We’ve been telling you for some time now that admissions officers have been indicating that Integrated Reasoning (IR) scores won’t factor much into admissions decisions this year. Now, Stanford has gone on the record on its own blog.

Stanford GSB Associate Director of MBA Admission Allison Davis confirms that the school will focus on the verbal, quantitative, AWA, and total scores this year and that they will use this year to determine how to evaluate them in our process for next year.

Note, though, that Stanford is figuring out how to bring IR into the admissions process starting next year “ so if you are taking the GMAT now but might want to use the score next year (or later), then you will likely need to prep more for the IR section than will this year’s candidates. While there may be a bit of leeway next year as well, it sounds like the IR score will be a factor “ assuming, of course, that GMAC has done its job and the IR section is a valid indicator of b-school success.

I see no reason to think that the IR section will turn out not to be valid, so I do expect this score to become an important part of the admission process longer term “ but if you’re applying this year, take Stanford’s announcement as one more strong piece of evidence that you don’t need to worry about IR for now!

This is the latest in a series of How To Analyze articles that began with the general How To Analyze A Practice Problem article (click on the link to read the original article). This week, we’re going to analyze a specific IR question from the Two-Part prompt category. First, give yourself up to 2.5 minutes to try the below GMATPrep problem.

An architect is planning to incorporate several stone spheres of different sizes into the landscaping of a public park, and workers who will be applying a finish to the exterior of the spheres need to know the surface area of each sphere. The finishing process costs $92 per square meter. The surface area of a sphere is equal to 4Ï€r², where r is the radius of the sphere.

In the table, select the value that is closest to the cost of finishing a sphere with a 5.50-meter circumference as well as the cost of finishing a sphere with a 7.85-meter circumference. Make only two selections, one in each column.

Circumference 5.50 m	Circumference 7.85 m	Finishing cost
		$900
		$1,200
		$1,800
		$2,800
		$3,200
		$4,500

After trying the problem, checking the answer, and reading the given solution (if any), I then try to answer the questions listed below. First, I’ll give you what I’ll call the standard solution (that is, one we might see in an Official Guide book if this were an official guide problem “ a correct solution but not necessarily one that shows us the easiest way to do the problem). Then we’ll get into the analysis.

Standard solution: The formula for circumference is C = 2Ï€r. We can use this to calculate the radii of the two spheres (note that the problem asks us to find the closest values, so we can estimate):

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I recently received a request to do more on Integrated Reasoning, so here you go: a Table Analysis problem. These problems will consist of some kind of complex table (sometimes with 20+ rows and / or 6 to 7 columns!) and one three-part question. We have to answer all three parts correctly in order to earn any points. The one we’re going to try has been released as a sample question on the mba.com website.

Try the problem

Let’s try out the question: here is the link to the problem. Just in case that link changes, you can also click on this link to go to the next-gen GMAT website, and then, toward the bottom of the page, click on the Table Analysis link. We’re going to try the second problem (with the table labeled Percentage of Population Visiting).

Note: when you are done, do NOT click the next button. Just leave it up on the screen and come back here. Also, I’m going to reproduce the table below, but you won’t be able to sort the data “ and that’s a key feature in answering these question types. So while you can technically do the problem below, I strongly recommend that you go look at the original using the link above.

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We’ve been talking a lot lately about how to prep for IR, including the idea that we only need a good enough score for now because the section is so new that the schools aren’t going to place heavy emphasis on IR right away. One key piece of information, though, has been missing: what’s a good enough IR score?

GMAC has just released the first set of percentile rankings for the 1 to 8 IR scoring scale. Here it is:

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We have another installment of our immensely popular free Integrated Reasoning workshops.  Due to even more overwhelming student demand, we’ve added three more, which you can now register for.

Sign up fast before they sell out!

Saturday, June 9th (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman

Monday, June 18th 81:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Liz Ghini

Saturday, June 30th (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman

We haven’t tried one of these yet: multi-source reasoning. These questions will consist of 2 or 3 tabs of information with accompanying questions. MSRs tend to have 2 or 3 associated questions, though it’s possible to have just 1 or more than 3. The one we’re going to try has been released as a sample question on the mba.com website and contains just one accompanying question.

Try the problem

Let’s try out the question: here it is. Just in case that link changes, you can also click on this link to go to the next-gen GMAT website, and then, toward the bottom of the page, click on the Multi-Source Reasoning link. We’re going to try the very first problem (with the text beginning Yesterday was the deadline).

Note: when you are done, do NOT click the next button. Just leave it up on the screen and come back here.

Set your timer for 2.5 minutes and go! (Note: we have an average of 2 minutes and 30 seconds for each IR question in the section, but some question types are more complicated than others. I recommend trying this one for 2.5 minutes, but you can spend 3 to 3.5 if needed. Normally, we would have at least 2 questions and a total of at least 5 minutes to spend on an MSR prompt, but we’re answering only 1 question here.)

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Last week, we talked about what to do if you’re rushing to finish the test before it changes. As promised, this week, we’re going to talk about how to add integrated reasoning to your list of tasks if you’re planning to take the Next Generation GMAT.

First of all, the quant and verbal sections are not changing at all, nor is the one essay (analysis of an argument). You can still prepare for these sections in the same way that everyone has been preparing for years.

What does Integrated Reasoning test?

GMAC (the organization that makes the GMAT) says that the Integrated Reasoning (IR) section tests our ability to apply, evaluate, infer, recognize, and strategize. But how are they actually going to do this? They have developed four new question types that test us on a combination of quant and verbal skills together. If you’re worried about IR because quant is your weakness and you like verbal much more, it won’t be as bad as you think: a decent percentage of your IR questions will be based on verbal skills such as inferring information, articulating strengths or weaknesses, and so on. If, on the other hand, that sounds scary to you because quant is your big strength, the same applies: a decent percentage of the IR questions will be based on calculating averages, probabilities and percentages, reading graphs and interpreting the data, and so on.

In other words, whether quant or verbal is your strength, you’ll be able to carry over some of your skills into IR. And that’s good because, at first, you’re going to look at these new question types and feel a little bit of panic: they’re so long! They’re so weird-looking! They’re so different from what we’re used to! That’s true, but you can still learn how they work and how to handle them. I promise. : )

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Remember out immensely popular free Integrated Reasoning workshops from last month? Well, they’re back! Due to overwhelming student demand, we’ve added four more workshops, which you can now register for.

Sign up fast before they sell out!

Tuesday, May 8th (8:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Tommy Wallach

Saturday, May 19th (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman

Monday, May 21st (8:00 “ 10:00pm EST)
Instructor: Whitney Garner

Saturday, June 2nd (1:00 “ 3:00pm EST)
Instructor: Stephanie Moyerman

Has anyone not heard yet that the GMAT is changing on June 5th? If you’re sure you won’t need to take the new test, you don’t need to read this article. If you are planning to take the new test, though, or if you think you might have to, then read on.

Scoring

Over the past week, GMAC has released some additional information about the new Integrated Reasoning (IR) section “ in particular, some very key details on how the scoring is going to work.

When GMATPrep 2.0 launched a few weeks ago, it became apparent that the scoring scale would be from a low of 1 to a high of 8, and GMAC has since confirmed that the scores will be given in integer increments “ no 6.5 or 7.5 scores.

More importantly, we now know that the IR section scoring will be based on percentage correct, unlike the quant and verbal portions of the test, and there will be no penalty for incorrect answers. Integrated Reasoning is not an adaptive test, so the primary determinant of our score really is just how many we get right. (Note: although the test is not adaptive, we still can’t go back to questions we’ve already finished. Once you confirm an answer, that question is gone for good.) Further, the different question types will all be weighted the same “ so it’s not the case that, say, Graphics Interpretation questions will be any more or less important than Table Analysis questions. Read more

Update, 5/7/12: We’ve added four more workshops! See the dates and register here. Hurry, before these sell out too!

Manhattan GMAT is offering a series of free online Integrated Reasoning workshops hosted by our Vice President of Academics Chris Ryan. Chris will dive deeply and provide hands-on techniques for tackling the new IR section. You do NOT want to miss this!

Below are the dates and links to where you can sign up for a workshop. Hope to see you (virtually) there!

April 14th (12-2 pm EST) — SOLD OUT
April 16th (7-9 pm EST) — SOLD OUT
April 19th (9:30-11:30 pm EST) — SOLD OUT
April 21th (12-2 pm EST) — SOLD OUT
April 23rd (7-9 pm EST)
April 26th (9:30-11:30 pm EST)
April 28th (12-2 pm EST)