GMAT Focus Edition - Everything You Need to Know

GMAC sent out an email sometime back with a few more details regarding the availability of various prep materials targetting GMAT Focus Edition.

The details of the same can be found here.

There was quite a bit of new information actually released - trying to digest it now... there is a lot

Does this mean that there are no longer ANY free score reports? I have a bad feeling about this... i see a lot of emphasis on "you can send your scores any time you want when you are ready" so this tells me that perhaps no free score reports? Anyone else took it this way?

There is no need to cancel your score for the GMAT™ Focus Edition.

Since you are not required to select which business school programs receive your Official Score Report before you take the GMAT™ Focus Edition, there will never be a need to cancel your score. You only send the scores you want to, and if you do not send your Official Score Report to schools after the exam, they will not be able to see it. It will only remain accessible via your mba.com account for you to view.

Please note that once you send your score to a program, GMAC cannot undo that action or disable the school's ability to view your score.

Source: https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat-focus-ed ... re-reports

Yes: not only are the 5 free score sends still available—but students now have up to 48 hours to decide.

Given GMAC's wording, it also appears that on the GMAT Focus, you will no longer be given the option to send these scores immediately before (test-center) or after (GMAT online) the exam—but only afterward through your GMAC account.

Source: https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat-focus-ed ... your-score

What does your GMAT Focus Edition score percentile mean?
As well as a total score and subsection scores, your Official Score Report will also include a percentile ranking. This shows what percentage of test takers you performed better than.

For example, if your percentile ranking is 75%, this means you scored higher than 75% of other test takers. The percentile ranking will help schools when selecting candidates.

Performance insights
GMAT Focus Edition test-takers will also receive enhanced, detailed performance insights in their official score report.

This includes insights for each question type, for each fundamental skill, and by content domain within each individual section of the exam.

You’ll also be able to see a breakdown of your time management throughout the exam. Your report will show in minutes your response time and your review time, for every question of all three sections.

In the GMAT Focus Edition, test-takers will be taken to a new ‘Question Review & Edit’ page, where you will see your answers to each question, and any questions you bookmarked. Here, candidates can review as many questions as they like and edit three answers per section.

Your performance insights report will show how much time you spent reviewing and editing questions in this section.

These additional performance insights are for your benefit only. Analyzing your score report will help you to understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie to best prepare you for starting your business school journey.

Sadly, there has been no indication from GMAC that there will be any changes to the annual (5) or lifetime (8) limits on an individual's total number of official GMAT attempts—which I agree puts GMAC at a competitive disadvantage, since the GRE from ETS has no lifetime limit.

However, the last time GMAC introduced a new version of the exam (the GMAT online) in 2020, there was a brief period of time when students (and tutors!) were allowed take it once, without affecting their lifetime limits.

Perhaps this will also be the case with the GMAT Focus.

mcelroytutoring - Came across this article that mentions the testing limits for GMAT Focus Edition.

The current limits on the number of attempts also apply to GMAT Focus, i.e. 5 attempts in a rolling 12-month period and 8-lifetime attempts.

GMAT Percentiles

This is very interesting - there is now a 100th percentile. That's new since we have only had a 99th percentile. This is interesting and likely to be controversial among the math folks. I see some sources say that 99th percentile is the highest possible value and Wikipedia says that 100th percentile is possible but it approaches positive infinity However, we have multiple values with 100th percentile. is that because they are impossible???

There are 3 values with 99th percentile: 705, 715, and 725

Percentile Analysis GMAT Classic vs. GMAT Focus

It appears GMAT Focus has more condensed percentiles at this time. Things may change and WILL change over time and based on the current percentile table released, there will be unused scores (above 725) - the only way I can explain 100th percentile. Anyone has a better explanation?

Hi bb, although seeing GMAT Focus scores of 735 and above listed as "100th percentile" is indeed strange (it is impossible to score higher than 100% of test takers, since you can't score higher than yourself), and GMAC has never used this terminology before, I find it much more likely that GMAT Focus scores do indeed go all the way to 805—that scores of 735-805 are simply 99.5% or above, and have thus been rounded up to the so-called 100th percentile.

In fact, the ACT college entrance exam (ACT Inc. is currently the author of all official GMAT questions) has listed perfect 36/36 scores as 100th percentile on its score reports for decades:

Another attempt to visualize the percentile craziness. It is not letting me relax 😬