IR Relevance

[Jcorrigan87]

Hi,

I recently completed a practice exam and got almost all of the IR questions wrong. I'm troubled by this, but also wondering if I should concentrate my efforts in improving and understanding my IR, or if I should disregard it and focus more on quant and verbal. Could you provide some guidance, and also explain how it's viewed by admissions staff at grad school?

Thanks,
John

[tim]

There's not much evidence yet as to how much weight schools put on IR scores, but it's safe to say their reliance on that score will increase as time goes on. Go through the relevant section in our IR/Essay book and check out IR Interact. Come up with a good timing strategy. And shoot for a 5 or higher. Keep in mind BTW that our IR scores tend to be lower than what students typically get on the actual GMAT, so don't panic if you're getting scores like 3 or 4 on our tests.

[RonPurewal]

There's not much evidence yet as to how much weight schools put on IR scores, but it's safe to say their reliance on that score will increase as time goes on. Go through the relevant section in our IR/Essay book and check out IR Interact. Come up with a good timing strategy. And shoot for a 5 or higher. Keep in mind BTW that our IR scores tend to be lower than what students typically get on the actual GMAT, so don't panic if you're getting scores like 3 or 4 on our tests.

If you google this topic, you'll find tons of articles with direct quotes from admissions officers. The quotes are vague—in that way that's so typical of administrators in general—but still useful.

Some highlights:

• Schools can't place too much weight on IR until (a) almost all applicants have an IR score, AND (b) a sufficient number of students who had IR scores complete their MBA degrees.
The first is pretty obvious, but the second makes sense if you think about it: They're waiting to see whether the IR score shows a significant correlation with actual success in business school.
From there, they'll choose their path. If it turns out that there isn't much of a correspondence at all, then IR may not become much of a thing. If there is one, it will be a big thing.

• A few admissions officers have noted that a strong IR score can (already!) offset a low-ish quant score. Even though IR is still in its baby phase.
This is good news. If you have that compensatory IR score, it's going to be a lot more convenient—and, probably, a lot more convincing—than slogging through random quant courses at a community college.

[RonPurewal]

Also, you may have heard this already (it's fairly old news by now), but consulting companies are going to look at applicants' IR scores during the hiring process.
Bain was the first to announce this intention publicly, but others have echoed the notion.

Makes perfect sense, actually.

• The biggest difference between IR and the rest of the exam is that IR gives you a flood of information, most of which is irrelevant.
It thus tests the skill of sifting through a relatively large volume of information to find a few "nuggets" relevant to an issue.
Note the contrast with the current multiple-choice questions, which almost always hand you the precise set of data that you'll need to solve them—unlike, say, real life, in which that never, ever, EVER happens. (This was the primary impetus behind the invention of the IR section: Stop spoon-feeding you exactly the information that you need.)

• What do consultants do?
Well, lots of things... but, among others, consultants have to sift through tons of information to find what's relevant to a given case/project/issue.

So, the firms' announcement is eminently sensible, even predictable.

So if you're looking at management consulting as a possible future path, then you should take the IR section VERY seriously.