The GMAT syllabus (Focus Edition) has three equally weighted sections: Quantitative Reasoning (21 questions, arithmetic and algebra), Verbal Reasoning (23 questions, Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension), and Data Insights (20 questions, five data-analysis question types). Each section runs 45 minutes for a total of 2 hours 15 minutes. The exam is question-adaptive and scored 205-805.
Every GMAT taken since February 2024 is the Focus Edition. If someone hands you a syllabus with Sentence Correction, geometry, or an essay section, it's out of date. Here's the current version, section by section.
What is the GMAT Focus Edition syllabus?
The syllabus covers three skill areas, tested in three sections: Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights. There is no essay and no separate grammar section. GMAC built the Focus Edition around problem-solving speed and data literacy rather than rote content recall, which is why the syllabus is narrower than the old GMAT's but the questions lean harder on reasoning.
Everything on the exam falls into one of these three buckets:
- Quantitative Reasoning: arithmetic and algebra, applied through word problems
- Verbal Reasoning: reading and argument evaluation, no grammar rules
- Data Insights: reading and reasoning over tables, charts, and mixed data sources
You choose the order you take these three sections in on test day. There's no fixed sequence you're forced into.
What is the GMAT exam pattern?
The pattern is fixed: three sections, 45 minutes each, 64 questions total, in whatever order you pick at check-in. You get one optional 10-minute break, taken after your first or second section.
Two tools matter for the pattern: an on-screen whiteboard is available in every section, and the on-screen calculator only appears during Data Insights. Quant is calculator-free by design; the arithmetic is meant to be doable by hand. For a walkthrough of how the whole test day flows, see our GMAT Focus Edition guide.
What topics are on GMAT Quant?
GMAT Quant tests arithmetic and algebra exclusively. Geometry is gone, and Data Sufficiency questions moved to Data Insights, so every Quant question is Problem Solving: pick the right numeric answer from five choices.
The GMAT maths syllabus breaks down into:
- Arithmetic: number properties, fractions, decimals, percents, ratios, exponents, roots, statistics (mean, median, standard deviation), sets, and counting
- Algebra: linear and quadratic equations, inequalities, functions, and sequences
- Word problems: rate-time-distance, work problems, mixtures, and profit/loss, all built from the arithmetic and algebra above
A typical Quant question looks like solving for the smaller root, or working out what percent a discounted price represents of the original. No proofs, no coordinate geometry, no triangles. The section rewards speed and number sense more than memorized formulas.
What topics are on the GMAT Verbal syllabus?
GMAT Verbal tests Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension only. Sentence Correction, the grammar-rules question type that used to make up a third of Verbal, was cut when the Focus Edition launched.
- Critical Reasoning: strengthen/weaken the argument, find the assumption, evaluate the conclusion, identify the flaw, resolve a paradox
- Reading Comprehension: short and medium passages on business, science, and social-science topics, with questions on main idea, inference, and detail
Because Sentence Correction is gone, Verbal is now purely a reading-and-reasoning section. There's no grammar rulebook to memorize. What matters is reading dense passages quickly and tracking the logical structure of an argument, which is closer to what the Hire A Clanker method drills through timed passage sets.
What is tested in Data Insights?
Data Insights is the section that replaced Integrated Reasoning, and it's bigger: 20 questions instead of IR's 12, and it now counts toward your main score instead of being reported separately. It tests five question types drawn from GMAC's official content outline:
- Data Sufficiency: decide whether given statements provide enough information to answer a question, without solving it fully
- Multi-Source Reasoning: pull facts from two or three tabbed sources (text, tables, charts) to answer several questions
- Table Analysis: sort a data table and evaluate true/false style statements against it
- Graphics Interpretation: read a chart or graph and complete statements using dropdown menus
- Two-Part Analysis: solve a problem with two related unknowns, verbal or quantitative, choosing one answer per column
Data Sufficiency typically makes up the largest share of the section, roughly 20-40% of the 20 questions, with Graphics Interpretation next at around 20-30%. Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, and Two-Part Analysis usually split the remainder, each landing somewhere around 10-20%. The exact mix shifts slightly test to test because the adaptive engine is still selecting questions by difficulty, not by a fixed quota.
The on-screen calculator is available throughout Data Insights, which sets it apart from Quant. That single detail changes how you should practice it: Data Insights problems often hinge on reading a table or chart correctly and setting up the right calculation, and the arithmetic itself is rarely the hard part once the setup is right. You can drill each question type separately in practice before mixing them into full-length sets.
What changed from the old GMAT?
The Focus Edition cut a full section, shortened the test by almost an hour, and moved the score scale. If you studied from an old GMAT book, most of the content list no longer applies.
The two biggest shifts for study planning: geometry and Sentence Correction are off the syllabus entirely, and Data Insights now weighs as much as Quant or Verbal, which means it can't be treated as an afterthought the way Integrated Reasoning often was.
How should you pace each section?
Budget roughly 2 minutes per question across all three sections, since each section splits 45 minutes across a fixed question count. Reading Comprehension passages in Verbal even that out slightly, since the passage itself takes time to read before the first question even starts.
- Quant: 21 questions in 45 minutes, about 2:08 per question
- Verbal: 23 questions in 45 minutes, about 1:57 per question, with passage-reading time folded in for RC
- Data Insights: 20 questions in 45 minutes, about 2:15 per question, more for Multi-Source Reasoning sets that span three questions on one set of sources
There's no skipping on the GMAT Focus Edition. Every question needs an answer before the test lets you advance, and a string of unanswered questions at the end of a section costs more than a string of wrong guesses. If the clock is running out, answer everything, even on instinct, and eliminate at least one choice before guessing when you can. Removing one wrong option turns a 20% shot into a 25% one.
How is the GMAT Focus Edition scored?
Each section is question-adaptive: answer correctly and the next question tends to get harder, miss one and it eases up. Difficulty is how the algorithm locates your level quickly, and your score is built from the difficulty you can sustain across the section. A test-taker who nails 70% of hard questions typically outscores one who nails 90% of easy ones, so there's little value in trying to game the algorithm by deliberately missing questions to see easier ones. That strategy only lowers the ceiling the test offers you.
Total score runs 205-805 in 10-point steps, built from all three sections weighted equally, so Data Insights carries the same weight as Quant or Verbal. You see an unofficial score immediately after finishing, with the option to cancel it on the spot before it's reported. Official scores post within a few business days. You can retake the exam up to five times in a rolling 12 months, eight times total, with at least 16 days between attempts.
Adaptivity within a section
The adaptive engine works within each section independently. Your Quant performance doesn't influence the starting difficulty of Verbal, and Data Insights resets fresh again. This is also why the review-and-edit screen only allows three changes per section: letting you rewrite most of your answers after the fact would break the difficulty calibration the score depends on.
Building a study plan around this syllabus
Once the syllabus is clear, the study plan writes itself: drill arithmetic and algebra until they're fast, read CR and RC passages under a clock, and don't skip Data Insights just because it's newer and less familiar. It carries a full third of your score.
Start with a free trial to see where your baseline sits across all three sections before committing to a study calendar. A clear picture of the syllabus is most of the battle before you open a single practice set.