About the GMAT
The GMAT is 2 hours 25 minutes long, including one optional 10-minute break but excluding the initial tutorial screens and the ending score reporting screens. The default GMAT format is shown below. More information about the questions is given on our Question Types pages.
| Section | Time Limit | Number of Qs | Score Range |
|---|---|---|---|
Quantitative
|
45 min | 21 | 60 – 90 |
| Break - Option #1 | 10 min | or none | |
Verbal
|
45 min | 23 | 60 – 90 |
| Break - Option #2 | 10 min | if not already taken | |
Data Insights
|
45 min | 20 | 60 – 90 |
GMAT Section Order
The GMAT has a Select Section Order feature, which allows you to take the GMAT sections in any order. The timing for each section and the question types in each section remain unchanged. You choose the section order on the computer immediately prior to the start of your exam. If you do not select within one minute, the system proceeds with Option 1.
| Option 1 | Option 2 | Option 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative | Verbal | Data Insights |
| Verbal | Data Insights | Verbal |
| Data Insights | Quantitative | Quantitative |
| Option 4 | Option 5 | Option 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative | Verbal | Data Insights |
| Data Insights | Quantitative | Quantitative |
| Verbal | Data Insights | Verbal |
Optional Break
You receive one optional 10-minute break, either after the first section or after the second section. You choose whether or not to take the break after the first section; you do not have to select a break option in advance. Only if you do not take a break after the first section, you can take a break after the second section. Unless approved for accommodations, you cannot take two breaks.
The break time includes time to re-check into the exam with the Test Administrator or the Online Proctor. The timer for the next section starts after 10 minutes, even if you are not ready. For online exams, your camera must remain on during the break. For online exams, you must completely erase your whiteboard and show it to the camera before starting your break, and you must leave the whiteboard by your computer.
| Break Option #1 | Time Limit |
|---|---|
| First section | 45 min |
| Break | 10 min |
| Second section | 45 min |
| Third section | 45 min |
| Break Option #2 | Time Limit |
|---|---|
| First section | 45 min |
| Second section | 45 min |
| Break | 10 min |
| Third section | 45 min |
Computer Adaptive Test
All three sections are adaptive, meaning that question difficulty varies based on your prior performance. The GMAT does not give all test takers the same questions. Associated with each question is a scoring characteristic curve, which is somewhat analogous to a difficulty level. The first question in a section is of medium difficulty. A correct answer leads to a harder question, whereas an incorrect answer leads to an easier question.
As you proceed through the section, the change in question difficulty gets incrementally smaller. The GMAT is trying to narrow-in on a theoretical difficulty level at which you answer correctly, but would answer incorrectly at a slightly harder level. To ensure fairness and consistency, the test also presents a predetermined balance of concept and question types. Your score for the section is determined by the number, difficulty, and statistical characteristics of the questions you answer correctly and incorrectly. This process starts anew for each section.
GMAT Question Review and Edit
You must answer questions in the order presented, without skipping any question, but you can bookmark questions for later review. Once you answer all questions within a section, you proceed to the Question Review & Edit screen. Here, you can review any questions within that section, whether bookmarked or not. You can edit up to three answers within each section.
The Question Review & Edit process is subject to time availability. Any question review or answer editing must be completed within the 45 minutes allotted to the section. If you do not complete all the questions in the section within 45 minutes, you will not have the chance to review or edit any questions.
GMAT Scoring
GMAT overall scores range from 205 to 805, in increments of 10. Section scores range from 60 to 90, in increments of 1. All three sections contribute equally to the overall GMAT score. GMAT scores are valid for five years.
Percentile rankings indicate the percent of test takers who score below your score, based on data from all test takers in the five-year period prior to your test date. More than half of test takers score between 485 (24%) and 605 (75%). The table below summarizes historical score performance, based on the latest GMAC data. For each percentile, we have taken the closest score.
| Scores | Halfway | Mean | Median | 70th %ile | 90th %ile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Insights | 75 = 51% | 74.4 = 48% | 75 = 51% | 78 = 73% | 81 = 90% |
| Verbal | 75 = 19% | 79.0 = 51% | 79 = 51% | 81 = 70% | 84 = 91% |
| Quantitative | 75 = 35% | 77.7 = 50% | 78 = 52% | 81 = 71% | 85 = 89% |
| Overall | 505 = 31% | 546 = 47% | 555 = 53% | 595 = 72% | 645 = 89% |
At higher levels, a small increase in points can mean a big increase in percentile ranking. For example, moving up just 30 points from a 605 (75%) to a 635 (85%) puts you ahead of an additional 10% of all test takers.
Score Concordance Table
The prior GMAT Exam (10th Edition) was retired in early 2024. This prior version had an overall score range from 200 to 800. Current GMAT scores are NOT comparable to prior scores (e.g. a 705 is NOT equivalent to a 700). When devising the current GMAT, the GMAC adjusted the scoring scales to allow for a more even, normal distribution. Prior scores, especially Quant scores, had become skewed as the test population changed over time.
A current GMAT score equates to a higher score from the retired GMAT Exam (10th Edition), the more so at higher scoring levels. The following table provides some examples of equivalent scores. A complete concordance table is available here.
| GMAT Exam | Retired GMAT Exam (10th Edition) |
Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| 745 | 770 | 100% |
| 705 | 750 | 99% |
| 665 | 720 | 94% |
| 635 | 690 | 85% |
| 605 | 650 | 75% |
| 575 | 620 | 62% |
| 555 | 600 | 53% |
| 525 | 550 | 38% |
| 485 | 500 | 24% |
Pacing
One fallacy of the adaptive format is that earlier questions count more and you should therefore spend lots more time on earlier questions. It is true that the change in question difficulty is greater earlier on, and that missing several of the initial questions can lead to a low scoring level that you must recover from. So it is fine to spend an extra 15 to 30 seconds selectively on a few of the early questions as needed.
But don’t spend so much time early on that you run out of time at the end because there is a penalty for not finishing all questions. If at the end of a section you leave questions unanswered, your score will drop significantly, particularly for those at higher scoring levels. The GMAC has provided an example of a test taker who, at the 70th percentile before leaving the last five questions unanswered, dropped to a 55th percentile score. The degree of drop depends on your score, with a higher score receiving a greater penalty for running out of time.
Given this penalty, pacing is a critical aspect of the GMAT. Manage your time effectively so that you do not run out of time at the end. A good way to check your pacing is to multiply the number of questions you have left in a section (including the question you are working on) by 2 for Quant, by 1.8 for Verbal, and by 2.5 for IR. This is approximately how many minutes you should have remaining on the clock; if you have less time available, you will need to make some time up.
It is fine to spend up to three minutes on some questions if that time is made up by spending only 30 seconds to one minute on other questions. Inevitably some GMAT questions will take longer to complete, whereas others will take less time. In particular, some Data Sufficiency and Sentence Correction questions can be answered very quickly if you immediately identify the relevant concepts / rules tested on the problem.
Strategy
Because timing can be a challenge, you will sometimes need to make an educated guess, no matter how skilled you may be. Eliminate as many answers as you can and take your best guess from the remaining choices. You should rarely spend more than three minutes on any given problem. If you’ve spent that much time, unless you either are seconds away from the answer or have lots of time to spare, you are best off making an educated guess at that point. In fact, if you are 30 seconds into a problem and have absolutely no idea how to proceed, you may want to make an educated guess and save the time for GMAT questions that you have a better chance at.
When you face a challenging question on which you must guess, do so without worry and then completely forget about that question. Instead focus on the next question because you should always give your 100% undivided attention only to the question at hand.
You do not have to get almost every GMAT question correct to score high. You can miss quite a few questions and still score in the 700s thanks to the adaptive format. In fact, it is possible to miss up to 20% of the questions and still score at the 99th percentile. As you get more questions correct than incorrect, your scoring level trends higher.
The key is to avoid missing too many questions early on or too many questions in a row. In the adaptive algorithm, early misses or consecutive wrong answers will cause question difficulty to drop, leading to a lower score. An incorrect answer followed by a correct response will largely cancel each other out. But a couple strings of two or three consecutive incorrect answers shouldn’t hurt too much as long as you get more questions correct overall.
