Stanford adcom confirms: "IR doesn't matter yet"

[RonPurewal]

Ever since the new integrated reasoning (IR) section was added to the exam, we've basically been advising our students not to worry too much about it. At this point, the IR section is still, in essence, a gigantic experiment; there are not yet enough scores to produce any kind of meaningful calibration or consistent interpretation. Moreover, many in this fall's business school applicant pool won't even have the IR section on their score report.

Several admissions staffers have corroborated these ideas in private conversations with MGMAT instructors. For perhaps the first time, though, an admissions officer at a top business school -- in this case, the Stanford GSB -- has actually done so on the record.
Read here:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/mba/blog/ ... out_g.html

The above is, of course, what just one admissions officer has to say, but it likely represents the current consensus in the MBA community.

so, at this point, here's where we stand:

* if you are applying to business school this fall, the IR section is, for all intents and purposes, a non-factor.

* you may still want to study for it at least a bit, though -- with the goal of becoming familiar with it and making it part of your routine.
even if it has zero importance, the IR section still has the potential to mess with your mentality -- to "shake you up" for the rest of the exam. (remember, it's at the beginning!)
if you can reach a point where the IR questions no longer seem strange, confusing, or exotic, that's much less likely to happen.

* if you are planning to apply to business school later down the line -- especially if you are planning to do so several years from now -- there is a good chance that the IR section will have matured into something significant (and statistically reliable) by that point. moreover, it's widely suspected that the problems in the core sections of the gmat will eventually evolve to be more "integrated", and/or that the IR section itself will become a core component of the test. thus, if you have a multi-year MBA timeline, you may want to give the IR section a little more weight in your studies.

good luck!

[heyazhi09]

So I didn't take much time on IR.

Ron, I wrote this to express my respect to you.
I finally beat the GMAT today"”"”750(Q51,V40).
Really thank you for your help, since I learn a lot from your posts and from the study hall ’'Thursday with Ron'"˜.
You are my idol, and I like you soooooooo much.
Hope everything goes well with you.

[RonPurewal]

So I didn't take much time on IR.

Ron, I wrote this to express my respect to you.
I finally beat the GMAT today"”"”750(Q51,V40).
Really thank you for your help, since I learn a lot from your posts and from the study hall ’'Thursday with Ron'"˜.
You are my idol, and I like you soooooooo much.
Hope everything goes well with you.

congratulations on your score. best of luck in everything that lies ahead for you.

you may want to consider selecting someone more worthy as your "idol" ... lol

[peterjackson9091]

Nice one

[StaceyKoprince]

.

[ben_auerbach]

Ron is awesome and humble. Thank you for your help on this particular topic and as an instructor. I spoke to a different admissions officer at Stanford GSB who referred me to the above blog post and confirmed what Ron has said.

-Ben

[StaceyKoprince]

(on behalf of Ron) thanks!