This blog post is courtesy of our friends at Magoosh. Be sure to check out Magoosh for help when preparing for the GMAT.

This June the GMAT will introduce an entirely new section to the GMAT. The new section, called Integrated Reasoning, will replace the Issue Essay. Below are several common questions regarding the Integrated Reasoning section.

What will the Integrated Reasoning section look like?

You will have 30 minutes to answer questions relating to four discrete sections. Some questions will simply be yes/no, whereas other will contain two-parts, both of which have five possible answer choices.

Why is the GMAT changing?

If you are familiar with the GMAT, you will surely know the Issue Essay. This section requires you to craft a convincing essay (or at least somewhat-convincing essay) in 30 minutes. Topics can range from the role of art in society to the validity of higher education.

As you can probably surmise, the topics, as well as the task, relate very little to what you will be doing in business school. Aware of this disconnect, GMAT has created the Integrated Reasoning section to test skills highly relevant to business school. Indeed the skills tested are most likely relevant to what you are doing now, and are surely relevant to what you will be doing post-business school.

What skills are tested?

The Integrated Reasoning section tests your ability to interpret complex tables and graphs. Questions will ask you to infer information based on anything from a Venn diagram to a table that lists coffee exports and imports from a variety of countries.

While numbers figure prominently, the questions require analytical skills instead of number crunching. Even the verbal section is given a subsection with Integrated Reasoning. You will be presented with an exchange of information between two parties, and will be asked to make valid inferences from this exchange.

How can I prep?

This April, GMAC will be releasing their 13th Edition Official Guide. In addition to a trove of new prep problems, the guide will have Integrated Reasoning exercises.

You can also visit the Magoosh blog to learn more about the intricacies of Integrated Reasoning and its components.

[xyz-ihs snippet=”MBA—GMAT-Webinar”]