GMAT Focus Edition - Everything You Need to Know

UPDATE: The 2024-2025 GMAT Official Guides are now available for preorder! (release date: 5/29/24)


https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Official-Guide-2024-2025-Question/dp/1394260024 = O.G. only

https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Official-Guide-2024-2025-Bundle/dp/1394260121 = O.G. bundle

Apparently the new guides will include Data Insights two-part analysis practice in the physical books—as well as "tips from test-prep organizations."  I wonder which organizations, and what it cost them to be included.  ­

The Answer: M-GMAT (aka Kaplan), GMAT Genius, LEADERSMBA, XY Education, JiangjiangGMAT, The GMAT Strategy, Top One Percent, Admit Master.

Also worth noting: the books don't have the word "Focus" written anywhere, so it's clear that GMAC is trying to move away from that term, and back toward regular old "GMAT."

UPDATE, 5/30/24: Just received my physical copies in the mail today!  There are 239 new questions, many of which have never before been seen (especially on Data Insights).  

For more detailed information, please read my customer review on Amazon.­  ­

Hello dear members
1) Is it worth practicing quant and verbal problems of OG 15 onwards..... ?
2) Should I practice coordinate geometry too ?­

­In Verbal, the RC and CR are worth practising.

PS is worth practising for Quant, and DS is worth practising for Data Insights. Just omit geometry questions. 
I not sure whether Coordinate Geometry features in GMAT Focus. If it does, you can practise those questions. 

 
Can,Will

­Yes, most of the OG problems from older guides are great practice. Just make sure to avoid Geometry, and also about half of the DS ("Pure Math") has been removed. 89% of the remaining ones are categorized as various kinds of "Word Problems" (see this link for a beautiful diagram, thanks again bb!)  I recommend selecting from these topics for DS, while avoiding ones that just have variables.



Regarding Coordinate Geometry, it's officially still on the GMAT, but appears significantly less frequently than it used to and seems to be more limited in scope. I've only seen a few, among hundreds of Focus Edition practice questions I've reviewed.

Here's 3 examples, but avoid these if you haven't taken the practice tests and don't want to skew your score:

economists-work-with-supply-and-demand-curves-that-show-the-price-p-428290.html#p3389837

jiayi-is-designing-a-game-that-uses-a-peg-board-that-contains-an-428683.html#p3385515

in-the-standard-xy-coordinate-plane-the-graph-of-3x-7y-424078.html#p3331068


 ­

bb Would anyone know why we are seeing 'Not enough data to provide accura­te percentile'?? I got this from my official Mock 1.
For Counting etc.. I noticed only 1 question was given to me.. Maybe that is why? Also to note - this is the third time I am giving this same Mock 1.
For DI (MSR), it was usual 1 MSR with 3 Question.. I got 2 wrong but still was expecting some percentile.

Please advise? 

Hm… still should have a percentile. Weird.
PS. However, once you get 1 wrong on MSR, the whole question is wrong. It is not like RC where you can get 2 out of 4 right. So I think that’s why it may throw the error? 🤷‍♂️ but still should not be an error.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi bb GMATCoachBen
Wanted to confirm how many short and long passages to expect in GMAT Focus examination and the approx word count for the same.

Asking this because my current preparation strategy involves going to the Forum Quiz with Adaptive Mode On and taking 4 RCs (I keep varying this from 12-14 questions) and remaining CR. But I have trouble managing the time and am not able to do the last one odd question. Partly, the blame goes to the long passages that I get in the Quiz.<br />
 ­

­Hi manrasingh,

1. You will most likely see a total of 10-14 RC questions (across 3-4 passages).

2. Most test takers will get 1-2 long passages (I define short as < 250, medium as 250-350, and long as > 350). The rest will be short/medium.

I ask my students to take at least a few practice tests with only long passages, to prepare for a worst-case scenario.­

­Hi bb
don't we get scores for each individual question in the MSR? Or is it that I will get a score only if all are correct?

Unlike RC, on MSR you must answer every single question correctly out of the three to get MSR question counted as correct answer. If you make a mistake in one of the three questions attached to the MSR, it’s considered incorrect.

­Thanks for the prompt reply bb

So in case of a hard MSR question would it be a winning strategy to fluke in all 3 questions (to save time) instead of trying hard to get 2 or 1 correct out of 3?­

Thanks to GMATCoachBen 's astute observation that the actual GMAT Focus ESRs indicate 8 DS questions on the Data Insights section, instead of the 6 DS questions that usually show up on the official practice exams, I've slightly updated my comparison table between the Classic GMAT and the GMAT Focus (now back to being known simply as the GMAT).­

This is an important realization, because it means that Data Sufficiency questions are more important to your Data Insights score than they appear on the official practice exams.

Please note that the numbers listed are estimates, as we do not yet know exactly how many experimental questions are on the GMAT Focus, and thus do not know for sure how many questions are counted. However, the previous version of the GMAT included 15.2% experimentals, which—assuming that the Focus is constructed similarly—would mean that approximately 3 questions on each section of the GMAT Focus do not count.
We have already seen evidence of two perfect GMAT Focus scores of 805 with one question wrong, so we know for sure that there are in fact experimental, uncounted questions on the Focus as well.­

Today I read that someone scored a Q82 (77%) with only one question wrong on Quant. In the meantime, some other people are earning Q90s with up to three questions wrong—all thanks to luck of the draw. That's brutal, GMAC!­

UPDATE: The new GMAT Focus Percentile and GMAT Classic Score Concordance Tables were finally released today! As I expected, the composite / total score percentiles did not change much for 2024. Note that the cutoff for 99% has increased from 705 to 715.

On the lower end of the score scale, the percentile changes are a little larger. For example, a score of 615 has decreased from 80% to 78%—and a score of 555 has gone all the way from 53% to 49%.

For those of who have already taken the GMAT Focus, you should see that any percentile changes have already taken effect in your official score reports.

So much for the huge drops in percentiles that certain scaremongering individuals predicted, supposedly supported by the (dubious) claim that GMAT Focus scores over the past year have been greaty inflated—a claim that has always relied on a flawed and incomplete set of anecdotal evidence.

Yes, of course some people (especially GMAT experts and private tutors like me) "are seeing" a high proportion of high Focus scores—because we teach GMAT for a living, and because those who score 700+ are the very test-takers most likely to share their scores publicly. However, this small and unrepresentiative sample size tells us nothing about overall Focus percentiles.

Instead, today's change was simply one the minor percentile adjustments that have always been made annually by GMAC, to both total (composite) and section scores.

https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat-exam/scores/understanding-your-score

https://www.mba.com/-/media/files/gmac/gmat/gmat-total-score-concordance-table_aug2024.pdf­