GMAT Exam Pattern

Business schools worldwide use GMAT scores as part of their admissions process to evaluate applicants' academic abilities and potential for success in graduate business programs.  

The GMAT exam pattern is developed to primarily test a candidate’s Reasoning Skills. The exam is conducted round the year and you can apply and appear in GMAT five times a year to improve your GMAT score and percentile. Below is shared the Sectional composition and score range for GMAT Exam Pattern.

The GMAT exam is designed to test skills that are highly important to business and management programs. It assesses analytical writing and problem-solving abilities, along with the data sufficiency, logic, and critical reasoning skills that are vital to real-world business and management success. Section wise details follow: 

a) Quantitative Reasoning
This section assessed algebraic and arithmetic foundational knowledge and how you apply this knowledge to solve problems. It is composed of 21 Problem Solving questions. These types of questions require some knowledge of arithmetic and elementary algebra. Answering these questions correctly relies on logic and analytical skills, not the underlying math skills. You cannot use a calculator while working on this section.

b) Verbal Reasoning
This section measures your ability to read and comprehend written material and to reason and evaluate arguments. It is composed of 23 Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning questions. 

The question types you'll find on this section are:

• Reading Comprehension questions measure your ability to understand words and statements, understand logical relationships between significant points, draw inferences, and follow the development of quantitative concepts. Specifically, the following reading skills will be tested: main idea, supporting idea, inference, application, logical structure, and style.
• Critical Reasoning questions measure your ability to make arguments, evaluate arguments, and formulate or evaluate a plan of action. Critical Reasoning questions are based on a short reading passage, usually fewer than 100 words. Typically, the short text comes with a question that asks you which of the five answer options strengthens or weakens an argument, tells why the argument is flawed, or strongly supports or damages the argument. You will not need specialized knowledge of the subject matter to answer the questions.

c) Data Insights
The Data Insights section measures candidates’ ability to analyze and interpret data and apply it to real-world business scenarios. It also measures digital and data literacy—one of the most relevant and in-demand skills in business today.  

It is composed of 20 questions that ask you to assess how multiple sources and types of information – including graphic, numeric, and verbal – relate to one another and can be leveraged to make informed decisions. Questions may require math, data analysis, verbal reasoning, or all three. You can use an on-screen calculator while working on this section.
The question types you'll find on this section are:

• Data Sufficiency: Measures your ability to analyze a quantitative problem, recognize which data is relevant, and determine at what point there is enough data to solve the problem.
• Multi-Source Reasoning: Measures your ability to examine data from multiple sources including text passages, tables, graphics, or some combination of the three—and to analyze each source of data carefully to answer multiple questions. Some questions will require you to recognize discrepancies among different sources of data, while others will ask you to draw inferences, or require you to determine whether data is relevant.
• Table Analysis: Measures your ability to sort and analyze a table of data, similar to a spreadsheet, in order to determine what information is relevant or meets certain conditions.
• Graphics Interpretation: Measures your ability to interpret the information presented in a graph or other graphical image (scatter plot, x/y graph, bar chart, pie chart, or statistical curve distribution) to discern relationships, and make inferences.
• Two-Part Analysis: Measures your ability to solve complex problems. They could be quantitative, verbal, or some combination of both. The format is intentionally versatile to cover a wide range of content. Your ability to evaluate trade-offs, solve simultaneous equations, and discern relationships between two entities is measured.

GMAT is a ‘computer-adaptive’ entrance examination. This is different from being merely a ‘computer-based’ test. In a computer-adaptive test, candidates will receive questions one at a time and the difficulty level and score of the GMAT will depend on the accuracy of the previous answer of the candidate as below:

• If the response to the previous question is accurate, the next question will be of higher difficulty level If the answer is incorrect, the following question will be of lower difficulty level and will get scored accordingly
• The final score, as per the paper pattern of GMAT depends on the difficulty level of questions that the student had attempted
• Correct answers to difficult questions will result in obtaining higher scores while correct responses to easier questions will result in getting lower scores