More About the GMAT

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a requirement of most accredited graduate business schools in the United States. The exam measures your verbal and mathematical reasoning skills.

The GMAT is an approximately three hour long Computer Adaptive Test (CAT). It is probably unlike any other test that you have ever taken. Unlike paper based tests, you cannot go back and change your answers. And the difficulty level of each question is based on whether you got the previous question right or wrong.

GMAT Structure

The GMAT is divided into three sections: the Analytical Writing Assessment, one Verbal section, and one Quantitative section. The Analytical Writing Assessment always comes first, followed by the Quantitative section and then the Verbal section.

Your combined performance on the Verbal and Quantitative sections results in a single scaled score ranging from 200-800 points. Your performance on the Analytical Writing Assessment results in a separate scaled score ranging from 0.0-6.0 points.

 

Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
Length

60 minutes

Format Typed Essay
# Questions 2 (30 minutes each)
Question Types Issue Task
Argument Task
Topics Tested Analysis of an Issue
Analysis of an Argument

Quantitative Section
Length 75 minutes
Format Multiple Choice
# Questions 37
Question Types Problem Solving
Data Sufficiency
Topics Tested Arithmetic and number properties
Algebra
Geometry
Word problems
Probability and statistics

Verbal Section
Length 75 minutes
Format Multiple Choice
# Questions 41
Question Types Reading Comprehension
Sentence Correction
Critical Reasoning
Topics Tested Analytical reasoning
Grammar
Reading