GMAT TEST SECTIONS
The GMAT Test Sections are divided into three major types:
Analytical Writing Assessment
Quantitative Section
Verbal Section
Analytical Writing Assessment
In the Analytical Writing Assessment, the candidate is required to write two short essays within thirty minutes each. The first essay involves analysis of an issue, wherein the candidate will be presented with an issue, which needs to be analyzed, and candidate should explain various views about it. The Second Essay involves analysis of an argument, wherein the candidate will be presented with an argument that needs to be analyzed and assessed.
As both the essays emphasizes on the “Analytical” part rather than the “writing” part, a brief essay mentioning reasonable points written in simple English will be considered good than an essay with shorter analytical aspects but with higher standard of English. The subject matter presented consists of topics of general interest based on business or a variety of other subjects. They do not require any subject knowledge, as only the analytical capability is being assessed here.
A five minutes break is allowed between the essays. The candidate can utilize this time for preparing for the other tougher sections.
Quantitative Section
This section carries 37 questions on the whole and is basically of two kinds; Data Sufficiency (DS) and Problem Solving (PS). There are 20 PS and 17 DS questions that will be asked. The Section is designed based on Mathematics pertaining to level of Standard tenth carrying questions based on Percentages, Number Systems, Decimals and Fractions, Geometry (including Basic Coordinate Geometry), Algebra (including Quadratic Equations) , Area and Volume of 2D and 3D figures, Ratio and Proportion and probability etc.
The PS section presents the candidate with questions that needs to be solved and the right answer should be directly chosen based on the choice answers provided. But the DS section is more tricky wherein the each problem will be given two statements which might or might not lead to the right answer. The candidate is required to ascertain whether the statements lead to the right answer for the question and if they do, the candidate should be able to determine if they should be used alone or in conjunction to arrive at the answer. Five options are given as answers and each option provides the possibilities that are likely to arise in this case. Here the candidate will have to use the basic mathematical principles along with good logic to find the right answer.
To make it more clear, given below is the sample optional answers which the candidate may be required to choose from. Suppose the two statements are labeled as statement (1) and Statement (2). The kind of optional answers presented will be something like this. The candidate will have to choose the method to determine the right answer.
- Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) is not sufficient. B
- Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) is not sufficient.
- BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
- EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
- Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.
Verbal Section
The verbal section requires the basic skills of correct English along with analysis and reasoning. This section consists of 41 questions on the whole with time duration of 75 minutes and consists of three types of sub-sections; Sentence Correction (SC), Reading Comprehension (RC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). The break-up of questions for the subsections SC, CR and RC could either be 15, 13 and 13 respectively or 14-14-13 respectively or in any such groupings.
In the SC sub-section, the candidates will be presented with a sentence, a part of which will be underlined. The candidate is required to find out if the underlined portion contains any grammatical or punctuation or stylistic errors and if so, they are required to find the correct alternative out of the answer choices provided that could replace the underlined portion.
In the CR sub-section, the candidate will be presented with a brief reading passage followed by questions based on the passage. The candidates will be required to choose the answer choice which most weakens, most strengthens best expresses and best explains the particular point of view inferred from the passage.
In the RC sub-section, the candidates will be presented with reading passages and each passage may be of approximately 350 words in length. Based on the passage, candidates will be asked cluster of a minimum of three questions. Four such passages and four different groups of questions will be asked in this sub-section. The candidate may be required to summarize the main points of the passage, or weaken/strengthen the argument given in the passage or may be required to arrive at a conclusion based on the facts presented.