GMAT Quantitative Test Structure

The GMAT Quantitative test section tests your problem solving skills and your knowledge in mathematical fundamentals. In this segment you deal with 37 questions in 75 minutes. You need not learn higher level mathematics for it. The questions will be of arithmetic, algebra and geometry which are of high school level. And what comes as a relief in this is, you don’t have to learn solving complicated problems of calculus and trigonometry as they don’t appear in this test. The quantitative test structure is divided into two major segments:

• Problem Solving
• Data Sufficiency

Problem Solving

Here the questions are designed to test your mathematical skills. So make sure you have got your basics right in mathematical concepts. In this section you get 23 to 24 questions, so ensure you keep in mind all the required mathematical formulae. You will need to brush up your skills of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, averages and decimals.

This section tests:

• Your understanding about the basic mathematical concepts
• Ability to solve numerical problems
• Reasoning ability and logical thinking in solving quantitative problems

Data Sufficiency

In this section you solve the problems with logic and not with formulae. It has 13 to 14 questions to answer. It consists of mathematics question with two additional statements tagged (1) and (2). You need to choose which of the statements have sufficient information which leads to the final answer.

This section tests your ability to:

• Analyze the given problem
• Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information
• Verify which of the given statements is sufficient to crack the given problems.

Few Important Tips:

• Calculators are not allowed
• The questions of both segments do not come in order. It is intermingled.
• The difficulty of questions increases depending on your answers. If you give right answer the difficulty level increases with next question.
• The questions in this section are not of high level. They are only tricky.
• You are not allowed to skip any of the questions.
• Once you finish one question and have started with the next one, you won’t have accessibility to the previous questions again. So make sure you recheck your answers before you enter the next question.
• Unlike the other sections of GMAT, it is easier for you keep yourself informed whether you are doing well, as the questions get tough or easy depending upon your performance.
• As this section tests your problem solving and logical skills, you need to be well versed with all the mathematical concepts and practice on more problems to excel in this section.
• It is a myth that people who are not from technical background cannot score well in quantitative test. So even if you are from a non-technical background, practicing on a regular basis improves your confidence level and problem solving skills also.
• Make sure you do not take more than 3 steps to solve the problems in problem solving section. It saves time also and shows your understanding about the problem.

Although the quantitative test takes more of your time compared to other sections, do not be very time conscious. Better safe than sorry. Pace yourself and you will get enough time to approach and solve the quantitative section in GMAT with much ease.

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