News 12 Connecticut: “Admissions Officers Checking Out Applicants on Facebook”
According to Kaplan Test Prep’s 2011 survey of business school admissions officers at 265 MBA programs across the United States – including 16 of the top 25 – for the first time since Kaplan began tracking the issue in 2009, a majority now accept the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT. But of those schools that accept the GRE, the vast majority of applicants are still submitting GMAT scores. Our survey also found that admissions officers think the GMAT’s new Integrated Reasoning section set to launch in June 2012 will make the exam more reflective of the business school experience. To view press releases with summaries of our survey results, click here and here. For more complete results in PDF format, click here: Kaplan Test Prep 2011 Survey of Business School Admissions Officers. Below are some key findings:
Does your program give applicants the option of submitting a GRE score instead of a GMAT score for admissions?
(For schools that accept GRE scores) Is there any advantage for an applicant to submit scores from one of these tests over the other?
(For schools that accept GRE scores) During the previous admissions cycle, about what proportion of your applicants submitted a GRE score?
Do you think the addition of the Integrated Reasoning section will make the GMAT more reflective of the business school experience?
Have you seen sample questions provided by GMAC for the new GMAT Integrated Reasoning section?
Have you ever Googled an applicant to learn more about them?
Have you ever visited an applicant’s social networking page like Facebook to learn more about them?
(Of admissions officers who said “Yes” to above questions) Have you ever discovered something online about an applicant that negatively impacted their application?
MBA Aspirants to Face New Question Types Such as Multi-Source Reasoning,
Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation
Available for Interview: Kaplan Test Prep GMAT Expert
Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO)
Russell Schaffer, russell.schaffer@kaplan.com, 212.453.7538
Carina Wong, carina.wong@kaplan.com, 212.453.7571
New York, NY (October 20, 2011) – With the launch of the GMAT’s new Integrated Reasoning section less than eight months away, 67% of admissions officers have not yet seen sample questions from the new section provided by the test maker, according to a Kaplan Test Prep survey of 265 of the top MBA programs across the United States.* Paradoxically, 59% believe that Integrated Reasoning, which adds four new question types to a test that only had five types previously on the Quantitative and Verbal sections combined, will make the GMAT more reflective of the business school experience.
The four new question types measure test takers’ ability to organize, synthesize, and evaluate information from multiple sources and in different formats. The question types include:
“The new Integrated Reasoning section introduces question types that are unprecedented among major admissions tests,” said Andrew Mitchell, director of pre-business programs, Kaplan Test Prep. “To use a sports analogy, these question types test your ability to think like a coach rather than a player. The team you field and the plays you make depend on your analysis of a variety of factors, sources of information, and opinions. To continue the analogy, the coach must weigh and evaluate competitive factors, player strengths and weaknesses, team dynamics and a host of other issues that all impact each other. Adding the Integrated Reasoning section is a good step in terms of reflecting higher-level analytical skills, but there’s no question that the new GMAT will be more challenging than the current one.”
Mitchell points out that doing well on the Integrated Reasoning section will be especially important because test takers receive a separate score for this section—poor performance on the new section can’t be masked by stronger performance on the rest of the test. The exam’s test length will remain at around 4 hours (including breaks), since the new section replaces one of the essays.
Below is a Kaplan-created sample question from the GMAT’s new Integrated Reasoning section, which could also be found and downloaded at: http://press.kaptest.com/gmatsamplequestion.
For more information about Kaplan Test Prep’s survey on the business school admissions landscape and the GMAT’s Integrated Reasoning section set to launch in June 2012, please contact Russell Schaffer at russell.schaffer@kaplan.com or 212.453.7538.
*The survey was conducted by phone in July and August 2011 and included responses from 265 of the nation’s top MBA programs, including 16 of the top 25 – as designated by U.S. News & World Report. Kaplan Test Prep also annually conducts surveys of admissions officers at colleges, graduate schools, law schools and medical schools.
About Kaplan Test Prep
Kaplan Test Prep (www.kaptest.com) is a premier provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses. Established in 1938, Kaplan is the world leader in the test prep industry. With a comprehensive menu of online offerings as well as a complete array of print books and digital products, Kaplan offers preparation for more than 90 standardized tests, including entrance exams for secondary school, college and graduate school, as well as professional licensing exams for attorneys, physicians and nurses. Kaplan also provides private tutoring and graduate admissions consulting services.
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For more sample questions and explanations for them from Kaplan GMAT experts, visit our GMAT test change page.
