Starting June 5, the GMAT exam will include a new section — Integrated Reasoning. This 12 question, 30-minute section introduces new item formats requiring you to effectively use multiple sources of information and complementary skills to solve reasoning problems. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? I contend that IR is merely a more realistic version of what the GMAT exam already tests. The operative word is reasoning, and the GMAT has measured higher order reasoning skills since its inception.
Let’s look at some of the skills one must have to do well on the Quant and the Verbal: Evaluate what is relevant; organize information; apply information you gather from the material presented; manipulate and synthesize data; and make inferences. IR tests the same skills, though in doing so a broader range of related material from multiple sources will be presented.
While it is the case that some of the old GMAT literature referred to the GMAT as a test of basic skills, GMAT has never been a test of basic skills; it has always been a test of reasoning skills. The mathematics and English knowledge required to understand and solve the questions is no greater than what is generally taught in secondary school classes. IR has the same basic requirement. Like theQuant and Verbal, IR tests higher-order skills.
The GMAT exam has always utilized graphs and tables, but they will be more prominent in the IR section. When you see charts and graphs, be sure you understand the data before leaping to answering questions. Legends and headers are important.
IR includes a simple on-screen calculator. This does not mean IR will require more complicated math. The computation level will remain the same. If you are good at estimating and identifying reasonable responses, you will be able to save time and probably not even use the calculator, other than to confirm a tentative answer.
IR is not adaptive. This means that everyone will receive some easy questions, some questions of medium difficulty and some very hard questions. Do not try to figure out which questions are hard (hard for you may not be hard for someone else), and do not be upset if you encounter questions you consider to be super-hard. The questions have nothing to do with how well you are doing.
IR scoring is based on the number of correct questions, and the questions will have multiple integrated parts. To receive credit for a question, you will have to answer each part correctly. There is no partial credit; you will not get extra points for getting part of a question right. Having to get multiple parts correct in order to receive credit is not really new to the GMAT. Our Data Sufficiency questions, for example, require you to correctly evaluate two statements independently and together in order to receive credit for the question. Partial credit is not given. If you have no idea how to answer part of a given question, it may be a good idea to make a best guess and move on. Spending a lot of time on any question is never a good strategy.
The two most important pieces of advice I give for Quant and Verbal—be familiar with the item formats and learn to pace yourself—are also the two most important pieces of advice I can give for IR. There are four different item formats, and you should be comfortable with all of them. Most of the 12 questions require more than one response, and you will have to average about one minute per response. You will need some of that time to understand the presented material and some time to understand the questions.
Beyond item formats and pacing, studying for IR, Quant, and Verbal is all related. Make sure that you can read and comprehend information efficiently and make sure that your answers reflect your critical reasoning and problem-solving skills. I think you may find that IR questions are more interesting simply because they are more realistic and more practical.
By Lawrence Rudner
Lawrence Rudner is vice president for research and evaluation and has presented at numerous GMAC summits held for the test preparation industry.
Filed under: GMAT Prep, Integrated Reasoning, Official GMAT, Prepare for the GMAT, Study Tips for the GMAT
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it looks pretty difficult to me. its not just some graphs…. given the time limitations and the criticality of the questions it is a tough part added to the system. i m preparing for gmat but IR seems to be d toughest to prepare for
I agree IR questions are more interesting because they are more realistic and more practical. I don’t agree to how it is compared with Data Sufficiency nor the time allocated to it! Some IR questions have 4 questions within it. Just the reading conentent takes away your allocated time. You can be smart about reading too (by not reading everything), but there is only so much you can do within 30 mins for (approx. 12 X 4 = 48) questions. I can solve all IR GMAT problems with right answers if the given time is greater than 30min (I have done it many times and anylzed it from all corners regarding allocated time). My guess is, GMAT is still experimenting with introduction to IR and they will optimize it sooner or later. Either way, the score itself will be fair for everyone. Unfortunate part is that you will find a very low score because you have to get correct answers to all the questions within each question to score points (plus within 30 mins). In real world, this issue does not pop up as explained in GMAT because you have enough time (definitely more than 30 mins for 30-45 Qs) to respond while mining the data. I have a feeling that IR GMAT score is important for specific group of businesses (like insurance, loans, mortgage, etc). If you notice who were interviewed in the video (corporate recruiters) talking about IR. They were either from insurance or financial companies (and one from business school), what about feedback from manufacturing companies and other areas that drive the market and require good MBA candidates? I guess it will be left to the schools to decide how they would interpret IR score for that specific student who is in latter field, but still I can some negativity associated to it. There is some value to GMAT IR score for manufacturing companies, but I would challenge that the current IR score will not be close in analyzing a candidates who are in other fields. I want to see how this plays out in a long run, too early to judge and make conclusions, but definitely opens up questions like I have above.
The study material for IR section is not readily available so GMAC is requested to initially make available some specimen or practice questions online for the GMAT test takers please so that they can get familiarized and do not get panicky with the introduction of the new section .
Does anyone have any information, how to access IR section of official guide of GMAT, as i have exam in coming days but i can’t access the section. the instruction in book are no longer accessible…and i bought book 5 months back, so it can’t expire…
reply if anyone got any clue ….
[...] post by Lawrence Rudner on GMAT preparation for the new IR section points out “this 12 question, 30-minute section introduces new item formats requiring you to [...]