What You Need To Know About The GMAT Focus Edition
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has revealed that the GMAT Focus Edition—a next-generation GMAT exam—will launch on November 7th, 2023. The classic version of the GMAT exam will continue to operate until “early 2024” (we’d guess it will be retired in the January to March 2024 timeframe).
The GMAT Focus has a tighter focus on business skills and executive decision-making—things you’ll actually use in business school and your career.
I’m currently studying for the GMAT / I’m applying in 2023. What should I do?
Carry on and ignore the hype. GMAC is providing plenty of notice for anyone who does want to take the new version of the GMAT exam, but you don’t need to do anything differently if you don’t want to.
If you’re planning to submit an application in Round 1 or Round 2 of the current application cycle (2023/early 2024), take the existing version of the GMAT and don’t worry at all about the new GMAT Focus Edition.
Just keep this idea in your back pocket: If your plans change later, you can switch to the new exam or even take both exams and then submit only the one that gives you the better score. The content and question types on the two exams overlap significantly, so almost everything you study for the legacy GMAT will still apply to the new GMAT.
Should I take the classic GMAT or the new GMAT Focus?
If you are applying Round 1 of 2023 (typically Sep/Oct of 2023), you’ll have to take the Classic GMAT, as most deadlines fall before the GMAT Focus launches.
If you are applying Round 2 (typically December 2023 or January 2024), plan to take the Classic GMAT unless you can 100% confirm that all of your schools will accept the GMAT Focus. While most schools are accepting the GMAT Focus for Round 2, both HBS and Wharton have announced that they will not begin accepting the GMAT Focus until after Round 2.
If you want to start studying soon but put off the decision as to which exam to take, begin with the question types and content areas that are covered on both versions of the GMAT (details later in this post).
If you aren’t planning to apply until after Round 2 of this application cycle, take the new GMAT Focus exam.
Will my “old” GMAT scores still be accepted by business schools in 2024 (or later)?
Yes! Don’t worry about this at all. Your GMAT scores are good for 5 years after your test date. Business schools aren’t dropping the legacy exam; they’re just also accepting this new exam, the same way many now also accept the GRE and EA. They will accept any scores as long as those scores are still valid (and all of these exam scores are valid for 5 years).
When will GMAT Focus launch?
The new GMAT Focus launches on November 7th. Registration for this new exam is available as of August 29th.
Official practice materials for the GMAT Focus have been released, including the Official Guide and the official practice exams.
When will the classic GMAT be retired?
You’ll be able to take the legacy version of the GMAT until at least “early 2024,” though GMAC has not yet released a specific retirement date. We’re guessing the classic GMAT will be available during January 2024, but we’re also guessing it will be retired sometime in Q1 (January to March) of 2024.
If you’re planning to take the current version of the exam, take it for the first time before the end of 2023. Give yourself plenty of time to take it a second time, just in case.
What’s new on the GMAT? What’s on the GMAT Focus?
Here’s the structure of the new GMAT Focus:
The AWA/Essay section has been removed from the new exam.
You can choose whatever order you like for the three sections.
What is the new GMAT Focus score scale?
The new GMAT Focus Total score includes your performance on all three sections of the exam:
In related news, the GMAT Focus score reports include your scores from just one sitting of the exam, so if you take it more than once, you can choose exactly which set of scores you want to share. Nice!
(You cannot, though, do the “superscore” thing—ie, combine your best Quant score from one test with your best Verbal score from another test and so on.)
Is GMAT Focus an adaptive exam?
Yes, the GMAT Focus is a question-adaptive exam, just like the current GMAT. After you answer each question, the exam chooses the next one based on your performance to that point in the exam. This is considered the best (and most complicated) type of adaptive algorithm because the test can really hone in on a super precise score for each test taker. It also tends to be more stressful for test takers, because you have to answer each question as it’s given and you can’t change your answers afterwards.
But GMAC is doing something revolutionary. On the GMAT Focus, you can change up to 3 answers in each section, even though it’s still a question-adaptive exam. They’ve invented something new and, as far as I can tell, they’re doing it primarily to make the testing experience less stressful for all of us—I applaud GMAC for this.
At first, I was worried that the ability to change just 3 answers in each section would inject more stress into the process. But there’s also a lot of stress involved in knowing that you could change all of your answers.
So this limit will actually force us to train our business-thinking skills: Most of the time, our first, reasoned decision is the best decision and we should stick with it. Occasionally, we realize that we made a mistake or we suddenly remember some additional information that changes things. In those narrow circumstances, go ahead and update your decision.
But if you’re just second-guessing yourself because the little gnomes in your brain are trying to make you doubt yourself…leave your answer as-is. Your first answer is your best answer unless you know that you made a mistake. And if you’re agonizing between two answers…you’re not going to know in 30 more seconds, either. Stop wasting your time, don’t change your answer, and move on.
What’s covered on both versions of the GMAT?
Most question types and content areas are still tested on both exams:
The new GMAT is essentially a subset of the soon-to-be-retired one, so you can still use the “old GMAT” study materials—just skip the most* of the geometry and Sentence Correction material. *Technically, coordinate plane geometry is considered algebra, so coordinate plane can still appear on the new GMAT Focus.
The official GMAT Focus practice tests were released in June 2023 and are a great resource. The first two are free and there are also four more paid tests. Each of the paid tests is designed to be taken twice without seeing any repeated questions, so there are effectively 10 official practice tests available to you. (Also: If you’re taking any of our GMAT Focus programs, we’ve already bought both the Official Guide and the four paid practice tests for you, so no need to buy your own.)
If you’re just getting started, build your skills with our free GMAT Foundations of Math ebook (skip the geometry chapter) and free GMAT Foundations of Verbal ebook (skip the Sentence Correction chapters).
And sign up for our Free Starter Kit. It already contains full information about the classic GMAT and we’re in the process of adding resources for the GMAT Focus (some new material is already there—and we’re adding more every week!).
Happy studying!