GMAT FORMAT IS CHANGING APRIL 16, 2018 - it will be 30 minutes shorter

You had to mention the free reschedule to get a free reschedule. I don’t think you will get a refund now but you can always try. Look at the FAQ first though.

Posted from my mobile device

Just wanted to when we will have the updated GMAT mocks available for download.
How about Manhattan & Veritas, when are they plalning to implement these new changes ?

Hey amitpandey25 ,

Did you mean GMATPrep Mocks? If yes, then we should have the official mocks by 30th April as per GMAC.

There isn't any news from Manhattan and Veritas I believe. But I am sure they must be working on the updates.

Thanks

Oh yes...the feeling is mutual. Aanchal from our team and Ajitesh kept on asking this and we had to not care about redundancy to get an answer . Rest, participants were mainly expressing their anger on not being informed earlier, etc .

Credit to GMAC India team for organizing the webinar; they have been prompt in scheduling such events with the US team each time the GMAT underwent major change on the last two occasions. We also had a major event in New Delhi last month (though there was no mention of such a change).

Nonetheless, while it feels bad that GMAC has been a bit shoddy here, compared to its standards, the more important sentiment is of relief that is has conserved the proportion of SCs. I believe everybody associated with GMAT felt 'sad' about the earlier news of SCs going down to 8-9!

Regards,
Experts' Global

OK, this makes WAY more sense! It's still worth noting, though, that the number of RCs / passages has not changed, while the number of SCs has dropped from 17 to 12 or 13. Thus, Reading Comprehension will become the most common Verbal question type, supplanting Sentence Corrections in the top spot...and we all know that RCs tend to take longer than SCs.

It still appears clear that GMAC wants to put a reduced emphasis on SC. If we consider that the current GMATPrep software has 17 SCs, 13 RCs and 11 CRs, we can conclude that approximately 4 of every 5 removed questions from the Verbal section of GMATPrep will be Sentence Corrections!

To crunch the numbers a bit more, Sentence Correction questions have gone from about 41% of the Verbal section to about 35%, and Reading Comprehension questions have gone from about 32% of the section to about 36%. So there are still some slight "overall frequency of question type" adjustments that will have to be made on Verbal, albeit not nearly as severe as many of you had feared / predicted based on the initial, incorrect information from GMAC regarding the proportion of question types.

Thanks Ajitesh for your transparency and for the follow-up/revision.



-Brian

Hi zxfjac,

Examining ESRs for GMATs taken on and after April 16th is still a good idea, but don't expect the newly formatted ESRs to tell you much in terms of the precise distributions of question types. GMAT ESRs have traditionally not indicated the number of questions of each type, only your 0-51 subscore on each individual section, the total number of questions, and your percentile ranking on each type of questions (though not your percent correct on each question type). In fact, GMAC seems to be suggesting that more information is being removed than added:


source: GMAC website

In the past you have also been provided with your percent correct on each quarter of the test, from which we have been able to use the "denominator method" to determine the precise number of scored questions in each quarter (and thus infer the total number of experimentals, even though GMAC never told us directly): How Many Experimental/Pretest/Unscored Questions are on the GMAT?

In other words, unless the GMAC chooses to start providing the exact number of question types for the first time, the ESRs won't tell us more than what we already know (that the total number of experimental questions has been reduced by 11, and the total number of counted questions has stayed the same).

Keep in mind that there will still be 12 experimental questions (9 total on Quant and Verbal), and we have no idea what types of questions those will be on the real GMAT--think of it as "dealer's choice." In other words, GMAC is not promising that the precise distribution of questions on every GMAT is the same, and is reserving the right to administer whatever mix of questions it desires through these experimentals, which are presumably distributed evenly throughout the test. Or as the GMAC puts it, "item development needs change over time." Translation: new questions are constantly being written and they need to be administered as "pretest" questions, which I always thought was a misnomer because it's not a PRETEST question if it shows up on YOUR TEST and wastes valuable time.

If the GMAC needs to "test the effectiveness" of more CR questions, for example, then it reserves the right to serve you a bunch of CR experimentals on your exam--maybe even all 6 experimental questions on Verbal. In reality, however, I would expect the proportion of question types on the real GMAT to be roughly even, with a slight emphasis toward PS over DS on Quant, and a slight emphasis toward RC and SC over CR on Verbal--the same as on the updated, upcoming GMATPrep software (at the risk of being redundant, see below graphic).


source: AjiteshArun

-Brian

p.s. for more detailed ESR information, check out this thread: https://gmatclub.com/forum/information-on-new-gmat-esr-report-beta-221111.html

PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE "FAKE" NEWS HERE! AjiteshArun

Sure, but you might want to check how I've clearly mentioned that the data shared with us was for the GMATPrep, not the actual GMAT. In case you're interested, the distribution of questions in the GMATPrep is highly indicative of what the actual GMAT is likely to have, and any differences will come down to the distribution of experimental questions. Feel free to remove any posts you feel don't add to the discussion.

I am sorry but this is a bit harsh. I don't know Ajitesh but I was in the same webinar and I believe that he has been painstakingly conveying the information received directly from GMAC (during and after the webinar), with all the disclaimers, trying his best to avoid any miscommunication.

Nonetheless, we all will agree that it is best to wait for a while and let the dust settle. The candidates scheduled to take the test must focus on concepts.

Best wishes.


Sent from my SM-N950F using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

AjiteshArun is the only reason we know any of this information about the new GMATPrep tests, so yes, let's all step up to defend him here.

Just because GMAC usually tries to withhold as much information as possible about the actual GMAT exam doesn't make sharing the paltry information that does sneak out from time to time "fake news," even if it later turns out to be not completely true, or it is later modified, or GMAC tries to walk back the information and be less committal about it.

-Brian

A friend of mine forwarded the response he got from GMAT body, in response to the email he sent them:

This chart was provided to TPOs to help them modify their practice exams according to the new structure. This is a breakdown for the GMAT Official Practice Exams only, and is NOT reflective of the real GMAT exam (as the text in red explains). This is subject to change at any time.

Can someone explain in detail what this means. Why would GMAT practice tests be not reflective of the real GMAT exam? So, can we conclude that most likely on the actual exam also, number of SC questions will be the least?

Hi Manukaran,

The people at GMAC don't want to be pinned down to any precise number of question types on the real exam, because they want the option to mix in whatever question types they so choose among the 11 experimentals, depending on which question types need additional "development" at any given time.

Just as the GMATPrep scoring algorithm is different from the real GMAT scoring algorithm, the balance of question types on the GMATPrep tests could be slightly different than the balance of question types on the real GMAT. However, it's still our best method of predicting what's on the real exam.

-Brian

The Veritas Prep tests will be updated to the new format on Thursday, April 12 so that anyone taking the "new" test has the upcoming weekend to take a practice test in the shorter format (we dragged our feet a little so that anyone taking the "old" test this week could still take the longer practice test one last time).

Hi Brian, this is also new information for me. I thought the scoring algorithm was the same. Why would they make the effort to create two different algorithms

Hi Manukaran,

GMAC doesn't want anyone to be able to reverse-engineer the precise scoring algorithm of the real GMAT from that of the GMATPrep software, so GMAC made sure to design the two algorithms differently. Perhaps the most important distinction between the two, for example, is that the GMATPrep software does not contain any experimental/unscored questions (all responses affect your score), while the current version of the GMAT has 23 experimentals, and the updated version of the real test will have 12.

That being said, the GMATPrep software is still the best predictor that we have of the GMAT scoring algorithm, other than ESRs from actual GMATs:

From V46 to V47 to V40 to V42: my GMAT Verbal Journey (with ESRs)
From Q42 to Q44 to Q46 to Q50: my GMAT Quant Journey (with ESRs)
Information on NEW GMAT ESR REPORT - BETA - Upload yours here

-Brian

I've taken one GMATPrep test (the free ones). Should I take the second one before the software gets updated? Or should I just proceed like normally and take the first practice test two more times before moving on to the second free one.

Hi surfingpirate,

The updated GMATPrep software might not be released until April 30th, so I wouldn't sit around waiting until then--I would continue practicing for the GMAT as usual.

Although there are only 90 questions per GMAT practice exam, remember that the free GMATPrep Exams 1 and 2 (Default Exam Pack) actually contain about 1,500 questions if you reset the tests and re-take them repeatedly...and 1,500 questions is more than enough to keep you busy for the next few weeks.

-Brian

Quick Update - GMAT Club is releasing new tests that are compatible with the new format.
We will be updating all of our current tests on Friday and then will offer them free on Sat & Sun, April 14-15.

If you want to test drive the new format and see how it feels to take 31 Quant and 36 Verbal Questions, stop by the GMAT Club Tests this weekend.

You can learn more here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/hard-updated ... 63203.html