GMAT Focus Edition: What Changed and How to Play It

GMAC launched the GMAT Focus Edition in late 2023, and on February 1, 2024, it replaced the older GMAT, so the Focus Edition has been the only GMAT since. On July 1, 2024, GMAC dropped the "Focus Edition" label and now calls it simply the GMAT exam. Prep companies still say "GMAT Focus" in plenty of titles. It's all the same test.

The practical upshot: any book, course, or forum post about "the GMAT" from before 2024 describes a different exam. Read on to see what carries over.

• Cut: Sentence Correction, geometry, and the essay. If a study source spends chapters on modifiers or triangles, it's teaching the old test.
• Moved: Data Sufficiency left Quant and now lives in Data Insights, where it can be about non-math scenarios too. The four Integrated Reasoning formats (Multi-Source Reasoning, Table Analysis, Graphics Interpretation, Two-Part Analysis) also moved into Data Insights.
• Promoted: the data section now counts. On the old test, Integrated Reasoning had its own 1–8 score and many test-takers treated it as an afterthought. Data Insights is a full third of your total.

For a walkthrough of all five Data Insights formats with worked examples, see our Data Insights guide.

Each section is scored 60–90, and the total runs 205–805. Every total ends in 5, which makes current scores easy to tell apart from old 200–800 scores. The test is adaptive within each section, so your score reflects the difficulty of the questions you answered correctly, not just how many you got right. Leaving questions unanswered when time runs out lowers your score, so pace to finish.

The two scales don't line up, so don't treat an old score target as if it applied to the new test. GMAC publishes a concordance table for comparing old and new scores, and its percentile rankings on mba.com show where a current score stands. Old-format scores stay valid for five years from the test date, and schools decide how they compare the two.

You pick the order of the three sections at the start of the exam, and you get one optional 10-minute break after the first or second section. There's no universally best order, but there is a best order for you, and you can find it before test day.

• Put the section fatigue hurts most first. If your Reading Comprehension accuracy fades late in practice sessions, Verbal goes first.
• Or start with a confidence builder. If a rough first section rattles you, open with your strongest one.
• Place the break where you'll need it. Many people take it after the section that drains them most.

Worked example

Your practice data: Quant is your strongest section and stays steady all session. Verbal accuracy drops in the last third of long sessions. Data Insights is your weakest but doesn't seem to depend on fatigue. A sensible order: Verbal → Data Insights → break → Quant. Verbal gets your freshest attention, the break lands before the section you can run on autopilot, and Quant's steadiness protects your finish. Then test it: take one official practice exam in this order and one in another, and compare.

During each section you can bookmark any question. After you answer the last question, you can review the section and change up to three answers, but only with the time left on that section's 45-minute clock. There's no extra review time. Looking at a question doesn't use up an edit; only changing an answer does.

Worked example

You finish Quant with 5 minutes left and three bookmarks:

• Q6: you narrowed it to two choices and just thought of a quick number test to decide.
• Q11: a long word problem you guessed on without setting it up.
• Q17: a remainder question you answered fast; you're not sure you used the right divisor.

Go cheapest-first. Reread Q17 (30 seconds, and a misread is easy to fix). Then run the number test on Q6 (about a minute, with a real chance of flipping a guess into a right answer). Only then open Q11, and only if at least two minutes remain; a fresh setup from scratch is the least likely to pay off in the time left.

Keep: Problem Solving arithmetic and algebra, Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Data Sufficiency, and Integrated Reasoning question sets. Those question styles live on in the current test.

Skip: Sentence Correction, geometry, essay prompts, and old full-length practice tests, whose timing, section lineup, and 200–800 scores don't match today's exam. For current books, see our GMAT prep book picks.

1. Week 1: Take a full timed test in the current format (try our free practice test) and start an error log.
2. Weeks 2–3: Fix your weakest section's fundamentals; do daily mixed sets from the other two.
3. Week 4: All five Data Insights formats, timed.
4. Week 5: Two official practice exams in two different section orders. Practice using your three edits exactly as you would on test day.
5. Week 6: Error-log review, one final official exam in your chosen order, and rest.

Need the basics first? Start with the GMAT overview.