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The landscape of standardised testing is ever-evolving, and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is no exception. In its latest iteration, the GMAT Focus Edition 2024 brings about sweeping changes aimed at better aligning the exam with the demands of modern business education and the evolving needs of the business world. Many Bangladeshi graduates prepare for the GMAT annually, aiming to pursue MBA and related degrees abroad. Let's look at the changes in the new GMAT.
The GMAT Focus Edition 2024 streamlines the exam by eliminating the AWA section altogether. This strategic decision reflects a concerted effort to place a greater emphasis on higher-order reasoning skills, particularly within the Verbal Reasoning section. Moreover, the GMAT Focus Edition boasts a significantly shortened test duration, with a total time of 2 hours and 15 minutes compared to the 3 hours and 7 minutes required for the current version. This reduction is achieved by condensing the exam into three 45-minute sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and the newly introduced Data Insights section. The GMAT Focus Edition has removed several key elements including sentence correction, essay-writing, and most geometry problems. Instead, the exam now includes a more comprehensive assessment of candidates' skills, with a heightened focus on data analysis proficiency.
The GMAT Focus Edition has a revamped scoring system. Departing from the traditional 200-800 scale, the new version adopts a scaled total score ranging from 205 to 805. It is crucial to note that scores from the GMAT Focus Edition cannot be equated to equivalent performance levels on the traditional GMAT. Due to the differing score scales, comparing total scores or section scores between the two editions is not appropriate or meaningful; instead, percentile rankings provide a more relevant basis for comparison.
GMAT Score Concordance Table: Following is a table to compare GMAT™ Exam Total Scores and GMAT™ Focus Edition Total Scores and to understand corresponding percentile values.
This shows that the test takers have options to score higher and differentiate themselves within the same percentiles. For example- the percentiles for slightly closer scores like 795 and 785 are also at 100.0per cent, indicating intense competition and high performance among test takers. This suggests that the GMAT Focus Edition 2024 indeed presents a more competitive landscape, where differentiating oneself through achieving a higher score has become more challenging.