The GMAT Official Guide | What is it and how to use it?

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a computer-adaptive test for admission to graduate management programs, such as MBA and master’s in accounting and other finance-related courses. The GMAT exam has wide acceptability and there are nearly 2,300+ schools that accept GMAT scores. The GMAT Official Guide book is one of the best books for GMAT preparation and can help you ace it. In this article, you will find tips on how to use the GMAT official guide effectively, and other important facts about the GMAT exam.

What is the GMAT Official Guide?

The GMAT Official Guide is a study guide by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which is also the creator of the GMAT exam. The book is full of past-year questions from official GMAT exams and is the most dependable source for the GMAT exam. Every year the GMAC releases an updated version of the guide.

The book includes practice questions from past GMAT exams, a math/grammar content review, sample essay answers, and a diagnostic test. The math and verbal supplements – The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review and The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review are available separately. However, you can choose to purchase all three at once.

Important facts about the GMAT exam

Candidates appearing for the GMAT are assessed on several aspects, including analytical writing, quantitative sections, verbal reasoning, and reading skills in standard written English. The cost of the GMAT test is the US $275.

The age bar for the GMAT exam is above 18 years, however, younger candidates will need to write permission from parents or legal guardians to take the test. Another criterion for the exam is a graduate degree in any subject from a recognized university to enroll in an MBA program. Although, universities may have unique eligibility criteria which you may need to take into account.

You can register for GMAT six months in advance. This ensures that you get a slot, and have a comfortable deadline in mind. You can choose from the available dates as per your convenience, and register online by phone or postal mail. You can appear for the GMAT exam five times a year and the scores are valid for up to 5 years.

GMAT exam pattern and scores

The GMAT exam pattern will have four major sections:

• Analytical Writing – Candidates are given a topic to write an essay in 30 minutes. This section measures your critical thinking ability and how well you can communicate your ideas.
• Integrated Reasoning – There are 12 questions in this section to test your ability to analyze and evaluate data while using logical reasoning skills. You get 30 minutes to complete this.
• Quantitative Reasoning – This section has 32 questions to assess your mathematical and problem-solving skills. You will get 62 minutes to complete this particular section.
• Verbal Reasoning – This section consists of 36 multiple choice questions to complete in 65 minutes. Your reading ability, and abilities to comprehend, correct, express, and critically analyze an argument in English are tested.

Each of the four sections is scored separately and the overall score is calculated based on the marks you get in the verbal and quant sections, on a scale of 200-800. Most business schools may assess your AW and IR scores. The maximum score on GMAT is 800.

GMAT also considers the number of questions attempted, and answered correctly and the difficulty level of these questions while calculating your GMAT score. This is why it is important to keep in mind the allotted time for each section.

How to use the GMAT official guide?

GMAT Official Guide is one of the best and most reliable books available to help test takers prepare well. The book has over 1,150 practice questions from previous years’ exam papers. It details the structure and format that gives you a proper idea of how to perform the actual test. The guide also contains detailed explanations and gives you an in-depth understanding of each subject.

Here are a few tips on how you can best use the GMAT Official Guide –

• It is best to start with Reading Comprehension and the easier questions. You must have a straightforward approach to answer the critical questions.
• Once you have done these, go for the sentence correction, quantitative questions, and integrated reasoning, which are a little more complex.
• To practice effectively with the GMAT Official Guide you must begin by setting a daily and a weekly target. While it is likely to not be able to meet the target on a daily basis, try your best to complete your weekly target.
• Ideally, you must aim to finish all the questions within 4 weeks. Pace up your practice sessions, and most importantly, set time limits for each question.
• This book also has answer explanations so that you can approach every problem correctly.
• You must examine and read thoroughly to understand the thought process of the question at hand.
• Make notes and try to solve the easy questions from all the topics first, then move on to the medium-level questions, and finally, the hard questions.
• You must develop your proficiency across all areas to optimize your performance.
• In the book, quant and verbal review chapters are also added to guide the candidates appropriately.

Key takeaways

• GMAT is a worldwide accepted test to get admission to the business school of your choice.
• To kickstart your GMAT journey, the GMAT Official Guide is a must-have.
• It not only guides you regarding what to expect from the GMAT test but gives proper explanations, test-taking strategies, brief lessons, practice tests, tips, and more. 
• The book also illustrates questions that are actually asked in the exam or have been asked previously. 

FAQs

Q1. What are some of the popular business schools that accept GMAT scores?

Answer – Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania,  Columbia Business School, and the University of Yale are a few renowned business schools that accept GMAT scores.

Q2. Is knowledge in math required to appear for the GMAT test?

Answer – Yes, it is necessary to focus on math and algorithms for the GMAT exam. Improve your mental math, which will help you in the quantitative section. You must practice doing calculations without using a calculator.

Q3. What are some other useful GMAT preparation books?

Answer – The Princeton Review, Manhattan Prep, Kaplan books, and Veritas are some of the useful GMAT preparation books.