The much-anticipated change in GMAT has finally been made! Now you can select the order in which the sections in GMAT come in the exam. From July 11th onwards, students appearing for their GMAT exam can select the sections they want in their order of preference. Students will now have three options for the order of sections that they can choose from.
The options are -This feature was one of the most requested features by the students to the GMAC. The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) conducted a pilot study in the early 2016 to validate the importance of this request. Finally, they brought in the change this year from July 11th onwards.
The purpose of the 2016 pilot test for Select Section Order was two-fold:The pilot successfully determined the two most popular section orders that will be implemented with the new feature (in addition to the original section order thereby making a total of 3 options of selection). The pilot also confirmed that statistically, the integrity of the GMAT scores was not impacted by candidates taking the exam with different section orders.
In exams like GMAT; while the knowledge is tested, the one trait that effects the students’ performance than anything else is the pressure factor. Many a student while good in their respective subjects, end up getting a lower score than what they otherwise deserve since they could not cope up if their performance in one of the sections went below their expectations. This is especially true if you are good in Verbal but must attempt Quant before the verbal (as per the earlier pattern). By the time the Quant section is done, those who kept their hopes on the verbal section end up being a nervous wreck at the start of the Verbal section thereby messing up the Verbal part too.
With the newly introduced option, students can now have the choice of starting with their section of choice. This would help the students a lot on the psychological front if not on the knowledge front! So now one can start with their strong areas and move on to their weak areas with the confidence of “hitting the ball out of the park” in their strong areas. This confidence would greatly enhance their performance in the other areas as well.
GMAT always had two optional breaks of 8 min each during the span of the exam. In the earlier format, one break was given after the integrated reasoning and the other after the Quant section.
In the current format, the breaks are given as follows -
The section order selection will have absolutely no impact on your score. This will not be mentioned anywhere; not even on your score card.
We at Career Launcher always recommend our students to play to their strengths. The ideal way to start would be with the section that you are good at. This not only boosts your confidence for the other sections but also ensures that your performance in your favorite section is maximized before the exam fatigue catches up to you (usually during the last section)
The second change which was not much highlighted was the removal of the ‘Profile update screen’ at the test center. Earlier, students were asked to update their profile after the conclusion of the exam. This had a series of questions such as U.G degree, number of years of work experience, demographics etc. Only after filling out these details was the raw (unofficial) scores made available to the student.
With the elimination of this page, the students can see their raw scores immediately after the conclusion of the exam there by decreasing the overall time spent in the examination center.
The students will now have to update their profile on mba.com at any time prior to or following the GMAT exam.
So, friends, get ready to take your GMAT in its new avatar; one that is more friendlier to the test taker.
All the best!