Yue Xu: Welcome to MBA PodTV. I’m your host Yue Xu. Starting in June 2012 the Graduate Management Admissions Council or GMAC will implement a new section on the GMAT. It’s called Integrated Reasoning and will test a new set of skills.

Today, we’re going to break down the new section, show you what to expect and find ways to get you prepared. Joining us is Brian Galvin, Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, a GMAT prep provider. We’ll also hear from Ashok Sarathy, Vice President of the GMAT program at GMAC. They’ll talk about the new Integrated Reasoning section including question formats and study tips.

Brian Galvin: Integrated Reasoning, what does that mean? Well, it’s being able to really take the different types of knowledge of quantitative reasoning skills and logical skills and reading comprehension skills. Really, it’s basically a live action, more of a case study that just incorporates a lot of the math section and the verbal section.

And so, it takes it out of the pure one question, one set of multiple choices, it’s a little more integrated. They’ll show you a couple of graphs, maybe an e-mail or some other type of reading and have you make some decisions based on that. But really, it’s more of the same just in a different way.

Yue Xu: According to GMAC, after having surveyed business school faculty worldwide, they found that schools wanted to measure a new set of skills.

Ashok Sarathy: Some of these skills include the ability to synthesize information from graphics, from text, from a table of data, the ability to evaluate relevant information from different sources, the ability to organize information to sort of see relationships between data and then solve multiple interrelated problems, and then the ability to combine and manipulate information so that candidates can solve complex problems based on different sources of information.

An example graph from the new Integrated Reasoning section

Yue Xu: The Integrated Reasoning section will be 30 minutes long. It’s not computer adaptive like the verbal and quant sections but you will have to answer each question before moving onto the next. It will consist of 12 questions in 4 different formats.

Ashok Sarathy: The first new question format is table analysis. In this question, candidates will be given a table, a sortable table of data, almost like a spreadsheet and they have to sort of analyze, swap the data in that table and analyze the information. And then answer a series of what we call, “Opposite answer questions,” and what I mean by that is a series of yes/no questions or true or false questions.

 The second question type or the question format is graphics interpretation. And in this particular question format, a candidate will be given a graph or a graphical image and then be asked to answer a series of statements which have fill in the blanks. And these fill in the blanks will have a dropdown menu from which a candidate can select the right option that will make that statement accurate.

 The third question format is the monthly source reasoning. And in this particular format, the candidate will be given 2 or 3 tabs of information that might contain different types of information. You might get either text and a chart or a table of data in each of those 3 tabs or 2 or 3 tabs of information. And the candidate has to be able to manipulate or extract the relevant information from each of those different tabs in order to solve a series of questions. And the types of questions might be standard multiple choice or some of these true/false or yes/no type questions.

 The final question format that we’re looking at is called 2-part analysis. In this particular question format, a candidate will have to solve for 2 components as part of that question. These components will actually be presented as 2 columns as part of a table and the candidate will have to select the right answer for each of those components from the different rows.

 The quantitative, verbal and the AWA scores will remain exactly the same as before and that will not change. The total length of the exam will be three-and-a-half hours, and so that will not change at all. What we’re doing is that, one of the things that research showed us is that the 2 essays on the analytical writing assessment are very highly correlated. And so, we realized from that, that 1 essay would do just as good a job of predicting a candidate’s analytical writing skills as 2 essays would.

And so, what we’re going to be doing is having 1 AWA question which will be an analysis of an argument that will then be followed by the new Integrated Reasoning section, which will be of 30-minute duration and will contain 12 questions. After that, the candidates will get a break, an optional break that they can choose to take. And then they’ll have the quantitative section and then a break, and then the verbal section.

Yue Xu: Now that you know more about how the new Integrated Reasoning section will look and feel, let’s find out how you can best prepare.

Brian Galvin: Like anything with the GMAT, it’s pretty narrowly tailored toward a certain set of skills, and so I wouldn’t suggest that anyone worry enough about the Integrated Reasoning section to run out and take a class on Excel or to click on — do we still have that paperclip help guy from all the Microsoft programs from the ‘90s, click on that, incessantly trying to figure that out.

Really to best prepare for the Integrated Reasoning section, since you rely on those skills that they’ve been learning, making good decisions with numbers, understanding how statistics reach conclusions — and that’s one thing that we found a lot with critical reasoning questions — kind of the evolution of well-written critical reasoning questions is, that a lot of them will have statistics that may not directly match the conclusion that they’re supposed to.

And so, really paying attention to what questions are being asked and how narrowly tailored is the information to those types of things, so really relying on those same types of skills. Absolutely, they want to practice with questions that are of that format and GMAC and a lot of the leading test prep companies are working on being able to replicate those kinds of questions. But a lot of it is going to come down to the same types of strategies, study methods and thought processes that are already leading to success.

And so, one thing that we’ve always found interesting is the way that so many students really delineate between the quantitative section and the verbal section. One thing I’ve always been an advocate of with my students who were struggling on the quant section but doing well on the verbal sections, that data sufficiency is a critical reasoning question in a slightly different form using math statements instead of verbal statements or vice versa. If you’re really mechanical with the way that you solve problems, sentence correction can be approached mechanically.

And so, what the Integrated Reasoning section is going to do is further blur that line between, “This is a math problem. This is a verbal problem.” They’ll give you a graph, an e-mail from a CEO and some background information in written form and then ask you to determine, “What’s the most likely outcome?” or “What type of data would you need to see to make a better decision and have kind of a case study with that?” So they’re really blending those skills together, being able to demonstrate them to business schools and a little bit more of an integrated and unique way.

 What’s interesting is we’ve gotten a question from a lot of students, “Well, should I wait until June to take this? Am I going to be penalized if I’ve taken the test in the fall of 2011 then don’t apply until the fall of 2012?” And GMAC we’ll corroborate our advice as well, which is take the GMAT when you can, when you have the time for it.

Don’t be so intimidated by the Integrated Reasoning section that you rush it, try to take the GMAT a few weeks before you have to take that section and maybe you aren’t as well prepared. Don’t feel that you’re going to be penalized and wait when you have a couple of months right now, where things are a little bit light at work and you could do well on the GMAT and you’re going to wait and then try to cram it in before your application deadlines or anything like that.

Schools understand that because your scores are good for 5 years that they’re going to be accepting some people in the fall of 2012 that have not taken the Integrated Reasoning section and some people that have taken it. Like we’ve mentioned that it’s pretty similar to a lot of the thought processes that are already tested, and so it’s quite unlikely that you would do incredibly well, a 720, but a very poor Integrated Reasoning section score.

And so, you can expect the problem we perform about equal on both or within enough of a degree that it shouldn’t hurt you either way if you took it or if you didn’t.

Ashok Sarathy: The initial feedback from schools has been great. Both faculty and Admissions Directors have said that the Integrated Reasoning sections measures things that they’d like to see candidates being able to solve in the classroom. If you look at most schools that have a competitive admissions process, they receive many more applications than there are seats available at their program. And consequentially, the Integrated Reasoning section gives them an additional tool with which to evaluate highly qualified applicants.

Yue Xu: Well that’s it for this episode of MBA PodTV. I’m your host Yue Xu. Visit us at mbapodcaster.com and register for our video and audio shows. Join us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest news and insights on your MBA application process.

• Graduate Management Admissions Council
• Integrated Reasoning set overview by Veritas Prep