What is the GMAT Focus Edition? Everything You Need to Know

On March 8th, 2023, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) announced the biggest changes to the GMAT since the inception of the test in 1954. 

The new version of the GMAT is being called the “GMAT Focus Edition” and will be rolled out in the 4th quarter this year, with registration available in the 3rd quarter.

The current version of the GMAT will be available through “early 2024,” and we are recommending that most students study for this version through the 2nd round of the upcoming application cycle.

GMAT Focus Edition — Quick Facts

While the GMAT Focus Edition is still a developing story, here is what we know for sure from MBA.com:

• There will now be three 45-minute sections and the separate 30-minute AWA and IR sections will be removed
• The three sections will be Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Data Insights (read more on the Data Insights section below)
• Quantitative Reasoning will no longer test Geometry concepts or contain Data Sufficiency questions
• Verbal Reasoning will no longer contain Sentence Correction questions
• These changes reduce testing time from 3 hrs and 7 minutes to 2 hrs and 15 minutes
• Within each section, you will be able to flag questions and then go back and change 3 question responses before the end of that section time

GMAT Focus Edition Introduces a New Section: Data Insights

According to MBA.com, “the Data Insights section measures candidates’ ability to analyze and interpret data and apply it to real-world business scenarios.”

Data insights consists of 20 questions, some of which may require “math, data analysis, verbal reasoning, or all three.”

Question types within Data Insights include:

• Data Sufficiency: Measures your ability to analyze a quantitative problem, recognize which data is relevant, and determine at what point there is enough data to solve the problem.
• Multi-Source Reasoning: Measures your ability to examine data from multiple sources including text passages, tables, graphics, or some combination of the three—and to analyze each source of data carefully to answer multiple questions. Some questions will require you to recognize discrepancies among different sources of data, while others will ask you to draw inferences, or require you to determine whether data is relevant.
• Table Analysis: Measures your ability to sort and analyze a table of data, similar to a spreadsheet, in order to determine what information is relevant or meets certain conditions.
• Graphics Interpretation: Measures your ability to interpret the information presented in a graph or other graphical image (scatter plot, x/y graph, bar chart, pie chart, or statistical curve distribution) to discern relationships, and make inferences.
• Two-Part Analysis: Measures your ability to solve complex problems. They could be quantitative, verbal, or some combination of both. The format is intentionally versatile to cover a wide range of content. Your ability to evaluate trade-offs, solve simultaneous equations, and discern relationships between two entities is measured.

Our Recommendation for Students

With any change like this, it is beneficial to wait a little while and gain more information from those who have taken the new test and to see what new resources become available for preparation.

Likely, there will be some delays and/or issues with the new version upon its inception. 

For sure, it will be a confusing 12 months as the new test is rolled out and the current version continues to be administered. 

We advise the following to our current students and those who are interested in signing up:

• Prepare for the current version through the end of this year with a few caveats noted below. We will continue for now with our curriculum for the current version of the test and roll out a new version with an updated live and on-demand course to be taught by our Director of Tutoring, Hailey Cusimano. The new version will remove SC and Geometry and add in a new Data Insights lesson.
• If you are preparing for the current version of the GMAT and the new GMAT Focus Edition test becomes available, you can always make the shift to the Focus Edition.
  • We would recommend this move if you are really struggling with SC (usually a strength with our students) or if you are just not reaching your score goal on the current version. 
  • Almost all of your prep will be relevant but you can then pivot away from SC and Geo, and add in preparation for the Data Insights section. 
  • Think of the GMAT Focus Edition as a backup plan for those applying in the upcoming cycle.
• As we move into 2024, we will phase out our curriculum for the current test version and recommend that most people prepare for the GMAT Focus Edition with our updated curriculum, since the majority of applicants in the following year cycle will use that exam.

At this point, we do not know anything about the scoring scale for the new edition or how MBA programs will use the two different exam versions for their application decisions. 

What we can say confidently is that this shift in the exam favors the style of preparation that we have always used in our curriculum: strategic and analytical preparation vs. content-based preparation. The goal of the GMAT has always been to assess higher-order thinking, and this new Focus Edition version will shift even more from assessing “who knows things” to “who thinks the right way” to succeed in business school.