GMAT Focus Edition - Everything You Need to Know

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I had a question on the GMAT Focus DI Section...

Understand that in the current format, if you get a single question within a set of IR wrong, the test discounts the answers for other questions within that set.

Would the approach be same in Focus Edition?? I see there's 20 questions (mix between IR and DS) within DI. So assuming 3 sets of 4 questions each, would the entire set be marked wrong if I get one of the answers wrong in the set?

Hi Rahul.

On IR or DI, there are some types of questions that have two or three answers to each question. So, to get credit for each question, you need to correctly mark both or all three answers.

However, that does not mean that you have to get all the questions associated with a prompt correct to get credit for any of them. The questions associated with a prompt are separate.

So, for instance there could be three questions associated with an MSR prompt, and within each of those questions could be three pairs of choices. So, to get any of the questions associated with the prompt correct, you'd have to correctly choose three answers. However, you would not have to get all the questions associated with the prompt correct to get credit. The three questions associated with the prompt are separate. So, you could get credit for one, two, or three of them.

Thanks a lot Marty! So what I understand is even within a set having 3 questions, each may (or mostly will) have sub questions and answering some or one of THOSE sub questions wrong would get the entire question wrong and not all 3 main question.

So a sub set of 3 Yes/No question can be entirely wrong if I get one of the 3 sub questions wrong.

Makes sense! Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

Hi RahulJain293,

Yes, you won't get any credit for the question if you answer any part of a single question incorrectly. A single question may have multiple parts, but each single question is independent. Each single question will be on a new screen (the question number on the top right of your screen will be different).

Fantastic! Very clear, thanks a bunch

Posted from my mobile device

FYI - something I only discovered recently after getting the official guide but Coordinate Geometry is still there. It survived the purge. It seems coordinate geometry is categorized as functions and algebra for GMAT purposes.


PS. I have previously thought it would be a part of geometry and I think incorrectly indicated the few times that it was also removed but that was incorrect. So heads up.

Posted from my mobile device

Nice catch and thanks.

Who would have thought that coordinate geometry wouldn't count as...geometry? GMAC should have been more specific, of course—but this news makes sense, since linear and quadratic equations are such a large portion of the current exam.

bb Thanks, I saw Coordinate Geometry in the "Math Review" section, but in a quick search of the problems, I didn't see any questions with coordinates/slope/lines still there, just this "Tides at Bay Cove" graph, are you aware of any other questions?

I did an analysis of the relative weighting of each question type for your total score, for the original GMAT vs. Focus Edition. (This analysis assumes that each question in a section is weighted equally and that each section is weighted equally.)

The question types data for GMAT Focus Edition were taken from 3 attempts at Practice Test #1, and 1 attempt at Test #2.

The biggest difference is that DS went from 23% to 10% of your total score, and IR questions now account for 24%. (Screenshots 1, 2, & 3 below)


Additionally, I compared the OG24 and OG22 DS question categories; thanks carcass for posting this helpful OG directory.
Most notably, the "Pure Math" has been removed; the most significant decreases were in the Algebra, Number Properties, Inequalities, and Sequences; as a result, problems tagged as "Word Problems" went from 28% to 49% of DS.
(Screenshot 3 below)

Here's the quote about this from Manish Dharia from GMAC on this great Youtube Live video, thanks to GMATNinja for hosting:
"Have we changed any of the questions? Not really, we've actually just eliminated some. There's really 2 types of DS. There's ones that we call them "Pure" and there's some that focus on "Real World" scenarios. The Pure ones require a little more knowledge, a little more depth around mathematics and formulas and so on, whereas the real world ones don't require as deep a level of math but focus on real world scenarios. We've just focused on the ones that are those real ones and pulled out the pure ones. That's one change."

We do not have any questions in the new OGs related to Coordinate geometry. The question above is more like a Data Analysis problem which is a little bit different.

also, after being the one who went far and wide across the new books to compile the directories, my impression is NOT to rely that much on what is shown in the Math and/or Verbal Review as concepts to guide a student on what/how/why to study for the GMAT in that specific concepts.

To make you clear the above: in the OG we do have a quite hard overlapping quant problem which is the following https://gmatclub.com/forum/of-the-300-s ... 34147.html

It is a 3 overlapping set but in the book, the math review contains ONLY the theory for TWO sets. And in the end, it is neither "theory", it is barely two sentences.

My humble suggestion is to study for the GMAT the old way for not to have any possible surprises. Just having consciousness of a shorter exam. Nothing fancy.

The only portion you have to avoid is pure Geometry: triangles and so on and not study grammar rules for the SC portion.

GMAC literally made a cosmetic operation. Which is not necessarily bad, in the end. I believe is positive frankly speaking

Thank you GMATCoachBen - this is the first GMAT focus research I’m seeing coming out so I really appreciate you spending some time on it!

It’s always a bit of a puzzle with GMAT questions whether they are weighted equally or not but I also feel it’s somewhat of a fool‘s errand trying to chase that. I think the simpler the better so the distribution of question types on the test is a pretty helpful indicator.

What we have done in the past was looking at the totality of questions with an GMAT prep software rather than looking at a test specific composition since some questions only appear in the harder or easier categories. We will have to wait until the map out every single GMAT prep question for that however and that’s not a very fast process 😬

You can see what was tested on the standard version of GMAT prep here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/what-is-test ... 44670.html (quant topic and there should be a verbal link there too)

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Hi I am planning to give GMAT by November / December .
Should i prepare for focus edition or keep preparing for the older version.?
Once GMAT focus edition will start , will the older GMAT still be there or will it be totally gone?

Need help in these questions.

The current older GMAT is likely to coexist with the Focus Edition for a few months at least. We don't know the exact dates yet.

If you haven't yet started preparing, then the Focus Edition is probably a smarter choice - because there is less to prepare, no Sentence Correction and no Geometry.
Unless Sentence Correction is a strong area, or unless Integrated Reasoning is a weak area. Currently Integrated Reasoning does not count. In GMAT Focus it will.

Hi EtaCarnia,

I agree with vv65, but it seems that you've already started preparing for the current GMAT.

The Focus Edition reduces the importance of both the verbal and quantitative sections (while increasing the importance of IR/DI). If that sounds good, you may prefer the Focus Edition. That said, you should also reach out to your target schools to confirm that they'll accept FE scores.

GMAC has said that the current GMAT will continue to be available till "early next year". They most likely want to make sure that it's available for this cycle.

Is it known which colleges would be accepting the Focus Scores & which colleges won't for the intake of 2024? Also is there a blog or a video which can guide on how ADs are planning to compare the score of the two exams, will it come down to percentiles?

Hi mbamisfit,

1. As far as I know, only Harvard and Wharton have said that they won't accept Focus Edition scores.

2. Here's a video that looks at the total score concordance table published by GMAC (data from gmac.com):