Has GMAT undergone any huge shift?

I only hope its not a precursor to


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GMAT Test for Business School Has Biggest Change in Decade
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The Graduate Management Admission Test required for business school applicants will add a new section to test reasoning skills in its biggest makeover in a decade.

The section will replace one of two writing portions on the exam and add an audio component for some questions, the Graduate Management Admission Council said at its annual industry conference in San Diego. The new test will be administered beginning in 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on its website. The test’s verbal and math sections won’t change.

Business school faculty members wanted a section that simulated the skills students use in MBA classrooms, said Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer of the McLean, Virginia-based admissions council. It is the biggest alteration to the test since the GMAT was switched to the computer-adaptive format in the late 1990s, he said.

“These questions are really microcosms of what goes on in the MBA classroom and it will help schools identify students that will thrive in the classroom, not just survive,” said Wilson.

The latest version of the GMAT -- the 10th generation of the exam -- will be followed closely by admissions officers, students and test-preparation companies, as GMAC pilots the exam this year and prepares for its launch on June 4, 2012. The test is being rolled out a year ahead of schedule.

The organization has spent more than $10 million developing the new questions. The admissions council will rely on audio technology designed by its testing administrator, Pearson Vue.

Compete With ETS

The test will compete with the Educational Testing Service, which has persuaded some business schools -- including Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- to allow students to submit the Graduate Record Examination for admission.

The format of the new GMAT section will require test takers to interpret charts, graphs and spreadsheets, determine the relationships between data points, and answer interactive questions that will gauge their analytical skills.

During portions of the section, students will wear headphones, a new feature that will help schools assess auditory learning styles.

The changes to the exam mirror shifts in the classroom as schools have changed their curriculums to emphasize problem- solving and critical thinking, says Peg Jobst, senior vice president of GMAC services.

In August 2011, Princeton, New Jersey-based ETS will unveil its own revised test. It includes new types of questions in the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections, new answer formats and an on-screen calculator.

New ETS Test

David Payne, an ETS vice president and chief operating officer for college and graduate programs, said that business schools and test-takers have given positive feedback. ETS is “completely focused” on the changes, he said in a statement.

These types of questions will help schools assess analytical thinking skills and the ability to pull together information, said Stacey Kole, deputy dean of the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

‘We are not going to lose anything the old GMAT had,” said Kole, a board member for GMAC who served on a committee that looked at ways to improve the exam. “We’ll just be gaining more, and for me, that is very exciting.”