New GMAT feature

The select section order will help candidates taking GMAT feel more comfortable while taking the exam

In a continuing effort to enhance the GMAT exam experience for test takers, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) recently announced the upcoming launch of Select Section Order, a new feature that will provide candidates the flexibility to customise their GMAT experience by choosing the section order in which they feel most comfortable taking the exam. The order will be available to test takers worldwide beginning July 11, 2017.

“The idea of being allowed to choose the section order had been commonly requested by test takers,” Ashok Sarathy, vice president, Product Management, GMAC, says. “We conducted a pilot in 2016 to test this feature and received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 85 per cent of participants surveyed expressing that this new feature boosted their confidence prior to even taking the exam. Our pilot findings also concluded that taking the exam in different section orders continues to maintain the quality and integrity of the GMAT scores.”

The GMAT has four sections. When implemented on July 11, test takers will select their desired section order at the test center on exam date, immediately prior to the start of the exam. Test takers will be able to choose from three options:

• Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, Verbal (original order);
• Verbal, Quantitative, Integrated Reasoning, Analytical Writing Assessment; or
• Quantitative, Verbal, Integrated Reasoning, Analytical Writing Assessment.

These new changes are a continuation of the steps GMAC has implemented in recent years to enhance the test takers’ GMAT experience, including:

• Ability to cancel scores online after leaving the test center and the enhanced score reinstatement policies (March 2016),
• Removing cancelled scores from school score reports; allowing candidates to retake the GMAT exam after a 16-day time period rather than the previous 31-day retake period; and enabling test takers to access their Official Score Report online using their date of birth instead of an authentication code (July 2015).
• Introduction of the GMAT Enhanced Score Report, which provides test takers access to an in-depth analysis of their overall GMAT performance (January 2015), and
• Introduction of GMAT Score Preview, enabling test takers to preview their unofficial scores before deciding whether to report or cancel them (July 2014).