GMAT: GMAT Focus Edition Guide: Fee, Format, Dates and Minimum Scores

GMAT Focus Edition has three sections: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights, covering 64 questions in total. Data Insights is the newest section and asks candidates to read and interpret data across tables, graphs and multiple sources, reflecting the kind of decision making business programmes expect. The timed portion of the exam is 2 hours and 15 minutes, and a candidate chooses the order in which to take the three sections. The full appointment, including check in and one optional ten minute break, runs about two and a half hours. Within a section, a candidate can bookmark questions and change up to 3 answers, as long as time remains in that section.

GMAT Focus Edition is offered both at an authorised test centre and online with remote proctoring, and a candidate chooses whichever delivery suits them; scores from both are accepted equally by thousands of business schools worldwide. Test centre appointments run during the centre's operating hours seven days a week; the online option runs around the clock, seven days a week. Fees are set by test location rather than one worldwide price, and GMAC states this applies to both the test centre and the online exam, so a candidate should check the current fee for their own country when registering.

All three sections are weighted equally toward the total score, which runs from 205 to 805; section scores run from 60 to 90. A candidate sees an unofficial score on screen right after finishing the exam, and the Official Score Report is typically ready within 3 to 5 business days, though GMAC notes it can occasionally take up to 20 business days. Scores are valid for five years from the test date.

A candidate must wait at least 16 days after a sitting before taking the GMAT again, and can sit the exam, at a test centre or online combined, up to 5 times in any rolling 12 month period and no more than 8 times over a lifetime. A candidate who reaches a perfect score of 805 must wait five years before testing again. Once the Official Score is available, a candidate can send it free to 5 chosen programmes within 48 hours of receiving it; further score reports after that window cost a fee.

MBA and other business master's programmes that ask for the GMAT each set their own expected score, and a programme's expectation can differ a great deal depending on how competitive it is. A candidate should check the exact figure the programme itself publishes rather than assume a single score applies everywhere.