The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a standardized test used by business schools to assess the qualifications of applicants for advanced study in business and management. The test measures verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills that have been developed over a long period of time and are considered important for success in graduate-level business studies.
The GMAT is administered worldwide in secure, standardized testing centers. It is a computer adaptive test, which means that the difficulty of the questions adapts to the test-taker's ability level. The test takes approximately 3.5 hours to complete and consists of four sections: Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, and Verbal.
The purpose of the GMAT is to provide business schools with a standardized measure of applicants' abilities and to help schools make informed decisions about which applicants to admit to their programs. It is one of several factors that business schools consider when evaluating applicants, along with academic transcripts, work experience, and other factors.
Exam Pattern:
Module | No. of Questions | Question Types | Duration |
Analytical Writing Assessment | 1 | Topic Analysis of Argument | 30 minutes |
Integrated Reasoning | 12 | Multi-Source Reasoning
Graphics Interpretation Two-Part Analysis Table Analysis |
30 minutes |
Quantitative | 37 | Data Sufficiency | 75 Minutes |
Verbal | 41 | Reading Comprehension Critical Reasoning Sentence Correction | 75 Minutes |
GMAT Module :
The GMAT has the following sections:
This section has a 30-minute essay where you have to Examine and analyse the given argument.
Analysis of an Argument
The scores for this section are on a six point scale. Your essay is given two independent ratings and then an average is considered.
This new section of the GMAT was introduced in June 2012. It has 12 questions with thirty minutes to answer this section. This section has replaced one of the AWA essays. It is scored in points of 1 to 8. This section has four different question types:
Table Analysis: The information is in a table format the questions have to be answered in T/F or Y/N
Graphics Interpretation: As the name suggests you have to fill in the answers using an image or graph given.
Multi-Source Reasoning: Here you have to gather information by clicking on the tabs provided. The data available may be presented either as text or in the form of charts, tables.
Two-Part Analysis: The answers in a table form have the two components occupying the first two columns and the answer options are to be given in the third column.
This is the third section of the GMAT. You have to attempt 37 questions with 75 minutes to complete this section. The questions are designed to put your math skills to test. They revolve around basic arithmetic, algebra and geometry. This section has multiple choice questions that fall in the following two categories:
In this last section of the GMAT, you’ll have 75 minutes to answer 41 multiple choice questions.
There are three sub sections:
Reading comprehension: You are given a passage where you’ll have to understand the underlying meaning and grasp the relationship of the entities involved.
Critical reasoning: There are 14 questions in this section where you have to choose the correct answer choice from the given list. Usually by identifying the strengthening or weakening arguments.
Sentence correction: This part tests your familiarity with the English grammar rules. You have to select the answer choice that gives correct meaning to the sentence.