How to Begin GMAT Preparation

Getting your GMAT preparation off to the correct start will help set you up for success on test day and increase your chances of getting into your dream business school. If you're wondering how to start studying for the GMAT, you presumably already know this. In this blog, we will outline 5 realistic measures that any GMAT beginner should follow to get going in the correct path and avoid getting lost along the way.  

GMAT Key Facts  

As you may already know, the GMAT test skills that are necessary for success in business school and the business world, skills such as critical thinking, data analysis, logical reasoning, and basic math and English skills. Because the GMAT tests the skills that successful MBA students need, it is required for admission into most MBA programs, and admissions committees tend to look closely at GMAT scores as a way to make “apples to apples” comparisons between applicants who may have highly varied backgrounds.  

Here are some key facts every starting GMAT student should know about the exam:  

• Run Time: About 3.5 hours, including 2 optional 8-minute breaks. (Unless you’re sitting for the GMAT Online, which takes about 3 hours to complete, including an optional 5-minute break.) Testing times include a roughly 15-minute check-in process for both the in-person and the online GMAT.  
• Exam Content: 4 sections consisting of a total of 79 multiple-choice questions and 1 essay.  
• Quantitative Reasoning section: 62 minutes, 31 questions.  
  A calculator is not allowed. The Quant section features 2 question categories, Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. Each of those may cover many different topics (Geometry, Number Properties, Rates, etc.).  
• Verbal Reasoning: 65 minutes, 36 questions.  
  Verbal questions fall into 3 categories: Sentence Correction (SC), Critical Reasoning (CR), and Reading Comprehension (RC). A single RC passage may have 3 or 4 multiple-choice questions related to it.  
• Integrated Reasoning section (IR): 30 minutes, 12 questions.  
  IR questions involve both Quant and Verbal skills and may require more than 1 answer to a single question. An on-screen calculator is provided.  
• Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA): 30 minutes, 1 essay (“Analysis of an Argument”).  
• Scoring: 200 to 800 score range (Total Score). GMAT scores are valid for 5 years from your test date.  
• Quant and Verbal Score Ranges: 6 to 51.  
  Your Total Score is calculated based on your Quant and Verbal scores.  
• IR Score Range: 1 to 8.  
  Your IR score is not factored into your total score.  
• AWA Score Range: 0 to 6.  
  The AWA section is scored after test day and not factored into your total score.  

At first glance, the GMAT may not seem too different from other standardized exams you’ve taken in the past. However, it does have some “quirks” that make it different from other exams. For one, the GMAT allows you to choose the order in which you see the sections of your exam, a decision that should definitely be factored into your test-taking strategy. (Don’t worry; when the time comes, this guide to GMAT section order will help you figure out the best section order for you). Secondly, you do not have the ability to skip or return to questions, or change your answers to previous questions.  

The GMAT must be completed in a linear fashion, and you won’t be shown the next question until you choose an answer to the question in front of you. Finally, the Quant and Verbal sections of the GMAT are adaptive at a question level, meaning that the computer selects the questions that you see on the basis of your responses to the questions that you’ve already seen, with the difficulty of questions increasing or decreasing depending on whether you answer questions correctly or incorrectly. So, as you complete the Quant section, the questions will get harder or easier depending on your performance, and the same goes for the Verbal section. Each section is considered individually, so your performance in Quant does not affect the Verbal questions you see, and vice versa.  

Step 1: Learn What is Tested and How It’s Tested  

Before you dive into studying GMAT content, you should have a solid sense of how that content will be presented on the exam. Familiarizing yourself with the look and feel of the GMAT will both give you a broad view of the concepts and skills you’ll need to master over the course of your GMAT studies and prepare you for a later step in the study process, taking your first practice exam. To use our earlier metaphor, you’ll be wading into deep GMAT waters over the coming weeks and months, so you should probably get your feet wet first, right?  

To start, let’s take a closer look at the skills and concepts tested and the question types you’ll encounter in each section of the GMAT.  

The Quant Section  

The fact is, most business schools consider quantitative skills quite important to success in the business world, and thus business schools generally pay a lot of attention to Quant performance when they evaluate GMAT scores. Furthermore, the prospect of quickly solving tricky math problems without the use of a calculator makes many test-takers nervous, particularly those who don’t consider math one of their better subjects.  

The good news is that GMAT Quant questions are specifically designed to be solvable in about 2 minutes or less without a calculator. How can that be possible? Well, GMAT Quant questions are logic-based; they test your ability to use logic to apply your knowledge of math rules and concepts efficiently and effectively. In other words, the GMAT isn’t a “number-crunching” test. Your ability to perform by hand lengthy calculations involving impossibly large numbers is not what GMAT Quant seeks to test. In fact, GMAT Quant tests high school-level math concepts. It’s your ability to recognize what concept is being tested in questions and your use of logic that must be advanced.  

Data Sufficiency (DS) questions present a question followed by two statements that provide further information about the question. So, for instance, a DS question asking “What is the value of x?” would be followed by two statements providing additional information that may or may not help you determine the value of x. Your job in these types of questions is to determine whether one or both statements alone or both statements together are sufficient to answer the question, or both statements together still don’t provide enough information to answer it. While the question stem in a DS question could relate to any of the math concepts tested on the GMAT — geometry, algebra, fractions and percents, etc.  
 

Problem Solving questions are similar to DS questions in that they could test on any of the possible GMAT Quant topics, such as Number Properties, Geometry, or Probability, to name a few. The difference is that, whereas in DS questions you need to determine whether you have enough information to solve the problem, in Problem Solving questions, you must actually solve the problem. In other words, a DS question does not ask you to actually determine the value of x but asks whether you could with the information provided. A Problem Solving question, on the other hand, would present you with 5 possible values of x and ask you to determine which of the 5 choices is correct.  

To summarize, in both Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency questions, you must select 1 of 5 answer choices. However, in Problem Solving questions, you must actually solve the math problem, whereas in Data Sufficiency questions, you must figure out whether the given information is sufficient to (theoretically) solve the problem. Of course, you will have to perform some calculations in order to solve GMAT Quant questions, but it’s important to remember that conceptual knowledge and logic will be key in answering any Quant question you’re presented with.  

The Verbal Section  

As mentioned earlier, the Verbal section consists of a mix of multiple-choice questions of 3 types: Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension.  

Sentence Correction (SC) questions present a sentence that is either partially or entirely underlined. In fact, the sentence may have as little as one or two words underlined. Your job is to choose the correct version of the underlined portion, out of 5 choices (answer choice A is always the version in the question stem).  

These questions test your knowledge of grammar rules, sentence structure, and word choice, as well as your ability to identify illogical, ambiguous, or redundant meanings within a sentence. An important part of answering SC questions correctly is making sure to read each version of the sentence in the context of the non-underlined portion. Otherwise, it’s very easy to select an answer choice that looks (or really is) grammatically correct but makes no sense or contains errors when added to the full sentence.  

Critical Reasoning (CR) questions feature a short passage that presents an argument or set of statements and ask you to evaluate some aspect of what is presented. For instance, CR questions may ask what assumption the argument makes to reach its conclusion or which statement must be true if all of the statements in the passage are true. As in Sentence Correction, for each CR question, you’ll need to select 1 of 5 answer choices.  

In order to answer CR questions, you’ll need to be able to identify the premises (statements of fact) and the conclusion in a passage, so you can deduce how the latter follows from the former and analyze the logic of the passage. It’s important to note that while CR questions may ask you to, for example, evaluate how a conclusion was reached or derive a conclusion based on the given facts, your task will never be to evaluate whether the facts given in a CR passage are accurate. The facts laid out in CR passages should always be taken as true.  

Reading Comprehension (RC) questions present you with either a short or long passage and 2 or 3 questions about that passage. For each question related to a passage, you’ll select 1 of 5 answer choices. RC questions are designed to test how carefully you’ve read a passage, whether you understand what you’ve read, and whether you can accurately interpret the information and identify relationships between ideas presented in the passage. The topics and style of RC passages are similar to topics covered in publications such as The Economist, Smithsonian magazine, and The New York Times, so reading such publications is a good way to help prepare yourself for RC questions.  

The Integrated Reasoning Section (IR)  

IR questions test your ability to analyze data presented in common formats such as graphs and charts and may require Quant concepts or concepts related to CR or RC to solve. There are 4 different types of IR questions: Multi-Source Reasoning, Two-Part Analysis, Table Analysis, and Graphics Interpretation.  

Multi-Source Reasoning questions ask you to evaluate data presented in multiple formats, such as charts, tables, and passages of text, in order to answer a single question. In other words, you will see multiple “sources” of information, displayed on separate tabs, for each question. Based on that information, your job is to either answer 1 multiple-choice question or evaluate the validity of three separate statements, choosing 1 of 2 answers for each statement (yes/no, true/false, etc.). Here is an example of a Multi-Source Reasoning question. Don’t forget to click each of the tabs on the left side of the screen.  

Two-Part Analysis questions present you with a written scenario and 2 columns of choices. You will have to select 1 choice from each column (so, 2 choices in total) to answer the question. Here is an example of a Two-Part Analysis question.  

Table Analysis questions present data in a spreadsheet-like format that you can sort by column and ask you to analyze the data to evaluate 3 statements related to the data. For example, you might have to analyze the data to determine whether each related statement is true or false. For each statement, you will have to select 1 of 2 choices, so a total of 3 selections per question. The key to efficiently answering this type of question is strategic use of the “sort by” function, which allows you to sort the data by any column in the table, much like you would sort columns in an Excel spreadsheet.  

Graphics Interpretation questions require you to analyze a graph or diagram in order to fill in the blanks in 2 statements. Each statement contains 1 blank for which there is a drop-down menu containing 3 or 4 answer choices. You will have to select 1 answer for each blank, so a total of 2 selections per question.  

The thing to keep in mind about the IR section is that, although in the later part of your GMAT preparation you should do some IR-specific prep, if you are thoroughly prepared for the Quant and Verbal sections, you’ll have a strong foundation for tackling IR questions. Your IR preparation will focus not on learning and mastering new content but on getting comfortable with the various question types and honing your strategies for sifting through data efficiently.  

The Analytical Writing Assessment  

The AWA section presents a written argument that you must analyze in an essay that can be any length. Your job is to critique the given argument’s reasoning, analyzing flaws and assumptions in the argument while logically organizing and clearly communicating your ideas. You are not required to give your personal views on the subject matter or have any specific knowledge of the subject, and you may or may not include examples to support your critique.  

If, for instance, your essay seems a little light on word count, supporting examples are a good way to beef up your response. In general, a wise strategy is to shoot for an essay of around 500 words that follows a standard essay structure: an introductory paragraph that restates the argument presented in the question stem and provides an overview of the points you’ll address in your response; approximately 3 paragraphs that represent the “meat” of your essay, with each paragraph elaborating on one of the points you outlined in your intro; and a conclusion paragraph that summarizes the critique of the argument laid out in your response.  

While grammar, spelling, and word choice are factored into how your essay is scored, the overall structure, cohesiveness, and clarity of your essay are weighed more heavily.  

Step 2: Try Some Practice Questions  

Before we examine step 2 of beginning your GMAT preparation, I want to pause and make clear a very important point: This is not the stage of your GMAT prep in which you should begin practicing dozens of random GMAT questions from every book you can get your hands on and all corners of the internet. Remember, you haven’t formulated your GMAT study plan yet; so, is it really a wise strategy to start studying without a plan?  

If you dive head first into trying to solve a ton of random practice questions without first mastering the concepts on which those questions are based, it is guaranteed that time will not be well spent or serve to get you much closer to your GMAT score goal. You want to make sure to engage in GMAT practice at strategic times, so you don’t end up wasting time.  

At this early stage, you’re simply getting a feel for what GMAT questions are, not attempting to master answering them or to learn new concepts.  

See what it’s like to answer different types of GMAT questions. Just don’t go down the rabbit hole of poring over online question banks for weeks or searching out every variety of GMAT practice question known to man. In fact, all in all, you should spend no more than about a week or so familiarizing yourself with the GMAT and practicing some questions before you move on to step 3, getting your baseline score.  

Step 3: Get Your Baseline Score  

Just as trying out some GMAT practice questions is more for “informational purposes” than to master GMAT concepts and skills, taking an initial practice test serves to give you information about your current level of GMAT readiness, not actually prepare you to take your real exam. Think of it this way: right now, you’re at the foot of a GMAT mountain, and you need to know how high the peak is, so you don’t set out on your climb only to realize halfway up that you don’t have all the tools or time you need to make it to the top. Maybe your “GMAT mountain” isn’t that high, or maybe you have quite a way to climb.  

Either way, without your baseline score, which your initial practice test will provide, you won’t know whether you’re 50 points or 150 points from the score you need, and thus you’ll have a hard time figuring out how to reach your goal or how long you’ll need to study to reach it. So, you can see why taking an initial practice exam is an essential part of creating an effective GMAT study plan.  

GMAC, the maker of the GMAT, provides 6 official practice exams on its website, 2 of which are free. Spend a few minutes using GMAC’s exam tutorial tool to see what the GMAT test screens look like and how to navigate them, and to review the exam instructions for each section. Then, take the first of those free exams. The results of that exam will give you a good idea of what the GMAT test-taking experience is like and tell you how far you are from your score goal. (Looking to get a more comprehensive picture of your current Quant skills?  

Taking an initial practice exam is an essential part of creating an effective GMAT study plan.  

In order to get the most accurate baseline score possible, and thus the most accurate picture of how far you are from your score goal, when you sit for your first practice exam, replicate GMAT testing conditions as closely as possible. Take the exam in a private, quiet space where you won’t be interrupted. If you’ll be taking the exam at a test center, take your practice exam in a private room at the library, for example. If you’ll take the online GMAT, sit for your practice exam in the location where you will take the actual GMAT, and prepare the space just as you would for the actual exam. Either way, be sure to turn off your cell phone and put it someplace out of sight.  

Complete all sections of the exam, using only the allotted time and trying your best on every question. If you do anything that you wouldn’t be able to do during the actual GMAT, such as pausing the exam, taking extra breaks, texting your friend, or even drinking coffee at your desk, you’ll run the risk of creating a GMAT study plan based on an inaccurate baseline score, and thus missing the mark when the real test day arrives.  

It’s also important to remember that, while you want to give your full and best effort on your initial practice test, you shouldn’t go into the test “expecting” a certain score. The GMAT is a challenging exam that requires not only conceptual knowledge but also well-honed timing strategies and a significant amount of mental and physical stamina. The vast majority of GMAT test-takers need months of studying and practice to master GMAT content and refine their test-taking skills. For example, if we consider the time limits for each GMAT section at face value, then a test-taker has 2 minutes to answer each Quant question, a little less than 2 minutes to answer each Verbal question, and 2.5 minutes to answer each IR question.  

However, some questions naturally will take longer to answer than others to answer, and part of hitting your score goal is having a sense of how much time you can spend on different question types. A Reading Comprehension question, for example, will require more time on average than a Sentence Correction question will. Pacing yourself appropriately throughout the exam can significantly affect your GMAT score, so even if you are already pretty knowledgeable when it comes to GMAT content, don’t be surprised if you encounter other, unexpected challenges when you sit for your first practice test.  

Although it’s natural to hope that you’ll perform well on your first practice test, it probably isn’t realistic to expect that you’ll “hit the bull’s-eye” with your very first shot. Furthermore, that kind of expectation creates a lot of undue pressure. So what if you’re 100 points from your score goal, or 200, or whatever number? You’re new at this! That’s what a smart study plan is for! Remember, this is the information-gathering phase of your GMAT prep. Whatever your baseline score ends up being, the important thing is that you have the information you need to create a strategic, efficient, and realistic GMAT study plan that will take you from your starting point to the finish line.  

Step 4: Select the Right Study Materials  

One major mistake that GMAT students often make when studying for the GMAT is that they bounce around between multiple study resources, with no real order or method for how they’re learning content and what they’re learning on any given day. This type of patchwork GMAT study can make students feel as if they’re “covering all the bases” and taking advantage of every resource available for learning the GMAT.  

In truth, students taking this approach likely will learn a few unfamiliar concepts and skills at first, particularly if they’re starting without much knowledge of GMAT content. The problem is that students who cobble together their GMAT preparation by ping-ponging between multiple study materials invariably end up finding that their gains stop far short of their goals.  

If you just pick up whatever study materials you come across instead of researching what will work best to get you to your goal, you’re probably going to waste a lot of time on GMAT materials that don’t really work for you. Moreover, rather than covering all your bases, you could end up with significant gaps in your GMAT knowledge as a result of taking a piecemeal approach. So, how can you determine what the “right” study materials are?  

First and foremost, keep in mind that the range of concepts that GMAT questions cover is huge, and you have no way to know exactly which concepts will be tested on any one GMAT. Thus, to give yourself the best possible shot at earning a high score on the GMAT, you have to be ready for anything and everything that could get thrown your way on test day. Because there is so much content to master for the GMAT, taking a thorough and methodical approach to your GMAT prep is the best way to ensure that you learn everything you need to learn about each GMAT topic in order to hit your score goal.  

To study in this comprehensive way, you should seek to take a linear, topic-by-topic approach to your GMAT prep, learning one topic at a time, and then practicing numerous questions on just that topic. After you perform that practice, you’d revisit the concepts covered by the questions you answered incorrectly, and only once you felt that you’d mastered those concepts would you move on to the next Quant or Verbal topic.  

We can’t overstate the benefits of linear, topical learning for the GMAT. First, this type of learning allows you to start with easier concepts and work your way up to more advanced ones, so you can effectively increase your knowledge regardless of what level you’re starting at, and you don’t waste time on problem sets that cover concepts you haven’t yet learned.  

Second, by learning each GMAT topic individually and following up your learning with practice with realistic GMAT questions on just that topic, you ensure that you truly master each topic before you move on to the next one. Furthermore, you uncover and fill any gaps in your knowledge, gaps that you might not otherwise notice if you take a less methodical approach to your prep. Third, linear learning allows your GMAT prep to stay organized and efficient because you’re not randomly switching from one topic to the next, perhaps doing far fewer practice questions on certain topics than on others, or missing fundamental concepts in more wide-ranging topics, such as Number Properties.  

Step 5: Create a “Foolproof” Study Schedule  

GMAT students are often taken aback when I tell them that, ideally, they should shoot for 18 or more hours a week of GMAT prep. Although that may seem like a large number of study hours, there is A TON to learn for the GMAT, so most students need to devote a good deal of time to their prep. Writing down a daily GMAT study schedule (or entering it into a calendar app) will make holding yourself accountable and putting in the necessary study time much simpler than trying to track everything in your head will.  

It’s extremely easy — sometimes even unavoidable — for an hour here and an hour there to slip away, and then for days to go by when you’re simply “too busy” to study for the GMAT. Enough of those days, and you can quickly fall behind schedule and become discouraged or overly stressed about your GMAT situation.  

Of course, it’s natural to assume that you would never allow yourself to get into the kind of predicament I’ve just described, but time can slip away from even the most dedicated students. Why not err on the side of caution and make your study schedule “foolproof”? If you schedule in your GMAT study hours for each day, you avoid the stress of having to “make time” for GMAT prep. Even if you can study for only 1 hour each day, schedule in that hour! GMAT preparation is a long haul, and to be successful, you have to be consistent. So, studying for the GMAT has to stay a top priority in your life, regardless of the countless other responsibilities, events, to-dos, and last-minute changes of plans that pop up and threaten to derail your day.  

To maintain the ambitious (but necessary) schedule of studying for 18+ hours per week, a good starting point is to try to study for 2+ hours each weekday and 4+ hours each weekend day. Of course, you may find that you need to adjust that schedule, either at the start or as you go along. For example, if you have a demanding full-time job that leaves you exhausted in the evenings, perhaps you can study for 1.5 hours each morning before work and get in longer study sessions on the weekends.  

If your work or school schedule changes periodically, you may need to plan out your schedule a couple of weeks at a time. The point is, however you can fit in your GMAT prep, a concrete schedule that you can refer to will help make studying for the GMAT a “non-negotiable” part of your day. And with your schedule written down, you can more easily and accurately keep track of the time you’re putting into your prep, and catch yourself quickly if you start skimping on study hours.  

How Long Does GMAT Preparation Take?  

On the mba.com website, GMAC advises that, based on test-takers’ self-reporting, “successful business school candidates gave themselves 3-6 months to prepare,” on average, for the GMAT. GMAC also acknowledges that “the time you should spend preparing to take the GMAT exam is unique to you,” and this is an important point to keep in mind. The fact is, some test-takers need more than 6 months to hit their score goals, while others may need less than 3. How far you are from your score goal and how many hours you can devote to GMAT study each day will affect your study timeline. Just keep in mind that it’s not uncommon for students to need 300 hours or more of study time in order to reach their goal scores. Let’s look at a couple of examples.