure that he is ready to take the GMAT a full 31+ days prior to the deadline, in this case around April 12th. This allows the student enough time to take the exam twice before his deadline.
Why twice? In our experience, students often score better on the GMAT the second-time-around. The idea is that a lot of the peripheral factors that tend to affect the student on the first attempt (i.e. timing issues, psychological issues, scratch paper management) are usually much better controlled on the second attempt. And of course if there are any holes in one's preparation, this gives an extra period of time to fill those holes. Thus the smart student will leave himself enough time to be able to take the exam twice.
No matter how many times one takes the exam, we strongly advise students NOT to cancel their scores in most cases. Upon completing the final section of the exam but prior to viewing one's scores, the test-taker is given the option to "Report Scores" or "Cancel Scores." Selecting "Report Scores" means that the computer calculates the test-taker's quantitative, verbal, and overall scores and displays these results on the screen to the test-taker. This score becomes part of the test-taker's official score report which contains all "reported scores" for the past 5 years and is made available to any business school which the test-taker has selected. Selecting "Cancel Scores" means that the computer will NOT calculate anything and will erase the test data from the system. The test-taker's official score report will say the word "Cancelled" (which business schools will see) for this attempt.
We strongly advise students to select "Report Scores" for two primary reasons:
The Quantitative and Verbal subscores and percentiles provide the student with valuable data as to where he may need to improve prior to the next attempt.
The vast majority of business schools (including top 10 b-schools) are interested only in an applicant's best score and do not penalize students for taking the exam more than once.
The only cases in which it may be wise to cancel your scores is if something goes drastically wrong. For example, if the test-taker fails to finish half of an entire section, it makes sense to cancel the score.
Now that we have established how to plan test dates, we turn our attention to the study calendar. How long before the first test date should a student begin his preparation for the GMAT? A preparation course at
Manhattan GMAT typically lasts 9 weeks. At the end of the course, a student may or may not be ready to take the exam. The determining factor is the amount of time a student has put into preparation during the 9 weeks. To be ready to take the exam the day after the course finishes, the typical student would need to put in between 10 and 15 hours of study/homework outside of class each week . With busy work schedules and numerous other time commitments, many of our students decide to wait 1-3 months after the end of their course to take the GMAT. They use this time to complete homework assignments from the course and to finalize their preparation.
When the process is all over and your GMAT scores decorate the screen in front of you at the test center, how will you know if you are finished? How will you know if the score you achieved will be enough to get you into the school(s) of your choice? When selecting your pool of prospective schools, it is important to research the median GMAT scores for those schools. That median score (or scores) should be the target upon which you set your sights. It is certainly possible to get accepted into a school with a score below that school's GMAT median (after all, half the candidates at a given school have GMAT scores below the median!), but to do so usually requires some compensating element in some other aspect of your application that allows you to stand out from the required.
Join us next week as we conclude our discussion of the changes to the GMAT in 2006 with a look at how the new official score reports work and how the schools actually get these reports.
PART FIVE:
We conclude our discussion of changes to the 2006 GMAT® with a look at changes to the Official Score Report. The first difference seems to be a final purge of all remnants of the 20th century: Official Score Reports sent to test-takers by way of postal mail are a thing of the past, unless specifically requested by the test-taker. Instead, the Official Score Report will be available online, approximately 20 days following the exam date. According to GMAC, the test-taker will receive a notification e-mail when the report is ready. The implications of this logistical change seem to be few. In fact, in the world of computer adaptive tests, we would expect nothing less.
The more significant change seems to be on the content side of the Official Score Reports. GMAC has asserted that the new Official Score Reports will list all valid scores. GMAT scores are valid for five years, so this means that the new Official Score Reports will contain all GMAT attempts in the last 5 years. More importantly, schools that a candidate applies to will be able to view all of these scores as well. (NOTE: This information is based on what GMAC has disclosed; their assertions have not yet been verified).
What effect should this have on a student's GMAT preparation process? Should a student be more cautious about multiple GMAT attempts, since schools will now be able to view all attempts in the last 5 years, not just the last three attempts? Our take is that this change is not a reason for alarm.
Most business school applications ask the applicant to report his/her highest score on the application. The high score that you report on your application is taken to be true as far as the admissions officers are concerned. Verification of the reported score is typically done by a member of the administrative staff who compares what you put on the application with what is contained on your Official Score Report. This staff member's job is to verify that one of the scores on the Official Score Report matches the self-reported high score on your application. So in reality, the Official Score Report is usually not directly seen by the Admissions officer(s) assigned to read your applications.
Some applications do include a question about the number of times one has attempted the GMAT. While there is a possibility that some schools may frown upon what they perceive to be an excessive number of attempts (e.g., 5), it is more than typical for prospective applicants to take the exam 2 or 3 times. If anything, this demonstrates a candidate's dedication to achieving a desired result. Keep in mind that after your 3rd attempt, it is unlikely that additional attempts will do much to improve your score (unless you ramp up your studies in a major way).
As was the practice before the switchover to Pearson, prior to starting your official exam, the computer will allow you to report your GMAT scores to up to 5 five business. Take advantage of these free score reports! You may order additional schools after the exam, a fee of $28 per school. If you don't use the five freebees the day of the test, you lose them.
This concludes our discussion of changes to the GMAT in 2006.
May 12
May 15
May 18
10 Jan 2006, 05:53
And when you are done with one of the questions, there is a one second pause before the next question. There was an instance where one question took a coupld of seconds longer. Basically, you should get there earlier since there are only two people working there. 
I did not have trouble with the markers. I actually like it. 
The marker glides easier than a number two pencil. 
But it kind of faded a couple of times during the verbal section. 
