GMAT Topics: Which Are Most Common?

There is no getting around the fact that scoring high on the GMAT requires a substantial amount of study time for the vast majority of test-takers. A big part of the reason why GMAT prep requires so much time and effort is not that GMAT topics are so hard to learn, but that there are so many to learn.

Understandably, then, pretty much all GMAT students wonder whether they can make their GMAT prep more strategic. These students may consider spending most of their study time on certain topics and not worrying about other topics. In fact, one of the most common questions I hear from my students is, “Which GMAT topics and question types am I most likely to see in the Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights sections?”

In this article, we’ll take a look at what is on the GMAT and examine why the popular question of how common each topic is doesn’t have such a clear-cut answer. Most importantly, we’ll discuss why trying to find a concrete answer is a poor use of your time.

Here are the topics we’ll cover:

• GMAT Topics: What We Know For Sure
  • The GMAT Quantitative Reasoning Section
  • The GMAT Verbal Reasoning Section
    • The Major Verbal Topics
    • Actionable Information for CR and RC
  • The GMAT Data Insights Section
    • Should I Concentrate on Studying DS Questions?
• Using What We Know About What Is Tested
  • Studying Only the Common Topics Is a Bankrupt Strategy
    • A Critical Reasoning Faux Pas
    • A Reading Comprehension Blunder
  • GMAT Questions Are Multi-Layered
  • The GMAT Is Unpredictable
    • On the GMAT, The Past Does Not Necessarily Predict the Future
• The Folly of Trying to Game the Test
  • Your Prep Course Will Proportionally Cover the Topics That Appear on the Test
  • The Bottom Line: You Can’t Game the GMAT
• Key Takeaways
• What’s Next?

First, let’s review what we can say for sure about the topics tested in the 3 GMAT sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Data Insights.

GMAT Topics: What We Know For Sure

First, we know that, on any given GMAT exam, you’re going to see only 21 Quant, 23 Verbal, and 20 Data Insights questions. Let’s review the question types you’ll see in each section of the GMAT.

The GMAT Quantitative Reasoning Section

In the Quant section, all of the questions you see will be multiple-choice Problem Solving (PS) questions with 5 answers. Broadly, these questions will cover concepts related to arithmetic, algebra, and statistics. These 3 wide-ranging categories encompass 20 major GMAT Quant topics:

• Basic Arithmetic
• Linear and Quadratic Equations
• Number Properties
• Roots
• Exponents
• Inequalities
• Absolute Value
• General Word Problems
• Rates
• Work Problems
• Unit Conversions
• Ratios
• Percents
• Statistics
• Overlapping Sets
• Permutations and Combinations
• Probability
• Coordinate Geometry
• Sequences
• Functions

Each of these 20 GMAT math topics includes various subtopics, covering hundreds of concepts. For instance, within Number Properties, you will learn about subtopics such as:

• Even and odd numbers
• Divisibility
• Remainders
• Units digit patterns,
• Least common multiple
• Greatest common factor

Now, Number Properties happens to be the most wide-ranging topic tested in the GMAT Quant section. But make no mistake: every Quant topic contains multiple subtopics, any of which could pop up on your exam. For example, for Linear and Quadratic Equations, you’ll study solving for 1 variable, solving for 2 variables, factoring, FOILing, the difference of squares, and more. For Rates questions, you’ll need to study average rates, converging rates, diverging rates, catch-up rates, catch-up and pass, and more. The list goes on.

KEY FACT:

GMAT Quant tests you on 20 major topics, each of which has numerous subtopics.

We’ll talk more about what the wide range of concepts tested means in terms of strategically focusing your GMAT study. For now, let’s take a look at what we know about the GMAT Verbal section topics.

The GMAT Verbal Reasoning Section

The GMAT Verbal section tests your skills in logical reasoning and reading comprehension using 2 question types: Critical Reasoning (CR), and Reading Comprehension (RC). The Verbal section mingles the question types, and you can expect a roughly equal number of each type of question.

The Major Verbal Topics

The Verbal section tests concepts from 21 major topics:

As with Quant topics, the major Verbal topics break down into multiple subtopics involving numerous concepts. For example, when studying Weaken the Argument questions in CR, you’ll need to learn about assumptions as weakeners, false dichotomies, cause-and-effect, pseudo-weakeners, weakening the wrong conclusion, and more.

When learning how to analyze passage structure in RC, you’ll need to learn about structural keywords, how sentences relate within a paragraph, how different paragraphs relate to each other, and more.

You’ll notice that there is some overlap in the CR and RC topics. Interestingly, although the skills you need are fundamentally the same for overlapping topics in CR and RC, the frequency with which you see those topics tested in CR and RC type may differ.

For instance, in Critical Reasoning, you’ll find that Weaken, Strengthen, and Assumption questions are the most common question types. In Reading Comprehension, those question types are rare. You’ll find that Primary Purpose questions are, generally, the most common question type in RC.

KEY FACT:

Weaken, Strengthen, and Assumption questions are the most common CR types, while Primary Purpose questions are the most common RC type.

Actionable Information for CR and RC

Now, what does this knowledge about Weaken, Strengthen, and Assumption questions in CR vs. RC tell us on a practical level? In other words, how would we change our study plan in light of that knowledge? For example, let’s say that we were to see 2 Weaken, 2 Assumption, and 1 Strengthen question in CR, and just 1 Assumption question in RC. We still needed to hone our skills in each question type to prepare for GMAT Verbal, didn’t we? Would you say that you wasted time studying Strengthen questions because you happened to see only 1 on your exam?

Had the dice rolled differently, you could’ve easily seen a total of 3 Strengthen questions between CR and RC. In that case, wouldn’t you be glad you didn’t neglect that topic in your GMAT prep?

The GMAT Data Insights Section

The Data Insights (DI) section tests your skill in analyzing and interpreting data to make informed decisions. You will answer 20 questions of 5 main types:

Data Sufficiency (DS): A DS problem asks a question and provides 2 statements containing further information, which you analyze. You must determine whether the information provided in either or both of the statements is sufficient to answer the question.

Graphics Interpretation (GI): These questions test your skill in interpreting data presented in graphical form.

Table Analysis (TA): TA questions present tabular information. You must determine what data is relevant and, by sorting the data appropriately, make inferences from the information.

Two Part Analysis (TPA): These questions are Quant- or Verbal-based. They present a scenario and ask test-takers to identify 2 correct answers, which often depend on each other.

Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR): These questions present you with 2 or 3 tabs of text or data, such as paragraphs, emails, charts, or tables. You must integrate the data from these multiple sources to answer the questions.

Should I Concentrate on Studying DS Questions?

Note that about one-third of DI questions will be Data Sufficiency questions, with the remaining questions split among the other 4 question types. You might think, then, that it makes sense to concentrate more on DS questions than the others. But keep in mind that fully two-thirds of the DI questions are NOT DS questions. Again, don’t let faulty logic keep you from making solid decisions about what to study!

There is generally no new material to study for Data Insights. You will have covered all relevant content and concepts in your study of the Quant and Verbal topics previously enumerated. However, don’t think that Data Insights is a cakewalk! Notably, the questions require you to approach and analyze the information in a unique manner. Thus, you will need a lot of practice answering DI questions.

TTP PRO TIP:

Even though DI questions test material you previously studied, they require you to analyze the data in a unique manner.

Using What We Know About What Is Tested

As we just saw, if there is one thing we can say for sure about the GMAT, it’s that there is a ton to learn for the Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights sections — literally hundreds of concepts. Moreover, ANY of those hundreds of concepts could pop up on your exam. Also, there is no way to know what your exact mix of questions will be on any given exam. So, picking and choosing what to study based on which GMAT topics are most common is a risky proposition. Let’s discuss a few reasons why.

Studying Only the Common Topics Is a Bankrupt Strategy 

Despite the wide range of possible topics that could appear on any one GMAT exam, there are some general statements we can make about which GMAT topics are most common.

A Critical Reasoning Faux Pas

For example, I mentioned earlier that, in CR, Weaken, Strengthen, and Assumption questions are the most common question types. Now, this may sound like really important information when you first hear it. The funny thing is, it doesn’t really give you any advantage when preparing for the exam.

To illustrate my point, let’s consider a possible scenario. Say you see a total of 11 CR questions in the Verbal section of your exam. Of those questions, 5 are Weaken, Strengthen, or Assumption. Well, you have 6 more CR questions — more than half of the total number of CR questions you’ll see. And there are 8 more CR topics that those 6 questions could test. So, it’s conceivable that, on your exam, you could see at least 1 question on nearly every CR topic.

Now, if you’ve spent the vast majority of your CR study time focusing on Weaken, Strengthen, and Assumption questions, and a minimal amount of time on each of the other CR topics, you could end up underperforming on the majority of the CR questions you see. So, knowing that certain CR questions are more common than others would not have helped your overall Verbal performance.

KEY FACT:

If you study only the most common CR question types, you still have a chance of bombing more than half the CR questions on the Verbal section.

A Reading Comprehension Blunder

The same goes for Reading Comprehension. Most RC passages you see will present a question on the primary purpose (otherwise known as the main idea). You’re also going to see some Detail and Inference questions among the RC questions you face. However, even if those 3 question types account for 2/3 of the RC questions that appear on your exam, you still have the other third to worry about. Does being 66% prepared for Reading Comprehension sound good enough to you?

In other words, the fact that you’ll see Primary Purpose, Detail, and Inference questions in GMAT RC does not relieve you of the need to master all the other RC question types. Because, using our example above, if you just focus on those 3 common question types, you’re still going to struggle on 1/3 of the RC questions you see.

TTP PRO TIP:

Getting only 66% of the RC questions correct does not bode well for getting a solid GMAT score. You must study all RC concepts to get that great score!

With so few questions in the Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights sections of the GMAT, every question has the potential to have a significant impact on your section scores.

TTP PRO TIP:

For a high GMAT score, hone your skill at handling questions on less common topics in addition to common ones.

Now, you may still think that risking being unprepared for a couple of questions here or there is no big deal if it saves you serious study time by allowing you to skip certain GMAT topics. However, the very nature of GMAT questions makes picking and choosing GMAT topics a mistake. Let’s discuss.

GMAT Questions Are Multi-Layered

It would be nice and neat if each GMAT question covered just one concept, and no other knowledge was necessary. However, that’s not the world we live in. In reality, GMAT questions are multi-layered, often encompassing concepts from multiple topics. For instance, Statistics questions may incorporate concepts from Algebra, or questions on Number Properties may require knowledge from Arithmetic. Furthermore, word problems could test almost any topic, and multiple topics may incorporate concepts from algebra.

So, if you’re studying only the topics you’ve heard are most common (such as Number Properties) and neglected the topics you’ve heard appear less (such as Probability), your performance on those frequently occurring Number Properties questions may not be as flawless as you expected, because you’re missing conceptual knowledge you need about other topics.

TTP PRO TIP:

Picking and choosing GMAT topics to study isn’t a wise strategy because GMAT questions often layer concepts from multiple topics.

This last example brings up another important reason why data about what is on the GMAT may not be quite as useful as it seems when it comes to which GMAT topics are more or less common. In fact, the data on which you base a “selective” study plan could be flawed or misleading. Let’s discuss.

The GMAT Is Unpredictable

While there are some generalities we can make about which GMAT topics most commonly appear on the exam, at a granular level, the GMAT exam is pretty unpredictable. The mix of questions that test-takers see is random, and that mix is changing all the time. So, you can’t expect the mix of questions you see on official practice tests to match the mix you’ll see on the actual test. And you can’t gauge what is on your retake by what you saw on your first go at the GMAT.

Think about it: would the test-makers provide GMAT students with 6 practice tests that were nearly identical to what they’d see on their actual exams? Would a teacher give you a copy of the final exam, so you could know exactly what questions are on it? That scenario isn’t realistic.

The test-makers know that a large part of what makes the GMAT challenging is that there are so few questions on the test, yet so many concepts that could appear. In other words, we can’t predict exactly what we’ll see from one GMAT to the next — therein lies the challenge!

On the GMAT, The Past Does Not Necessarily Predict the Future 

The problem is that people often analyze data from past GMAT exams and official questions in an attempt to predict what will be on an upcoming GMAT. But given the randomness and unpredictability of the test, it’s very easy to get a “biased sample” when you analyze data from past tests. So, trying to draw granular conclusions based on what people have seen on exams in the past doesn’t really work.

For example, imagine a test-taker sits for the GMAT and sees no Overlapping Sets questions and 1 Coordinate Geometry question. Thinking those topics are uncommon on the GMAT, the test-taker sits for the GMAT a second time, having devoted no study time to Overlapping Sets or Coordinate Geometry. On his retake, he sees 3 Coordinate Geometry questions and 1 Overlapping Sets question. Consequently, he scores even lower in Quant than he did the first time around. Of course, this is just a hypothetical, but the point is, if you’re not covering every GMAT topic in your prep, there is no guarantee that you’ll be prepared for every topic that appears on your exam.

KEY FACT:

Trying to draw granular conclusions about what is on the GMAT based on what people have seen on past exams doesn’t really work.

In truth, the useful data we can glean from analyzing past GMAT exams or questions in the Official Guide are the same general conclusions we can draw based on what we already know about the GMAT syllabus. But I’ve got some good news for you: those general conclusions are really all we need. Let’s discuss.

The Folly of Trying to Game the Test

If you’re experiencing heart palpitations from hearing that the GMAT is unpredictable and that much of the data from past exams isn’t all that actionable, it’s time for a sigh of relief. You don’t need to know how frequently the various GMAT topics appear on exams in order to earn a great GMAT score. In fact, if your study plan covers all of the concepts that could appear on the GMAT, you should naturally spend more of your study time on the most common topics. How can this be, you ask?

Here is the thing that people neglect to mention in their analyses of past GMAT exams. Why do topics such as Number Properties, Exponents and Roots, and Percents appear more frequently than others on the GMAT? The answer is simple: there are more ways to test those topics. For example, there are more testable concepts within Exponents and Roots than within Combinations and Permutations. So, you’ll probably see more questions that somehow test your knowledge of Exponents and Roots.

Remember, the GMAT isn’t seeking to ask you 10 times if you know the same 2 things; it wants to get a more holistic view of your Quant and Verbal skills. So, if there is a greater variety of concepts that can be tested in a particular topic, it makes sense that more questions on that topic would appear on the exam.

If there is a greater variety of concepts that can be tested in a particular topic, it makes sense that more questions on that topic would appear on the exam.

Your Prep Course Will Proportionally Cover the Topics That Appear on the Test

Of course, a reliable and effective GMAT prep course will mirror this structure discussed above. For example, we can say that Number Properties covers a large number of the questions you’ll see in the GMAT Quant section. This prevalence is no surprise, given the large number of concepts that can be tested in Number Properties.

So, it makes sense that the TTP GMAT Course, for example, includes nearly as many lessons and practice questions on Number Properties as it does on Permutations and Combinations, Probability, Rates, and Work Problems combined (87 lessons and 309 practice questions vs. a total of 102 lessons and 372 practice questions, respectively). TTP users are just as ready to tackle less common topics as they are to tackle Number Properties. But, because there are fewer concepts to learn for the less common topics, less of the course is devoted to them. Thus, TTP users spend a higher proportion of their study time on the more common topics. Pretty cool, right?

If you use a GMAT prep course that covers all of the topics and subtopics that have the potential to appear on the exam — as you should — then you naturally will spend more study time on topics that tend to show up most frequently on the exam. Thus, unless you plan to cut certain topics out of your study plan altogether, a strategy we’ve already determined is not wise, the decision of what to “study more” is essentially made for you.

KEY FACT:

You will naturally spend more time studying the common topics tested on the GMAT because they are inherently more testable and because they have broader coverage.

The Bottom Line: You Can’t Game the GMAT

The moral of the story — and it’s a hard moral to hear — is that you can’t game the test. You must attack your GMAT prep with the mindset that anything on the list of possible GMAT topics and concepts could be on your test.

GMAT students who try to cut corners generally end up spending more time and energy (and more money) on their GMAT prep, only to get poor returns on test day. Don’t be an “unlucky” GMAT test-taker who sees 5 or 6 “uncommon” question types in a section and who has studied only the most common topics. Particularly if the questions you miss are ones that the GMAT algorithm calculates you should’ve gotten correct, your attempt to be super-strategic about which GMAT topics you studied could end up seriously damaging your score. (For more on the workings of the GMAT algorithm, check out this article on how the GMAT exam is scored.)

Remember, the best way to prepare for the GMAT is to take a comprehensive approach. That way, you’ll be ready for anything that might come your way on test day. Also, you’ll have the confidence of knowing that you’ve done everything you needed to to reach your GMAT score goal.

TTP PRO TIP:

Use a GMAT prep course that thoroughly covers all of the topics and subtopics that could appear on the exam.

Key Takeaways

The GMAT consists of 3 sections, each of which contributes equally to the total score.

• Quantitative Reasoning presents you with 21 questions, all of which are multiple-choice.
• Verbal Reasoning presents you with 23 questions, consisting of Critical Reasoning questions and Reading Comprehension questions.
• Data Insights presents you with 20 questions across 5 different question types.

Each of the 3 GMAT sections presents a limited number of questions. Yet there is a huge number of topics from which those questions are drawn. Thus, it is unwise to choose to study only the most commonly tested topics. For example, if you find that 38 of the 64 total questions on the GMAT reflect the most common topics, which you dutifully study, then you might do well on those 38 questions but you’ll probably bomb the remaining 26 questions!

Also, you can’t forget the interplay among topics. For example, an algebra question might require that you use a concept from the arithmetic subtopic of factorials. So if you failed to study factorials, you would not be able to answer the algebra question!

The bottom line is that you can’t get a high score by trying to game the GMAT. Your best strategy is to employ a solid study plan and use a great prep course. There is no substitute for hard work.

What’s Next?

If your goal is to get a great GMAT score, you will want to read this article about effective GMAT learning strategies.

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