How to Start Your Preparation for the GMAT Exam

Wondering how to kick start your GMAT preparation? This article will provide you with an overview of how to begin your GMAT practice and what resources you can rely on. Read on!

How to Start Your GMAT Preparation

Preparing for the GMAT is not like preparing for any other exam that you attend at school or college. Exams like the GMAT, are quite challenging and require a certain number of hours of dedicated practice. However, here are a few tips to keep in mind to kick-start your GMAT prep.

1. Take practice tests to know where you stand and what are your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Design a study schedule. Set the timeline of the study schedule depending on your scores in mock tests.
3. Get the latest version of the official GMAT guide to learn the concepts and apply them to practice questions.
4. Make sure you read the diagnostic section to get a detailed explanation of the answers.
5. Take a mock test after a considerable amount of practice and evaluate your key strengths and weaknesses.

However, before you start your GMAT prep, it is also essential to get an understanding of the overall structure of the GMAT exam. Hence, let us understand the structure through the GMAT model paper.

The GMAT Model Paper 

The GMAT exam is 3 hours and 7 minutes long and is consists of four main sections, they are as follows:

1. Quantitative Reasoning
2. Verbal Reasoning
3. Analytical Writing Assessment
4. Integrated Reasoning

Analytical Writing Assessment

The analytical writing assessment is the first part of the GMAT exam and is 30 minutes long. In this section, you will be asked to write an essay. More specifically, you need to analyze and write a critique of an argument.  In this section, you will be gauged on your critical thinking and writing skills. You will be scored on a scale of 0 to 6, with a half-point increment.

Integrated Reasoning

The integrated reasoning section is also a 30 minutes long section that requires you to analyse and interpret large amounts of data. The integrated reasoning section evaluates your ability to analyse the given data and how you use it to solve complex problems. Furthermore, the IR section has four question types, they are: two-part analysis, multi-source reasoning, graphic interpretation and table analysis. You will have 12 multiple choice questions to answer.

Quantitative Reasoning

The quantitative reasoning section of the GMAT consists of data sufficiency and problem-solving questions. With the help of these questions your quantitative reasoning skills are evaluated. You are required to answer 31 questions in 62 minutes. You will be scored on a scale of 0 to 60.

Verbal Reasoning

The fourth section of your exam will be the verbal reasoning section. In the verbal section, you will have to attempt a total of 36 questions within 65 minutes. The verbal reasoning section will incorporate questions pertaining to sentence correction, critical reasoning and reading comprehension. Just like the quantitative reasoning section, you will be scored on a scale of 0 to 60.

Now that you know what the structure of the GMAT exam is and how to prepare for the GMAT exam, you’re better positioned to plan your practice strategy.