BROWNE INNOVATION GROUP

Thursday, June 7, 2012

BIG’s Blog: What’s the Square Root of …?

To those of you in management of a certain age, you remember when you began to hire tech staff. Technology, whether databases, computer networks, or a host of other things.

Well, now a new generation is preparing to one day lead organizations like yours. And as a peek into what educators believe will be the skills necessary to succeed, their curriculum is changing. But before the curriculum changes, the entrance tests change as well. In this case, the GMAT, (Graduate Management Admission Test) for those applying to business schools.

The new GMAT rolled out on Tuesday, June 5, of this week. What is changing gives us all a glimpse into what educators believe will be important skills for managers.

A new section on the new version of the GMAT entitled “Integrated Reasoning,” a group of 12 questions, is taking the place of a single essay question. The new Integrated Reasoning section requires test-takers to read and sort complex charts and analyze data from multiple sources. This new section is intended to gauge how well applicants can handle more data-driven courses that educators believe will mirror the more complex data analysis problems they will face in the real world.

You’re starting to hear the term “Big Data.” Nonprofit fundraisers, like all other sectors, gain more and more access to data, and must learn to analyze, make sense of, and correct decisions from the data. Successful fundraising organizations will need to be fluent in managing and analyzing data in the very near future. Their organizations will depend upon it.


-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

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