GMAT Structure

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If you are starting with GMAT, this is the place you should begin. GMAT exam consists of 4 sections in the order listed below

 

  1. Analytical Writing Assessment Section
  2. Integrated Reasoning
  3. Quantitative Analysis
  4. Verbal section

 

  • Analytical Writing Assessment Section- This is the section that students often pay the least attention to. Previously, this section consisted of two parts namely, Analysis of an argument and Analysis of an Issue. However, recent changes made with effect from June 2012 have removed the Analysis of an Issue from this section. This section tests not only your writing skill but also your ability to organize your thoughts and ideas and express them coherently. The passage must flow from one idea to another and make sense to a person who might not have read the argument but might read your assessment of the argument. You are given 30 minutes to complete this section. You will be asked to analyze an argument and write your critique of the argument. Suggestions to strengthen the argument are expected. While working on this section of the exam, consider the few questions mentioned below
  1. What are the assumptions that the argument depends on?
  2. What alternate assumptions could exist that the argument has not highlighted or might have completely missed?
  3. What could strengthen or weaken the argument?

Grade: This section is graded from 1 to 6 based on the organization of the passage, the assumptions and ideas mentioned, the grammatical usage of language and the mistakes made.


  • Integrated Reasoning- This is the newest section introduced in GMAT. This section tests the ability of a student to draw inferences and conclusions from a multitude of sources and has been incorporated into the GMAT Test to duplicate the real MBA environment wherein students will have to examine and draw inferences from various sources of information like paragraphs, charts, tables, etc. This section consists of 12 questions and a 30 minute time frame to complete them. Almost all questions have multiple parts and all parts must be answered correctly to get complete marks on the question. This section consists of four types of questions.
  • Graphical Interpretation: This is a non interactive section(a section in which you can only read the questions and are not allowed to interact with the computer in any forum for e.g. to sort data in ascending or descending order etc. This requires the student to interpret the graphical data and select answers from a drop down list based on the evaluation of the data.

Graphical Analysis

  • Two-part Analysis: This is a non interactive section. Select the options from two columns to answer two parts of a problem.

Two Part Analysis

  • Table Analysis: Sort the data in the table based on different columns to find the answers to various questions. Each question will have two opposing answers and you must choose one from them.

Table Analysis

  • Multi Source Reasoning: You will be provided with 2 to three tabs with information and you must consolidate the information to come up with answers to multiple choice questions or drop down questions based on the data presented.

Multi Source Reasoning

 

  • Quantitative Analysis section- This section measures your ability to solve quantitative problems. Problem Solving questions and Data sufficiency questions are interwoven throughout the section. There are 37 questions in this section. You are alotted a time of 75 minutes in order to complete this section. Some of the concepts tested in this section are
  1. Algebra
  2. Geometry
  3. Fractions
  4. Percentage, Ratios and proportions
  5. Percentage increase and decrease
  6. Permutations and Combinations
  7. Mean, median, mode
  8. weighted averages

 

  • Problems Solving questions: These questions need you to choose one of the five choices given as the answer.

 

  • Data Sufficiency questions: These questions need you to analyze the problem and examine the two statements given in the question in order to choose which of the two options would be required to provide sufficient information to answer the question. You must choose one of the following answers:
  1. Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) is not sufficient.
  2. Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) is not sufficient.
  3. BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
  4. EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
  5. Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

 

  • Verbal section- This section consists of 41 questions and is allotted 75 minutes. It tests your ability to read and understand information, analyze arguments and correct sentences so that they conform to English grammar. This section consists of three types of questions interwoven throughout the section.

 

  • Reading comprehension: This section consists of a passage approximately 350 words in length. The passage is followed by interpretative, applied and inferential questions. 

 

  • Critical Reasoning: This type of question is designed to evaluate your reasoning skills. Various factoids are provided and you must evaluate these factoids and understand relationship among them. To evaluate these questions, you must understand the assumptions in an argument, the relationship between the assumption and the conclusion, other assumptions ignored in the argument and whether those assumptions strengthen or weaken the argument.

 

  • Sentence Correction: This type of question tests your ability to understand the grammatical and logical problems in a sentence and choose the sentence that is correct grammatically and logically. This type of question also tests whether you can understand the context in which certain words are used. You must also confirm that sentences don't have redundant expressions.
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