Advisers unaware of changes in GMAT

Although UCF advisers encourage students to take the essay portions of the exam, UCF's graduate program currently doesn't recognize the scores for those assessments because the program requires applicants to complete a separate essay.

For many UCF applicants, this meant that they didn't have to write the essays. However, because the integrated reasoning section will replace one of the assessments, test takers will be forced to complete the new section.

The integrated reasoning score will not be included in the total mark, a 200-to-800 score that reflects the test taker's performance on the quantitative and verbal sections. Instead, the new section will have a separate rating, which makes it impossible for an applicant to hide his or her new section score among the others.

Although Kaplan has already dedicated a chapter to the new section in its latest GMAT prep book, Mitchell still advises students to take the test before the changes are made.

"Avoid taking the integrated reasoning section entirely," Mitchell said. "The average amount of studying time spent on the GMAT is 100 hours. With the new section, it will go up. So the easiest preparation is to avoid the preparation and take the test before June."