GMAT Test Structure

The GMAT has four main divisions: Analytical Writing; Integrated Reasoning; Verbal Reasoning; Quantitative reasoning.

Analytical Writing

The Analytical Writing section has one essay writing task: the Argument.

The Argument task presents a statement of a position. The candidate is required to analyze the logic of the given position and suggest how and where the reasoning may be faulty or require improvement. The student is given 30 minutes for this essay.

The scoring for the Analytical Writing section is on a scale of 0-6. The essay is scored by a human reader and then by a computer program (which the official GMAT website, mba.com, refers to as an automated essay-scoring engine). If the human and computer scores differ significantly, the score is sent to a second expert reader for final evaluation.

Integrated Reasoning

The Integrated Reasoning section has 12 questions to be solved in 30 minutes. The score is reported on a scale of 1-8 (intervals of 1).

The questions involve interpretation of tabular, graphical and written information from a variety of sources. Each question is independent and may have more than one part, but one prompt may be used for more than one question. An on-screen calculator is available.

Quantitative Section

The Quantitative section has two types of multiple choice questions: data sufficiency and problem solving. Follow the links to explore these types of math question.

There are 37 questions to be solved in 75 minutes. The level of math knowledge should be within the grasp of an 11th Grade student. However, the level of reasoning required is quite high. No calculators are allowed.

Verbal Reasoning

The Verbal Reasoning section contains three types of question: critical reasoning; reading comprehension; sentence correction. All questions are multiple-choice. You can click on the links to try out questions of each type.

There are 41 questions to be completed in 75 minutes.

Next Steps

We have over 30 free GMAT practice tests on our website for you to try. There are tests for each of the question types discussed above.