GMAT overview Tag

The GMAT Verbal Section comprises three question types: Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction. Each is designed to assess specific verbal skills. Importantly, you won’t need specialized subject knowledge to answer these questions.

Reading Comprehension

• Evaluates your ability to grasp words and statements, recognize logical connections between key points, draw inferences, and follow the development of quantitative ideas.
• Tests various reading skills, including identifying the main idea, supporting points, inferences, applications, logical structure, and style.
• Questions are based on passages that cover topics in social sciences, humanities, physical and biological sciences, or business-related fields.

Critical Reasoning

• Assesses your capacity to make and evaluate arguments, as well as to formulate or assess action plans.
• Involves short reading passages, typically under 100 words, followed by questions asking you to identify which of five answer choices strengthens or weakens an argument, reveals its flaws, or strongly supports or undermines it.

Sentence Correction

• Measures two key aspects of your language proficiency: correct expression, focusing on grammatically and structurally sound sentences, and effective expression, concentrating on clear, concise, and grammatical ideas.
• Each Sentence Correction question presents a sentence, with an underlined part. Below the sentence, you’ll find five different phrasings for the underlined portion. Your task is to choose the answer that results in the most effective sentence.

The Integrated Reasoning Section comprises four distinct question types: Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation, and Two-Part Analysis. These questions involve both quantitative and verbal reasoning, either individually or in combination. It’s essential to note that many questions in this section require multiple responses, and you’ll have access to an online calculator with basic functions. Since these questions aim to assess your ability to integrate data for solving complex problems, you must answer all responses to a question correctly, as no partial credit is given.

Here’s a brief GMAT overview of each Integrated Reasoning question type:

• Multi-Source Reasoning: Evaluates your capacity to examine data from various sources (text passages, tables, graphics, or combinations) and carefully analyze each source to answer multiple questions. You may need to identify discrepancies among different data sources, draw inferences, or determine data relevance.

• Table Analysis: Assesses your ability to sort and analyze table data (similar to a spreadsheet) to determine relevant information or specific conditions.

• Graphics Interpretation: Measures your capacity to interpret information presented in graphical formats (scatter plots, x/y graphs, bar charts, pie charts, or statistical curve distributions), enabling you to identify relationships and make inferences.

• Two-Part Analysis: Evaluates your problem-solving skills in both quantitative and verbal contexts, with the flexibility to cover a wide range of content. You’ll demonstrate your ability to assess trade-offs, solve simultaneous equations, and recognize relationships between two entities.

Within the Analysis of an Argument (AWA) section, you’ll evaluate the reasoning quality of a given argument. This involves analyzing the argument’s logical structure and use of supporting evidence. Before you start writing, it’s advisable to take a few minutes to assess the argument and plan your response. Ensure your ideas are well-organized and fully elaborated. While you should reserve some time for reviewing and revising your response, keep in mind that you have a 30-minute time limit for this task.

AWA essays receive scores from a combination of human raters and an automated algorithm. In cases where there’s a discrepancy between the algorithm’s score and the human score, an additional human rater reviews and may adjust the score accordingly.

Rescoring Service:

If you wish to have your AWA section rescored by an independent evaluator, you can do so for a fee of US$45. Please note that requests for rescoring must be submitted within six months of your test date, as any requests received after this period won’t be considered.

Here are five key points to keep in mind regarding rescoring:

1. Rescoring requests are limited to one per test taker.
2. The rescore process may result in either an increase or decrease in your original AWA score.
3. Revised scores are typically sent to you and the programs you selected as score recipients approximately 20 days after receiving your request.
4. Once your rescoring request is initiated, the fee becomes non-refundable.
5. To request a rescore, please reach out to GMAC Customer Care.

Important Note: It’s important to be aware that the Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative, and Verbal sections of the GMAT exam are not eligible for rescoring.