The GMAT consists of four sections, and you can choose your section order on Test Day. Before you begin your test, you’ll be presented with three orders and asked to select one:
If you do not choose an order, then after 1 minute, the first order—beginning with Analytical Writing—will be chosen for you.
The order you take the sections in will not appear on your score report, and the test maker’s research has not shown that section order gives one test taker a statistical advantage over another. If you are especially concerned about a section and want to take it when you are mentally freshest, then choose the order that puts that section first. If you want to build confidence by completing other sections first, then choose an order that puts that section later. And if you don’t care what order you take the sections in, that’s perfectly okay—just choose whichever order you have practiced most.
The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) requires you to complete an essay, typing it into the computer using a simple word processing program. You are given 30 minutes for this essay, during which you have to analyze the flawed reasoning behind a given argument and recommend how to improve the argument.
The Integrated Reasoning section is 30 minutes long. This section has 12 questions, each of which may require more than one response. The questions in this section ask you to draw conclusions based on information in tables, interpret graphs, understand information presented across different layouts, and find two answers that lead to a single solution.
The Quantitative section contains 31 questions in two formats, Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency, which are mixed together throughout the section. The Verbal section contains 36 questions in three formats, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Correction, and Critical Reasoning, which are also mixed throughout the section.
|
GMAT exam section |
Questions |
Time |
|
Analytical Writing Assessment |
1 |
30 minutes |
|
Integrated Reasoning |
12 |
30 minutes |
|
Quantitative |
31 |
62 minutes |
|
Verbal |
36 |
65 minutes |
|
Total Testing Time |
3 hours, 7 minutes |
|
You will also get two optional 8-minute breaks between sections. Kaplan recommends that you take these breaks. Also, note that a few experimental questions will be scattered throughout; they look just like the other questions but won’t contribute to your score.
| Order A | Order B | Order C |
| Analytical Writing Assessment | Verbal | Quantitative |
| Integrated Reasoning | ||
| 8-minute break (optional) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative | Quantitative | Verbal |
| 8-minute break (optional) | ||
| Verbal | Integrated Reasoning | Integrated Reasoning |
| Analytical Writing Assessment | Analytical Writing Assessment | |
We’ll talk more about each of the question types in later chapters. For now, note the following: you’ll be answering 79 multiple-choice questions in about 2.5 hours. Clearly, you’ll have to move fast. But you can’t let yourself get careless. Taking control of the GMAT means increasing the speed of your work without sacrificing accuracy.