GMAT - 2024

graduate admissions entrance exam designed specifically for students who want to go to graduate school for business. A GMAT score is often required when submitting a graduate program application for an MBA, Master of Accountancy, or Master of Finance.

   GMAT scores are used for MBA applications and applications to master's programs in business or management. GMAT scores are accepted for programs such as the ISB YLP, Harvard 2+2 program, the Yale Silver Scholars program and the Booth Scholars Program.

   Any candidate, who wants to apply for management programmes and is 18 years or above (if a candidate is between 13 and 17 years, he/she may appear for the GMAT after providing written approval or consent by his/her legal guardians or parents), can apply for the GMAT exam 2024. What is the GMAT eligibility criteria? There are no specific GMAT eligibility criteria set by the GMAC except for the one related to age, i.e. anyone who is 18 years or above can appear for the GMAT exam and those who are less than 18 need to provide a signed GMAT Parental Consent/Authorization form.

GMAT Syllabus

  The GMAT Exam consists of four sections, as mentioned above. As with any important examination, a candidate must be thoroughly familiar with the exam syllabus before beginning preparation for the exam. So, without further ado, let’s closely examine the GMAT Syllabus.

The official GMAC website offers the GMAT Syllabus in broad categories for your reference. In this article, we will talk about the overall GMAT Syllabus and try to dissect it according to the different sections for your better understanding.

GMAT Syllabus: Verbal Ability (VA)

During the GMAT verbal ability section, candidates are allotted 65 minutes to answer all the questions presented. The section consists of three different types of questions:

Reading comprehension

Critical reasoning

Sentence correction

GMAT Reading Comprehension

   In this section, you have to read unseen passages that are approximately 350 words and answer multiple-choice questions based on the passages. while taking an unbiased decision. You do not need to know any extraneous, intricate information regarding the topic. Rather, you should only be able to set your concepts right and understand the relation between various entities involved.

GMAT Reading Comprehension: Categorizing RC questions

  Categorizing RC questions will help you interpret the GMAT Verbal Ability section as a whole. This means that you will be able to enhance your ability to comprehend the types of questions being asked on the GMAT verbal section and how you can best answer them. Further, you will learn what it takes for a test-taker to perform on-the-spot mental exercises. You will also be able to analyse the questions and identify key elements in the passages while uncovering hidden repercussions in the excerpt.

  Main idea question: Main idea questions are one of the most common types of questions in the GMAT reading comprehension section. You’ll find at least one main idea question in all the passages. In these questions, you need to identify the answer choice that matches the scope of the entire passage. The key here is to think of the big picture and not get distracted by the individual elements. Put all the pieces together and try to figure out what is the essential purpose of the passage.

  Supporting detail/ substantial idea question: These questions are trickier than the main idea questions. Supporting detail or substantial idea questions require a thorough reading on your part. These questions may ask about facts or specific arguments that are explicitly cited in the passage. Although these facts mostly support the main idea that the passage talks about.

  Assumption/inference: Assumption/inference type of questions are more advanced than the two mentioned above and would require more of your critical thinking abilities. Unlike the supporting idea questions which ask about plain facts, the inference-based problems talk about arguments and ideas that are implied by the author but not mentioned explicitly in the passage. To answer these questions, you need to think logically and make some calculated assumptions about the author’s intentions.

  Out of framework:  Out of framework or out of context questions are, as their name suggests, not related to the passage directly. These questions ask you to absorb the information present in the passage and apply it in an out of context situation. These questions may ask you about the author’s views regarding a matter that is completely unrelated to the passage.

  In this instance, you need to take the similar approach as with the inference type question. However, please note that you may have to take a much farther logical leap than before. These questions primarily test your understanding of the main idea of the passage and your ability to apply it elsewhere.

  Coherent logical structure:  These kinds of questions talk about the overall structure of the passage. You’ll be asked what the author is accomplishing by writing this passage this particular way. For example, the question might have the following wording, “Does the passage refute an idea?”, or “Is the author contrasting two ideas?”.

Sometimes, there can also be a question that asks for a suitable title for the passage. Coherent logical structure problems test your ability to understand the structural flow of the passage.

Author's style and tenor: Finally, there are style and tone questions which test your ability to identify the tone of the passage. You may be asked to identify the ideas in the passage and the tone used by the passage to express those ideas. Generally, the most common type of question will ask you to describe the style and tone of the passage using a single word or a phrase. For example, critical, enthusiastic, optimistic, objective etc. are the frequent choices in those problems.

GMAT Reading Comprehension: Crucial Components of RC Passage

It may be easy to get carried away by the passage given. However, don’t lose focus of the topic or bring in your own ideas. Do not bring any worldly knowledge into the passage. Doing so would mean that your content is different from the actual content of the passage.

Topic- what is the passage about?

Scope-what aspect of the topic does the passage focus on?

Purpose-why did the author write the passage?

What notes would you jot down on your note board?

Preparation Strategy for Reading Comprehension for GMAT

  Your GMAT Verbal Ability score largely depends on Reading Comprehension. Here are some foolproof ways to structure and time your preparation for GMAT Reading Comprehension:

  Skim the passage [1 minute]: Skimming the passage refers to a quick reading of the passage being given. It is slightly different from scanning, where you are looking for a fact or a piece of information that is explicitly mentioned.

  Whereas skimming requires a quick reading of the entire passage to get the general idea being portrayed. Here, the goal is not to look for details but to get the overall tone and idea of the passage.

  Read the questions [1 minute]: After skimming, you should give a quick glance to the problems that are related to the passage. Read the questions carefully and identify what type of questions they are. The various types of questions are mentioned above for your reference. Mark each of the questions according to their type and take a specific approach to each of them as required.

  Read the Passage in detail [2 minutes]: After going through the questions, revert back to the passage and read it thoroughly. Unlike skimming, where you skip over minute details, here you need to be focused and look for tiny intricacies and specific facts that are mentioned.

  However, given that the GMAT is a timed exam, you shouldn’t spend too much time on this step. It is advisable to be conscious of the time you’re taking with the section. Look for the information that is specifically asked for in the questions and ignore other irrelevant information.

Answer questions [1 minute]: After the thorough reading, it is finally time to answer the questions. You should begin with the main idea questions at first, as they require relatively less mental effort. Then, you should build on that by answering the supporting idea questions after looking up the explicit facts mentioned. Ideally, you should proceed in the order mentioned above to be most effective. However, after answering these two types of questions in the beginning, you can move in any order of your preference.

Identify the outliers [0.25 minutes]: Outliers are those answer choices that are not explicitly mentioned in the passage but resonate with the question. You need to have a sharp eye for these answer choices, and your understanding of the main idea of the passage should be strong. With your solid reasoning, you’ll be able to identify these outliers and use them to your advantage.

GMAT Critical Reasoning

  In this section, a candidate has to perform an analysis, based on the given argument and mark the right answer. You will be required to extract the relevant data that would either back or oppose the given argument and select the best possible option.

How to Prepare for GMAT Critical Reasoning

Here is how you can effectively prepare for Critical Reasoning on the GMAT:

  Follow the "map that leads to you": You need to get familiar with the topic of critical reasoning. The GMAT critical reasoning questions have been deliberately built analytically and confusingly, where the usage of jargon is encouraged and sentences appear to be in harmony with themselves rather than being helpful to the student. A candidate should deviate from spending time on incessant reading, and instead work out how best to decode controversial theories to find evidentiary clues that help in solving the question.

  Believe that slow and steady wins the race: Being ambitious means being slow and steady towards your ambition. Speed reading can only help you get so far. For every noteworthy entrance examination in the world, speed reading will only exhibit your reading ability. You need to interpret what's going on in the question. This will help you understand the information provided from the data that needs to be assumed.

   Breaking the question down sentence wise will help you mindfully assess the situation presented in the question. As much as this question is subjective to an individual candidate’s own prepping strategy, this is also a quandary that states that you need to be smart, rather than being hard on yourself.

  Get a "reason" to start over new: It is not advisable for you to be wishy-washy with a critical reasoning question. You should align the question around your own analytical reasoning capabilities and then draw necessary conclusions. Identify the dominant and the weak parts of the sentence and practice the technique of gathering information with respect to the contextual meaning of the question.

   Learning reasoning helps you to examine the dense usage of what’s written in the paragraph, while also helping you connect to what the historical, geographical and social themes of the question are. This in turn can help you assume or predict the solution for a given question.

  Steer ahead of the conventional reading practices: Don’t just read, understand, summarize and formulate a derived context with related comments. It is all about throwing yourself open to challenges and successfully testing your power to extract the correct meaning from complex written information. This is also the "main idea" behind the birth of the critical reasoning (CR) questions.

  Critical reasoning is one of the most confusing topics on the GMAT verbal and makes you lose considerable marks. To avoid such a situation at hand, register for this free webinar on GMAT critical reasoning where CL experts teach you how to break the argument and pick the right answer in half a minute!

GMAT Sentence Correction

  In this set of questions, you will basically be provided with a sentence where a partially highlighted part needs to be assessed. As there will be multiple options provided for the right answer, which you can mark as the right answer, you need to make sure that the construction of the sentence is appropriate and that the original meaning has not been rubbed off or lost while correcting it. Also, you need to consider your writing skills and acknowledge the rules of English grammar.

How to Prepare for GMAT Sentence Correction

Here is how you can tackle the sentence correction questions:

Read the entire statement carefully.

Review grammatical build, punctuation build and spelling build of the sentence.

Be attentive to the non-highlighted part of the sentence, as it may contain clues to the right answer.

Eliminate distortions and long answer options. Remember, distortions exist to break the fluidity of your performance.

  Scrutinize the modifiers and their location in the question. Many times, the modifiers in the question are jumbled to confuse the candidate. Choose the answer option that relates all the events occurring in the sentence in the most sensible way and eliminates redundancy from the question.

  Look out for wrong synonyms used in the sentence that are not congruous with the overall meaning of the sentence. Also establish the correct relation between various juxtapositions or comparisons occurring in the sentence.

  Establish the correct subject-verb agreement and eliminate options that do not adhere to the same.

  Identify the correct subject for the correct predicate. Make sure the sentence does not lose its meaning midway.

  Do not worry about the disposition of certain words. As long as the number agreement, tenses, modifiers and auxiliary verbs are in line with the subject, you are good to go!

GMAT Verbal / Grammar Syllabus

Following are some of the topics you can expect in the GMAT verbal section. They generally revolve around basic grammar rules.

Basic Sentence structure: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives

Verb Tense

Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions

Pronoun Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement

Modifiers

Parallelism

Phrases and Clauses

Articles

Parts of speech

Direct and Indirect

Active to Passive

You can also refer the following articles in order to widen your horizon for GMAT Verbal:

Grammar mistakes you shouldn't make

Sentence correction for GMAT

10 ways to develop reading habit

Expand your vocabulary toolbox

GMAT Syllabus: Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA):

  The analytical writing section consists of topics based on which a candidate will have to write, along with passages that might be given for a candidate to read and answer questions. The GMAT AWA section analyses your critical reasoning skills, communication skills and your grammatical skills. Candidates should be attentive towards proper usage of vocabulary and try their best to avoid any grammatical errors.

  The duration of this section is 30 minutes, and the score ranges from o-6, in half-point increments. The essay will have a topic, which could be from any domain. The test is mainly designed to assess your writing skills, let alone your opinions and judgements. So, it is safe to stick to a neutral opinion while framing your answer. There can be two types of essay questions in the AWA section.

  Argument essay: In this section, the reasoning in the given argument must be analysed by the candidate and all the underlying assumptions are to be considered. Following this, the conclusion of whether the argument is logically sound or not has to be made. Another thing that must be kept in mind is that no baseless assumptions are to be made by the candidate. The candidate must look at the statement and argument in isolation and dispassionately dissect them without prior biases. In addition, it is necessary for a candidate to respond in alignment with the evidence, based on the argument. Importance has to be given to introduce proper diction, syntax and academy grammar to support or stand against the critique presented in the question.

  Issue essay - In this section, you would have to present a dissertation on the issue given to you. The word limit is around 600. The opinions you put forward can be supportive of the given issue or you can structure the article based on your own stance. But you need to formulate a biased approach and either stand by or against the presented issue. You can also brainstorm examples clued up from various prompts or entities presented in the main issue itself. Present unique content and style of writing while dealing with this type of question in the AWA section.

GMAT Exam Dates New Delhi 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Gurgaon/Gurugram 2024     

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Noida 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Bangalore/Bengaluru 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Chennai 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10. 17, 24

February: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24, 29

GMAT Exam Dates Cochin 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25

February:1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14

GMAT Exam Dates Mumbai 2024

January: 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Kolkata 2024

January: TBA

February: TBA

GMAT Exam Dates Jaipur 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

February: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15

GMAT Exam Dates Amritsar 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Ahmedabad 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Bhopal 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

February: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15

GMAT Exam Dates Guwahati 2024

January: TBA

February: TBA

GMAT Exam Dates Pune 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27

February: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31

GMAT Exam Dates Nagpur 2024

January: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27

February: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15

GMAT Exam Dates Ranchi 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

February: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15

GMAT Exam Dates Surat 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12, 13

GMAT Exam Dates Pilani 2024

January: 14, 28

February: 11

GMAT Exam Dates Vijayawada 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

February: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15

GMAT Exam Dates Mysore 2024

January: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

February: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15

GMAT Exam Dates Hyderabad 2024

January: 2, 4, 8, 10, 17, 24

February: 5, 12

official site - https://www.gmac.com/gmat