Applying to an MBA program takes hard work and preparation—and the GMAT is no small part of that. Known to be challenging due to its extensive testing of quantitative and qualitative ability, nabbing the necessary score for your dream business school is no mean feat. That’s where practice exams come in; effective, measurable, and structured ways to prepare for the GMAT.
What is the GMAT?
The GMAT is a standardized business school entrance exam. While not every school requires it—many allow the GRE in its place—it is widely considered to be a helpful “indicator of aptitude and competency” in business school candidates, testing their executive reasoning skills, both verbal and quantitative.
The GMAT has been designed specifically for business schools admissions. GMAC, which produce the GMAT, work alongside business school admission professionals, meaning that the contents of the exam directly reflect the skills looked for by business schools.
The GMAT can be taken either in person or online.
Structure and Content of the Exam
The GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test) takes two hours and 15 minutes to complete.
The GMAT is split into the following three sections:
- Quantitative Reasoning: 45 minutes and 21 questions; asks candidates to apply their algebraic and arithmetic knowledge to solve problems.
- Verbal Reasoning: 45 minutes and 23 questions; requires candidates to reason and to evaluate arguments, and tests their ability to read and comprehend written content.
- Data Insights. 45 minutes and 20 questions; asks candidates to analyze, interpret, and apply data, measuring digital and data literacy as it does so.
Candidates can change the order of the test to suit their preferences. They can bookmark questions for review as they go, and can change a maximum of three answers at the end of their exam. The GMAT is also computer adaptive, meaning that its difficulty adjusts according to the performance of the candidate; correct answers will prompt harder questions to appear, and incorrect answers will lead to easier questions.
Updates to the GMAT
The GMAT was updated in 2023. The new version—briefly called the GMAT Focus Edition, but now referred to simply as the GMAT—scrapped a section from the old, increased its flexibility, and is nearly an hour shorter than its predecessor.
Wherever you get your GMAT practice exams, ensure that they follow the structure of the new, updated version. If you have already taken an old version of the exam, take a look at our score comparison guide.
Why Might a Practice Exam Be Important?
“Many candidates take the test more than once before hitting their optimal score,” says Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond. For this reason, he advises GMAT candidates “to take as many full-length, sample exams that you can (under timed testing conditions).”
The practice exam can assist you to:
1. Identify your weak spots and build a study plan
The GMAC recommends taking a practice exam early on in your preparation. This might sound counterintuitive—why test your knowledge before you’ve properly acquired it?—but it actually serves a very important purpose.
A practice exam early on in your preparation shows you where you need to focus on first. It establishes a baseline against which you can measure your progress. By identifying tricky areas, you can make an informed decision about what to study over the next few weeks, and which areas you should prioritize.
2. Check if your preparation is working
Once you have your baseline exam result and have created a study plan, you’ll want to check that it’s working. Yet again the practice exam proves helpful here: after a couple of weeks of study, you can take exam number two. Think about how the second test compared to the first—Did your score improve? Did the easier parts still feel easy?
From the results of your second practice exam, you can adapt and update your preparation to ensure that it continues to be effective. Then, after another two weeks have passed, you should take another practice test. Once again compare it to the previous, and adapt your study accordingly.
3. Get used to the timings and structure
The structure of the GMAT may be a bit different to other exams you have taken, so you’ll want to get used to it. As mentioned above, it’s computer adaptive, meaning it gets harder or easier depending on your performance. You can also take the sections in the order of your choice, so work out which order you will pick on the day of the test.
You should take practice GMATs in exam conditions: no distractions, set timings, and in as similar an environment to the real thing as possible. Practicing the timings will help you understand how long you can spend on each section; making the structure and set up feel familiar will dispel nerves and help your performance on the day of the real thing.
4. Get detailed insights on your performance
When you take the official GMAC practice exam (more on how to access this later), you’ll receive, alongside your scores and percentile rankings, a set of insights. These insights are broken down by “section, question type, and content domain (meaning, a specific area of knowledge).” You’ll also get information on your time management throughout the exam.
This Score Report allows you to dive deep into your strengths and weaknesses—not just in terms of content, but in question type and timings too. This is great information to have access to while preparing to take the exam.
Where Can You Find Practice Exams?
Practice exams can be split into two categories: official and unofficial. Where possible, you should prioritize taking the official practice exams that are released by GMAC. Since they are written by the creators of the GMAT exam that you are preparing for, they are undoubtedly the closest you’ll get to experiencing the real thing.
Official Practice Exams
Official practice exams can be accessed through mba.com. Exams are full-length and “leverage the same scoring algorithm as the real exam.” The official—and free—GMAC Starter Kit offers two free practice exams, and an additional four are available for purchase. Alongside the full-length, timed, adaptive practice exams, GMAC offers a series of sample questions that you can use to practice. One sample question is offered for every type of question that you’ll see in the GMAT, for every section.
The sample question for the Quantitative Reasoning section, for example, is as follows:
Directions:
Solve the problem and indicate the best of the answer choices given.
Question:
If a certain wheel turns at a constant rate of x revolutions per minute, how many revolutions will the wheel make in k seconds?
(A) 60kx
(B) kx
(C) x÷k
(D) x÷(60k)
(E) kx÷60
Answer below
Unofficial Practice Exams & Other Resources
GMAT practice exams can even be found, free of charge, on the sites of some business schools—London Business School offers both mini and full tests, for example, and Emory Goizueta offers a full-length practice exam.
Stacey Blackman Consulting has their own GMAT Cheat Sheet as well as tutoring services.
You can also find practice exams on some forums. GMAT Club, for example, offers one adaptive full-length GMAT Focus Edition practice exam completely free of charge; if you subscribe to one of their three-month plans, you’ll gain access to up to seven more practice exams in addition to sample questions, score reports, and more.
You can find other practice exams through test preparation shops. Some other examples include, but are not limited to:
- Manhattan Test Prep, powered by Kaplan: offers a free full-length GMAT practice test, accompanied by guidance on navigating test structure, scoring, and time management.
- Magoosh: via a paid package, offers two full-length GMAT practice tests as well as hundreds of other sample questions, video lessons, and score insights.
- Test Prep Review: offers a free full-length GMAT practice test, alongside flashcards and study guides.
- Experts Global: via several paid packages, offers 15 full-length GMAT practice tests, as well as video and written assistance and insights on scoring.
Interpreting Your Practice Exam Score
Just like the rest of your preparation, your practice exams are a step towards achieving your target score on the GMAT.
To determine your target score, you should bear the following in mind:
1. The rest of your application, since this is considered holistically
2. The average GMAT scores of current classes at your target schools (you can find this data in Clear Admit’s school profiles and Real Numbers series).
This last point is important. Top business schools may look for higher scores than those generally considered good. mba.com, for example, explains that “scoring above 645 is extremely competitive” and that “a score of above 605 will place you in the competitive top 30% of test takers.” However, the average GMAT score for the incoming class at Columbia Business School was 732.
You could also flip this process around, and use your GMAT scores to decide which school to aim for.
But remember—your practice exam result does not need to equal your target score. You can treat these practice exams as data; information on where to focus your preparatory attention next. Remember to dive into the Score Report and consider where to improve your content knowledge, question comprehension, and time management.
The answer for the sample question is E.
