Best GMAT® Section Order - How To Decide

Today, let's talk about how to choose the best order for you to take the sections of the GMAT.

So if you're brand new to the exam, what is this? Why are we even talking about it? There's three sections on the exam, Quant, Verbal, and Data Insights, and we've got specific episodes on the details behind all of those sections elsewhere in the feed if you want to search.

But for now, I'm just going to assume that you're not completely brand new to the process and you understand a little bit about the intricacies of those sections.

But the reason it's important to talk about the order you can take them is that's one of the very first decisions you're going to be asked to make on test day.

So when you start the exam, and we've got a full episode on all the steps you're going to go through, whether you're taking the online exam or whether you're taking the in-person exam.

So if you're wondering, like, what does the whole experience look like from end to end, we'll link that for you below.

But the short version is you're going to check in at the test center or at your home, and then the exam is going to begin on the computer, and the rest is going to be very familiar from your practice test.

But right at the beginning, you're going to be asked, what order do you want to see the sections in? And you can choose any order you want.

So you can do quant first, you could do verbal first, you could do DI first, you could do DI first and verbal second, you could do DI first and quant second.

And so if you've been studying your combinations problems, you can do the math and figure out that there's a decent number of options that you could take the exam in.

And I won't spoil that question for you if you want to give it a little go there.

But the situation is further complicated by the fact that there is one 10-minute break, and you can take that between the first and second section, or you can take it between the second and third section.

And so that increases the number of potential options.

And so with all those options, it's understandable that people would get confused, and I get asked about this a lot every single year.

What order should I take it in? How should I think about section order? Does section order matter? Should I even be worrying about it? Should I just forget about it? So let's answer all those questions right now.