GMAT · Guides · October 30, 2026 · 11 min read
GMAT Quantitative Reasoning: topics, timing, worked examples and common traps
GMAT Quantitative Reasoning is a 45-minute section of 21 Problem Solving questions: a maths question with five answer choices, solved without a calculator. GMAC describes the content as arithmetic and elementary algebra, and geometry is no longer tested. The maths is high-school level; what makes Quant hard is the pace (just over two minutes a question), word problems where the set-up is most of the work, and answer choices built around predictable mistakes. Below are the topics and how each is tested, a pacing plan, four worked examples written by us and the traps worth learning by name.
Quant at a glance
As of October 2026, per mba.com:
| Quantitative Reasoning | |
|---|---|
| Questions | 21 |
| Time | 45 minutes (about 2 min 8 s per question) |
| Question type | Problem Solving only, five answer choices |
| Calculator | not allowed |
| Content | arithmetic and elementary algebra; no geometry |
| Section score | 60–90, one third of the 205–805 total |
| Review & Edit | bookmark questions, then change up to 3 answers if time remains |
Quant is one of three equally weighted sections, next to Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights; you choose the order of the sections. GMAC describes the exam as item-adaptive: the more questions you answer correctly, the harder the questions you see. For the full exam structure, see the GMAT syllabus and exam pattern.
Two things that used to be on Quant are gone. Geometry (triangles, circles, solids) was removed when the current GMAT was introduced, and Data Sufficiency moved to the Data Insights section. If you study from pre-2024 books, skip both chapters for Quant.
What a Problem Solving question looks like
A Problem Solving question is a question stem and five answer choices, listed in increasing or decreasing order when they are numbers. Nothing else: no statements, no tabs, no drop-downs. That simplicity is useful, because the answer choices are information. They tell you the form of the answer (a fraction, an integer, an expression), how precise you need to be, and often which mistake the test expects you to make.
Because no calculator is allowed, the numbers are usually chosen to work out cleanly. If you find yourself dividing 4,173 by 37 by hand, you have probably missed a shortcut: a factor that cancels, an estimate that separates the choices, or an answer choice you can test.
The topics and how each is tested
GMAC’s summary is short (arithmetic and elementary algebra), and its prep pages list the familiar sub-topics: number properties, percentages and interest, ratios, rates and work, equations and inequalities, statistics, sets, counting and probability. Here is how each shows up in practice.
Arithmetic and number properties
| Topic | What gets tested |
|---|---|
| Integers, factors, multiples | prime factorisation, greatest common divisor, least common multiple, number of factors |
| Divisibility and remainders | “n leaves a remainder of 3 when divided by 7”, divisibility rules, odd and even |
| Exponents and roots | rules of powers, simplifying roots, comparing numbers such as 2⁵⁰ and 3³⁰ |
| Fractions, decimals, percents | converting between them, percent change, successive percent changes |
| Statistics | mean, median, mode, range, and standard deviation as a concept (no formula needed) |
Number-property questions are rarely about calculation. They test whether you know a rule (zero is even, 1 is not prime, a square has an odd number of factors) and whether you check the cases the question allows: negatives, zero, fractions.
Algebra
| Topic | What gets tested |
|---|---|
| Linear equations | one and two unknowns, systems of equations |
| Quadratics | factoring, the difference of squares, (a + b)² and (a − b)² patterns |
| Inequalities | flipping the sign when multiplying by a negative, ranges of values |
| Absolute value | |x − 3| < 5 read as a distance on the number line |
| Functions and formulas | f(x) notation, made-up operations, plugging into a given formula |
Algebra questions reward recognising a pattern over grinding through steps. Many hard questions ask for an expression (x + y, or x² + 1/x²) that you can reach without finding the individual variables; worked example 2 below shows one.
Word problems
Word problems are the largest and most varied group: rates and travel, work done together, mixtures, profit and discount, simple and compound interest, ratios and proportions, overlapping groups. The maths inside is usually one or two equations; the difficulty is translating the English. Three habits help:
- Name the unknown in words before you write x (“x = number of hours the second machine works”).
- Keep units on the page. Kilometres per hour times hours gives kilometres; dollars per item times items gives dollars.
- Reread the last sentence. The question often asks for something one step past what you solved for: the cost per person rather than the total, the remaining amount rather than the amount used.
Counting and probability
These appear less often but are worth preparing because the traps are standard: whether order matters (permutations versus combinations), and “at least one” questions, which are almost always fastest through 1 − P(none).
Four worked examples
All four are original questions written for this guide, not official GMAT questions. Cover the solution and try each first.
Example 1: number properties
If n is a positive integer and n² is divisible by 72, what is the smallest possible value of n?
(A) 6 (B) 8 (C) 12 (D) 24 (E) 36
Solution. Factor 72: 72 = 2³ × 3². Every prime in a perfect square appears an even number of times, so if n² contains at least 2³, it must contain 2⁴, which means n contains at least 2². Likewise n² needs 3², so n needs at least 3¹. The smallest such n is 2² × 3 = 12. Check: 12² = 144 = 2 × 72.
Answer: C. The trap is A: 6² = 36, which divides into 72 but is not divisible by it. Choice B looks right if you only check the factor of 2 (8² = 64 has no factor of 3).
Example 2: algebra without solving
If x + 1/x = 5, what is the value of x² + 1/x²?
(A) 10 (B) 23 (C) 25 (D) 27 (E) 125
Solution. Square both sides: (x + 1/x)² = x² + 2 × x × (1/x) + 1/x² = x² + 2 + 1/x². So 25 = x² + 1/x² + 2, and x² + 1/x² = 23.
Answer: B. The trap is C: squaring each term and forgetting the middle term, 2 × x × (1/x) = 2. Trying to solve for x is the other trap: x = (5 ± √21)/2 works, but it takes several minutes and is easy to get wrong without a calculator. D comes from adding the middle term instead of subtracting it.
Example 3: rates (average speed)
Maya drives 120 kilometres to a client’s office at an average speed of 60 kilometres per hour and returns along the same road at an average speed of 40 kilometres per hour. What is her average speed, in kilometres per hour, for the whole round trip?
(A) 45 (B) 48 (C) 50 (D) 52 (E) 55
Solution. Average speed is total distance divided by total time, never the average of the speeds. Distance: 2 × 120 = 240 km. Time: 120/60 = 2 hours out, 120/40 = 3 hours back, 5 hours in total. Average speed: 240/5 = 48 km/h.
Answer: B. The trap is C, the simple average of 60 and 40. Maya spends more time at the slower speed, so the true average must be below 50, which lets you eliminate C, D and E before calculating.
Example 4: probability (“at least one”)
A team of 3 people is chosen at random from a group of 5 managers and 3 analysts. What is the probability that the team includes at least one analyst?
(A) 5/28 (B) 3/8 (C) 15/28 (D) 5/7 (E) 23/28
Solution. Count the opposite case. The number of possible teams is C(8, 3) = (8 × 7 × 6)/(3 × 2 × 1) = 56. Teams with no analyst are made of managers only: C(5, 3) = 10. So P(no analyst) = 10/56 = 5/28, and P(at least one analyst) = 1 − 5/28 = 23/28.
Answer: E. A is the trap of stopping at P(none). B is the share of analysts in the group (3/8), which answers a different question: the chance that one randomly chosen person is an analyst. C, 15/28, is the probability of exactly one analyst (C(3,1) × C(5,2) = 30 teams out of 56), which ignores teams with two or three analysts.
Timing strategy
With 45 minutes for 21 questions, the average is about 2 minutes 8 seconds. Averages hide the real problem: a few questions will take you four minutes if you let them, and those minutes come out of the last questions in the section.
- Use checkpoints, not a per-question clock. Aim to be at about question 7 by 15 minutes and question 14 by 30 minutes. Glance at the timer at those points only.
- Set a cut-off of about 3 minutes. If you have no clear path by then, eliminate what you can, pick the best remaining choice, bookmark the question and move on.
- Spend the easy questions’ savings on the medium ones. A question you can do in 60 seconds should take 60 seconds; check the answer against the choices, not by redoing the work.
- Answer every question. mba.com states that unanswered questions are penalised and lists “it is better to leave the question blank than guess” among scoring myths. If you are running out of time, guess on the remaining questions rather than leave them.
- Treat Review & Edit as a bonus. You reach the review screen only if time remains, and you can change up to three answers. Use it for bookmarked questions where you had a second idea, not for rechecking everything.
According to mba.com, taking longer on a question does not by itself lower your score, and getting one of the first questions wrong is not weighted more heavily. Time matters only because it is shared across all 21 questions.
Common traps
Most wrong answer choices in Quant are not random; they are the result of a specific slip. Learn them by name and you will start to recognise them in the choices.
- Answering a different question. You solve for x, but the question asks for 2x, x + y, or the percent change. Underline what is asked before you start.
- Averaging rates. Average speed, average price per unit and average cost of a mix are all weighted averages (example 3).
- Adding percent changes. A 20% increase followed by a 25% decrease is not a 5% decrease: 1.2 × 0.75 = 0.9, a 10% decrease. Multiply the factors.
- Percent of what? “A is 25% more than B” means A = 1.25B, but then B is 20% less than A, not 25%. Always identify the base.
- Missing cases. Negative numbers, zero and fractions between 0 and 1 change the answer to many inequality and exponent questions. Assume integers only if the question says so.
- Stopping one step early. P(none) instead of 1 − P(none) (example 4), the remaining amount instead of the amount used, the time for one machine instead of both.
- Forgetting the middle term. (a + b)² is a² + 2ab + b² (example 2).
- Over-computing. If the choices are far apart, estimate. If they are expressions, try a simple number for the variable and see which choice matches.
How to practise Quant
- Diagnose first. Take one of GMAC’s free official practice exams on mba.com to find your baseline and your weakest topics. Our GMAT score calculator shows how a Quant section score combines with the other two into a total.
- Rebuild fundamentals by topic, untimed. Work through one topic at a time (number properties, percents, rates, algebra, statistics, counting) until you can explain why each wrong choice is wrong.
- Practise mental arithmetic deliberately. Without a calculator, fluency with fractions, percents and squares up to 20² saves seconds on almost every question.
- Switch to mixed timed sets. Seven questions in 15 minutes mirrors the section’s pace and forces you to recognise the topic without a chapter heading.
- Keep an error log by cause. For each miss, note whether it was a concept gap, a careless slip, a trap from the list above or a time problem. The fix for each is different.
- Finish with full sections. In the last weeks, do complete 21-question sections and full practice tests to train stamina and the Review & Edit decision.
For a week-by-week plan, see how to prepare for the GMAT, and for what to aim for, what a good GMAT score is.
Common questions
Can I use a calculator on GMAT Quant? No. The on-screen calculator is available only in Data Insights (as of October 2026, per mba.com).
Is geometry on the GMAT? No. Questions that require geometry were removed with the current version of the exam.
Is Data Sufficiency part of Quant? Not any more. Data Sufficiency is now in the Data Insights section; see our guide to GMAT Data Sufficiency.
How hard is the maths? GMAC describes it as high-school level. The difficulty comes from timing and from the way questions are framed; see is the GMAT hard.
The same skills carry into the calculation-heavy half of the test: our guide to GMAT Data Insights covers the five data formats, and GMAT sample questions shows Problem Solving next to every other question type.
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