This Strata-G post argues that: it’s best to either 1) take the GMAT now (before 5 June 2012); OR 2) wait and take the GMAT until after August 2012.
According to Businessweek, the new GMAT “will be different from anything students have encountered before on the test” — and that’s not good.
Why was it necessary to make the GMAT harder in the first place? Well, the story from GMAC was:
The most recent survey of 740 business faculty worldwide in 2009 revealed that they believed incoming students needed to assimilate, interpret, and convert data, evaluate outcomes, and listen.
I’m not sure about listening skills on the GMAT. I do know that GMAT is in dynamic competition with GRE (a similar test marketed by ETS). And since GRE just did a major facelift, it’s not surprising to find a “new and improved” GMAT product this year.
So what’s the difference? Just one thing — a mystery section called “integrated reasoning.” It will replace one of the writing essays (the “issue”). So your four four GMAT sections on the new GMAT are:
- AWA (one essay)
- Quant (maths)
- Verbal (like TOEFL but much harder)
- Integrated reasoning (charts and graphs + analysis)